Am I reef ready???

thedocta

thedocta

Member
Hi I've posted several times while setting up my 40 gallon reef but I think I'm finally ready to start adding corals. I currently have the equiptment, and inhabitants that are listed below in the tank. Tell me what you think...Reef ready or am I missing something? Also what corals would you reccomend? What fish would you recommend?
Inhabitants:
Percula clown
Cleaner shrimp
Emrald crab
10 Hermit crabs
Some schrooms (Comming this weekend)
40-50 small snails (Soon to be here)
Bristle worms (Trying to get them out before I add corals)
Equiptment:
Hot magnum hang on canister (250 GPH)
Prizm skimmer (Comming this weekend)
Heater
Power head (125 GPH)
Bio wheel (Soon to be replaced with Prizm)
110 watt PC light (Soon to replace my 55 watt)
18 watt N.O. light
Live rock/sand:
50 pounds live sand
28 soon to be 40 pounds fiji and carribean live rock
Any and all suggestions would be appreciated. Tommorow I'll post a pic of the tank cuz it's kinda cloudy right now. Thanks-Greg
 
squidd

squidd

Active Member
Why is the tank cloudy...? Bacterial bloom or sand cloud..either way sounds like the tank is still a bit "young" for corals...
Give it some time to mature and settle in..There are many changes going on in the water chemistry, and micro flora and fauna world that you can't "see" or test for, but are necessary and beneficial "prior" to adding inverts....
Equipment wise, I'd think about upgrading the skimmer if you haven't purchased it yet and adding more flow (Ph's)
18 watts of light is way low for even shrooms (keep them "high" for now) and will need to be upgraded ASAP...
Best bet would be to wait until you have the "soon to come" equipment up and running and a bit of time on the tank so it can all stabilize and adjust prior to adding any more coral..
 
thedocta

thedocta

Member
Tank is cloudy cuz i rearranged the LR. I have18 watts now but will have 110 by monday. I'm not planning on adding corals till a good 2 weeks after I get all my equiptment and LR. My tank is 2 months old but the water, LR andd LS was alll kept in my old tank for a year. -Greg
 
dacia

dacia

Active Member
Slightly off topic, but how would you actually remove the bristleworms? Seems like it would be harder to do that than to remove a yellow tang from a 180 with 200 pounds of rock...
Personally I love my bristleworms. I was so proud when I saw my very first one in my FOWLR:
 
gold strip

gold strip

Member
Keep the worms!
As for the corals. Sounds like the tank isnt really complete yet if you are still adding rock and light and ....
I would have it complete and running without disturbance for at least 4 weeks before I added anything and then I would start slow with shrooms or zoos or maybe a small colt.
It is sooooo hard to wait but it really is best for the tank and its inhabitants.
 
masterzeus

masterzeus

Member

Originally posted by Gold Strip
As for the corals. Sounds like the tank isnt really complete yet if you are still adding rock and light and ....
I agree completely. You need to let everything settle down and run for a while (several weeks) before adding corals. Especially make sure all your live rock is added and fully cured. You should not be adding liverock after you have corals. Your lighting won't be enough for much more than some mushrooms and maybe some low-light zoos.
I don't have experience with a prism, but do have experience with many competing skimmers around the same price. A better skimmer definitely won't hurt.
 
thedocta

thedocta

Member
Ok...First off I'm addinng 15 pounds of fully cured LR bought from my LFS so that shouldn't effect my tank much. Secondly ALL of the water, liverock, and livesand has been in other fully developed tanks for at least a year. The tank is cloudy cuz I did a little bit of rearanging...nothing major at all. The tank is and has been stable for at least a month, probably more like 1 1/2 months. I even kept an anemone in there (Up as close as I could to my 55 and 18 watt lights) and it lived without problem until my filter sucked it up. The prizm is pretty much my only option for skimmers since I'm getting it as part of my payment from the guy who bought my tank. If my water quality is ok can I add a couple schrooms this weekend? Hope so cuz thats also part of my payment for the old tank. Why not remove the bristle worms?? Won't they eat my corals? I wouldn't search through the rocks to find them Id definately buy a worm trap thing. Thanks-Greg
 
thedocta

thedocta

Member
How does this sound as far as bulb combination for lighting. One 55 watt 71000k, one 55 watt 10000k, and one 18 watt actinic 03 Will that work for a reef with low to medium light corals? Will it give the tank a good appearance? Thanks-Greg
 
powdertoastman

powdertoastman

Member
yes keep the worms, they keep your tank clean, most you could keep with those lights is shrooms, maybe some zoos and maybe a toadstool if it was high up and some green star polyps. we use a prizm skimmer on our 30g and it works great, ive heard they suck, but if you ask me, its a great skimmer that pulls TONS of brown "stuff" out of the water everyday. for a 40g it should be fine. if you want to keep more corals, you will need to get either more PC's or something high like VHO's. and i would add another 18w NO 20k for more blue or your going to end up with a yellow looking tank.
 
thedocta

thedocta

Member
Sirgunther- I donno exactly what it is...I was reading a review of the light and it said it didn't come with a true actinic but a 71000k bulb. I think It's false actinic...more of a purpleish color. Is a 20k bulb the same as actinic 03 or is there a difference? Thanks-Greg
 
thedocta

thedocta

Member
Ok...it's been a while since I updated this thread so I fugured I'd show some progress of the tank. Below I've listed the current inhabitants, and equiptment for my 40 gallon reef cube. After a recent cyano outbreak I started using R/O water, I don't see a difference yet but am told it will pay off in the long run. I've got 50 pounds livesand and 29 pounds liverock but I've got a good rock setup so I'm not adding more. I'm cleaning the filter right now so once I get that back in I'll post a pic...probably tommorow.
Fish:
Percula clown
Red firefish
Yellowhead jawfish
Lawnmower blenny
Corals:
Yellow polyps
Xenia
Frizzy schrooms
Leather of some sort
Small blasto
Small frogspawn
Inverts:
75 small snails
5-10 hermit crabs
Emrald crab
Cleaner shrimp
Equiptment:
110 watts PC
18 watts NO
H.O.T. Magnum 250
Bak pak skimmer (Comming soon!)
150 GPH powerhead
2 maxi jet 1200 powerheads (On order)
If you have any suggestions please let me know! Thanks-Greg
 
masterzeus

masterzeus

Member
Sounds good, but I am not sure you have enough live rock. Only 29 pounds? That is a lot of small critters for only 29 pounds. Post a picture so we can see how you have it set up. Are your corals doing well?
 
thedocta

thedocta

Member
Here's a pic...It's pretty bad but I'm no photographer. If by little critters you meen snails then I should have mentioned I was giving 30 away to a friend soon. The rock is fiji, kaeleni, and carribena so it's pretty pourus. The only way I could add more rock is it was fully, fully cured from my LFS. Yes my corals and everything are doing fine. BTW my tank is actually a 38 gallon but I call it 40. Thanks-Greg
 
masterzeus

masterzeus

Member
I like the rock work. I would have added a little more, but it looks nice. Yeah I did mean that I thought it was too many snails. I am terrible at taking pictures of my tank as well.
 
thedocta

thedocta

Member
How much more rock would you suggest adding? What kind? I can go and get some soon from my LFS. Thanks-Greg
 
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