FifthOne
New Member
Hi All,
New to R2R as well as saltwater.
Its been many months but my first saltwater tank is finally up and running.
It started months ago during lockdown with a 20 gallon freshwater tank that I set up. I quickly (within a week or so) decided the 20 gallon was too small and went out and purchased a 29. As I was figuring out how to swap over to the 29, I thought maybe I’ll keep the 20 as a freshwater tank and use the 29 for saltwater. I had zero experience with salt and did a bunch of googling/lurking R2R/watching brs videos. I went to Petco one night (I know I know) just to look at the saltwater fish and passed the tank aisle. Well, as I walked down, I decided the 29 was too small and purchased a 40 breeder. I don’t recall what I paid but it was really cheap. 50% off if I remember correctly.
The next purchase I made was 40 lbs of carib sea base rock. I was pretty happy with the variety of size and shape. It honestly only took me about 2 hrs to come up with my basic design. There were some tweaks here and there but the final is not far off from the initial design.
I had the perfect wall to put the tank on but there was currently a china cabinet there and I didn’t want to lose all of the storage, so the next step was to install some base and wall cabinets to replace the china cabinet. It took forever to find a piece of quartzite to match the existing countertop in my kitchen but we eventually did and it came out awesome. I slowly purchased a bunch of other equipment as this process was happening. Eheim heater, rodi filtration unit, “special grade” sand, coral pro salt, AI prime, *cough, canister filter*, etc., etc.
(My first time tiling a backsplash so don't judge all of the plastic spacers)
During this time, I also made two diy covers. One out of window screen and one out of an eggcrate light panel from Lowes. I put the excess eggcrate underneath my rocks so they didn't sit directly on the glass. You can see that in the pic above. Also had an opening cut in the counter for access to the outlet inside the cabinets.
Now that the countertop was in place, I laid out some yoga mat, put the tank in place, waited hours and hours to fill my rubber made garbage can with rodi, and then mixed in the salt to 1.026.
I am not very patient and wanted to add a fish asap. After the sand settled and the water cleared, I dumped in a bottle of bio spira. I then immediately went out and purchased a clownfish. As it was getting acclimated, I also dumped in a bottle of dr. Tim's.
After acclimating the clown over a period of about 45 mins, in it went. This was two days ago. My reading of ammonia and nitrites are both 0 as of today (yesterday as well) and nitrates somewhere between 15-20. The clown seems to have it’s preferred spot in the tank already and has eaten in very small amounts both flake and frozen brine. It seems to like spitting out the brine shrimp more than actually eating at this point but its probably still getting used to the new environment. (Don't mind the Halloween decorations already. My fiancé would keep these up all year if she could...) Also, I am waiting a month or so before adding the lighting, which is why it is not in the pics.
New to R2R as well as saltwater.
Its been many months but my first saltwater tank is finally up and running.
It started months ago during lockdown with a 20 gallon freshwater tank that I set up. I quickly (within a week or so) decided the 20 gallon was too small and went out and purchased a 29. As I was figuring out how to swap over to the 29, I thought maybe I’ll keep the 20 as a freshwater tank and use the 29 for saltwater. I had zero experience with salt and did a bunch of googling/lurking R2R/watching brs videos. I went to Petco one night (I know I know) just to look at the saltwater fish and passed the tank aisle. Well, as I walked down, I decided the 29 was too small and purchased a 40 breeder. I don’t recall what I paid but it was really cheap. 50% off if I remember correctly.
The next purchase I made was 40 lbs of carib sea base rock. I was pretty happy with the variety of size and shape. It honestly only took me about 2 hrs to come up with my basic design. There were some tweaks here and there but the final is not far off from the initial design.
I had the perfect wall to put the tank on but there was currently a china cabinet there and I didn’t want to lose all of the storage, so the next step was to install some base and wall cabinets to replace the china cabinet. It took forever to find a piece of quartzite to match the existing countertop in my kitchen but we eventually did and it came out awesome. I slowly purchased a bunch of other equipment as this process was happening. Eheim heater, rodi filtration unit, “special grade” sand, coral pro salt, AI prime, *cough, canister filter*, etc., etc.
(My first time tiling a backsplash so don't judge all of the plastic spacers)
During this time, I also made two diy covers. One out of window screen and one out of an eggcrate light panel from Lowes. I put the excess eggcrate underneath my rocks so they didn't sit directly on the glass. You can see that in the pic above. Also had an opening cut in the counter for access to the outlet inside the cabinets.
Now that the countertop was in place, I laid out some yoga mat, put the tank in place, waited hours and hours to fill my rubber made garbage can with rodi, and then mixed in the salt to 1.026.
I am not very patient and wanted to add a fish asap. After the sand settled and the water cleared, I dumped in a bottle of bio spira. I then immediately went out and purchased a clownfish. As it was getting acclimated, I also dumped in a bottle of dr. Tim's.
After acclimating the clown over a period of about 45 mins, in it went. This was two days ago. My reading of ammonia and nitrites are both 0 as of today (yesterday as well) and nitrates somewhere between 15-20. The clown seems to have it’s preferred spot in the tank already and has eaten in very small amounts both flake and frozen brine. It seems to like spitting out the brine shrimp more than actually eating at this point but its probably still getting used to the new environment. (Don't mind the Halloween decorations already. My fiancé would keep these up all year if she could...) Also, I am waiting a month or so before adding the lighting, which is why it is not in the pics.
Maybe try a different codec?
