Started my first reef tank and would like your thoughts on it

ScientificReefer · Mar 31, 2022

This is my first post, I'm excited to meet some fellow hobbyists! I got the tank and light, as well as a bunch of unneeded and practically unusable equipment for free from someone on facebook marketplace. They looking to get rid of it all. I started cycling this tank in January. Since I have added various pieces of equipment and 2 clownfish. I plan on adding equipment as I need it. My final plan is to have a mixed reef with a heavy bioload. I would just like to hear what people have to say about it, what I should do to improve it. Cable management tips, please!!

The tank is 32L x 24W x 20H and holds 66 gallons.
My current equipment:

Eheim Universal 2400
AutoAqua Smart ATO Lite
Bubble Magus Filter Roller BM-ARF-M
Ehiem Heater (forgot the specifics)
Lighting unknown
Instant Ocean Sea Salt
Caribsea Live Sand
Live Rock from LFS

Livestock:

Snowflake Clown
Black Phantom Clown

I've had the snowflake clown for about 2 months and it's been doing great. I bought the phantom clown and a coral beauty angelfish at the same time and they both came from the same system at my LFS. I acclimated the fish and put them in the tank. The phantom and snowflake clowns paired up perfectly fine. On the other hand, the CB immediately went into hiding in the rockwork. I thought this was perfectly normal for a fish being added to a new tank. The fish hid in the rocks for 2 days without coming out. I thought this may have been normal too so I would wait for it to come out so I could feed it asap. On the third day, the CB came out of hiding and I fed the tank but it was swimming in a very strange way. Letting the current blow it around, swimming tilted straight up or down, and hitting rocks. It was not doing this in the store. After returning from work I see the CB laying on the sand where it died, unfortunately. I removed the fish and tested all my parameters. Everything was fine. I looked into everything I could and the only reason I can see why this fish may have died is my acclimation process. I poured water from my tank into the acclimation container about every 5 minutes for a total acclimation period of about 30 to 45 minutes. My guess is that I didn't allow the fish enough time to acclimate and/or I was shocking the fish by adding a significant amount of my tank water to its water too fast. I just purchased a drip acclimator to take this out of consideration if I run into this problem in the future.

I just realized that there's probably a whole thread for this^^ but any info helps. Thank you!!

blaxsun · Apr 1, 2022

I use Innovative Marine's drip tool to acclimate my fish over 35-45 minutes. I've had great success with it and highly recommend it.

Clarkjw2002 · Apr 1, 2022

Most likely it wasn’t the acclimation per se since it came straight home from the LFS.

Probably was a salinity mismatch. You can drop salinity quickly with little issue but going up a fish can really only take a .002 SG rise a day.

Most LFS keep fish at 1.017 or 1.018 or lower but most tanks are 1.023 to 1.025., A big jump.

If the fish is shipped then ammonia becomes an issue. Best to match salinity and get the fish out of the bag immediately (after floating to match temp). Or use amquel.

If the salinity is low at the store match it in a QT tank and allow the salinity to slowly rise by evaporation. Should take 2 to 3 days so use amquel for ammonia if it is a temporary tank.