Help Lots Of Questions & Pics!

[fishieness]

thats still great. in my case all news is good news. I do have a fowlr though My eclipse is a fowler. and i have a 12 gallon with an albino tiger oscar in there. when she outgrows the tank, maybe it will become saltwater then. The only tank i have with corals at the moment is my 40 breeder :joy: just like yours!~ But right now there is just hermits, a snail, a CBS, a pistol shrimp somewhere as a hitchicker, a moroon clown, plyps, and mushrooms. oh yeah... and an algae bloom

But that is slowly going away. Once it does im putting my baby snowflake in ther for the last fish. Then i make an overflow box and sump and im all set!

 

[f1shman]

wuts a CBS :thinking: ? and i didn't know snowflakes were reef safe!! and with the strong lights you have you can't have a glass top right? so how do you prevent the eel from escaping!

 

[jacknjill]

this may have been answered all ready, but i dont want to read through the whole thing.
1) I would add the sand first, but get it good and wet so it will stay in place better, and will wash out the dust.
2) Add water
3) Add salt. you can mix it in the tank for the very first time only, every other time you have to mix it outside in a bucket.
4) Add rock and let everything settle down.
5) Add raw shrimp and let it rip! lol
No, you dont need a skimmer for that size of a tank.
As for the heater, let it run for a couple of days and see where the temp stays, then you can decide whether you need a heater or not.
HTH!

 

[jacknjill]

Originally Posted by F1shMan
yup, water change with a lower salinity then you would want, so the high and the low = perfect!

actually, just add fresh water so you dont waste any salt

 

[jacknjill]

Originally Posted by F1shMan
is 1.024 good for a reef tank? (im new to reef tanks kinda lol)
for a reef you want at least 1.025, i keep mine at about 1.026

 

[jacknjill]

Originally Posted by F1shMan
lol i saw on your website a pic "the hobbyist himself" haha nice to see someone else on here thats young. How old are you? im 16. From what I can see most people on here are 25-40 lol

im 14 lol

 

[f1shman]

you ended up reading the whole thing anyways! lol

 

[f1shman]

can i see a pic of ur tank jack?

 

[fishieness]

wow jacknjill your 14?!
haha ive gotten a lot of realy knowlegable advice from you, i assumed you were older
a CBS is a coral banded shrimp.
snowflake eels are reef safe, but much of the time they will eat inverts like shrimps and crabs. Mine only shows any agression to the puffer when he steals all his krill off of the feeding stick haha.
i have the jebo/odyssea 2x96 watt PC. Enough to keep softies and some LPS Not the best lights or stong enough to keep many corals, but its on my 40 breeder. So as you know f1shman, its only 16 inches high, so all the corals will be close up.
a glass top would prevent gas exchange which is not a good thing
plus a glass top for a 40 breeder is 50 bucks!!
i got egg-crate at the hardware store for 15 bucks with pleanty of left over too. I just cut that to fit all the things hanging off of the side. works great. If you dont knwo what eggcrate is it is just like a plastic fencing almost. it looks like a plastic sheet and cut tons of cubes out of it. boom, thats eggcrate

 

[f1shman]

lol Fishiness: "You're 14? I've taken lots of advice from you. What have I Done????"
lol lol lol

 

[fishieness]

no no no no. its not like that at all. im 16, i have nothign to look down upon. it was more like a... damn... when i was 14 i had little freshwater fishies that were boring.... i was more envying jacknjill for starting the hobby that early and with that i did the same. I would already have had over 2 years into it and m y tanks would be even cooler!
sorry if it seemed like that. i was jelous that i didnt start this hobby when i was that younge.

 

[fishieness]

oo!! started a second page!! see all the info this thread holds? lol
im going to a movie (at my friends house... not the theater.... this hobby takes up too much money to do that... duh! i already bought 3 pounds of live rock and filters today), ill catch you guys later. nice knowing there are some fellow young-uns on here. and thanks!~

 

[reefman22]

sorry guys i wasnt here. i left for the fish store to get water and rock but i didnt make it in time before they closed so i just came home. but i did get some buckets from homedep... so that will help anyway. im goin back to the store tomorrow for water and rock so ill be up and going then. are you guys still around? haha but back to the issue, fishiness, my nano has 2 36-watt light strips. thats enough for corals right? i think it is. so tomorrow im planning on buying 20 pounds of sand, 22 gallons of water (tank holds 24 but im leavin room for rock), and as much rock as i can pay for after that. I'll probably end up getting about 20 pounds..... i hope. haha but ya if you guys are still around, comment back or anyone else that wants to chime in. im listenin. im still a beginner so im open for info. :happyfish

 

[jacknjill]

lol, i did end up reading the whole thing didnt i? lol. i just started skimming it and then before i knew it id gone through the whole thing. I learned almost everything i know from this site. here is a pic of my tank, but i cant get the flash on my camera not to go off so the pics all look more green and brown then they really are

 

[jacknjill]

in the second pic, that was my finger leather that fell behind the rocks and i had just fished it out so it was growing sideways. its a lot better now. and also that was what was left of my candy cane coral after my blue tang ate most of it

 

[jacknjill]

heres a pic of my tomato clowns

 

[f1shman]

I was jk about that fishiness. Jack sweet pics. And Reef I'd strongly suggest you get LR online!! Well first off how much is the LR at ur local fish store per lb?

 

[reefman22]

6.99. i know its cheaper online but ive never bought anything online before and i think it would just be easier to pick it up there (but why do you think i should order online? how bout everything else? does that sound good?

 

[f1shman]

Everything else looks good. I ordered my first thing online a few days ago, live rock, I was a little afraid of how it would look, but it was the best looking LR i've ever seen!!! And it had a great variety of sizes. small, medium, and 2 really large pieces, also had a lot of great coraline algae growth. And for putting it into a new tank, all you have to do is rinse it in a bucket of saltwater and scrub off any obvious die-off and its ready to put in the tank!!! Plus its uncured which allows it to spike your ammonia and start the cycle faster. I calculated it out plus shipping for 22 lb is $5.38 per lb. For the amount I bought (44 lb) it was only $3.75 per lb which was a great deal. So really its up to you!! Soon I'll be buying my cleaning crew online!! I'll let you know how that goes, that will be my first "livestock" from online!! Most fish stores around me offer a 24 hour guarnntee online its 14 days.

 

[reefman22]

ya u got urs from dr.... right? how much money was the 44 pounds? i dont think i can fit 44 pounds in there. do u? whats dye-off and how much do u think will be a good amount for me if i want corals and fish? now that i think about it, i may be able to get more? how much do u think would be good? and what r good online places?