Jeremy’s 240 Saltwater Attempt

[jhook]

Hi everyone! This is my first time actually trying Saltwater Aquariums. I’ve kept freshwater aquariums for around 30 years or so. I have a 240 gallon aquarium that I ordered from Glass Cages in 2018. The size is 72” length, 24” Height and 32” width. It is a fully glass lidded tank It was my Oscar and Green Terror Aquarium then an Amazonian Biotype with Angelfish and Tetras. I loved those setups but wanted to try something different. I also have six other freshwater aquariums (1 x 150 Tall, 3 x 75’s and 2 x 40 breeder’s). Over the Holidays I visited my Brother-in-Law and saw his 75 gallon reef tank. We got to talking and I decided that I was going to dive in head first.

I have a 40 gallon breeder saltwater with 2 clown fish, a Green Bubble Tip Anemone and 2 pajama cardinals (have added a Rabbit Fish to acclimate for the big tank). There are some pieces of live rock and a six coral frags (Plus 4 mushroom pieces and some Green Star Polyp from my BiL’s tank.) I’m getting them ready for when the 240 is cycled.

On to the equipment:
2 x Kessil AP9X’s mounted 10” above the water height
2 x Jebao SCP-150 Sine Cross-Flow Pumps mounted lengthwise across from each other about 1/3 down the side glass sides
1x Hygger Powerhead Circulation Pump (2000 GPH) mounted in the middle of the back wall (May need to move it around to find the best flow pattern)
1x AQQA 800 - 3200 GPH Return Pump (Output nozzle is on the opposite side from the overflow box)
1 x Aqua Fuge 300 Sump from Eshops
1 x Simplicity 300 DC Skimmer
1 x Tunze Auto Top-Off (Taht I am still trying to figure out. dang thing stuck open after a power outage and dumped 5 gallons in my tank before I caught it)

I have a RODI unit for my kitchen sink, but am likely going to get a dedicated unit for my tank along with a Brut trash can to hold my water mix for water changes.

Aquascape:
50lbs of live rock that I bought dry, broke up and arranged
50lbs of cured live rock that I arranged and is helping the cycle
Will have ~50lbs of live rock from Gulfliverock hopefully arriving this week
I have 200 lbs of Caribsea pink sand coming that I will put in until I like the look of. LFS said that was a lot of sand and I want to keep some sand dwellers so we shall see)

Livestock:
2 x Clownfish (already own)
1 x Rabbitfish (Already own)
2 x Pajama Cardinals (Already own)

Here’s where I need help with stocking compatibility. I would like to keep a mostly peaceful mixed reef tank. I’m looking at the following:
1 x Sailfin Tang
5 - 9 x Chromis
1x Lawnmower Blenny
3 - 5 x Fairy Wrasses
5 - 9 x Firefish
1 x Sand Sifter Starfish
Clean Up Crew from Reef Cleaners appropriate for a 240 gallon tank

And now for the pictures!

 

[A Young Reefer]

Looks good!
what’s the name of this coral if you don’t mind me asking.

 

[jhook]

Looks good!
what’s the name of this coral if you don’t mind me asking.

Thanks!

I’m pretty sure that that one is a Frankenstein Leptoseris from Corals.com.
Since I’m extremely new at keeping corals, I bought all of my frags in their sales section.

 

[A Young Reefer]

Thanks!

I’m pretty sure that that one is a Frankenstein Leptoseris from Corals.com.
Since I’m extremely new at keeping corals, I bought all of my frags in their sales section.

Thank you!
it does look like it I was asking since I used to own a frag of it but never knew the name.

 

[jhook]

Thank you!
it does look like it I was asking since I used to own a frag of it but never knew the name

I'm going to have to take pictures of these different corals and keep them with their names so I don't get mixed up.

 

[Sean Clark]

Nicely done. Following along

 

[jhook]

Nicely done. Following along

Thanks. It's definitely an experience so far.

 

[sphinx15]

Nice! And welcome!

Clean Up Crew from Reef Cleaners appropriate for a 240 gallon tank

I'd start with like half of what they recommend. Their recommendations are kind of a lot...

 

[jhook]

Nice! And welcome!


I'd start with like half of what they recommend. Their recommendations are kind of a lot...

Yeah, looking at their lists I would likely have to just feed the Crew until everything is going for a year. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[jhook]

Yesterday I received some premium deco live rock from gulfliverock.com. I am very impressed with this rock. I was not expecting even half of the stuff that came on because I read most of their reviews and some people were saying that they basically delivered limestone clumps with everything on it being dead. That was not the case with this batch of rock at all.
As I have yet to put sand in my tank and there are no critters in it besides a snail that hitchhiked in on some of my previous live rock, I decided to just throw this new rock in the main aquarium. Since it’s basically a QT tank right now anyway, I’ll give it some time before adding any livestock.

 

[sphinx15]

That live rock looks awesome, all kinds of goodies!

 

[jhook]

It's awesome looking rock. My 11 year old daughter and I like to spend a lot of time looking for new critters. So far we've only seen some pods and a couple brittle stars. We haven't seen anything bad yet, so we are very hopeful that all is well with it.

 

[Reeferjunkie]

Tank looks great and live rock hope you find some good stuff

 

[jhook]

Tank looks great and live rock hope you find some good stuff

Thanks! It's going well so far. All of the parameter's are looking good. Today or tomorrow will be my first, on purpose, mini-water change. Just to get the hang of how it's going to go with this tank and the water mix. It's a tad bit different than turning a valve, waiting for it to drain, then turning another valve to fill it up like it was with this tank when it was freshwater.

 

[PokeFish]

Hi everyone! This is my first time actually trying Saltwater Aquariums. I’ve kept freshwater aquariums for around 30 years or so. I have a 240 gallon aquarium that I ordered from Glass Cages in 2018. The size is 72” length, 24” Height and 32” width. It is a fully glass lidded tank It was my Oscar and Green Terror Aquarium then an Amazonian Biotype with Angelfish and Tetras. I loved those setups but wanted to try something different. I also have six other freshwater aquariums (1 x 150 Tall, 3 x 75’s and 2 x 40 breeder’s). Over the Holidays I visited my Brother-in-Law and saw his 75 gallon reef tank. We got to talking and I decided that I was going to dive in head first.

I have a 40 gallon breeder saltwater with 2 clown fish, a Green Bubble Tip Anemone and 2 pajama cardinals (have added a Rabbit Fish to acclimate for the big tank). There are some pieces of live rock and a six coral frags (Plus 4 mushroom pieces and some Green Star Polyp from my BiL’s tank.) I’m getting them ready for when the 240 is cycled.

On to the equipment:
2 x Kessil AP9X’s mounted 10” above the water height
2 x Jebao SCP-150 Sine Cross-Flow Pumps mounted lengthwise across from each other about 1/3 down the side glass sides
1x Hygger Powerhead Circulation Pump (2000 GPH) mounted in the middle of the back wall (May need to move it around to find the best flow pattern)
1x AQQA 800 - 3200 GPH Return Pump (Output nozzle is on the opposite side from the overflow box)
1 x Aqua Fuge 300 Sump from Eshops
1 x Simplicity 300 DC Skimmer
1 x Tunze Auto Top-Off (Taht I am still trying to figure out. dang thing stuck open after a power outage and dumped 5 gallons in my tank before I caught it)

I have a RODI unit for my kitchen sink, but am likely going to get a dedicated unit for my tank along with a Brut trash can to hold my water mix for water changes.

Aquascape:
50lbs of live rock that I bought dry, broke up and arranged
50lbs of cured live rock that I arranged and is helping the cycle
Will have ~50lbs of live rock from Gulfliverock hopefully arriving this week
I have 200 lbs of Caribsea pink sand coming that I will put in until I like the look of. LFS said that was a lot of sand and I want to keep some sand dwellers so we shall see)

Livestock:
2 x Clownfish (already own)
1 x Rabbitfish (Already own)
2 x Pajama Cardinals (Already own)

Here’s where I need help with stocking compatibility. I would like to keep a mostly peaceful mixed reef tank. I’m looking at the following:
1 x Sailfin Tang
5 - 9 x Chromis
1x Lawnmower Blenny
3 - 5 x Fairy Wrasses
5 - 9 x Firefish
1 x Sand Sifter Starfish
Clean Up Crew from Reef Cleaners appropriate for a 240 gallon tank

And now for the pictures!

Hi im tesus