Hi All!!

[RWoodham]

Me and the fiance are new to the saltwater world!! And so far we love it. Except for all these darn water changes!! We have 2 emerald crabs(Thor and Crabby) and a hitchhiker Pistol Shrimp (Pistol Pete) and a Bengali Cardinal (Fishy).. We can't wait to upgrade in a couple of years to a 55 gallon tank, right now we have a 30 gallon and it's just the perfect size for us! I'm glad to be here now! See you around!!!

 

[revhtree]

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[vlangel]

Welcome RWoodham and fiance! A 30g is a great size to start with but with smaller tanks water changes are one of the keys to maintaining stability. With less water volume parameters can change quickly with evaporation and such. Doing 1 or 2 small water changes weekly will help you keep an eye on your salinity and the salt mix helps replenish things that the tank uses up and that helps stabilize PH, alkalinity, calcium and magnesium. It also helps control nitrates by exporting them. With WCs you can keep a very successful reef without being an expert in dosing, and the equipment that one needs to dose. And with a 30g, you can do a 2-3g WC in 15 minutes after you get the hang of it.

 

[RWoodham]

Our salinity has been perfect! The only thing we have noticed is our Nitrites have been jumping we let our tank cycle for 4 weeks and we had the crabs in there before we had the fishy.. and when i did some research, which i already had this page saved (and not thinking to register) and in no time we started to get the hang of it from all the help tips in the forums and what not!! Last night we did a 50% WC and so far everything seems good. i have to do some water tests today but our water is always clear and we have no algae on our live rocks! which i hope can stay that way..

 

[vlangel]

Sounds like you are off to a good start! Take a pic when you get a chance, we love pics!

 

[larangcon]

Welcome, this is a very friendly forum, enjoy

 

[Zero Nitrates]

Welcome!

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

Welcome, looking forward to seeing some pictures of your tank

 

[mike007]

Welcome to r2r!!!!

 

[Reefing Madness]

 

[RWoodham]

Sounds like you are off to a good start! Take a pic when you get a chance, we love pics!

 

[spspirate]

Welcome to REEF2REEF!!!

 

[ethridge78]

Welcome

 

[VB68]

 

[vlangel]

Photogenic crab, you got there! I used to have bangai cardinals, they are a cool fish.

 

[Naiad]

Cute little crab. Welcome! Just curious do you see the pistol shrimp at all? You may want to get an id on him now when the tank is relatively empty because a few species can get large and are not invert friendly. I now have a 5 in one in a fully stocked 120 that loves eating my crabs....

 

[nitro'sreef]

Welcome

 

[Reeftanker]

Welcome and Good Luck!!

 

[RWoodham]

Cute little crab. Welcome! Just curious do you see the pistol shrimp at all? You may want to get an id on him now when the tank is relatively empty because a few species can get large and are not invert friendly. I now have a 5 in one in a fully stocked 120 that loves eating my crabs....

Yes ive seen pistol pete,, he took a snap at my crab the other day over an old piece of algae wafer. and the tank that the live rock that he came out of at our LFS they have pistol shrimp stocked in that tank.. and you can hear him snap his claw. i dont like him.. hes too mean.

 

[RWoodham]

Photogenic crab, you got there! I used to have bangai cardinals, they are a cool fish.

Thor is very photogenic, i thought last night my fishy was dieing, because he wouldnt get off the sand bed. but today when i gave him his breakfast he was just fine.. maybe he was just really sleepy, lol.