Need assistance setting up first tank.

[saxplayer]

Hello all, first time posting here. I'm wanting to start a salt-water tank and have been doing lots of reading and discussing locally at saltwater stores.

I'm going to get a Coralife Biocube 16g or other all-in-1 equiv 15-20 gallon system that can fit under 21.5'' height counter. The ultimate goal is to have some clowns / maybe anemone as well as colorful coral options and any other fish that would pair well with clowns and be smart from a size/bio load perspective.

I'm asking for help on both initial setup and then recommendations for coral types etc, that would pair and look good with the clowns. Other inverts or fish recommendations are highly appreciated!
I'm planning on getting live sand and rock when I receive my tank and letting it establish until it has cycle, with "mini feedings" to keep the cycle going. Once that is done - I'm not quite clear as to the order of fish / coral initiation and timing and could use some help. Also - for water changes going forward and evaporation - should I have RO water on hand as well as salt-water? The local shop made it sound like I should (vs tap water and adding appropriate chemicals / salt) but I wasn't sure if they are trying to sell me water for the life of the tank.

I have zero salt water experience and lots of freshwater experience in the past. I need to stay with a smaller tank for right now due to marital risk otherwise

Any help is fantastic, thank you.

Grant

 

[Crabs McJones]

Welcome Grant to R2R! Extremely glad you decided to take the saltwater plunge This is one of the most rewarding hobbies there is as you watch your tank mature and grow with fish and coral.
In regards to your questions an RO/DI unit, in my opinion, is a must have piece of equipment for any reefer. It allows you to make pure water at home without having to lug buckets back and fourth to your local fish store, and saves you money long term. I would strongly suggest giving these threads a good reading through as i'm sure they will answer many of your questions and give you more information than you can handle (they're that loaded with facts )
The Supreme Guide To Setting Up A Saltwater Aquarium
Cycling An Aquarium
Acclimation And Quarantine

#WelcometoR2R

 

[mich2599]

Suggest buying an RODI as it will eventually become a cheaper option. Many options online.

And welcome to R2R

 

[saxplayer]

Suggest buying an RODI as it will eventually become a cheaper option. Many options online.

And welcome to R2R

Thank you both. Regarding RO systems, for a 16g enclosed AIO what would be a good option? The tank will sit on a desktop and not be hooked to anything else minus outlets as needed.

I really like the look of open tanks but am worried about smells so wanted to go with an AIO system enclosed.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Thank you both. Regarding RO systems, for a 16g enclosed AIO what would be a good option? The tank will sit on a desktop and not be hooked to anything else minus outlets as needed.

I really like the look of open tanks but am worried about smells so wanted to go with an AIO system enclosed.

Depended on your source water, a 50 gallon per day or a 75 gallon per day 4 to 6 stage unit would work out best. They can be attached to sink faucets or garden hoses and tucked away in a closet when not in use

 

[hdsoftail1065]

Welcome to R2R!

 

[GoPitt88]

I got my RO/DI setup online from Bulk Reef Supply. Awesome site with a ton of instructional videos. Good luck, and welcome to R2R! [emoji16]

 

[Geebs19]

Agreed with going with the smaller RODI unit since you won’t need to make that much. I also recommend the BRS, but there are plenty of good ones out there.

Good fish for that would obviously be a pair of clowns, fire fish, blenies, Royal gramma. You will want to make sure that tank is very well established before ordering your anemone.

 

[saxplayer]

My plan was to finish cycling and then add fish and wait for quite some time to be stable before too many corals.

Any rec on time to add corals after fish? 2 weeks after fish? More? I am wanting to start with easier corals like softies, relying a lot on specific choices from here and LFS help.

 

[Crabs McJones]

My plan was to finish cycling and then add fish and wait for quite some time to be stable before too many corals.

Any rec on time to add corals after fish? 2 weeks after fish? More? I am wanting to start with easier corals like softies, relying a lot on specific choices from here and LFS help.

I would add one fish, and let the tank be for a couple weeks just to see how everything does. Then, if everything is stable, you can try adding an easier soft or lps coral

 

[saxplayer]

I would add one fish, and let the tank be for a couple weeks just to see how everything does. Then, if everything is stable, you can try adding an easier soft or lps coral

Sounds good! Would you start with a lower cost fish and cleaners like snails/shrimp before a clown?

Thanks all for the help!

 

[Crabs McJones]

You can start with a clown. Most do I did but get a pair and make sure they're small so it's more likely they'll pair up for you

 

[Squeaky McMurdo]

Agree. If you want a pair of clowns, start with a pair of clowns. They’re not expensive anyway unless you want a harder to come by designer color pattern.

 

[saxplayer]

Forgive me since I don’t know - do any 2 have a chance to pair or are they sexed

 

[lapin]

Forgive me since I don’t know - do any 2 have a chance to pair or are they sexed

Fish will change sex if purchased small. Get 2 babies. One will become the female and the other the male. If they are too old they might all ready have changed into the same sex.

 

[saxplayer]

Alright! My tank is ordered and will be here tomorrow. I plan on stock lights for now, bought a inTank filter basket (plan filter floss, chemipure blue, seachem matrix biofiltration for the 3 levels), as well as a neotherm 75w heater and aqamai kps for wave / flows. I plan to wait on ATO and protein skimmers for now because one of my top priorities was leaving the lid/hood on the tank.

Regarding maintenance:
1. When doing evaporation replacement / top offs.. I should ONLY use RODI water yes? Then, test the alkalinity and adjust as needed?
2. When doing water changes, I want to use pre-alkalinity adjust salt water (RODI plus salt) yes?

For these basic things, what monitoring kits and tests do I need? What salt should I be looking at to add to RODI water system?

Thanks in advance. Yes I have read all the articles as much as I can for today but I am overwhelmed a bit lol.

 

[lapin]

Regarding maintenance:
1. When doing evaporation replacement / top offs.. I should ONLY use RODI water yes? Yes Then, test the alkalinity and adjust as needed? Dont worry about Alk
2. When doing water changes, I want to use pre-alkalinity adjust salt water (RODI plus salt) yes? Use RODI water plus salt. Mix it to 1.025 salinity. Dont worry about the Alk

For these basic things, what monitoring kits and tests do I need? What salt should I be looking at to add to RODI water system?
Thanks in advance. Yes I have read all the articles as much as I can for today but I am overwhelmed a bit lol.

Get a name brand salt. Red Sea, Instant Ocean and there are many more. The only thing you need to test for with mixing salt water is Salinity. You want it at 1.025. Get your self a refractometer and some calibration fluid to test it.

 

[JLynn]

One thing you should think about is whether you want your clownfish to specifically host in an anemone, or whether other corals will do. Because anemones will move wherever they like, with no regards to your plans for their location, and you might lose corals because of that when the anemone decides it would rather live over on the other side of the tank instead, and moves over there and stings everything around it. So if you really do specifically want an anemone for your clownfish to host in, you should keep that in mind and be prepared for the potential inconvenience. If, on the other hand, you just want your clownfish to have something to host in, there are several different kinds of soft corals as well as a couple LPS that clownfish will often happily host in.

I have a large Cladiella sp. that my clownfish hosts in, and any similar coral (there are several different genus and species of corals that to our eyes, at least, are basically indistinguishable from one another) would do just as well. Large toadstool corals (especially long polyped ones) also often play host to clownfish, as do colonies of Euphyllia sp. and Duncan corals. As far as I can tell, clownfish just like to host in corals that have branches or tentacles or something like that for them to hide among when they feel threatened. So if you aren't set on an anemone, I would find a nice little colony (little enough for your tank, but big enough for a clownfish to hide in) of one of the corals I mentioned above to act as a substitute.

 

[saxplayer]

One thing you should think about is whether you want your clownfish to specifically host in an anemone, or whether other corals will do. Because anemones will move wherever they like, with no regards to your plans for their location, and you might lose corals because of that when the anemone decides it would rather live over on the other side of the tank instead, and moves over there and stings everything around it. So if you really do specifically want an anemone for your clownfish to host in, you should keep that in mind and be prepared for the potential inconvenience. If, on the other hand, you just want your clownfish to have something to host in, there are several different kinds of soft corals as well as a couple LPS that clownfish will often happily host in.

I have a large Cladiella sp. that my clownfish hosts in, and any similar coral (there are several different genus and species of corals that to our eyes, at least, are basically indistinguishable from one another) would do just as well. Large toadstool corals (especially long polyped ones) also often play host to clownfish, as do colonies of Euphyllia sp. and Duncan corals. As far as I can tell, clownfish just like to host in corals that have branches or tentacles or something like that for them to hide among when they feel threatened. So if you aren't set on an anemone, I would find a nice little colony (little enough for your tank, but big enough for a clownfish to hide in) of one of the corals I mentioned above to act as a substitute.

Thanks for this awesome info! I'm not stuck on anemones based on what you said, so can you recommend any specific coral types I should look for ?

 

[JLynn]

Well you're wanting to do just soft corals for now, right? So there are Cladiella sp. and Klyxum sp., both of which you might find called a Colt Coral or a Cauliflower Colt Coral or maybe a Blushing Coral or just with the genus name (and really, any variation thereof). You might also find very similar looking corals being called Finger Leather Corals. Whatever they are called, you'll know them by their fuzzy, thickly-polyped branches and because they are all some shade of blush or pink. Below are a couple examples of the kind of coral I'm talking about:

The nice thing about these corals is that a nicely sized colony is pretty cheap, they are very hardy, they grow quickly, and they produce a lot of movement in the tank, if you have a strong enough current going. That they grow quickly is also a bit of a bad thing, though, because if yours do as well as mine has, you'll have to prune them back at least once a month to keep them from encroaching on other corals, and they all slime up spectacularly when you touch them, which makes it kind of hard to cut them - you can't get a good grip on the branches. Not a big problem, just a minor inconvenience.

There is another kind of soft coral you might find being sold under the name Cauliflower Colt Coral, etc, etc that is actually called a Kenya Tree Coral. It can be very similar looking to Cauliflower Colt Corals, which is why they get mixed up, but it has thinner, more spaghetti leather-like branches and less fluffy polyps. Their coloring, cost, pros/cons, and care is pretty much the same as the Colt Coral, except that Kenya Trees tend to be more brown than pink IME. I'm not sure if a clownfish would like it as much as a colt coral, but I've only personally had the one clownfish, so I really can't say. They're similar enough that I think a clownfish would like one as well, though.

The Mushroom or Toadstool Leather Coral (Sarcophyton sp.) is possibly my very favorite soft coral in the world. They come in various pinks and blushes, but also in yellows and greens. Their polyps can be very long or very short depending on the specimen or species. (Really, soft coral identification is quite tricky, so you should mostly give up on the idea of nailing down a specific species. They best we can usually do is the genus.) They grow much more slowly than either of the two corals I just talked about, but they only get more impressive as they grow. In the wild, there are some of them that are big enough for you to sit on! Of course, because they are so lovely and because they grow more slowly, they are more expensive than Colt Corals or Kenya Corals. And if you want a really colorful one that also comes at a higher cost (worth it, IMO, but you may feel differently). If you aren't opposed to buying online, I have gotten two beautiful little green Toadstools from Pacific East Aquaculture in the past, so maybe keep an eye on their stock. They don't always have them, but I've been quite impressed with them when they do have them!

Those are the three main soft coral candidates for hosting clownfish, as far as I know. Sorry to take over the thread with these massive pictures! I couldn't find a way to resize them and felt compelled to include them.