Another new guy to the hobby. Need suggesstions.

[deejeff442]

sounds good to me.get a couple small fish to start.then wait about a month for another.a tank is considered young before 6 months imo.
dont forget the snails you will need them for the algae bloom that comes in about 3 weeks of a new tank.
i know it sucks looking at an empty tank.not like freshwater where you can pile them in there.
but the more patience you have the better you will be.next thing you know you will be on craigslist looking for a 90 gallon.
my office i am in now has a 250 reef,33 mantis tank,55 qt and a 45 mixing tank.i had a 90 reef but shut it down for my wifes turtles.
years of collecting.i have a 10,30 and 120 sitting in storage .just totes of old equiptment .i cant seem to get myself to throw out.
gotta love it

 

[mmyuki]

Alright well I'm going to stay committed to this, always wanted this tank so here I am doing it. I will keep you updated here on this thread of how everything is going and will keep pictures updated as well, thank you for all the help and keep checkin in on me here just in case I have a question or 3, which I probably will tomorrow

 

[mmyuki]

Alright so my powerheads arrived last night so I went ahead and added both of those to the tank. I also took some readings yesterday and seen that my ammonia , nitrate / trite are all 0 again, figured that was a little too fast though so I wanted to see if you have seen a tank go through the cycle that fast or maybe I just got lucky? anywho on monday when my LFS is open Im going to take them some water and make sure that I can add living things, if I can I am going to order my CuC through this site here. After I order and add the cuc how long should I wait till I add fish?

 

[deejeff442]

if you had an ammonia reading at one point then yes the cycle is done. probably because you put some good cycled rock in there. i would put a small piece of frozen fish food like krill .i mean like less than a dime size.this will help the bacteria in there to feed.i would think you could add a cuc .then a couple weeks a couple fish.
the powerheads will help alot with the tank.just make sure you point it just eneough at the surface for a slight ripple.
looks like you are on your way cool.

 

[mmyuki]

Alright cool. I will go ahead and take another reading tomorrow, and if all is good with the water I get tested I will go ahead and order a CUC. Also my powerheads are aimed one slightly upward for a slight ripple and the other aimed slightly down just to move the water around like you all said. I appreciate the help Jeff. Not sure if you text but I could always ask you through texts instead of here for fast questions

 

[deejeff442]

i am surprised nobody else came on here?this site dont have the members it used to.really at this point its patience.
you might think about setting up a 10 gallon for a qt .for when you add new fish so you dont bring in any ich .i have a 55 qt running all the time but i buy bigger fish like 4-6 inch.just a 10 gallon hob filter,heater and a ph.maybe a couple pieces of 3 inch pvc pipe.
if you had a reading of .5 ammonia and now everything is zero you are good to go.
let me know how the cuc goes.if you are ordering from here i would just order today for a tuesday or wednesday delivery.that should be fine.
what are you planning to use for food?
i make my own but if you can find the frozen multi pack thats good stuff.
just once a day feeding is fine.the fish will always look hungry.
i dont think meowser keeps a qt ,she gets all her fish from here and dont have a problem with disease.
i have a guy around me that sells fish out of his home for great prices.i just call him,tell him what i want and he gets it.actually i just sent him an email for a potters leopard wrasse.
also interested in a pair of crosshatch triggers(very hard to get and extremly pricey)
i see you are in cleveland.i have a friend that lives there .i have been to the rock and roll hall of fame a couple times.really cool place.

 

[mmyuki]

Yeah its a cool place. Been there a few times as well. Im not sure what to use for feed or where to buy good feed, suggesstions would be nice?

 

[deejeff442]

lfs should have it

 

[mmyuki]

Sounds good thanks for the reply Jeff, your a very handy guy to have around for us beginners here.

 

[deejeff442]

well no problem.when i started 27years ago i didnt have this thing around.learned alot the hard way.
problem these days is new hobbyists still listen to their lfs.one sided opinions.
i still dont know why lfs still give bad advice.even the one i go to it has some serious tanks filled with rare fish ,all healthy and they still told me to use kick ich and that it works.
of course it cost $60 .i wonder if i said i used it and the ich was still there what they would say?
i have seen lately some new people got crushed coral for their tanks and the lfs said to get it.they should know better.
you will find here that most of us who have been at this a while dont have much respect for lfs.
i like to go to the store and look at a lets say angelfish and ask them if he is ok to put in my reef tank.just to see what they say.you should try it its kinda fun.just to see how honest they are or just to sell you that fish.
easy way to see if the store is worth going back.there is another store around here.their fish prices are awesome.but almost every fish has something wrong with it.if you didnt know what to look for you would be screwed.plus this store seriously told me any fish can fight off ich .as long as the water is good and the fish is healthy.yea right.i only go there in a pinch for salt.

 

[mmyuki]

Yeah well since I was new they told me to get the CC so thats what I have, Ill use it for now, and just keep up on the water changes.

 

[deejeff442]

get one of those suction tubes like 2 inches diameter syphon.just push it into the cc when you are sucking water out for a water change.
you will be surprised how much stuff gets collected in there.i used to have cc way back and really didnt have a problem.but this was 15-20 years ago and we really didnt test water much back then
its not like your tank wont be healthy with cc.the cc will hold nitrates which really unless the levels are 100+ wont bother fish its more of a problem for corals.
i have cc mixed with sand in my mantis tank and dont have nitrates.
have you gotten any algae in there yet?

 

[mmyuki]

Im not really sure what it looks like. I have some stuff on some of the rocks but I dont know if its a living thing or algae

 

[deejeff442]

usually new tank algae bloom is green or red.red isnt actually algae but for now lets call it algae.it usually shows up on the glass first.what kind of lights do you have and how long are they on during the day?on a new tank i only keep the lights on for a few hours as this helps keep the algae down.

 

[mmyuki]

I have one sunlight bulb and I usually keep the lights on for 5-8 hours a day. I have a patch of green on one of the rocks that looks like algae, ill snap a photo and post it so you can look.

 

[mmyuki]

Alright I have one sunlight bulb not sure the wattage, I also have one acintic blue bulb 30 watt. I went to my LFS today got the water tested, they said everything was ok so i wanted to get a cleaner shrimp and they told me not to put that in there it wouldnt benefit my tank at all, so they convinced me to buy a striped damsel for $8. They said it would be better for me to buy that then the $25 cleaner shrimp.

 

[deejeff442]

take that thing back and find a new fish store.damsels will start a fight with even big fish,your lfs blows imo.sometimes we buy things just to look at .i love my cleaner shrimp.i have 4 ,a coral banded and a peppermint.the shrimp are cool because you can hand feed them and they will crawl up your hand and clean it.
i hate lfs.order yourself a cuc .you can find a nice package here with a combo of snails,crabs shrimp .or just get the 10 packs of snails and a couple shrimp.

 

[deejeff442]

oh yea if you arent going to add corals anytime soon them light are just fine.

 

[mmyuki]

The guy at my lfs told me the damsels will fight with other fish, he said i would need to bring him back in once i decided to get other fish but since it was my first living thing in there he said throw him in there for a couple weeks and if he lives, then to bring him back and get the ones I want to put in the tank, could you link me a package cuc from here? and also a couple starter fish. I was planning on having this damsel in my tank by itself for a couple weeks just to see how it goes.

 

[deejeff442]

oh you didnt say that.if he is willing to take it back in a couple weeks thats good.damsels have a big reputation for being nasty.they wont bother shrimps or snails.
as a starter fish look at some clownfish you like.but list them first since some are aggressive like maroons.percs are nice starter fish.
go to the store on here and look at the reef packages .they come in different size tanks.like 50 gallon package 70 gallon 90 gallon.i forget exactly what gallons but they are nice packages and have a bunch of different things in them.