Hey fellow reefers, first off - thank you all for helping out on my numerous questions on setting up the tank. And I've been reading and learning a ton from the posts on this site, so far everything's going all right, so posting an update on my first reef tank.
The tank is a Fluval flex 32g for freshwater where I kept some cherry shrimps and guppies, I've converted it the a marine tank by adding an additional Fluval Marine 3.0 LED , updated return pump and kept the original LED and the stock foam filters. It's now cycled for 2 weeks.
Here's a lowdown of the stuff in the tank (most stuff ordered from saltwateraquarium.com):
Next steps and questions:
Got a 10g Aqueon tank kit from Petco and setup a QT tank, now there are 2 Bangai cardinalfish and a Royal gramma in there, going through a 14-day Coppersafe treatment. They refused to eat, until I tossed in some frozen mysis . I've been following the procedures from @Brew12 's post , pretty easy to follow.
Some hitchhikers from the live rocks that I kept separately outside the main tank (a eunicid worm (bobbit worm??) and gorilla crabs, and a (maybe) horse conch:
The tank is a Fluval flex 32g for freshwater where I kept some cherry shrimps and guppies, I've converted it the a marine tank by adding an additional Fluval Marine 3.0 LED , updated return pump and kept the original LED and the stock foam filters. It's now cycled for 2 weeks.
Here's a lowdown of the stuff in the tank (most stuff ordered from saltwateraquarium.com):
- 15 lbs of live rocks + 10 lbs of shelf rocks from KP aquatics, the rocks were shipped under water by UPS overnight, came with tons of lifes and hitchhikers, I've posted more details here
- 20 lbs of Caribsea Arag-alive special grade sand from petco
- Fluval Marine 3.0 LED + fluval Aquasky LED (stock from the fluval flex 32 freshwater kit)
- Sicce return pump 251 gph
- Tunze 9001 protein skimmer (haven't put in use yet - still undecided if it's useful)
- Fritz RPM redline salt
- 2 eflux power heads (1050 gph)
- Old heater that I was using in freshwater tank
- biomax, stock carbon, chemipure elite and purigen in the form filters
- Setting up a QT tank is actually really easy (and relatively cheap), I got a tank kit from Petco and followed the procedure here, you can also do the QT while the main tank is being cycled since the QT can take 2-4 weeks
- I had no idea the eflux power head needs a controller hub to operate, make sure you get the full kit
- I was planning to add fish and CUC before I add sands, everyone told me that's a bad idea
- There's a facebook group for Fluval 32g reef tank owners , there are bunch of useful info, such as LED setting or intank media filters
- Make sure you get help ID the hitchhikers if you get live rocks - I'm glad I'm separating out some 'bad' critters (see below)
Next steps and questions:
- Wait until the first batch of fish to go through QT and stock more (on my wish list: yellow watchman goby + pistol shrimp, 2 black & white clowns, azure damsel)
- Question: should I use protein skimmer? or put some chaeto in a media basket? or both?
- Getting some CUC next week from reefcleaners (I've read mixed suggestions whether to QT the CUC, my plan is to take some small risks and just drop them in DT while it's still fishless)
- Any suggestions on a begineer friendly first coral or anemone that goes along with clowns?
Got a 10g Aqueon tank kit from Petco and setup a QT tank, now there are 2 Bangai cardinalfish and a Royal gramma in there, going through a 14-day Coppersafe treatment. They refused to eat, until I tossed in some frozen mysis . I've been following the procedures from @Brew12 's post , pretty easy to follow.
Some hitchhikers from the live rocks that I kept separately outside the main tank (a eunicid worm (bobbit worm??) and gorilla crabs, and a (maybe) horse conch:
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