My new 60 reef aquarium

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revdrlon

New Member
Hello, I am starting my first aquarium on my own. It is a 60 gallon. It has been up for one month and it has already gone through a few blooms. I hope to document my experience on here and get some advice on how to make it better. My background in aquariums is growing up my dad had a tank in the 80's and it was amazing, he had regular correspondence with Axelrod and even had a few acknowledgements in a couple of his books. My dad quit his tank in the late 80's and I had no further contact with salt for many years. He decided to star a new tank about ten years ago and I helped him with it a bit to get him up to date. After having his tank for a few years we actually started a LFS and specialized in salt only. The shop lasted about a year and then it went down because the town we are in didn't really have a big marine aquarium following. It has been about ten years now and after all that I have never really had a tank of my own. I recently became stable enough in my life to start one up and am really hoping to make the best of it.

My equipment:

2 dual penguin biowheel backpacks.
1 dual t8 light with a 50/50 and a 10k
1 cheap Chinese 1300gph wavemaker running 24h without a controller.
90lbs live sand
10lbs live rock

My creatures:

2 black clownfish
1 cleaner shrimp
3 turbo snails
1 sand sifting star
2 tiny mushrooms
1 small rock with a thin group of zoas.

My dad was hit with inspiration upon seeing my tank and literally just got water in a 60 of his own.

We are taking it slow due to budget restrictions but this week is my spending check and I am going to order a current marine orbit 48-60 led light, a wavemaker controller and another wavemaker.

I will post pictures as soon as I can, I am at dads watching him mess with his tank right now.i have included a picture of his as of right now.image.jpg
 
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DaveK

Well-Known Member
Before you spend money on a "current marine orbit 48-60 led light, a wavemaker controller and another wavemaker", get the basic system going correctly.

For a 60 gal tank you need about 60 to 90 lbs of live rock or dry base rock that will become live rock with use. This is the biological filtration system, and just about required by today's standards.

I would also get a good hang on the tank skimmer. While you can keep a tank with out one, a skimmer falls into the "highly recommended" area of equipment, especially when you get into corals.
 
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revdrlon

New Member
Yeah, I'm planning on getting about 20 more pounds of live rock on Wednesday. I will be giving half of that to my dad as he has helped me with my tank a bit. I know I need a lot of stuff for it and my current setup is bare minimum, if that, to get it started.

I will be investing in a skimmer with my next "spending check" in a month.
 
DianaKay

DianaKay

Princess Diana
RS STAFF
:yeehoo: CHEERS for starting a tank thread!! :yeehoo:
Great advice from DaveK :)
Keep an eye on the sand sifting star, they require deep MATURE sand beds to meet their nutritional needs. They will bury themselves & starve to death in most new set ups.
I returned the one I had because I felt like it was eating all the beneficial fauna from my sand bed. I'd recommend getting some Nassarius Snails in place of the Sand Sifting Star if you want the sandbed lightly tumbled & cleaned. They are great CUC and fun to watch pop up out of the sand when feeding the tank.
There's LOTS to learn, please feel like you can ask all questions here because
We love to help each other as much as we can! :bluetang::clownfish:
 
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DaveK

Well-Known Member
DianaKay said:
:yeehoo: CHEERS for starting a tank thread!! :yeehoo:
Great advice from DaveK :)
Keep an eye on the sand sifting star, they require deep MATURE sand beds to meet their nutritional needs. They will bury themselves & starve to death in most new set ups.
I returned the one I had because I felt like it was eating all the beneficial fauna from my sand bed. I'd recommend getting some Nassarius Snails in place of the Sand Sifting Star if you want the sandbed lightly tumbled & cleaned. They are great CUC and fun to watch pop up out of the sand when feeding the tank.
There's LOTS to learn, please feel like you can ask all questions here because
We love to help each other as much as we can! :bluetang::clownfish:
Click to expand...

This is an excellent point. It actually would be best to return the sand sifting star to your LFS for credit. Another factor is that they like to bury themselves. If they die, you may not know it until it's too late.
 
pablomay28

pablomay28

Well-Known Member
Brother I also highly recommend a skimmer Aquamaxx is an awesome skimmer and perfect for your tank. An HOB-1 will be good for your tank and they are on sale at Marine Depot for $207.89. I agree with DaveK on the live rock, it seems you have the hob filters, heater, and light taken care of.
 
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revdrlon

New Member
Alright, you guys made me cave, I got a skimmer today. I did get the LED light also though, got it for half price on eBay. Since I got the light for such a deal I could afford the skimmer. Gonna pick up the rock tomorrow, 10 more pounds. How long do you guys think it will take for the big coral skeleton I have in the middle to get pretty? It weighs about 15lbs on its own and if I can include it in my live rock then that will give me about 35lbs tomorrow.
 
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DaveK

Well-Known Member
revdrlon said:
Poopy seaclone 100, but it's better than nothing.
Click to expand...

Send it back, and get a skimmer worthy of your tank. Even better, smash it to bits to avoid it being inflicted upon some other unsuspecting reef keeper. Yes, it's that bad. I can not say enough bad things about it, and this comes from personal experience.

BTW, smashing it to bits was exactly what I did to mine.
 
Pat24601

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
DaveK said:
BTW, smashing it to bits was exactly what I did to mine.
Click to expand...

This definitely sounds you tube worthy. Destruction with a good bit of inanimated object vengeance is always fun stuff!

I assume you didn't video. So, how did you smash it?
 
miro

miro

Active Member
throw it off the balcony + sledgehammer? oh wait that was me :ashamed:
But by the sounds of it i think he needs the money more than smashfun :)

If it is as bad as they say then maybe its best to return for credit and wait until you have some extra money to add and get a better one:thumber2: Im starting to think this hobby costs more than having kids!
 
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revdrlon

New Member
Just got home from work and the seaclone has worked up quite a mess in its cup, guess I tuned in the right setting already. I actually did a few mods before I even put it on, I upgraded the air valve on it and I made a gasket for the collection cup. I also put a piece of mesh on the outflow to cut down the bubbles from it going into my tank.

I've noticed a bit of neon green algae starting to grow in my tank. It started on my heater and is now moving to my live rock.

The star seems to be happy for right now, if I notice he is getting sluggish I will take him out and back to the LFS.

I have some PE mysis shrimp for the clowns, how often should I feed it to them and how much of a cube should I feed them, I've been giving them half a cube every 3 days.
 
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revdrlon

New Member
DEAL OF THE CENTURY!!!! I'm getting 100 pounds of live rock, 8 fish, and 6 big corals and all the inverts from a 180g tank for $300 from a guy who is moving and selling off his tank.

Me and dad are going to split the live rock, inverts and fish and I am getting the corals.

It was $200 for the fish inverts and corals and $100 for 100 pounds of rock.

This should pretty much finish off both our tanks for a heck of a long time.
 
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