I am very new, and have a few questions help appreciated

[polyformist]

I will start by saying "WOOT" I am loveing this already. ok here is my start up. {Sorry for horrible Spelling}
55 gallon tank
Crushed Coral Bed
2 power heads, one 2-3" bellow surface and one at about 2-3" from bottom of tank. Both pointing to center of tank.
Under Gravel Filter System being used "light bed near rocks"
I am shooting for a Friendly Reef Tank, With Clowns, Manderine, Anemonie, vegitation. Yes this is my first tank ever and I have allot of advice being given "Hand - Being Held" by a veteran hobbiest that runs a store in my town.
I have some rock that makes a nice set of open and small caves, very porris, These rock's run across the middle part of the tank exactly 1/2 length of total tank like so.
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The rocks are around 6" - 14" high. I have let the tank sit just water, coral, and power head for about 1 week, then I poceeded to add a baby jar of already grown rocks, from our veterans tank and 5 black mollie's, after 3 days 2 mollie's died "expected losses" and one was just flat missing. after 7 days 2 mollies still reside. I added 3 more mollies, 1 just turned up missing again! ( this makes 2 dead, and 2 missing in action) I then let it sit for about 3 days. At this point I am at about 1 1/2 weeks. The last few days a brown algea has been spreading through the tank bed nicely, wich I was hopeing for! Today haveing 4 black mollie's I add 2 Yellow Tail damsels to the tank to add color while awaiting the tank to grow and cycle. I hope that these fish will further to growth in tank, and I am expecting some trial and error. Anyone out their please send me helpful hints, idea's or just give me your oppinion. thnx
Polyformist

 

[dzones]

First off ..
WELCOME TO THE BOARD!!!
I have gotten a ton of excellent info here as I am sure you will.
For starters, I would definately ditch the crushed coral (CC) and the underground filter (UGF). Simply put they will be a nitrate trap for your reef...not a good way to start at all. I changed mine over and not only is it more functional but it aids a lot in the proper filtration of your tank. It also looks a LOT better in my opinion.
Replace that with a Deep Sand Bed (DSB) about 4-6" with mostly playsand and then a layer of live sand(LS) on top of that.
you are in the midst of cycling your tank and should have a test kit to monitor the progress. It is a shame you used live fish for that but it is done now. I would strongly suggest against putting any more live specimens in until the cycle is over.
do some searches on here for "cycle" and you will see what i mean.
Also might I suggest since you are so new at this, to go with a Fish Only with Live rock (FOWLR) setup until your tank is well established. once it is up and running with levels that are good and the life is stable, corraline growth is good...THEN look at getting more.
Just my 2 cents worth so far..
Good luck and read read read!
Dave

 

[jlem]

I would do a whole lot of reading before you decide on a DSB. They are usefull for tanks with very heavy bioloads but in my opinion way over rated fo the typicaly stocked tank. I prefer a SB of about 2 inches for a nice look and a good amount of live rock with lots of swimming room. If you do a search you can see a pict of my 125 gallon reef that has no DSB and lots of swimming room.

 

[polyformist]

thnx much for the info. I am going to give it my all, I am guessing within the next say 4-5 weeks the tank will be fully cycled and healthy puppy =) I will keep my fingers crossed and hope I can pull this off, If not, welp I will for sure be trying other methods. This is why I have been working with very in-expensive fish. I was told many times before I got into this, that it was a waiting game.
I do have some questions on fish aside of the tank ballanceing I would like to hear opinions on.
I was looking at getting 4 types of clown {1 of each} to place in my tank the rest as described a reef style setup, with all sorts of plants, and such.
Question being, Do plants count as animals?
Does a shrimp, crab, snails, ect.... {clean up crews} count as a full animal / gallon or 1/2 or are they more like 10 shrimp / fish type of deal? I see these huge packages of snail,shrimp, ect... and think so will i have a tank of clean up, or a tank of fish, lol..... as I said, true amature! hehe
thnx everyone, and feel free to throw me any suggestions, do's and Dont's, or even just a slap on the head for doing something stuppid that i had no clue i was doing. But lets make the rants educational, and not just battering please.

 

[scotts]

First of all welcome to the board. As I have stated before I learned more on this board in the first 3 months I was on thsi board than I learned in the first 9 months listening to my lfs(local fish store). You are starting off right by asking questions, and not afraid to admitting that you do not know. That is a good thing.
As far as the CC I have seen many posts of people asking how to change from a CC to LS(live sand) At this stage in the game you might want to consider that. I would recommend doing 2 things do a search on this board for "cycle" or "cycling" and also a search for "converting CC to LS". Click on the box at the top of the screen to do a search. I do not want to discourage you from asking questions, but you might see something in the previous posts that you did not even know to ask about.
I would also recommend that you read as much as you can on this board. There is a wealth of information here that can be learned. Also don't buy the lfs magic bottle of chemicals to solve a problem. There is usually a cure to the problem instead of putting a band-aid on the problem.
One thing that you MUST do is to research everything before you buy it. I once bought this completely beautiflu fish. Then I found out that as an adult it changes color and grow to 18" long. Way too big for my 60 gallon tank. Along those lines, clownfish are very territorial, they generally do well when you keep separate species together.
Good luck and I think that you are off to a good start.
Scott

 

[reefer44]

you said: 2 power heads, one 2-3" bellow surface and one at about 2-3" from bottom of tank. Both pointing to center of tank.
Under Gravel Filter System being used "light bed near rocks"
U shouldn't really point powerheads in the middle cause it could injure fish and corals....try bouncing it off the glass, rocks and/or the currents of other power heads....also do not go with a UGF cause that would jsut cause problems.....also never mix clown species IMO
good luck it is a great hobby

 

[jp0379]

My two cents worth........when I was in this hobby many years ago, there WAS no livesand, much less live rock. THAT dates me a bit, huh? LOL........i started when I was a kid, so things now have changed tremendously. First off, DEFINITELY drop the coral and get livesand. I use a 2" livesand bed in my 20 gallon tank, and about 6 inches of playsand and 3 inches of livesand in my 55. The cycle goes faster, the fisn enjoy it a heck of a lot more, and I've found it adds to the choices of what you can get that will flourish, whether you go fish-only or reef.
As for powerheads, I have one "regular" powerhead on one end of the 55, and one of the rotating head powerheads on the other end. Make sure the water is being pushed around the liverock, too.
Other than that, you sound like you're on you way. I do have one idea......you might want to think about getting reef-friendly fish first. Reef tanks, as I said, are a lot more difficult to get going and keep going when you first start off in this hobby, plus they cost quite a bit more. Just a suggestion. Look forward to hearing more about how it's going!!!

 

[lovethesea]

if you are looking for a recent (today I think) post of changing from CC to sand bed or DSB look in this form under "fish waste/nitrate" Kipass4130 gave instructions to us on how to switch. One person has sucessfully completed and I am still on the fence so stay tuned.
good luck, you will receive great info here.

 

[polyformist]

Thank you all for your responses! I have pointed both my power heads to the center / front glass of the tank to deflect the flow a bit. Fish currently in tank seem to be much more free with movement!
I also learned a hard leason today when I pulled one of my black mollie's out of my lower power head that had been one of the missing in action for a few days. It seems I hadn't thought of plugging the air nozzle and thus it was basically a live trap just waiting to happen. Now that to is plugged.
I am going to give it my best, figured I have a nice brown algea growth on the bottom of my tank, and have 2 black Mollie's, and 2 yellow tail's. I am going to monitor my chemicals, and watch how the tank goes for a while, No more adding fishy, no more playing with rock formations and such here for atleast 2 - 3 weeks. or until stabelised nicely.
While I let the tank grow and change, I am doing allot of reading, I picked up a book on salt water tanks and am scowering these boards for info., recomendations, idea's, ect.... Thanks all for the help and please throw me more

 

[jb1]

you do not need to have a mandarin unless you have a large population of pods