Starting a 29 gal Reef

iluvmelabdogs

iluvmelabdogs

New Member
Ok, my sweet hubby purchased me a 29 gal tank that had its own set up.. Hang on filter and I had a second hand Seaclone *yeh I know), skimmer. Have placed about 35 lbs of black live sand inside, water is cycling.
 
Skimmer is being replaced with the one that is for the biocube 29 gallon. I have no sump or refuge. Am going to make one out of the old seaclone with rubble and some plants. May lower the pump on it to vary the flow. Will have copepods in it as well. There is a person who has done this on the web. Go here...>http://www.wetwebmedia.com/seacloneskimfaqs.htm to check it out.
 
I have pics of the set up as well. The hood has only 1 light fixture in it, and came with a reg coralife lamp. What should I buy for a reef to go in the one slot. I also have some leds on the way from ebay for moonlight. I believe they are white? Any suggestions?
 
Also, I plan to have live rock in there ASAP since I just started the cycle *havent place shrimp in yet) We are doing this slowly due to prices.
 
Husband wants, green mandarin, and lots of colorful fish/corals.
I will be happy with a Maroon Clown and his own anemone.. Please suggest fish.. I have had 3 fish only tanks before. sold em and miss them terribly, so hubby got this for me.
 
Lara
 
mrdc

mrdc

Active Member
The maroon may not be a good choice. The tank size may be just big enough for one but he could limit what else you put in since they can get very aggressive. Also you need to consider your light setup when it comes to an anemone. I wouldn't go with a mandarin since they are such picky eaters and primarity feed on copepods which usually require a very mature tank with lots of rock.
 
I personally love blennies, wrasses, gobies, firefish ... there are a lot to choose from.
 
 
Well I went back and saw that you mentioned copepods. Still not sure if it will work for the mandarin. Maybe someone else can check in on that one.
 
iluvmelabdogs

iluvmelabdogs

New Member
Thank you for your suggestions. I hate to not have that pretty mandarin " ) .. but if I cant provide wat it needs then we will get some of the ones you have suggested.. The guy who had remade the bad skimmer into a refuge says he watches copeopods flow into the tank from it all the time. So it may be able to support one...??? I loved the idea to change the skimmer into a refuge! I may be able tho to talk my hubby into making a refuge under it.. I like the idea of having an extra place to put snails and copes!
 
Wat light would I need for the one slot? or am I going to have to get another light fixture?
 
mrdc

mrdc

Active Member
Not sure what you can put there. If you want to expand the range of coral you get, I suggest looking at some sort of halide or T5 unit. I don’t have a clear picture of what sort of fixture you already have. When you say coralife, do you mean something like a 10k daylight lamp?
 
mrdc

mrdc

Active Member
I think that might be more of a freshwater light unit or maybe for a saltwater fish only. I'm no expert when it comes to light units.
 
iluvmelabdogs

iluvmelabdogs

New Member
oh ok.. I did a search and it seems everyone talking about it on google is freshwater people. I guess that you are correct. They say it is still not enough for planted fresh water systems. I guess it will need to be changed to a T5. I just need to know if the one light hood that came with it, will in fact be able to use a T5 and if one will be enough for live rock and the simple, easy fish I want to get. I want a few soft corals that are easy care. I know its a hard question.. LOL!
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
if you want only 1 light and a t5 at that, you might look into the nonphoto corals. Then again, there are things on the LR that will need light too. As I have learned, buy nice or buy twice. That comes from everything, be it SW fish, FW fish, Appliances, Electronics, matresses, tires, ectera. I would imagine that you might be able to get some corals under a single T5VHO light, maybe.
 
iluvmelabdogs

iluvmelabdogs

New Member
Thanks for the nice responses. I know its pushing it.. May have to wait a while on the corals then and just focus on the FOWLR. Ill still get a T5 for the rock and the health of the fish. I have had 3 FO tanks before and they did great! So, until I get the right stuff I will go slow. Its much better that way..
 
Ok, with that said...What do I need to get in way of a 29 gallon for inverts. I ordered a reef buffer since the black sand says to. Im planning to add 25 to 30 lbs of live rock. Oh, can I get feather dusters?? Or is that off limits with low light?
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
you might get lucky and have a few dusters on the rocks already. As far as i know, these things are filter feeders and dont depend too much on light at all. But then again, I am prolly wrong and someone will be along to correct me.
 
iluvmelabdogs

iluvmelabdogs

New Member
Ok, we went to the LFS today. I know my husband & I had decided to have a FOWLR. But husband seen all the purdy colours of everything and said we definately are going to do a reef. So, we got some REALLLY nice live rock.. Very porous, non dense with lots of edges, has some color already sortof and some alive looking lil red-orange things growing. It has been placed in the aquarium as lovely as it could be. My husband really has gotten involved in this. I bought some live rock rubble to place in my seaclone skimmer, converting it to a refuge. Also got a powerhead to move the water more. Now we are waiting out the cycle and when that is done, the LFS is going to put together our T-5 lights to fit the tank, a small light for some salt water plant in the refuge, snails, crabs, feather dusters, anemone, wraisse, and clownfish to start with.. We are going very slow at first. Then when that is all settled we will plan for some very easy corals. Wat think ye? I will be posting the pics.
 
Lara
 

 
 

 

 

 

 
Here is the seaclone, airline is off the pump and so only water is being pumped into the unit. I will place a light when I get some Chaeto and will place it above the rock. I will remove a little less than half the rock to put the plant in. But right now, while it is cycling, we and the LFS, felt it was something we can wait on for now.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Looks like a decent start.....you do know that you should not add an anemone until your tank is at a minimum of 6 months old and very stable....
 
iluvmelabdogs

iluvmelabdogs

New Member
Ok, thought I would give a run down on my tank after about 9 months.
First of all, we have lived and learned hard lessons but overall its been very successful. We went through an anemone, mandarin, and lawnmower, 1 turbo snail, a chinese star snail so far.
The fish I that are doing great for us are our 2 False Percula clowns, a royal gamma, and Chromis.
We moved in December and lost the where abouts of my lil feather duster.. Turned up about 2 months later just fine behind our rock.
Got bunches of blue leg hermies, a couple scarlets accidentally thrown in with em. Had to exchange a huge hermit crab for an electric blue one due to it tryin to kill off my huge turbo snails because he was wanting their shells.. I do believe he killed one of them since I seen him stabbing at it before it died. We have a cleaner shrimp now and I cant seem to find the peppermint shrimp anymore?!
As for corals, I started with red mushrooms, and got a Galaxy ..of which the LFS couldnt remember what it was and thought it was a torch!?
They also didnt know what the purple coral was I have, and thought it was a glass coral!! o_O? It looks more like a flowerpot or something similar.
I also got a couple True blue mushrooms and just put in some green zoos.
I bet you would like pictures!
Oh and my lighting is 2 T5's (1 blue actinic, 1 white) Also got moon LED's 18 light strip from off EBAY!! Very affordable too!
Been battling the green hair algae and sometimes the diatom blooms.. Got a phospate absorber placed it in the refuge above some chaeto.. That is the light on the left side. Been contemplating adding a black background on there cause of the light for the chaeto.
Purple coraline is growing nice. Stupid me overdosed some iodide this week and rushed to so 2 water changes and the corals are coming back out now. TIP: Never try to do a quick dose at 1 am just before bed with the room light off. I thought I was pooring the magnesium in the inner cap area! Thank God, I havent lost anything over it.. wat ah dufus!


The zoos that I just got under my moon LEDs!

Anyone got a ID on this?

The Galaxy coral

Lara
 
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