New to Saltwater and Reefing

cressman90 · Oct 13, 2020

Good Afternoon,

I have had great success with fresh water planted tanks, and I am currently setting up a 15 gallon Fowlr/nano reef tank. For equipment that I am using is an AquaClear 70,and a 150w Eheim Jager trutemp heater (possibly overkill for heater). I am still looking for other items that I need like lighting, RODI units, Powerhead and Possibly lower wattage heater for the tank. Honestly I am unsure what livestock I would like to keep, I know that with the size of the tank I am severely limited on what I can keep. I know one coral that I would love to grow is Zoanthids due to the relatively familiar look of the Petosky Stone. From what I understand is Zoa's are a modern relative to the coral that was fossilized into the stone in the upper Michigan region. If anyone can has any insight of what I could do for the tank I would greatly appreciate it.

piranhaman00 · Oct 13, 2020

Welcome! Zoas and a pair of clowns for the classic look, and lots of fun!

harley32907 · Oct 13, 2020

Welcome to R2R!

cressman90 · Oct 13, 2020

Which type of clowns should I look into? I'm currently running the filter (300gph) on the end of the tank so flow goes across the entire surface. The tank is a Aqueon 15g. Should I be try to introduce a powerhead to the tank or would the flow rate from the HOB be sufficient for flow?

piranhaman00 · Oct 13, 2020

I think the classic clowns are the best, that will probably be good flwo.

BackToTheReef · Oct 13, 2020

Welcome to R2R!

cressman90 · Oct 13, 2020

Also with looking into RO/DI I have been looking on BRS and was trying to figure out which system to get, the 4 stage or 5. I was able to looking at the water quality report for my area, and I feel like a 5 stage would work best for me. I will attach a picture of said water quality sheet. As of right now I am buying my water from a LFS, they currently have RO, Instant Ocean, and Fritz. To get my tank started I went with Instant Ocean. Would there be any negative affects if I topped off with RO water until I get the RODI unit?

piranhaman00 · Oct 13, 2020

Your water has chloramines. The stages dont really mean anything, I would do a sediment filter, 3 carbon blocks, and 2 or 3 DI stages, so 6 or 7 stages total.

cressman90 · Oct 13, 2020

I appreciate the help.

Philly Reefer · Oct 13, 2020

Welcome to R2R.
I think you should be fine with 5 stage. I am using 4 stages at the moment and thankfully my fishes looks to be ok. If you have the budgets then yes get the 7 stages. But a 5 stages with the chloramine carbon block would do just fine.
And with BRS you can upgrade in the future. When I get around to build a mixing station, I would upgrade to 7 stages.

Flow wise, you can try with just the HOB, I think it should be ok with softies and zoa.

Fishes: 2 clowns. Any kind of clowns except maroon. Well you can get maroon as long that tank is going to be their only home. Maroon can more aggressive than the other clowns

fishguy242 · Oct 13, 2020

hi welcome to the reef going to love it here!!
lots of fun/info/fun/help/fun...
i love the black a white/snows/ice

Pistondog · Oct 13, 2020

cressman90 said:
Good Afternoon,

I have had great success with fresh water planted tanks, and I am currently setting up a 15 gallon Fowlr/nano reef tank. For equipment that I am using is an AquaClear 70,and a 150w Eheim Jager trutemp heater (possibly overkill for heater). I am still looking for other items that I need like lighting, RODI units, Powerhead and Possibly lower wattage heater for the tank. Honestly I am unsure what livestock I would like to keep, I know that with the size of the tank I am severely limited on what I can keep. I know one coral that I would love to grow is Zoanthids due to the relatively familiar look of the Petosky Stone. From what I understand is Zoa's are a modern relative to the coral that was fossilized into the stone in the upper Michigan region. If anyone can has any insight of what I could do for the tank I would greatly appreciate it.

Welcome Crossman,
We have a zoa garden in our 10g, hosting a pair of oscellaris clowns
For power head I have

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DVal · Oct 14, 2020

Welcome to R2R!

cressman90 · Oct 17, 2020

I have a question. I am using the red sea marine care test kit andI tested my water parameters, the tank has been cycling for about 2 weeks, the standard ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH I understand. But when testing the alkalinity, I chose to do the 5ml which is in whole degree of Kh hardness, it took 11 drops to have it change to green which at that rate gives me 11 dKh. Should I also try this with the 10ml of saltwater to find the .5 dKh hardness?

cressman90 · Oct 17, 2020

Just to see if my number match I decided to run the .5 dKh test and got 19 drops which puts it at 9.5 dKh. Which one should I go with? The 10ml test bottle or the 5ml test bottle?

fishguy242 · Oct 17, 2020

hi ,not familiar with test,but think second test,and recheck

9.5dkh perfect for new tank

Alanna102499 · Oct 17, 2020

Welcome to R2R!

cressman90 · Oct 20, 2020

Good evening everyone, My 15g is cycled, but will take my time adding livestock to my tank. It feels like it took a really short time to cycle, but did add 6-8 drops of Ammonia Chloride from doctor Tims. I do want to set up a quarantine tank prior to adding fish to my nano reef. A few questions that I have for quarantining fish. I have a spare 5.5g that I just took out of service as a Red Cherry shrimp only, will this be a suitable size for a quarantine tank? Also should I have the salinity be the same as the display tank or what the LFS is running? Also I have a spare sponge filter from the previously mentioned shrimp tank. Will the sponge filter be sufficient for quarantining?