My 1st tank... 54 corner

[brandom]

This is my first aquarium (54 corner). I would appreciate any comments/ advice. It has been set up for about 1 month now. The 50lbs of live rock came from a fish only tank of 2 years. 12 lbs of base rock added a week ago which is obviously the white rock on top, and 70 lbs live sand. I have never had any detectable ammonia or nitrites, and my current nitrate is about 7. calcium is 340 ish and i have been using kent purple tech for about a week now.
I have a wet/dry with protein skimmer and uv sterilizer. 1 maxi jet 600 with mod is my water movement... i had an additional one near the bottom half of the tank stuck to the glass to push water behind the rocks but it seemed like too much for the pajamas and all my sand was piling up. I could use any pointers on water flow it you beleive this current setup is inadeaquate.
my livestock is currently 5 hermits (had 6 but one seemed to crawl outta its shell and i found it dead under the flat rock on the left) 1 snail, 1 emrald crab, 1 peppermint shrimp, 2 pajamas (had 3 but found one in the intake of the powerhead mod yesterday does this happen often with these fishes, because it happened to a previous one with the powerhead i was saying i had blowing around the back of the rock which had no guard over the intake and did not have the mod)... 1 flame angel, 1 sixline wrasse, 1 coral banded shrimp.
this hobby is amazingly addictive, and i think i may want to set up fish tanks for a living now instead of being a herbalist and naturopathic doctor. (crazy as it may sound, i would like to actually do research in herbal/natural healing for fish)... just an idea.
the liverock on the left that is relatively flat i propped up onto the large piece on the right with the intention of creating a habitat for a bluespot jaw, which i would really like to have. i figured this would make an ok roof for his burrow.
thanks for looking...
Brandon

 

[gio28]

AMAZING TANK!!!
looks good...i will follow this thread along the way...keep us posted!

 

[snakeblitz33]

Welcome to SWF.com.
Tank looks like it's coming along. Was the previous tank that you got that live rock out of medicated at all? Just wondering. I hope you will get some coralline algae growth at some point. You might want to add some more fully cured live rock as you go. So far so good! Keep it up.

 

[brandom]

thanks fo r the responses guys... there is actually a decent amount of coraline algae all over, but the emerald keeps eating it off lol ! I just saw the first speck of purple on the new base rock today. maybe i can get some better pics that show this.
again thanks, it is great to have a community to support this hobby like this one! Very helpful! I have put lots of time and love into this aquarium!
B
Come to think about it, i beleive the tank it was in b4 was probably medicated, because i bought the tank with fish (cow, niger trigger, spotted puffer, and yellow tang) and i took out the live rock and sold the fish when i realized the nitrates were over 100. And the guy gave me a box containing many medications (although i dont think copper was used but i will have to check) but it did have copepods living in the rock and i harvested some out of the filter pad of the existing filter and squirted them into the rock with a turkey baster. What are the implications of having previously used meds?
I thought i could not use live rock after the tank is cycled, but i guess fully cured would not produce another cycle or anything? It could maybe use another chunk on top of the base rock... Would cured rock from the lfs work or would i have to get more mature rock?
thanks again!

 

[shainline]

I am not sure about the cardinals being sucked into the power heads. Since you have had it happen once I would come up with a remedy for it not happening again. Better to be safe than sorry... The first thing I can think to do is wrap some netting around the power head. Maybe someone else will have a better idea. It may just be simpler to get a new power head that it cant happen with.. BTW your tank is awesome! My husband wants a PJ cardinal too. I think Im going to pick one up tomorrow. Do yours seem to like to have friends or do they keep to themselves?

 

[brandom]

the one that got sucked into the power head (which was the second one that this happened to, but on a maxi-jet 600 with no mod and no cover over the intake on the first cardinal) seemed to be good friends with the sixline, and they stuck together pretty closely.
At the lfs they told me to get them in groups and they apparently like odd #'s like 3 or 5 (I started with 4) so you may want to ask someone about this. they said if they are in even #'s they may force one out of the group! Hope this helps ( they are AWESOME fish with lots of personality and they come right up to my face and watch me when im sitting in front of the glass) plus they are nocturnal and stay out after the lights go out and moonlight is on.
Cant go wrong with pj's
B