New 29 Gal!

[alanjess]

Ok, here we go!
This tank was started about 3 months ago with "dead" sand, and live rock. After about 1.5 months, we added 2 small snails, 2 small hermits, 2 shrooms, and 2 other corals. About 2 weeks ago, the goby was added. About a week ago, and emerald crab was added. The tank has a hob filter, and a very loud skimmer which is still getting dialed in. I've never used a skimmer before, as all of my experience has been with freshwatedr, so I have a learning curve going. We would eventually love to have a pair of clowns in here. The only limitation is lighting for a potential host. The tank has a single standard flourescent light, so we are very limited at the moment, and thus trying to just get the tank established and stable with very simple corals, etc. We aren't intending on adding anything else or making any changes until we can get everything very stable and balanced. We already have a nitrate problem, so are concentrating on "fixing" that.

The brown algae finally went away for a little while, but reappeared shortly after I fed the tank some Marine Snow. Soo... water changes, water changes, water changes.... Am thinking about getting a "dead man's finger" plant to help with nitrates. Any opinions?

Ok..... I can't for the life of me figure out what this is. It was sold to me as a Kenya Tree, but when I search Google for images of Kenya Tree corals, I do not get any images remotely close to this. Is this just an uncommon TYPE of Kenya Tree coral? It has been very fun to watch, but since the brown algae (and nitrates I suspect) started, the fingers have been "gnarling". I THINK this is because of nitrates, but really don't know?

We are very happy with this guy.

We are also very happy with this guy. Whenever the goby "misses" his food, this guy will make pretty short work of it. The other thing which has been fun to watch has been the hermits molting and moving to new shells.
I think that's about it. Any and all feedback is extremely appreciated, as we are new to the saltwater side of fishkeeping!

 

[meowzer]

Welcome to swf
I would not add any corals with that lighting......if that is Kenya, It is not doing too good
do you have any powerheads?
What are you feeding? marine snow is garbage BTW

 

[alanjess]

No powerheads atm. Flow in the tank is from the hob filter & skimmer return. Do you think that is improper lighting even for mushrooms and xenia? We only purchased what the fish store told us would be fine with the lighting we had at hand. It would be fairly irritating to find out that these corals will NOT do good with this lighting.
The only thing we are feeding are HBH supersoft small pellets for the goby, and occasional brine shrimp as a treat. We have significantly cut back on the brine shrimp however to mimimize the amt of food which ends up in the rock decomposing. And I tend to agree with you re the Marine Snow. I'm not happy I tried that without doing some reasearch; live and learn.

 

[meowzer]

IDK...light should be okay for your basic shrooms......you really need to get a powerhead...that will help you a lot with your brown algae. If you don't get one, you will begin to have other issues from lack of movement and stuff collecting in crevices
pellets are not that great either....nor is brine....you should get some frozen mysis, or marine cuisine and just feed a small piece of the cube
You only have 2 snails? I owuld add some cerith snails, astrea, and nassarius

 

[novahobbies]

Well, you know that second coral is Xenia, right? The top one with the "gnarly" fingers is Anthelia. It's a cousin of Xenia. And ironically it usually does better in tanks with higher nitrates. However, I don't think it will tolerate the lower light of a single fluorescent bulb.

 

[alanjess]

Ok.. on the list now is a powerhead and some add'l different snails listed. Mysis & Marine Cuisine.. Will look into.. Thx!!
Anthelia.. Yes! Thanks!... I was going nuts trying to find out what that was.. Now I can start reading about it.. Interesting that it does better in tanks w/ higher nitrates.. Maybe the lighting IS the culprit here...

 

[jacobsdad09]

If u want to keep it cheap look for a t5 light on Craigslist or do like I did and just get a aqua traders light online. People will tell u they stink but in all honesty I have the same Xenia and its huge now. Candy cane coral has got to about 4x the original size and frogspawn is doing great too. Just some ideas.

 

[alanjess]

Great ideas! I've already been keeping an eye on Craig's list for lights. I'll also check out the Aqua Traders site!

 

[jacobsdad09]

Like I said lots of people bash them but it's a good bang for your buck. Mine works great only flaw is moonlight LEDs go out quick. Been through 2 sets in like 4 months. Now I just say forget it it's not worth it....

 

[alanjess]

Ok.... I've looked at so many different lighting options, I can't even remember my own name. What would most of you recommend for a 29 gal tank (30" long)? I don't intend on adding anything fancy until after my move in 8 months or so, but absolutely need better lighting for what is in there atm.
I'm thinking it would be fun to build a LED setup, but my experience with electrical is so minimal, I'm a little unsure if I could safely pull that off. But... In general.... It seems like LED is the consensus best way to go now taking into consideration longetiveity, power bills, etc etc? Any and all feedback would be appreciated on this one!

 

[red tiger]

On lighting, the oddysea quad T5 are ok, i have had a 24" fixture over a 29 and they are ok, light bulbs are not great, wavepoint T5 are good bulbs.
Now, on LED's you can go on a Kessil 150 which are awsome! They consume 32-50w and give the output of a single 150w metal halide! But again, you wont need to replace it untill 6-7 years down the road.

 

[alanjess]

Great info. I rechecked on the oddysea quad T5... Also saw postings around the net to use the supplied bulbs as backups, etc...
Was hoping I could make a LED system fairly inexpensively, but it looks like the LED systems which "we" need require higher quality (ie expensive) LEDS. It's starting to look like the "old" tech is still the way to go pricewise in the short-term. It looks like I'm spending about $100 min to have appropriate lighting for that tank from what I can tell... Sometimes I wish I hadn't gone back to school. Where did all of my discretionary cash go? lol

 

[red tiger]

Well the oddysea is relatively inexpensive versus other higher quality brands. I paid $79 for the 24" quad, and i paid $89 for a 20" dual Coralife fixture.
If you do the math, replacing four T5's will run $63.96 @ 15.98 each.
If you run them 8 hrs a day 96 watts @ .18 cents kwh (your kwh can cariate) is $50.46
That's $114.42 a year to run and replace bulbs.
A Kessil running cost of $26.28 a year on full blast!

 

[alanjess]

Ok... That is a serious price difference! Definitely can't justify the $250 initial cost atm tho.... Do you think a "standard" $100 LED setup would cost about the same to operate/year on average?

 

[red tiger]

Quote:
Originally Posted by AlanJess http:///t/392838/new-29-gal#post_3492885
Ok... That is a serious price difference! Definitely can't justify the $250 initial cost atm tho.... Do you think a "standard" $100 LED setup would cost about the same to operate/year on average?
What do you mean by "standard"?
As in like Marineland Double Bright LED, not enough PAR for corals to survive, they are more of accent illumination for freshwater and plants.

 

[jacobsdad09]

The problem w LEDs is if you go to cheap they are prone to random LEDs burning out. Also the ballast on most blow before the lights. For 8 months I'd say just go cheap till u make a final tank choice then go w LEDs. That and the LEDs aren't really must haves for your current coral

 

[alanjess]

Great advice guys...Thx!

 

[alanjess]

My gf bought a light for the aquarium on my birthday back in October. . T5. It has helped things out a LOT! Everything in the tank is doing much better, and we have added a number of animals. Time for pics!

 

[alanjess]

Ok... I've been wanting a pair of clowns since 2008. Due to unreal circumstances and "life", the clown purchase has not happened. Until yesterday!! My gf and I determined that our tank was stable enough to add another fish or two. Fortunately for me, she is also a fan of clowns. While at our favorite lfs, we discussed clowns with the owner. We were a little unsure if our 29 gal tank was really large enough to add a couple of clowns since it already housed a goby and blenny. The owner stated that it should be just fine, and we felt ok about the purchase especially considering we will be moving everything to a larger tank in about 6 months or so. There was a tank of small tank raised ocellaris, and the owner scooped out a couple which seemed to be swimming together quite often. We would LOVE to have them eventually mate, so were very happy that they are already "friends". Here are my questions!
1) They are both the same size, and probably male, I guess. How old "in general" would 1.5" clowns be?
2) Are these guys going to destroy my frogspawn? I don't have an anenome, so I imagine it's the most likely candidate in the tank for them to garner an interest. I've read a lot of articles about that possible relationship. It seems like its about a 50/50 proposition if that relationship will end well.
3) The tank is pretty full of coral now.. Am tempted to get a BTA for them so the frogspawn has a higher probablity of not getting beaten up, but am not sure if that is a wise move, especially since these tank raised guys might end up not wanting a host anyway...I wouldn't want to jeapoardize the existing inhabitants on the "chance" of them using a BTA as a host..
Thoughts/suggestions?

 

[jacobsdad09]

I would just hold off on the bta..... If they make a mess u will be up set and there's no 100% they will host or that they will pick the frogspawn..... I had a clown host my Xenia so getting a bta is not really a must have and for a newb it's a headache to make sure u can keep up w it's demands