New to the hobby

Brew12 · Nov 10, 2016

Adam113 said:
Just put a few drops of the ammonia in. How long until its throughly mixed and I can test for 2PPM?

A few minutes if you have good flow.

I should have been more clear. You need 0.2ml of 100% pure ammonia. That would be 2 ml of the 10% ammonia you bought.

Adam113 · Nov 11, 2016

Looks like we are headed in the right direction. The first picture was last night around 10:00. The second picture was this morning at 7:00.

I didn't get it quite to 2ppm, but I was going to bed [emoji41] Anyways, it seems to be doing its thing and bringing it down. I'll do a full water test this afternoon.

Brew12 · Nov 11, 2016

Yup, looking good! Maybe not quite ready for fish yet but well on your way!

Best part of doing it this way is that you can be completely confident your tank is ready before adding the first fish. Doing it any other way is just guessing.

Adam113 · Nov 11, 2016

Brew12 said:
Yup, looking good! Maybe not quite ready for fish yet but well on your way!

Best part of doing it this way is that you can be completely confident your tank is ready before adding the first fish. Doing it any other way is just guessing.

If ammonia is down to zero by around 2 or 3 o'clock this afternoon (16 hours or so from initial ammonia spike) would I seem safe to introduce a cleaner shrimp and a few snails to the tank after a 5 gallon water change?

Brew12 · Nov 11, 2016

Adam113 said:
If ammonia is down to zero by around 2 or 3 o'clock this afternoon (16 hours or so from initial ammonia spike) would I seem safe to introduce a cleaner shrimp and a few snails to the tank after a 5 gallon water change?

Yup, I would be very comfortable with that. As for the size of the water change, I would base that on nitrates. I would do as big of a water change as necessary to get nitrates under 20ppm. Ideally you would get them even lower but you should be fine at 20ppm or less. You are probably find at 50ppm or less but that would be out of my personal comfort level.

Adam113 · Nov 11, 2016

Looking like it's getting there!

Adam113 · Nov 11, 2016

Well I did about a five gallon water change a few hours ago. Everything is looking dead on.

Salinity - 1.024
PH - 8.2
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 15

I'm thinking about grabbing a cleaner shrimp and some snails tonight [emoji1360]

Adam113 · Nov 11, 2016

The tanks first resident. A peppermint shrimp. Also got 3 margarita snails. All seem happy so far! Been in about 3 hours.

Adam113 · Nov 12, 2016

Everyone is happy so far. Pretty awesome, I find myself wandering over to the room where the tank is just to take a peek.

I found out and read that peppermint shrimp like to find a spot in live rock and stick to it during the day, then scavenge at night. I found his spot and he seems to just hang out in there.

The snails are all over the tank cleaning up. Checked my water again today and ammonia is still at 0, nitrites are at 0, and nitrates came down a bit more to around the 10 mark.

I also got a refractometer. Man, what a world of difference from the little plastic thing with the lever.

Quick question, what should my feeding habits be with just three snails and a small shrimp?

Brew12 · Nov 12, 2016

Adam113 said:
Everyone is happy so far. Pretty awesome, I find myself wandering over to the room where the tank is just to take a peek.

I found out and read that peppermint shrimp like to find a spot in live rock and stick to it during the day, then scavenge at night. I found his spot and he seems to just hang out in there.

The snails are all over the tank cleaning up. Checked my water again today and ammonia is still at 0, nitrites are at 0, and nitrates came down a bit more to around the 10 mark.

I also got a refractometer. Man, what a world of difference from the little plastic thing with the lever.

Quick question, what should my feeding habits be with just three snails and a small shrimp?

Shrimp are such interesting little creatures!

I figured out what kind of food I would be feeding my fish and just started using small amounts of that every day.

Adam113 · Nov 13, 2016

So I have a few more snails in the tank as well as two emerald crabs. I caught the peppermint shrimp cleaning up one of the snails today. Pretty cool to watch!

As I'm looking at adding more livestock, I've been thinking what is the best brand/type/style of feeding? Right now I'm just feeding a pinch or two of tropical flake food once a day.

Adam113 · Nov 14, 2016

Couple of update pictures

Adam113 · Nov 15, 2016

Few update pics!

Any suggestions on kind of building up higher in the back area of the tank there?

My water levels are spot on still and everyone seems happy in the tank!

Brew12 · Nov 15, 2016

Looking great! Not sure what your coral plans are, but those might eventually fill in the tank for you.

You are well on your way... you don't have to but I think it is time to move over and start a true build thread in the member tank section!

Adam113 · Nov 15, 2016

Brew12 said:
Looking great! Not sure what your coral plans are, but those might eventually fill in the tank for you.

You are well on your way... you don't have to but I think it is time to move over and start a true build thread in the member tank section!

I plan on adding coral as my tank become more and more established. That may do the trick and get the look I'm going for.

In the meantime, I may add a couple of fish soon. What is a good starter fish for a 29g tank?

I read a good rule of thumb for ALL the fish in the tank is an inch of fish per 5 gallons of water. Does this sound like a good rule to go by?

I want a couple of colorful, smaller, yet affordable fish to be my first swimming residents :)

Any help is greatly appreciated. I am very glad I joined this forum as I've learned more and have been more successful thus far than I would have going at this alone.

Brew12 · Nov 15, 2016

Adam113 said:
In the meantime, I may add a couple of fish soon. What is a good starter fish for a 29g tank?

I really recommend planning out your entire stock list before you start. There is an entire thread just for asking this exact question. Eatbreakfast knows more about how fish interact than I ever will so I highly recommend posting your list here.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/n...for-your-tank-post-here-and-well-help.200605/

Adam113 said:
I read a good rule of thumb for ALL the fish in the tank is an inch of fish per 5 gallons of water. Does this sound like a good rule to go by?

Nope, that rule is actually pretty bad. There are so many variables that it is hard to come up with a good rule of thumb. If you do more frequent water changes and/or have a good skimmer you can have many more fish than if you do small water changes with no skimmer.

Adam113 said:
Any help is greatly appreciated. I am very glad I joined this forum as I've learned more and have been more successful thus far than I would have going at this alone.

And we are glad to have you!

Adam113 · Nov 16, 2016

Brew12 said:
I really recommend planning out your entire stock list before you start. There is an entire thread just for asking this exact question. Eatbreakfast knows more about how fish interact than I ever will so I highly recommend posting your list here.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/n...for-your-tank-post-here-and-well-help.200605/

Nope, that rule is actually pretty bad. There are so many variables that it is hard to come up with a good rule of thumb. If you do more frequent water changes and/or have a good skimmer you can have many more fish than if you do small water changes with no skimmer.

And we are glad to have you!

Well good to know!

I'll check out that thread.

Adam113 · Nov 19, 2016

Just a quick update on my entry into the hobby. New tank is doing great! Have two coral frags doing well, a firefish, two emerald crabs, 5 snails, and a peppermint shrimp. Water is constantly testing great. Everything at 0 and nitrates staying around 10 or lower. A few pictures.