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EndAllTyres-Hoon

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So black friday rolled around and my parents insisted they get me something for the holidays, after going from store to store all day and finding nothing of interest, i have always enjoyed going to the local petco and checking out the reefs they have, after going home my sister inlaw told my parents the only thing i was excited about was the reef, so my parents drug down two 29 gallon tanks from their attic and told me to go to the store and get what i needed to start the tank, after talking to employees at two separate petcos, and customers at petco who had their own reef tanks, and a ton of research online i started my own reef tank, currently not enough live rock (ordered more on ebay waiting to show up, along with drift wood), after week in, i have two clown fish that seem to be healthy so far ( been three days) but i ordered a couple frags (black friday deals) from world wide corals, i know rushing is not the direction to go with a reef tank, but wwc has agreed to hold my order till the 13th, i have heard of insta tanking though, i have 40 pounds of the caribsea arag alive, currently only about 10 pounds of liverock, with 25 pounds otw, i was researching keeping dolomite in the tank to help with calcium and alkalinity so i have some dolomite in the tank, current ammonia lvl is 1ppm have some ammonia trapping filter media (realized i forgot to clean my filter yesterday hoping after cleaning, the ph and ammonia stabilize, i have a peen plax cascade 700 filter that should show up in the mail tomorrow, i will also continue to run the tank hanger filter, i have the second tank filled with RODI water (started first tank before i ordered the rodi) i call it my emergency water and i have two gallons of what i call oh crap emergency water that is sealed, also i have a 15 gallon tank i want to grow algae in, and kinda want to create my own skimmer (with a 3d printer) of sorts to go into the algae tank. im always anxious about everything so im gonna post photos of everything i have got for the tank so far, and feel free free any criticism or anything else i might need for my reefs that will be here on the 14th, i may have over ordered or repeat ordered, but i wanted to take advantage of black friday pricing and have what i might need in the future, then to wait and need it at full price later, i know i can be scatter brained sorry and thx in advanced, mainly looking for advice on mildly instatanking for frags, and any other input is appreciated, frags already ordered from World Wide Coral will be here on the 14th, dont know how long they will live in a bag!

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PeterC99

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Welcome to R2R!

You are off to a great start. Keep reading R2R and learning about the hobby. Along the way ask us any questions, we are here to help!


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dedragon

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Honestly good on you for doing research and reaching out for help. I would order fritz turbostart 900 or fritzyme 9 (same thing one is more concentrated and i wouldnt trust imagitarum brand) as that is probably the easiest bacteria for a quick cycle before corals come and when introducing the new rock to the tank to get a bacterial population started quick.
What corals did you order? They may need a higher output light than the one you currently have.
This one more of an opinion but i would swap the cannister for a good hob filter like the seachem tidal. It just makes it way easier to change out filter media and clean. I hated using a cannister when i started out and having to unplug everything before i could change out a simple sponge, in a power filter it takes 10 seconds.
 
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EndAllTyres-Hoon

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Honestly good on you for doing research and reaching out for help. I would order fritz turbostart 900 or fritzyme 9 (same thing one is more concentrated and i wouldnt trust imagitarum brand) as that is probably the easiest bacteria for a quick cycle before corals come and when introducing the new rock to the tank to get a bacterial population started quick.
What corals did you order? They may need a higher output light than the one you currently have.
This one more of an opinion but i would swap the cannister for a good hob filter like the seachem tidal. It just makes it way easier to change out filter media and clean. I hated using a cannister when i started out and having to unplug everything before i could change out a simple sponge, in a power filter it takes 10 seconds.
honestly i ordered too many and i may end up giving something away to someone who pays shipping (sea cucumber) but pulsing Xenia, green montipora, and green birdsnest, hoping i dont crash my tank by putting too much in at once
 

dedragon

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honestly i ordered too many and i may end up giving something away to someone who pays shipping (sea cucumber) but pulsing Xenia, green montipora, and green birdsnest, hoping i dont crash my tank by putting too much in at once
lol dw they will be small frags(not enough to crash a tank), the light will need to be upgraded though to keep montipora and birdsnest. What are the tank dimensions, current lighting, and budget so we can help figure that out as well.
 
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EndAllTyres-Hoon

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ive got all kinds of plant growing lights from my indoor garden (no i dont grow weed) the clowns seemed like they were hiding from the red and blue light so ive been keeping it off, i assume its a 29 gallon breeder tank, when buying sand and salt for it my parent had told me it was 55 gallons, budget is not too tight but i am kinda spent until my bonus this month unless its just entirely required
 

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Karen00

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Welcome to the salty side and the community! You mentioned buying driftwood. Is that for your SW tank or for something else? I read driftwood can mess with ph and can begin to rot in SW but this is something I have only read. Hopefully someone else can chime in if they know the facts about this. I just always assumed it was a bad idea but never thought about driftwood in my tank so never investigated whether it's actually a problem.
 
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EndAllTyres-Hoon

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Welcome to the salty side and the community! You mentioned buying driftwood. Is that for your SW tank or for something else? I read driftwood can mess with ph and can begin to rot in SW but this is something I have only read. Hopefully someone else can chime in if they know the facts about this. I just always assumed it was a bad idea but never thought about driftwood in my tank so never investigated whether it's actually a problem.
i'm glad you are telling me this, i will not add it then, i read that it lowers ph but, my ph has been lower than what it needs to be anyways
 

Jekyl

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The best advice I can give is to have patience. Nothing good happens quickly. Focus on stability, repetition and longevity. Reef tanks take time to mature and settle in. Lots don't start having real success until the better part of a year. When things do go haywire (they will) don't jump to sudden changes or quick fixes.
 

Karen00

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i'm glad you are telling me this, i will not add it then, i read that it lowers ph but, my ph has been lower than what it needs to be anyways
The key is stability in this hobby so anything that might cause parameters to fluctuate should be avoided especially in a new tank that you're trying to get stabilized in the first place. It might also look a little odd/out of place in a marine setup with marine fish and corals. :)
 

dedragon

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The best advice I can give is to have patience. Nothing good happens quickly. Focus on stability, repetition and longevity. Reef tanks take time to mature and settle in. Lots don't start having real success until the better part of a year. When things do go haywire (they will) don't jump to sudden changes or quick fixes.
This^, fritzyme will just help with bacteria when the rock goes in, nothing is better than a mature tank though. If you can get rocks from a trusted reefer those would be even better just hard to get on short notice.
 
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EndAllTyres-Hoon

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Tank Update! i did order some fritzyme yesterday, i installed the penn plax cascade 700, and it took about a gallon of water out of the tank, so i replenished the water with my spare water, tested ph and salinity before and after adding on both the tank and water source, adding the new water didnt seem to make a difference (try to keep the spare water salinty a little lower so adding after evaporating lowers salinity in tank) but ammonia nitrites and nitrates are definitely going up, i am feedin twice a day but flakes for one feeding and i use a 1/4 of a cube of frozen food for second feeding.

How high will ammonia levels and nitrite/nitrate levels get on normal cycling, an earlier post mention dont freakout about fluctuations, and i did read ph and NO lvls fluctuate depending on time of day, im also not too worried because the clowns are eating consistently ever since day one and are always chipper. another odd thing that i noticed is when adding water the water i was adding was for sure cooler (didnt measure) but the clowns seemed to be attracted to the water no matter where i poured they wanted to be in the new water
 

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A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 65 37.1%
  • Not currently, but I have had feather dusters in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 59 33.7%
  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 25 14.3%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 26 14.9%
  • Other.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
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