My very first saltwater tank - 200 gallons

[Marsh980]

Hi all,

So after 30 years of dreaming I’ve finally got my first saltwater tank.

It’s a 200 gallon D-D glass tank and cabinet on metal frame. It was set up the first week of March.

Please see pics and let me know what you think

 

[Scape]

Would love to see some pictures! Also welcome to reef2reef!

 

[Marsh980]

Pics

 

[Scape]

Beautiful Setup! Good luck with everything! Many people here with brilliant advice feel free to ask any questions!

 

[Marsh980]

Pics

 

[Cherub]

Welcome and I love it! What are you going to put in it?

 

[Marsh980]

Beautiful Setup! Good luck with everything! Many people here with brilliant advice feel free to ask any questions!

Thank you. I’ve been saving a long time to get it as wanted to go as large as I could with the best equipment (IMO) I could afford.

I started cycling with a bottle of Dr Tims approx 5 weeks ago and have started adding a few fish, corals and invertebrates

 

[Marsh980]

Welcome and I love it! What are you going to put in it?

It’s going to be a reef tank so reef friendly livestock. I’ve bought over the past 4 weeks below. Nothing now for a few weeks.

2x Ocellaris clowns
1x Diamond watchman goby
3x orange firefish
1x canary wrasse
1x sulphur goby
1x skunk cleaner shrimp
20x spiny star Astrea snails
10x Nasarius snails
10x Trochus snails
2x Conch snails
2x crabs

 

[Salty Lemon]

What a gorgeous set-up. The hardest part of this hobby is taking your time. It stinks because you want it all at once. I'm looking forward to watching this tank progress. Good luck and have fun!

 

[Marsh980]

What a gorgeous set-up. The hardest part of this hobby is taking your time. It stinks because you want it all at once. I'm looking forward to watching this tank progress. Good luck and have fun!

Cheers, my LFS have been awesome with me and helped me massively setting it up and with the aquascape. I’ve been waiting 2 weeks between purchases but will not buy anymore corals for at least a few months as want the tank to stabilise and get the auto dosing equipment set up.

I’ve been testing the water every 3 days and my ammonia, nitrites and nitrates have never moved from 0ppm.

I’m also buying live copepods so I can get a good breeding colony set up because in 6-12 months time I would like a copperband and mandarin.

 

[Marsh980]

To date I have a purple GSP isolated on an island and an electric green GSP on a foot of a rock. I know they can grow like weeds (hence one being on an island) but I really like how they look and move. I will certainly get more adventurous in the up coming months but SPS make me nervous because I’m so inexperienced with corals. I may stick to softies and LPS to start with.

 

[cancun]

Welcome to R2R! Nice set up! I am looking forward to seeing more pics!!!

 

[WvAquatics]

Glad you made it over! Like I mentioned alot of great info here vs the other forum for your setup!!

 

[Niteowl]

Very nice. Best of luck

 

[tho]

Congratulations on such an amazing first setup! Excited to see how it all grows together.

 

[cancun]

Glad you made it over! Like I mentioned alot of great info here vs the other forum for your setup!!

Absolutely!!!! We all love this hobby and are all more than willing to share advice and of coarse sharing our mistakes and what we learned from them LOL!

 

[Marsh980]

A few more pics

 

[cancun]

A few more pics

I love that yellow goby!!!! I haven't kept a goby in so long! What kind of goby did you say he/she was?

 

[Marsh980]

I love that yellow goby!!!! I haven't kept a goby in so long! What kind of goby did you say he/she was?

Cheers me too. My LFS called it a sulphur goby but is also called a yellow watchman goby (Cryptocentrus cinctus).

I was hoping it would entice my diamond watchman goby out because I’ve not seen it for 2 weeks. I really hope its ok but there are so many hiding places and caves it could be in. I suppose the pros and cons of having a large tank and lots of live rock. As long as the fish are happy, then I’m happy.

 

[cancun]

Cheers me too. My LFS called it a sulphur goby but is also called a yellow watchman goby (Cryptocentrus cinctus).

I was hoping it would entice my diamond watchman goby out because I’ve not seen it for 2 weeks. I really hope its ok but there are so many hiding places and caves it could be in. I suppose the pros and cons of having a large tank and lots of live rock. As long as the fish are happy, then I’m happy.

Absolutely and well said! I will have to look into one of those. I love interesting fish!