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I posted in the beginner's thread but it was suggested that I post here as well.
Always wanted a saltwater setup and the gf decided if we found a great deal we should do that for our anniversary instead of gifts or a weekend trip. No arguments from me.
Found a guy on craigslist going through a nasty divorce. 75 gallon tank, stand, huge canister filter, glass canopies, LED lighting (basic white with blue accents/moon lighting, nothing fancy), etc for $450. Needless to say we jumped on it. Even included a full test kit, salinity refractometer, food, the live sand, live rock (although it does not look at all like the "real reef" rock we've added since), 2 black/white clowns, 2 blue damsels, some hermit crabs, starfish and a sail fin tang (my favorite although I'm aware I'll probably have to get rid of him or upgrade tanks down the road).
We have added a fire shrimp, cleaner shrimp, 2 peppermint shrimp, like 4 emerald crabs, a few more hermits and snails and one diamond goby to shift sand.
I realize we may have over done the additions for a "new" tank. But we did have some already established rock and sand and we filled the tank with water from a LFS here that sells ready to go saltwater. So we chanced it for our first batch. This is the description of how they make up the water if that matters.
Pre softening, pre carbon filtration, deionization and then a 600 gallon saltwater mixing/holding tank.
So assuming we didn't over did and are going to kill everything, I know we should wait awhile to add any more fish. We should be ok adding more clean up crew though right? We have I think 15 of the small hermit crabs, 5 Nassarius snails (sp), 4 emerald crabs, the 4 shrimp and the goby.
Also the guy I got it from thought he was giving me a protein skimmer too but apparently it was just a part of one lol. I'm assuming I need to invest in one of those?
And the goby is our second one actually. The tiger goby committed suicide the first night. There is a square cut out in the back corner of one of the canopies for the automatic feeder. The pump for the protein skimmer he thought he was giving us fits almost perfectly so we plugged that whole. The diamond goby got out last night, thankfully i wasn't sleeping very well and I heard it and got him back in the tank. No freaking idea how he got out, he was on the carpet in front of the tank.
I've seen online too the "florida live rock" that will have all the little feather dusters, etc in it. Is that something we want to add? The rock that came with the tank and the "real reef" rock we've added doesn't have anything I can see on it other than maybe some algae cover.
Sorry for the massive first post and tons of questions.
First pic, sorry not much going on but it shows what we started with.
Always wanted a saltwater setup and the gf decided if we found a great deal we should do that for our anniversary instead of gifts or a weekend trip. No arguments from me.
Found a guy on craigslist going through a nasty divorce. 75 gallon tank, stand, huge canister filter, glass canopies, LED lighting (basic white with blue accents/moon lighting, nothing fancy), etc for $450. Needless to say we jumped on it. Even included a full test kit, salinity refractometer, food, the live sand, live rock (although it does not look at all like the "real reef" rock we've added since), 2 black/white clowns, 2 blue damsels, some hermit crabs, starfish and a sail fin tang (my favorite although I'm aware I'll probably have to get rid of him or upgrade tanks down the road).
We have added a fire shrimp, cleaner shrimp, 2 peppermint shrimp, like 4 emerald crabs, a few more hermits and snails and one diamond goby to shift sand.
I realize we may have over done the additions for a "new" tank. But we did have some already established rock and sand and we filled the tank with water from a LFS here that sells ready to go saltwater. So we chanced it for our first batch. This is the description of how they make up the water if that matters.
Pre softening, pre carbon filtration, deionization and then a 600 gallon saltwater mixing/holding tank.
So assuming we didn't over did and are going to kill everything, I know we should wait awhile to add any more fish. We should be ok adding more clean up crew though right? We have I think 15 of the small hermit crabs, 5 Nassarius snails (sp), 4 emerald crabs, the 4 shrimp and the goby.
Also the guy I got it from thought he was giving me a protein skimmer too but apparently it was just a part of one lol. I'm assuming I need to invest in one of those?
And the goby is our second one actually. The tiger goby committed suicide the first night. There is a square cut out in the back corner of one of the canopies for the automatic feeder. The pump for the protein skimmer he thought he was giving us fits almost perfectly so we plugged that whole. The diamond goby got out last night, thankfully i wasn't sleeping very well and I heard it and got him back in the tank. No freaking idea how he got out, he was on the carpet in front of the tank.
I've seen online too the "florida live rock" that will have all the little feather dusters, etc in it. Is that something we want to add? The rock that came with the tank and the "real reef" rock we've added doesn't have anything I can see on it other than maybe some algae cover.
Sorry for the massive first post and tons of questions.
First pic, sorry not much going on but it shows what we started with.