Hello! Starting a build thread, I'm scared.
As noted in my intro post, this tank has run as a freshwater planted tank for the last 7 years or so, since I got it in 2016. I ran it low tech, and this past April stripped it completely down (moved fish into a 15g which I'm intending to rebuild into a shrimp tank, so the pair of mean black neons will need new homes ) intending to rebuild it. I plasti-dipped the back white, which was a huge pain -- and then as I was staring at it with the giant piece of wood I'd gotten as the centerpiece, I thought, you know, this tank was meant to be saltwater, and I should just stop being a coward and do it. For the past six months I've been watching tons of videos, reading (I don't even know how many hours reading through just pages of this forum!), and working on a coral reef simulation game design (I'm a game designer by trade), so this is a chance to put all that theory into practice. I went to my LFS twice and had long conversations each time, as a sanity check on what I was hearing online , and off we go.
I have so many questions! And I'm trying to keep kind of a log of the questions that I have so that I can trace as much of my path from beginner onward -- but I'll save those for later posts in this thread.
Equipment:
Plans:
5/6/23: empty, 5th day of cycling w dose of Fritz 9000 turbo start -- third rearrangement of rocks
5/11/23: clowns added yesterday, picked up still in their bags from SA @ my LFS -- one "mocha storm", one "orange storm"
I tested all parameters a couple of times during the empty cycling, never saw any ammonium, very slightly elevated nitrates once but went back down. Clowns added yesterday mid-afternoon, tested ammonia this morning, nothing. Fed a tiny bit of flake food yesterday just to see if they were hungry, they picked at it a little -- planning to feed every other day while watching the ammonia.
Immediate questions I'm digging around about:
As noted in my intro post, this tank has run as a freshwater planted tank for the last 7 years or so, since I got it in 2016. I ran it low tech, and this past April stripped it completely down (moved fish into a 15g which I'm intending to rebuild into a shrimp tank, so the pair of mean black neons will need new homes ) intending to rebuild it. I plasti-dipped the back white, which was a huge pain -- and then as I was staring at it with the giant piece of wood I'd gotten as the centerpiece, I thought, you know, this tank was meant to be saltwater, and I should just stop being a coward and do it. For the past six months I've been watching tons of videos, reading (I don't even know how many hours reading through just pages of this forum!), and working on a coral reef simulation game design (I'm a game designer by trade), so this is a chance to put all that theory into practice. I went to my LFS twice and had long conversations each time, as a sanity check on what I was hearing online , and off we go.
I have so many questions! And I'm trying to keep kind of a log of the questions that I have so that I can trace as much of my path from beginner onward -- but I'll save those for later posts in this thread.
Equipment:
- Display: Innovative Marine Nuvo Fusion 30L
- Substrate: Caribsea reef sand (2x bags) -- pretty deep, hoping pistol shrimp likes it
- Rock: Synthetic base rock, brand unknown, maybe CaribSea South Seas?
- Pump: Syncra 1.5 powering both heads in back via Y tube (357gph adjustable)
- Filter media: activated charcoal packet (seachem matrix carbon) and quartz bio rings in left compartment, floss in right compartment
- Heaters: 1 cobalt neotherm 100watt, Marina heater 100watt (the cobalt by itself wasn't maintaining above 75F)
- Lighting: None (yet -- probably 2x Prime 16 HD?)
- Skimmer: None (yet -- but am thinking in a few weeks minimum)
- ATO: None (yet -- next on my list -- the freshwater hobby doesn't seem to know about these things?!!)
- Salinity: 1.026
Plans:
- Keep it simple and stay out of trouble!!
- Low fish bio load, aquacultured wherever possible:
- 2 clowns (ocellaris) -- just added
- yasha goby -- in a couple of weeks, if I can find one either aquacultured or pre-quarantined
- firefish -- couple of weeks after shrimp and goby settle in
- mandarin dragonet -- aquacultured pellet-eaters from Biota have me intrigued -- a couple of months away minimum though
- Inverts:
- red and white pistol shrimp -- pre-quarantined hopefully, ideally pre-paired with yasha goby but doubt I'll get that lucky
- Halloween urchin -- much later when the tank is grown in
- Coral: in a couple of months if all goes well:
- mushroom
- zoanthus
- clove polyps
- GSP -- hoping to get it to grow on the back wall -- hoping not to regret it!
- BTA for clownfish following coral if all goes well
- Possibly use one of the back compartments for a refugium, but not for awhile
5/6/23: empty, 5th day of cycling w dose of Fritz 9000 turbo start -- third rearrangement of rocks
5/11/23: clowns added yesterday, picked up still in their bags from SA @ my LFS -- one "mocha storm", one "orange storm"
I tested all parameters a couple of times during the empty cycling, never saw any ammonium, very slightly elevated nitrates once but went back down. Clowns added yesterday mid-afternoon, tested ammonia this morning, nothing. Fed a tiny bit of flake food yesterday just to see if they were hungry, they picked at it a little -- planning to feed every other day while watching the ammonia.
Immediate questions I'm digging around about:
- I feel bad that the clowns don't have anything in there and am thinking of adding a plastic anemone. I've seen one sold at PetCo that people seem to like. I know there's a risk they host it and won't show an eventual anemone any attention, but that seems better than having them be homeless for several months, yeah?
- How should I be balancing the flow at this point? Initially I had the pump on full power and it was too much for the clowns -- they seemed to be struggling with it and were only staying in one corner of the tank. I have it completely off right now and they're swimming around much more happily. The darn adjuster is hard to turn, but I'm going to try to turn it back on at half power and see how they do.
- If anyone wants to double check me on this, this is what looked like a bit of struggle to me: https://photos.app.goo.gl/GRQGqs7WiM6tVCfC7
- And this is how they were swimming with the flow off: https://photos.app.goo.gl/UXDay4PxstLznVmz8 -- I think in this video they were even still kinda tired, and seem better and are exploring more now that it's been off for a few hours.
- I'm thinking while I have the flow low, and maybe just indefinitely, I'm going to throw an airstone in the back with a small pump just to be sure it stays oxygenated. I could increase flow and move things around so I have more surface movement, but it seems like a better guarantee to just have the airstone, and it can't hurt anything?
- Until I add coral, there's no real need for a light, right? When would you add the lights given this timeframe (coral in a couple of months)? Unless I should get it earlier so the animals get used to it?