New to the game

frankm88 · Dec 30, 2013

My brother in law has a 9 gallon nano and it caught my interest. After looking to purchase my own tank, my wife and brother in law bought me a 24 gallon Fluval M60 for Christmas. It came with everything i needed to get started: a stand protein skimmer, sump pump, circulation pump, marine salt and even has a drain on the bottom to drain the sump making water changes easier. I set it up using a bag of live sand 20 lbs of live rock and 5 lbs of tonga branches. I used 10 gallons of reef water from my local marine store and 10 gallons of RO water which I added salt to fill the tank. After a day i added 10 snails and 10 hermits. After 3 days i put 3 green chromis in there to add some appeal which they seem to be doing fine. How do i know when my tank is ready for some coral?

PaulKreider · Dec 30, 2013

Welcome to R2R! I'd wait about a month or so, I'm not sure you have experienced your cycle yet so I wouldn't add anything else for a little while, the chromis's will produce enough to kick start your cycle, test for nitrates every other day at this point. You can add a bacteria starter(available at any fish store) to help keep down the nitrates you'll experience. Once your ammonia and nitrate levels stabilize youl be able to add more fish, and if you think your levels are stable enough, you could go ahead and start adding some softies (mushrooms some zoas maybe)

TJ's Reef · Dec 30, 2013

First off, WELCOME to R2R. Your system still needs to go through a Nitrogen Cycle which could take another 3-5 weeks or more. You can quicken the cycle quite a bit by adding bottled Bacteria which I think would be advisable at this point. If not your CUC (snails and hermits) will not likely make it through the cycle and even the Chromis may or may not. I would would hold off on any Coral for at least another month or two even with added bacteria. Spend some time on the boards here learning from other's experiences both Good and Bad there is also some really great books to be had on basic Reef Keeping fundamentals.

Cheers, Todd

mike007 · Dec 30, 2013

Welcome

larangcon · Dec 30, 2013

Welcome.
Be patience my friend, the longer you wait the better.

Reefing Madness · Dec 30, 2013

frankm88 · Dec 31, 2013

thanks all...i did a bunch of research on bottled bacteria and i hear only good reviews on Dr. Tims One and Only...i am going to pick up a bottle today and give it a few weeks to cycle.

glb · Dec 31, 2013

frankm88 said:
thanks all...i did a bunch of research on bottled bacteria and i hear only good reviews on Dr. Tims One and Only...i am going to pick up a bottle today and give it a few weeks to cycle.

Sounds good. Patience will make for a much better experience in the long run. Good luck!

Christina Sesa · Dec 31, 2013

Hello there! I gave that Dr. Tim's stuff a try to see if it worked and I still went through a mini cycle. It lasted only about 2 weeks and I got small spikes of ammonia and nitrite but it did speed things up!

revhtree · Dec 31, 2013

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frankm88 · Feb 4, 2014

I added the dr tims one and only about 5 weeks ago and it worked very quickly...my tank is starting to come together. I added a handful of corals (2 blastos, an acan, a few zoas, a duncan, a fiji leather, and an anemone) I also cam upon an awesome deal on either a snowflake or picasso clownfish (havent been able to positively identify it and forgot what the breeder told me) and a baby onyx clown. I also recently added a banded serpent star and a few emerald crabs to the CUC. Yesterday i made a media basket for my sump from egg crate and plexiglass (posted in the DIY forum) which is working excellent...I added the media basket about an hour before taking this picture.

frankm88 · Mar 13, 2014

Update: I think ive changed my aquascape a handful of times already but since my last update i have removed a few rocks and cleaned up the design a lot. I has 2 casualties...My anemone didnt last more than a week. After doing some research i think it may have had a damaged foot but who knows. Also one of my clowns jumped out and i found him dried up on the floor in the morning. Other than that everything has been going really well my levels are stable and my water is clear. I added a handful of more corals..a ricordea, a torch, a war coral, a few zoos, some GSP, another blasto and an acan. I also added 2 peppermint shrimp, a cleaner shrimp, and a wyoming white clown (to replace my suicidal clown).

frankm88 · Jan 12, 2015

so for the 1 year update....

As you can see the scape changed a bit....my wife bought me a hydra26 for christmas so i am looking forward to trying to find room for some SPS this year.

frankm88 · Jan 12, 2015

TJ's Reef · Jan 12, 2015

Wow! It really turned into a very nice Reeftank, congrats. So what's the plan on tank upgrade now ???.... lol This hobby never lets you sit idle long.

Cheers, Todd

frankm88 · Jan 12, 2015

i know im itching for something bigger. My brother in law and good friend both picked up 80 gallon Deep Blue tanks. Hopefully i pull the trigger on something soon because im running out of room!