New 29 Gallon Aquarium

[cliffrouse11bas]

have a 29 gallon currently cycling. I am planning on having about 25-30 pounds of live rock. I will be planning on having a reef tank with low light corals starting out. I want to know what you think of these stocking ideas and please give suggestions, also.
1 cleaner shrimp
10 turbo snails
2 percula clownfish
1 flame angel
10 scarlet hermits
1 bicolor blenny
Also please give me some suggestions on to what kind of corals i could put in there. I have a custom sealife 65 watt smartlite. When should I add a protein skimmer and what kind? I am choosing between a seaclone or a prizm skimmer. I am using a penguin bio-wheel 330 for filtration. Please give suggestions.
Cliff Rouse

 

[joebuckmaster]

Sounds good, I also have a 29 gal , I have two perc., 2 cleaner shrimp; 1 peppermint shrimp; 1 coral banded shrimp; 1 emerald crab about 12 snails; 15 blue legs;40 lbs of lr; 30- 40 lbs of ls; 1 lobster; bio-wheel 170 for filtration' a power head : and about 95 watts of lights. I keep shrooms; finger leather , and a anemone.

 

[cliffrouse11bas]

Do you think I will have enough light to keep some corals. I know I dont have enough to keep an anenome. Is there any cheep way I can add some light to what I already have??

 

[cliffrouse11bas]

Someone please help!!

 

[tru conch]

i would stick to 'shrooms, button polyps, maybe some leathers. i would not get any lps/sps corals however.
make sure that you get a 50/50 bulb, one with a 10000k side and an acintic side to it.
you also might want to remove the bio wheel off of your filter. some people have had problems with high nitrates b/c of them.
hth.

 

[jonthefb]

i would reccommend maybe getign another of the 65 watt smart lite thingd from csl. i have 2 65 w pc's on my twenty and can keep a wide range of stuff. your stocking list looks good, although i might bump up your clean up crew. its a good rule of thumb to do one cleanup critter per gallon of water. i would also reccommend doing a mix of snails, not just turbos. get some cerith snails soem trochus soe turbos and maybe a florida fighting conch. then do the same with the hermits. szome scarlet reef hermits and some blue legs. this will give you a wide array of cleaners for a wide variety of algaes!
as for corals, i really wouldnt stick any in there with only 65w of light. try to get another 65w smart lite if not 2 more. you cna never have too much light in this hobby, and since most of the corals we keep are photosynthetic, it is very important to provide the right, quality light source for them. once you get some more light you can start off with mushrooms, zooanthid polyps, and maybe some leathers.
good luck
jon

 

[cliffrouse11bas]

Thanks,
Can someone tell me the kind of supplements I need to buy to put calcium in the water and to keep the ph up. I have crushed ccoral as my gravel right now. I know I need a test kit, but what other supplements are needed for the proper growth of corals.

 

[jonthefb]

get these test kits: ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, pH, Calcium , and Alkalinity
i would get a nice two part system, one that manages calcium and alkalinity. there are a ton out there on the market. i personally use seacehems, reef plus which raises calcium, and reef carbonate which raises carbonate. both of these elements have the tendency to naturally declline in a tnak and the ocean, and these are the components which hard corals use to build there skeletons.
iodine is another issue. i add it cause i have huge numbers of xenias and shrooms, and to help my inverts, but it is not necessary and you get enough for what you need in regular water changes.
i personally feel that lighting and water quality are the two keys to this hobby. if you skimp on either, you will always have problems. get yourself a set of decent test kits and a two part calcium supplement and some more light and you will be at the start to a nice little piece of the ocean
just a side q, any particular reason you went with cc instead of a dsb? how long has your tank been set up? if its young you might look into switching the cc out to a dsb, because cc, tends to become a nitrate factory over time. if you dont have anyhting in there now, it would be really easy to do, you just might have to wait to add fish and corals to it until a little later!
good luck
jon

 

[cliffrouse11bas]

I have nothing in there now. No FISH, No Rock. Just the crushed coral. Is there a way I could take it out. I always have heard that sand could clog up the filter. Is this true. Everybody I have talked to said that sand is the way to go. It looks as if i need to swith my substrate don't it. Thanks for the advice. What kind of sand is the best??

 

[jonthefb]

what kind of filter do you have? and if you will be gettign a protein skimmer, you dont need to worry about it. the only time sand ever gets disturbed is if you have a fish that moves it around or if a power head falls and blows it around. sinc ethe cc is all youve got in there i would pull it and put sand in instead. what size tank do you hve? here is the formula for how many pound of sand you will need
Length of tank in inches X Width of tank in inches X desired sandbed depth in inches X .0579 = pounds of sand needed.
a 4-6 inch dsb is a nice deep sandbed that will develop an aerobic and anaerobic layer for proper filtration. you want a very fine sand for this. it is usually sugar sized, or sometimes called oolitic. if you need a lot get several dry bags,a dn then several pounds of truly live sand from your lfs or this site. the couple pound of live will "seed" the dry and will begin the process of turnign it all live
good luck
jon

 

[cliffrouse11bas]

By my calculations that would mean i would need around 83 pounds of sand. That just seems like to much. I know nothing about sand did I do the calculations right. I have a 29 gallon aquarium. 30 by 12. I have a penguin bio wheel 330 filter. Also, what kind of protein skimmer should I get for under 100 dollars or maybe a little more?

 

[jonthefb]

how deep do you want your sandbed?

 

[cliffrouse11bas]

4 or 5 inches

 

[josh]

Hey Cliff,
I also have a 29 gallon. I used 100lbs. of southdown to get my bed up to around 5-6". It is a bit much, but 83lbs. sound just about right for a 4" bed.

 

[jonthefb]

yeah that should be exactly right!
good luck
jon

 

[jumpfrog]

Just jumpin' in here. Everything sounds good except for maybe the flame angel. That would make a great addition, but you may want to wait a while before adding. Your water conditions are going to be maturing for a while. Angels, even flames, do best with more stable/mature water.
Good Luck! And, let us know how it progresses.

 

[gregzbobo]

When I had a 29 gallon salt tank (my first) I put a Seaclone 100 skimmer on it. Runs fair when stock, but after you run it a while, you might get the urge to modify it like I eventually did to make it run a bit better. Here is the link to how to do it:
http://www.reefcentral.com/diy/seacl...ifications.htm
The seaclone btw is around 70-80 bucks online and comes with all the parts and the pump you need. I'm using my seaclone on my 65 right now, and its pulling SOME gunk out, but not much, since the 65 is still pretty new with no real bioload in it yet. Good luck with your new tank. BTW, I have heard that the CPR bak-pak 2 skimmers are fairly good units as well, and they are usually around 100-130 bucks online if I am not mistaken.

 

[cliffrouse11bas]

Thanks
I was planning on having my tank going for a while before adding the fire angel. Southdown sand. Can I ask what that is and whats the price on average.. Has anyone used the prizm skimmers??

 

[josh]

Southdown run 3.50 for a 50lbs bag, if you can find it though.
I would stay away from the prism, look into either a bakpak or a remora.