DraconemDominus
New Member
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2025
- Messages
- 18
- Reaction score
- 13
Account is new, but I've been lurking on R2R for years now ever since I first realized that saltwater tanks are also an option (my twelve-year-old self immediately freaked out and wanted to go out and get a clownfish and anemone right then and there lol). I've kept freshwater tanks of many sizes, currently have a 5gal, 10gal, and 55gal up and running for various fellows (angels and gourami alongside a ~6" tire track eel in the 55, idc what people say when they're happy they're out and about all the time begging for food and investigating fellow tankmates; lone betta in the 5gal, and the 10gal has a betta, pea puffer, and a random guppy fry who hitched a ride in a bag of ghost shrimp sacrificed at the alter of my gluttonous puff; all fully planted, can get away with only topping off the water and occasional dosing for plants.)
I chose the path of pain with my first tank during my third year of college... started with a 10gal column T^T
Part of my issue was trying to treat saltwater the same as freshwater, I think. I've come to realize that the two are very different in terms of tolerance, and I think the biggest part of that actually involves salinity and the need to top off daily when I'm used to letting waterlines drop an inch before I get my butt in gear to top off.
That system is still running (perhaps limping?) along with my single ocellaris, five types of zoas, two hammers, and fiveish hermits (blue and red leg assortment), alongside a single faithful nassarius snail. One of my hammers arrived with some friends (I hadn't realized the importance of coral dipping even if I don't immediately see anything), and now I have some strange Other Snails that seem to be helping with the algae a bit. Suppose it's great that nothing too malicious has gotten into the tank despite my apparent best efforts to neglect good practices... Anyways, the clown is a happy fellow, one of the zoas (i think a vampire slayer?) is thriving while the others stay rather smallish despite near identical placement and thus light/flow, the green hammer is chilling but my blue is unhappy, and I've decided I need to upgrade for ease of maintenance (and to open up some options for future stock).
Anyways, the cube! My LFS was having a 50% off sale right after I missed another one having a great sale a week prior (and was still cursing myself for missing it), which brought the price of the 20.5" cube with glass top down to the equivalent of dirt cheap and I snapped it up. Got a marineland penguin HOB for it and one of those airline-powered HOB breeding boxes from fluval to use as a refugium for chaeto and pods, have 60lbs of sand waiting in the wings, and have 40lbs of rock on the way. Sad news is, I can't really set anything up right now as I am replacing some very nasty health-hazardous carpet with less hazardous and easier to maintain flooring and must impatiently watch a tank with three bags of sand and air languish... hopefully the floor will be finished (or at least finished enough in the spot I plan to install) by the weekend and I can get everything up and running. Have an ATO on the way, gonna grab a 5gal bucket to stick under the "stand" (ancient and sturdy wooden end table I shamelessly stole from my mother as it has the perfect dimensions) to make maintenance easier. Not using anything from the 10gal because I don't want to introduce the algae, so fishless cycle with bottled bacteria, live sand, and cycled aquarium water it is. I'll dose ammonia and watch for the spikes and declines, and with any luck it'll be cycled in a week or two max!
Lawd the rambling. Completely uninteresting without the addition of pictures, but alas, I have none to offer.
On to the questions I'd appreciate advice for:
1. Coralline algae... how do I "let it grow," so to speak? I've seen some apparently bottled varieties for sale on amazon that some reviews praise, and I've found actual bits of it for sale too that can be used to seed rock, but is there any kind of "best method" that doesn't necessarily involve the risk of introducing live rock from another aquarium alongside everything else on it? If that's really best practice, I guess I'll suck it up, but I'm trying to keep ahead of the other algae before the tank has water, lol.
2. Any interesting stocking suggestions for a 35gal? I mostly come across nano suggestions for 10 or 20gal (which of course work), or suggestions for 55gal+, hard to find what I'm working with (or maybe I've been looking in the wrong place?) I saw one person mention they have a dwarf angel, a flame angel I believe, in a 30-40gal, which would honestly make my day if it's feasible. I fell in love with flame angels watching Tanked (the show that made me realize saltwater tanks weren't just for huge state aquariums lol). A coral beauty would also be awesome, I just love the little angels. I do understand they're a risk with corals, but does feeding them well mitigate the risk or is it really down to trial by fire? Follow-up, my LFS has a snowflake moray, about 6-8" I believe, that's been sitting in their 20gal-ish tank for about two months now... how long could I comfortably house him in a 35gal before needing to upgrade? Alongside flame angels, morays have always been a favorite of mine so it would be a dream come true to have a little slinky buddy. Also, any alternatives for flame or coral beauties would be appreciated if the risk to corals ends up being too high to stomach. Honestly I don't have much of a plan for stocking aside from getting my clown a friend and perhaps a goby or blenny of some sort (such silly fellas, love their behavior). Open to pretty much any ideas! (Just let me down easy if anything I propose is unrealistic...)
Okay, longest first post ever is drawing to a close, I sincerely apologize if you've made it this far. I'll update when the floors are in and the tank is being put together, likely ask opinions on rockscape. Thank you for wading through my nonsense!
Here's my pigeon Gideon "enthusiastically" "bathing" outside as compensation for your time. He likes hanging out with me when I'm messing with tanks, but apparently prefers to live vicariously rather than hands-on, or feet-on I guess lol.
I chose the path of pain with my first tank during my third year of college... started with a 10gal column T^T
Part of my issue was trying to treat saltwater the same as freshwater, I think. I've come to realize that the two are very different in terms of tolerance, and I think the biggest part of that actually involves salinity and the need to top off daily when I'm used to letting waterlines drop an inch before I get my butt in gear to top off.
That system is still running (perhaps limping?) along with my single ocellaris, five types of zoas, two hammers, and fiveish hermits (blue and red leg assortment), alongside a single faithful nassarius snail. One of my hammers arrived with some friends (I hadn't realized the importance of coral dipping even if I don't immediately see anything), and now I have some strange Other Snails that seem to be helping with the algae a bit. Suppose it's great that nothing too malicious has gotten into the tank despite my apparent best efforts to neglect good practices... Anyways, the clown is a happy fellow, one of the zoas (i think a vampire slayer?) is thriving while the others stay rather smallish despite near identical placement and thus light/flow, the green hammer is chilling but my blue is unhappy, and I've decided I need to upgrade for ease of maintenance (and to open up some options for future stock).
Anyways, the cube! My LFS was having a 50% off sale right after I missed another one having a great sale a week prior (and was still cursing myself for missing it), which brought the price of the 20.5" cube with glass top down to the equivalent of dirt cheap and I snapped it up. Got a marineland penguin HOB for it and one of those airline-powered HOB breeding boxes from fluval to use as a refugium for chaeto and pods, have 60lbs of sand waiting in the wings, and have 40lbs of rock on the way. Sad news is, I can't really set anything up right now as I am replacing some very nasty health-hazardous carpet with less hazardous and easier to maintain flooring and must impatiently watch a tank with three bags of sand and air languish... hopefully the floor will be finished (or at least finished enough in the spot I plan to install) by the weekend and I can get everything up and running. Have an ATO on the way, gonna grab a 5gal bucket to stick under the "stand" (ancient and sturdy wooden end table I shamelessly stole from my mother as it has the perfect dimensions) to make maintenance easier. Not using anything from the 10gal because I don't want to introduce the algae, so fishless cycle with bottled bacteria, live sand, and cycled aquarium water it is. I'll dose ammonia and watch for the spikes and declines, and with any luck it'll be cycled in a week or two max!
Lawd the rambling. Completely uninteresting without the addition of pictures, but alas, I have none to offer.
On to the questions I'd appreciate advice for:
1. Coralline algae... how do I "let it grow," so to speak? I've seen some apparently bottled varieties for sale on amazon that some reviews praise, and I've found actual bits of it for sale too that can be used to seed rock, but is there any kind of "best method" that doesn't necessarily involve the risk of introducing live rock from another aquarium alongside everything else on it? If that's really best practice, I guess I'll suck it up, but I'm trying to keep ahead of the other algae before the tank has water, lol.
2. Any interesting stocking suggestions for a 35gal? I mostly come across nano suggestions for 10 or 20gal (which of course work), or suggestions for 55gal+, hard to find what I'm working with (or maybe I've been looking in the wrong place?) I saw one person mention they have a dwarf angel, a flame angel I believe, in a 30-40gal, which would honestly make my day if it's feasible. I fell in love with flame angels watching Tanked (the show that made me realize saltwater tanks weren't just for huge state aquariums lol). A coral beauty would also be awesome, I just love the little angels. I do understand they're a risk with corals, but does feeding them well mitigate the risk or is it really down to trial by fire? Follow-up, my LFS has a snowflake moray, about 6-8" I believe, that's been sitting in their 20gal-ish tank for about two months now... how long could I comfortably house him in a 35gal before needing to upgrade? Alongside flame angels, morays have always been a favorite of mine so it would be a dream come true to have a little slinky buddy. Also, any alternatives for flame or coral beauties would be appreciated if the risk to corals ends up being too high to stomach. Honestly I don't have much of a plan for stocking aside from getting my clown a friend and perhaps a goby or blenny of some sort (such silly fellas, love their behavior). Open to pretty much any ideas! (Just let me down easy if anything I propose is unrealistic...)
Okay, longest first post ever is drawing to a close, I sincerely apologize if you've made it this far. I'll update when the floors are in and the tank is being put together, likely ask opinions on rockscape. Thank you for wading through my nonsense!
Here's my pigeon Gideon "enthusiastically" "bathing" outside as compensation for your time. He likes hanging out with me when I'm messing with tanks, but apparently prefers to live vicariously rather than hands-on, or feet-on I guess lol.
