Updates on new SW tank

woodymdt

Member

Originally posted by whaa...?
i been following this forum for a while so u post some pics of ur tank i wanna see how its coming along

Thanks for following the thread. The most recent picture is on page nine...which was taken 5 days ago.
Not much has changed since then except I've ripped out some of the hair algae.
When we get back from the tournament today, I'll rip out some more, and probably take a razor to some of the glass covering algae.
Of course we'll stop by an LFS on our way back this afternoon...who knows, might pick up some new critters!!!
:jumping:
 

woodymdt

Member
well thanks bunches Dan...looks really good!
So we went by an LFS today, and yeah brought a few things home.
We had to get some crab shells cause a few are growing out of theirs, so hopefully they'll fing the empties and leave the snails alone.
We also got another emerald crab since ours went belly up last week.
AND, we got our first fish!!!! A lawnmower blenny! We're hoping he'll help combat the algae we have along with our lowering the lights, and manually pulling some. They're acclimating as we speak, so once that is finished and we introduce them to the tank, we'll try and snap some pictures.
:jumping:
 

woodymdt

Member

Originally posted by hydro
can u please explain ur method of acclimation..?????

what I've been taught, and what I've been doing is this.
Float the bag for 30-45 minutes to let the bag temp get to tank temp.
After that, every 5 minutes I add about 1/4 cup of water into the bag. Do that until the bag gets close to full, then empty the bag to 1/2 filled.
Repeat the adding water every 5 minutes until the bag gets near full again. This has taken up to two hours or more.
After that I net the fish/invert out of the bag and put him in the tank.
 

hydro

Member
thanks woody just trying to see if im doing it right....you do through out the water in the bag when ur done right???????????
 

woodymdt

Member

Originally posted by hydro
thanks woody just trying to see if im doing it right....you do through out the water in the bag when ur done right???????????

Nope, we use it for stir fry............OF COURSE we throw it out........
hehehe...sorry just joking with ya!!!:joy: :joy:
 

woodymdt

Member
Ok, everything looks pretty good so far.
Here are our new residents, and a few of the older ones.
Here's our lawnmower blenny. We've decided to name him Murray!!
 

woodymdt

Member
The Mrs. just reminded me so I have to tell a funny story.
We got home from the bowling tournament and the LFS, had the two bags acclimating.
All of a sudden she screams at me from the bedroom, (I was in the den watching Arkansas vs. Tennessee) that one of our peppermint shrimp was cut in half. MY first thought was..."OH NO"...we have another mantis in the tank...
so I walked in and there were two halves of a shrimp laying on the sand...took me a while to realize but the coloring just wasn't the same as our peppermints.
After she told me that Tusk was behind a rock, it dawned on me that Tusk had molted his shell while we were gone......
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO :hilarious
 

divingdi

Member
Yesterday, I bought my first SW aquarium, and I've read your entire thread, Updates on new SW tank, with great interest. I did a lot wrong yesterday, but thanks to a good shop (I can't recall the acronym for it at the moment) and your posts, I think I can perhaps salvage my aquarium. Actually, I may be headed to a nano reef setup -- I'm not sure what size is nano vs. a regular reef. So here's what I did yesterday (stupidly, before I started reading!):
I purchased a bent glass 12.5 gallon aquarium with compact blue & daylight lighting, a bak-pak2 protein skimmer, a heater, 20 pounds of live sand, and 18 pounds of figi live rock. Sorry -- I just didn't know that I should have waited for the rock. Today, after doing some research I went back and got a second small pump to boost the water movement, and test kits for pH, ammmonia, nitrite, nitrate, and salinity. At this point, I guess I just need to start daily testing and get ready to cycle the system. I hope after a silly start that I can follow Woody's (is that the right name?) good lead and do this right. Ultimately, I'd like to have inverts, corals, and maybe ONE fish, max (maybe a maroon clown). Is that realistic for this system?
Here's a picture of it so far:
 

divingdi

Member
First tests of system:
pH 8.4
Nitrite NO2 0
Ammonia 0.25
Nitrate NO3 20
Salinity 33
Specific Gravity1.0245
So far, so good... :nervous:
 

jacknjill

Active Member
no, you did everything right as far as i can tell. you DO add the rock at the very beginning to kick off the cycle. otherwise, if you add it at the end and its not fully cured, itll kick off another cycle. or you would have to cure it for a couple of weeks in a bucket. so it looks like you are on the right track. did you put a cocktail shrimp in?
 

divingdi

Member
Thanks! I feel better about it!
I Haven't put the shrimp in yet -- I thought I was supposed to wait for a while. I'm still pretty fuzzy on that whole thing, even though I read the thread. How long should it stay in? Is that instead of a damsel or similar to cycle the aquarium?
 
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