ryberg's 29 Gal (w/pics!)

[ryberg21]

Hello all,
First off, lemme just say "thanks" to all on SW.com. I've been reading the posts pretty intensely for the last couple of weeks. Many, many of my questions have been answered by doing so.
At any rate, my tank is nothing amazing, but I thought I'd just put down on paper, what I've done so far. Mostly so that when I have questions everyone will know what I've got, what I've done and what I want to do.
I have a 29 gallon tank that had some ciclids in it for several years. For some reason a month ago I got the itch to "try out saltwater". While I
Okay, so here's some pics. Here's the tank while I was doing research. It just felt 'better' to have some water in there moving around a bit.

Here's the tank with some live rock, and sand just added:

...and after the dust storm settled:

The live rock had some nice "extras": these brown palys. I assumed that they would just die off in the first couple of days because I don't have any fancy lighting, but they are going strong a couple of weeks later. Now that I compare pictures, their 'arms' seem to have grown longer (which I assume is a good thing).

I finally figured out that the backside of the picture in the back had a saltwater theme...lol. I want to either paint it or put black felt back there, but just haven't gotten around to it.
Anyways, I've got to go tutor for a bit. I'll keep going with the post and the most recent additions when I get back (wife and kids permitting...)

 

[ryberg21]

Okay, so after I got the sand, rock in etc I monitored Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates. It only took a week and a half for the Ammonia and Nitrates to come down to zero (I assume it was so fast 'cause of the live rock)
I started adding a clean up crew. I started with this guy:

I also have added
5 Astrea snails
5 Nass. snails
1 Emerald crab
I let them hang out in the tank for a week or so, and then I added:
1 False Percula Clown:

...and one blue Damselfish:

Things seem to be going very well. It's amazing to me how fun it is to watch the snails/crabs, etc move around. I've seen several really small starfish that came along with the live rock. One of the pieces of the live rock had a sizable sponge on it.
Last week, I got a used CPR Bak-Pak II skimmer for cheap. Right now I'm playing the get-the-skimmer-set-just-right-game. I'm excited for the dark brown sludge to start forming!

 

[sweetheart]

Nice, So when your tank is cycled are you going to get different fish or are you wanting to stay with the percula and the damsel?

 

[prime311]

Originally Posted by Sweetheart
http:///forum/post/2864388
Nice, So when your tank is cycled are you going to get different fish or are you wanting to stay with the percula and the damsel?

His tank is already cycled. He mentioned the cycle was fast because of the live rock. Of course, I am assuming when he says Ammonia and Nitrates down to 0 he meant Ammonia and Nitrites.
Oddly enough I usually am not a big fan of the wallpapers, but it looks pretty good on your tank

 

[ryberg21]

I think for now I'll stay with the percula and the damsel. I'm thinking of adding another percula and crossing my fingers to see if they'll get along. I know it limits what I can get, but I'm not dying to fill the tank (yet!)
Prime: You are right. All of this darn chemistry muddles my brain. NitrAtes have been around 15-20 before I got the skimmer. I'm hoping that the skimmer will bring that down.
About the wallpaper, my wife had a scrap piece of some black felt. I put it behind just to see what it would look like, and I think it'll look good. I'm hoping that it will make the equipment stick out less.
On another topic, the large hermit crab has been 'roughing up' the snails and the smaller hermit crabs. (I forgot to mention that I also have 5 small blue hermit crabs in my cleanup crew). The "big" hermit crab will kind of pick at the smaller HC and snails (esp the Nass. snails). I can't tell if he's just kind of cleaning them off or if he's actually eating them. The whole procedure is pretty distressing to my little girls. They sit there yelling at the big HC and telling me how bad he is. I might take him back to the LFS just so that he doesn't traumatize the kids. Any thoughts: Harmless picking or deadly attacking?

 

[mboswell1982]

get rid of him, it'll be good just for the lack of stress it will cause your lil girls if nothing else

 

[subielover]

Hermit crabs are evil, they will kill snails sometimes just because they can. I do not put them in my tank, only snails for my clean up crew. Are you going to add more live rock, it seems you don't have enough.

 

[ryberg21]

Mboss and Subie: Thanks for the input
Yeah, I plan on getting more. I'd like to have it 2/3 of the way up in two nice 'piles'. J'm just sitting and watching, waiting for the right deal to come up on live rock. Some people are selling 100 lbs and don't want to break it up. I want more, but not that much, lol!
-Ryan

 

[mboswell1982]

if its a good enough price, buy it, and take what u dont use an put it in a rubbermaid container, with a powerhead an water to keep it live, or just let it dry out, and use that for whe u upgrade, cause your gonna upgrade, everyone does, eventually

 

[ryberg21]

Okay, so things are going well. I added another false percula clownfish last night. I'm hoping that they'll get along and become a 'pair'. It's somehow even more fun to see the both of them just kinda milling about the tank.

Okay, so I have two questions. First question is about the protein skimmer. It's a CPR Bak-Pak-II that I bought used. It's been running for a couple of days (maybe 3-4) and is producing bubbles like mad. I'm adjusting the air intake to adjust the amount of bubbles, but I'm not sure that I'm doing it right. My goal has been for the top of the bubbles to be about 3/4 of the way up the bubble tube. Is this the height that I should be trying to maintain, or should the bubbles always be extending above the tube and constantly flowing into the collection cup? Here are some pictures of how it all looks.

I see some grime accumulating on the very top of the tube, and the water that gets into the collection cup is the slightest shade of yellow, so that's encouraging. I'm sure it just takes time for the wonderfully icky skimate to be produced.
Second question: I have a heater which works great, and keeps the temperature consistent, but I can't for the life of me get it to stay stuck to the glass. I've tried cleaning the suction cups, cause they had some algae buildup on them, but that didn't help. I've thought of tying some fishing line to the heater, and then weighting it down with some rock. Any ideas or suggestions? Where it is now (ummm...kinda just floating there...) looks really tacky. Ideally, I'd like to hide it behind (yet to be purchased) live rock.

 

[ryberg21]

Oh, and I forgot to mention. The wife got me a used MH light for Christmas. She bought it and has hidden it away someshere. You may be noticing a pattern with buying used equipment ... it seems like you can get some nice equipment used if you are just patient. At any rate, I'm gonna be super excited come Christmas morning and will definitely be doing some post-Christmas shopping!

 

[spanko]

New suction cups at the LFS are pretty inexpensive. I would try that.