First Saltwater Tank

t.mehoves · Feb 12, 2024

This is my first Saltwater Tank, after having 6 Freshwater Tanks. My apologies in advance, because I do not have the patience to wait on things like I should. I started the tank 11/22/23 and started adding a wet rock from LFS every week while dosing Stability every day. The week before Christmas (a month after starting) is when I added my first fish (Goby) and Coral (Toadstool). I dose with Safe until cycled, and check parameters pretty often up to a certain point. Then it becomes as I feel needed but at least every couple days in most instances. I read & read here pretty regularly after stumbling upon this site sometime after I got the tank. It's a 75g Marineland that I got for $300 that included an FX4, Light, Heater, Stand, UV.

At some point, it will be upgraded to a 125g (currently freshwater, combining tanks at the moment) or maybe a new tank with sump (preferred). Skimmer does not have cup since running 2nd dose of Prazipro, so there is bubbles everywhere. Thought I had a case of flukes, but starting to think the foxface just likes to look like a cow and hide. Also, think the Purple Tang may just need some ADHD medicine.

Current Equipment:
Marineland 75g
Fluval FX4
Fluval 407
Fluval UV (connected to 407)
Octo Classic 100-HOB Skimmer
AQUA Heater w/ Monitor
Fluval Marine 3.0 59W Light
Hydros Wave Engine LE
(2) Icecap Gyre 4k

Currently stocked:
Yellow Watchman Goby
Pistol Shrimp (paired with Goby)
Green Emerald Crab
Lawnmower Blenny
Fire Shrimp
Hybrid Storm Clownfish
Foxface Rabbitfish
Purple Tang
6 Line Wrasse

Toadstool
Green Tooth
Green Star
Green Torch
Frogspawn (sold as that anyways)
Kenya Tree

Gumbies R Us · Feb 13, 2024

Following along!

sfin52 · Apr 8, 2024

t.mehoves said:
This is my first Saltwater Tank, after having 6 Freshwater Tanks. My apologies in advance, because I do not have the patience to wait on things like I should. I started the tank 11/22/23 and started adding a wet rock from LFS every week while dosing Stability every day. The week before Christmas (a month after starting) is when I added my first fish (Goby) and Coral (Toadstool). I dose with Safe until cycled, and check parameters pretty often up to a certain point. Then it becomes as I feel needed but at least every couple days in most instances. I read & read here pretty regularly after stumbling upon this site sometime after I got the tank. It's a 75g Marineland that I got for $300 that included an FX4, Light, Heater, Stand, UV.

At some point, it will be upgraded to a 125g (currently freshwater, combining tanks at the moment) or maybe a new tank with sump (preferred). Skimmer does not have cup since running 2nd dose of Prazipro, so there is bubbles everywhere. Thought I had a case of flukes, but starting to think the foxface just likes to look like a cow and hide. Also, think the Purple Tang may just need some ADHD medicine.

Current Equipment:
Marineland 75g
Fluval FX4
Fluval 407
Fluval UV (connected to 407)
Octo Classic 100-HOB Skimmer
AQUA Heater w/ Monitor
Fluval Marine 3.0 59W Light
Hydros Wave Engine LE
(2) Icecap Gyre 4k

Currently stocked:
Yellow Watchman Goby
Pistol Shrimp (paired with Goby)
Green Emerald Crab
Lawnmower Blenny
Fire Shrimp
Hybrid Storm Clownfish
Foxface Rabbitfish
Purple Tang
6 Line Wrasse

Toadstool
Green Tooth
Green Star
Green Torch
Frogspawn (sold as that anyways)
Kenya Tree

Any updates

kevgib67 · Apr 8, 2024

Off to a great start! Did you upgrade to the 125g?

t.mehoves · Apr 13, 2024

I inherited my non-future ex-son-laws 125g when he was kicked out. I moved my purple tang to that tank when this happened (a little over a month ago). I added a coral beauty, tiger conch snail, sand-sifting starfish, and 3 bumblebee snails to the 75g tank.

The 125g is the Marineland tank/stand combo sold at PetSmart. Before acquiring it, he installed an FX6 with my Uniclife 2100GPH and Uniclife 1058GPH Power Heads. He only had a maroon clownfish, sand-sifting starfish, and some (very little) live rock. Yesterday the plan was to go to the nearest fish store (1.5 hrs away) and get a Picasso triggerfish for it, but the wife liked the powder blue tang. So as of today, there is a maroon clownfish, sand-sifting starfish, purple tang, and powder blue tang. There was some tail whipping from my purple, so I turned the lights off and put a mirror. This morning when I turned the blue light on (so I could see), the purple went to start with him, but this time the PBT tail whipped back so the purple seems to be staying at a safe distance now. I know the Tang police will come to arrest me, but I am monitoring them. I was going to move the Purple back to the 75g but on the drive back decided to at least try it.

Also, made a noob mistake right after moving the Purple. The Pistol Shrimp was tunneling enough to make the rockwork lean over potentially causing it to topple over. I figured it was time to add some more rock as well as fix that issue. I couldn't simply just put the arches on the bottom glass, because there would be nothing left of an arch above the sand. I glued frag rock to every piece in a way where the pistol shrimp could utilize it for the tunnel as well as being above the sand enough to be an arch. I kept it moist trying to preserve the bacteria as much as possible but that was not enough. The tank crashed with ammonia spikes but I was already on it with SeaChem Safe so I didn't lose anything. I then had Green Algae and was so clumpy that it was impossible to vacuum up as it was like a carpet. This is when I added the conch snail and starfish to help and kept dosing live bacteria and phytoplankton. Last week I was able to vacuum enough up (losing a bit of sand) and now it seems to be reseding off the live rock easing myself of frustration. Parameters are much more stable than it was a few weeks ago, so lesson learned. I'll probably add 2 more arches at some point but now I can focus on adding more rock, etc on 125g.