Hi All

[Mr.Reeefer]

Hello everyone at Reef Sanctuary,

I am new to RS and new to the saltwater hobby.

I have set up a 140L tank with LR. I have a, valentini puffer, blue tang, yellow tang, flame angel, pair clarkii clowns, cleaner shrimp, long nose hawkfish.

Corals added are, gonni's, Tubi's, tracki's, annemones, shrewms, euphilli's, brain coral, suncoral, torch and clams.

My tank operates with a overflow sump system, hydor nano skimmer, aqua one chiller, hydor heater, 2 wave makers, aqualina PC lights. (Just purchased LED high intensity programmable lighting system)

Currently I have been mixing my own saltwater with tap water, just purchased some RO water to start mixing my salt with that to see the difference it makes with reducing phosphates.

I mix my water 2 days in advance in a plastic tub, I heat and circulate this water for 2 days and check salinity before introducing to the tank.

I do ten litre water changes three times per week.

This tank is a starter for me to introduce myself to the hobby. I will be building a new house in a year or so and this will become my quarantine tank, plans for the new house with be a six to twelve foot tank, size is depending on negotiations with my wife, Lol. If it was up to me it would be twelve foot however we will see when the time comes, I can be very persuasive.

Wondering about the username? Just part of my sick sense of humor, please don't take offense.

Thank you all, even though I am a new member, these forums have been helpful to me already for quite some months, and now that I am set up and doing well I have decided to become a member.

 

[goma]

Welcome to RS!

 

[DianaKay]

hello & :welcomera WELCOME to Reef Sanctuary!
Hope to see you here lots. After 5 posts you can share pictures of your tank with us.
We LVE PICTURES & updates
How long has your currant tank been running?
Start a tank thread in the reef chronicle forum
Very BEST WISHES :biker

 

[Mr.Reeefer]

Thank you Greg and Diana, I have tried to look for photos of your tanks however couldn't find them on your profile, do you not have pictures of your tanks on here?

 

[goma]

Look on the left below our pictures, you'll find a link to our tanks where it says "Reef Chronicle".

 

[landshark]

Welcome to RS! make sure to post lots of pic.

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

to ReefSanctuary, a real Sanctuary of reef forums, with lots of very nice members

 

Start a new tank thread & share your tank with us so we can follow along - we love pics

 

[mcentire1123]

Welcome to RS!

 

[Mr.Reeefer]

3 months now Diana, including cycling process.

I have really thrown myself in the deep end with my new tank as I have allot of corals and fish (for my size tank) already.

 

[gbose]

Livecock,

Welcome to RS. Since you say you're new to saltwater, my suggestion to you is to go S-L-O-W about adding stuff. This is good advice I was given 2 years ago when I started. Luckily, I (mostly) heeded it....and second -- research everything before putting it into your tank. You need to think of suitability and compatibilty with what you have. This is a specially good idea with a relatively small tank; you have 140L = 35-36 Gallons, Mine is an RSM130 = 34G, and I've filled it up rather quickly. So research and make your choices carefuly.

Some thoughts:
1) Your tank is too small for tangs -- they are a very active fish and need BIG tanks.
2) Be careful of adding anemones too soon. Common wisdon says they need a tank that is established for about a year. If an anemone dies, it could poison your tank (unless it's very small)
3) When you add anemones to a tank that has corals, you are going to lose some corals. The anemones move around and destroy everything they touch. I added a maxi-mini -- actually a very mellow, 'easy'coral, and he's just about destroyed my beautiful cabbage leather....
4) Suncorals are said to be problematic, so I never tried them.

Move slowly, add one fish at a time -- maybe another after a month. Add a clean-up crew early on -- snails and hermit crabls are good.

And enjoy yourself!

GBose

 

[Mr.Reeefer]

Hi Gbose,

Thank you for your reply and thoughts!!

I am new to the hobby and to RS however, I assure you I am well researched. What I lack in greatly is experience which obviously is a major factor, but will come with time.

I have wanted a SW tank for ten years. Ten years ago I researched and realised I couldn't afford the hobby, plus I was too busy with mates, partying etc, so I realised it wasn't only the money I didn't have to invest but also the time.

I agree that I definitely have started to run before crawling which does usually end up badly, and because I am aware of this I am all over my tank like flies on Sh*t.

Water parameters and chemistry is checked every second day, water changes are every second day, only small amounts though. I spend one hour a day feeding corals, nems and fish, and just staring at everything to make sure they are acting normal, and I believe even the inexperienced should be able to tell when something is happy and thriving and when something is struggling.

Just to reply to your thoughts.

1. The tangs I have are baby tangs, and going according to plans by the time They outgrow my tank I should have my massive tank up and running in which case I plan to move everything into there when this is setup.

2. Nems. I did purchase a nem when I purchased my clarki's as they were hosting it at the time in my local LFS and I felt bad taking them away from it since they loved it so much. The nem was small however it has doubled in size, which has me worried at the moment as if it keeps going at this rate I am unsure whether my tank will fit it in the future. When I placed my nem for the first time on my LR it moved only 2.5cm from where I placed it and has stayed there ever since (2months same spot)

3. As stated above mine hasn't moved at all since it has found its spot (at the moment)

4. suncoral. The colour is what attracted me, as I love the colours of the different corals. Researching prior to buying I also found that they can be difficult to keep. Still I drove an hour and a half each way and purchased two.
I placed them on the bottom of the tank, gave them some good flow and I target feed them daily, I place the top of a bottle over them and inject baby brine shrimp into a hole I have made in the side of the bottle and leave it covered for half an hour. One of them fully extended the same day and is continuing to have full polyp extension, the polyps are getting fatter and bigger daily with feeding, the other one is giving me partial polyp extension, so I am unsure whether this one has had a bit of a rougher trip or something, so this one I am giving extra special attention at the moment but I think in time I will get there. Since the other one is thriving I am obviously doing something right, so I am assuming the other one needs some time to recover maybe.

In regards to snails and hermits, will my puffer try to eat them? It's a valentini.

When I added my cleaner shrimp, the puffer looked at him more like dinner than a tank buddy which made me nervous as my cleaner cost 159.00AUD, expensive dinner!!!

once again I do agree with you in taking things slow and giving everything time to settle and adjust in, if my tank crashed I could only have myself to blame and I would go allot slower next time. I think it was one of those things that I have wanted for such a long time and never done it, so when I did have my chance I went full steam ahead. If I continue to go with no fish or coral loses, all the research payed off.