New RSM130D owner

[petlover]

I now have a a stock 130d with 20lbs live Fuji rock, nature's ocean live seawater, 32 pounds of nature's ocean live argonite sand (came in water), and a koralia nano (425gph) powerhead. I also have 2 o. clownfish. I put in an order of a 20gal quick cuc crew with Reef Cleaners, they should be arriving around Wed. I would like to know what type of shrimp and/or hermit crab I should add to the crew. thanks
I would also like to know what is a good first coral to start with, hubby likes the mushrooms.

 

[clownfishheaven]

Welcome to the club.

Mushrooms are good beginner corals. You can also consider star polyps, zoas, toadstool coral, colt coral, etc.

 

[imaccat]

Hi and welcome to RS,

+1^

Here is a site I use a lot to help me with working out which corals to get.

Good luck with your tank and post some photos please


null - ASIRA

 

[fruit bat]

Hi and welcome

As others have suggested, Mushrooms are a great starter, colourful and hardy. Pussey coral is also a safe starter.

Skunk cleaner shrimps are a must, you could also add either red or blue legged hermits to the CUC

Have fun

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

+1 Iain's link - look for Level 1 corals

Love Cleaner Shrimp & snails for CUC, I skipped hermits, crabs eat snails.

How old is your tank? Would love to see some pics !

 

[tnwillia]

Welcome to RS!

 

[Reefmack]

Welcome petlover! Good advice above ^

 

[petlover]

Thanks everyone.We have pretty much decided on a mushroom coral, but have read different lighting requirements. where would we place it? What do you feed them, how and how much? Thank you.

We have also read that they spread.Do you control that? How?

 

[fragz]

Thanks everyone.We have pretty much decided on a mushroom coral, but have read different lighting requirements. where would we place it? What do you feed them, how and how much? Thank you.

We have also read that they spread.Do you control that? How?

Hi petlover and GL with your RSM !

Mush are soft coral, easy to grow and multiplicate fast. I would suggest to put in a mid/bottom place in your tank. The upper you put them the more they will grow. They dont need much flow and you dont have to feed them. Only lights will be more than enough for them !

My 2 cents !

Take care !

 

[Reefmack]

I never have fed my mushrooms either - light alone is fine in my opinion.

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

+3 ^

 

[clka]

Welcome to RS! Hope you will post pictures soon

Cheryl

 

[redsea reefer]

Welcome to the club!

 

[petlover]

thanks. hope to get pics up soon. we decided to wait a while after the cuc arrives and gets settled in. probably 2-3 weeks. we are having the microbubles from the skimmer thing going on right now. hubby is getting a little frustrated with them. how long does it usually take for it to break in? should i only run it for a certain amount of time?

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

on your microbubbles... could just be breaking in, usually takes a couple weeks, could be related to the water...

BUT...

give this a try - only takes a few mins & has solved many...

raise your surface skimmer cup up to 1/4" from the highest position - then raise your water lever (very high) up to where it just touches the hood hinge arm trays see if this helps...

this is how I run my rsm 130D and solved my microbubbles...

all the best !

 

[reeferman]

hello and welcome to RS!

 

[petlover]

We did a 25% wc today, tested change water and tests were good, tested tank after 4 hrs and ammonia, and nitrates were higher than before. hubby has a Marineland c-220 canister filter, can we use that also? Having real problems reading the test colors, have red sea and api test kits. All we have in there are 19 tiny hermit crabs and two o. clownfish. We put coral buff in and stability in with the wc. Could the red sea test kit and additives be bad? Would this cause this? Thanks

 

[Reefmack]

I think you'll find most of us don't trust the Red Sea test kits, especially the ammonia and alk tests. Most of us have replaced them with the API, Salifert or other brands. Red Sea is coming out with new test kits - hopefully those will be better.

When in doubt with any test I always retest again to see if i get the same results.

A couple years ago several of us RSM owners tried cannisters, but they turned into nitrate generators, even with a weekly cleaning. If you try one I'd advise not using any sponges or mechanical filtration in it - those are what traps debris and food particles and eventually generate nitrates.

 

[petlover]

Thank you for the advice. We just hope this isn't another full cycle starting all aver again, and kills our 2 clowns.i think we can see some massive wcs in our future.

 

[Reefmack]

Can't imagine why the water change would have generated ammonia. Hopefully it'll disappear as quickly as it showed up. If you're using the Red Sea test for ammonia I would suspect that. It's been known to indicate ammonia when other tests show none.