So I got more fish!

[Philipgonzales3]

That's a great route to go at this point.
Almost went that route as well but I ended up getting a used Apex with some decent add ons for under $300 bucks from a local reefer. Look around and join a local reefing community, go to the frag swaps and meetings. People give up on this hobby daily it seems and they are looking to unload good equipment at decent prices just to be rid of it, sometimes it's barely to lightly used.
I also got a used BRS 6 stage 150 gallon per day deluxe RODI system for under $200
The marketplace here on R2R is full of great equipment as well.
BUT it seems:
A - Here we all know what these items cost and are rightfully trying to get as much as possible back on our return.

B - Joining your local reefing community you also get to inspect these items personally and then decide if it's worth your money.

C - With your local reefing community you will meet other as or more dedicated than you are at this hobby which is great for connections for things like, trading, selling, helping, visual learning etc.

I'm honestly not too huge on meeting people in real life. For one I am too busy with 2 kids, 2 pets, and now 2 tanks lol. I am also an introvert who is a homebody. I do not desire to leave the house much. This is why fish tanks are perfect. I'm always home lol.

I may think about it, but likely won't get any traction until the kids are bigger.

 

[Why-Me]

What are you using for an ATO? How much are you changing?

 

[Bill_Moorman]

Good stuff my guy!

For your ATO- go with the gold standard...Tunze Osmolator.
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/tun...n my 40b. If I didn’t have my ATO I’d go nuts!

 

[Philipgonzales3]

What are you using for an ATO? How much are you changing?

No ATO yet. I'm topping up 32-64 ounces twice a day. So about a gallon of evap a day or so. I have a plan, just making sure the government is going to stay open before pulling the trigger.

My idea is another cabinet to the left of the aquarium with a reservior and a tunze osmilator 3155. Me and the wife wanted to replace a table that is already there anyway.

Here is one that I am looking at.

https://www.wayfair.com/furniture/p...or-1-draw-cabinet-atgr2853.html?piid=27684469

If you look through the pictures it lists the outside dimensions. Not sure what size container I can fit in there is the problem. I wanted to fit a chiller in there also but I may opt to place the chiller in between both cabinets. My main thing is securing all pumps, hoses, etc from the kiddos. My daughter is 1 and a half so this is a priority or else I would have threw a 5 gallon bucket next to the tank and called it a day.

What are your thoughts on this? More specifically the cabinet size and overall idea? Another idea is to to buy another 2 drawer cabinet from SC Aquariums. I can buy the one for the 150 that is 60"x24"36". In that case I should have just bought a 150 tank haha but oh well.

 

[Philipgonzales3]

Here is the space I have for a cabinet. It's more or less exactly 60 inches. Maybe 5 inches to spare based on my rough measuring lol. (The tank can move over to the right a good 8 inches without sticking out into the hallway.)

 

[Why-Me]

That cabinet looks good and is gray to match, I like it!
That link specs show:
Cabinet Interior
15.55'' H x 25.59'' W x 14.25'' D
So that's the dimensions you have to work with underneath there.
I wouldn't get a chiller until you know you will need one, it can go between the two cabinets as to not add heat into either of them.

You can always get an Aqueon 10 gallon when they're on sale at your local petco during the dollar per gallon sale. Can't beat $10 for an ATO container. Will fit the cabinet you linked. And you said a gallon per day evaporation? So that would get you a week's worth of top off without having to fill it to the top.

 

[Philipgonzales3]

That cabinet looks good and is gray to match, I like it!
That link specs show:
Cabinet Interior
15.55'' H x 25.59'' W x 14.25'' D
So that's the dimensions you have to work with underneath there.
I wouldn't get a chiller until you know you will need one, it can go between the two cabinets as to not add heat into either of them.

You can always get an Aqueon 10 gallon when they're on sale at your local petco during the dollar per gallon sale. Can't beat $10 for an ATO container. Will fit the cabinet you linked. And you said a gallon per day evaporation? So that would get you a week's worth of top off without having to fill it to the top.

@Why-Me you freaking rock! I spent forever scratching my head trying to guesstimate the cabinets internal dimensions. I am usually pretty good at finding info but didn't see the dimensions tab on the site. The day that the government is confirmed to stay open I will order the cabinet. I think they are having the $1 per gallon sale now. I could have sworn I saw the sign up a few days ago. I may have just missed it but no biggie lol.

I thought about trying to implement some type of temporary ATO in the current cabinet but figured it was just too small.

 

[Gonebad395]

Its under dimensions on the page

 

[Philipgonzales3]

Its under dimensions on the page

Thanks I see it now. Another huge plus is it ships assembled. So I don't have to curse up a storm assembling the thing haha.

 

[Why-Me]

@Philipgonzales3 Also if you ever have issues with those wifi plugs and the word "light" on the google voice platform use the word "lamp" instead, worked great for me.

 

[Philipgonzales3]

@Philipgonzales3 Also if you ever have issues with those wifi plugs and the word "light" on the google voice platform use the word "lamp" instead, worked great for me.

Ok, great. I was trying to think of alternatives. So far I had thought of illumination lol. I'll keep lamp in mind.

Supposedly according to wayfair the maximum weight of the cabinet is 50 pounds. Hopefully they are wrong lol.

 

[Philipgonzales3]

So, I've noticed a very small amount of algea starting for form. A few green specs and one brown spot. This is on the rock that is just under the light. Basically about 6 inches from the light due to my light sitting on my mesh lid.

Is this a good thing or bad thing? Exciting to see at least some algea growth as it's something new. I kind of want to introduce some coraline algea. Would I need to wait until I switch salts from IO to do this? I'd probably at least need some sort of reef life first or it will likely die right?

 

[Why-Me]

yup looks like you're finally getting some algae growth. You should be able to introduce coralline algae without changing salts. It just might not thrive or grow very fast that's all.
There's places selling coralline algae in the bottle bacteria form, ceramic tile with it growing already and frags fully encrusted in coralline algae. Choice is yours.
AND the more species of coralline you add the more you will see on your rocks, walls etc.

 

[Fudsey]

Brown looks like diatoms green may be the start of coralline. If it doesn't come off easily with a tooth brush it could be

 

[Philipgonzales3]

yup looks like you're finally getting some algae growth. You should be able to introduce coralline algae without changing salts. It just might not thrive or grow very fast that's all.
There's places selling coralline algae in the bottle bacteria form, ceramic tile with it growing already and frags fully encrusted in coralline algae. Choice is yours.
AND the more species of coralline you add the more you will see on your rocks, walls etc.

I bought one of these on ebay. It says don't put it in the tank with puffers, but honestly if my puffer eats it, I'm OK with that. As long as the fish are happy then I am happy.

 

[Philipgonzales3]

So I fed the puffer some clam yesterday. I immediately realized that this was likely too much food for the fish to eat at once but wanted the puffer to realize what it was before yanking it back out. I pulled it out in between video 2 and 3 and scraped most of the meat out. I watched it from a distance after recording the videos and it would come back go the clam and keep picking at it. Removed the empty clam shell this morning.

My idea was to feed brine shrimp to distract the rest of the tank but the puffer decided it likes brine shrimp now also.

Today I chopped up about a quarter of a small shelled shrimp and this also seemed to work perfectly. Everyone had a super hard time getting any meat out of the shrimp because of the shell.

 

[Gonebad395]

I bought one of these on ebay. It says don't put it in the tank with puffers, but honestly if my puffer eats it, I'm OK with that. As long as the fish are happy then I am happy.

Please don’t take this as a attack because it’s not by any means but man you have got something about following advice huh? Through this thread you’ve been given advice on questions you asked and always come up with your own way of thinking and ignoring said advice and in your head makes it ok. Just like now you bought something and know it’s got a terrible chance for survival with a puffer but hey as long as your fish are happy you are happy. Proven years of reefers don’t cycle a tank and right when it’s done max out your tank inhabitants in one day due to bacteria. But hey you have a better way of thinking and trust me it might have worked you just got lucky even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in awhile. Do you usually just dive in and become a expert on hobbies a lot ? The reason I ask is patience doesn’t seem to be your strong point and I have a feeling well be reading that your livestock are in a bad shape because of it and I know none of us want this. So why the rush? Just sit back and relax and enjoy this.

 

[Philipgonzales3]

Please don’t take this as a attack because it’s not by any means but man you have got something about following advice huh? Through this thread you’ve been given advice on questions you asked and always come up with your own way of thinking and ignoring said advice and in your head makes it ok. Just like now you bought something and know it’s got a terrible chance for survival with a puffer but hey as long as your fish are happy you are happy. Proven years of reefers don’t cycle a tank and right when it’s done max out your tank inhabitants in one day due to bacteria. But hey you have a better way of thinking and trust me it might have worked you just got lucky even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in awhile. Do you usually just dive in and become a expert on hobbies a lot ? The reason I ask is patience doesn’t seem to be your strong point and I have a feeling well be reading that your livestock are in a bad shape because of it and I know none of us want this. So why the rush? Just sit back and relax and enjoy this.

As far as the coralline algea, my thinking is worse case scenario it is a snack for any algea grazing inhabitants. My thinking if even if the puffer eats this it will not be in one sitting, nor will every bit of it end up in it's mouth. Algea survival is not really high up on my priority list. Neither do I think coral survival will, as like you have pointed out I care mostly for the fish and not much else.

If there is something more serrvere that could happen by adding this coralline frag then please do share. As you know I am new to the hobby and could definetly use any pointers that are out there. I have begun reading up on macro algea QT/Dip practices to minimize risk. Of course at the end of the day I will make a judgement call based on what I believe to be the best course of action.

There are many ways to reef @Gonebad395. At the end of the day I use MY best judgement on how to run MY tank. This is not my first or last time stocking a tank, so I based my actions based on past experience along with advice I have read and picked up on R2R. I do believe a bit of luck has to do with almost everything we do in life, but do not think the fish have managed to survive by stupid luck alone.

I do appreciate your input and hope you chime in whenever you have any input.

Thanks again!

 

[Gonebad395]

Right on man happy reefing

 

[Philipgonzales3]

@Gonebad395

Believe it or not I started this tank and a freshwater tank at the same time to show my son (he is 8) the importance of patience, researching, that you can't just put any animals or fish in a box and hope for the best. Patience is definetly something that I need to work on. We live in a very "now" based society. Most people wouldn't fathom waiting 2-6 weeks before adding fish into a tank, at least based on people I have talked to.

My first tank was a Cichlid tank with 15 African Cichlids in a 55 gallon aquarium with two Rena XP4 (rated up to 265gallons each). Added all 15 fish in at once and no ammonia spike. I even took a try at raising fry. I made a DIY egg tumbler and have pictures of the little baby fry that we raised. One of the fish mom's did end up dying due to a wound it got. This tank was cycled unintentially by a Red Ear Slider turtle.

The turtles was my now wife's idea. "I love turtles" is what she said as I told the cashier to ring me up two of those bad boys. Bonnie and Clyde were thier names. Long story short I looked it up online and they were quickly moved to a 20 Long while I set up a 55 Long, then eventually to a 40 breeder.

In my son's tank he has 11 fish in his 15 gallon tank. Stocked 10 fish on day 1 (after cycling), we lost an albino pleco who was eating just fine for 5 days, but on day 6 he died. I posted on a freshwater forum and the consensus was that sometimes a fish just dies. Ammonia badge and API kit tested 0 ammonia.

I'm not an expert on fish hardiness (or anything for that matter) but I thought the pleco would be more resilliant than the other smaller fish, but maybe not.

We added 2 spotted Cory cats the same week I added my 3 additions to my tank.

My tank: 7 fish
His fish: 11 fish

My basic thinking is that if I can cycle a tank to eliminate x ppm in 24 hours, then a tank can immediately be stocked to that level. If you wait months and then throw a fish in the tank may not longer be able to support the bio load and BOOM ammonia spike.

I realize that some or much of my thinking may be wrong but I try to be open minded to other ideas, opinions, methods, etc.

Now as far as skipping QT, I believe that was likely the wrong choice on my part. I still believe everything is going to be OK, but I could be wrong. We'll just have to cross that bridge when we get there.

Anyway, sorry for rambling. Believe it or not I don't enjoy much in person human interaction. I spend most my time on forums, watching videos, and trying to learn about anything and everything.

Here are a few videos of my son's tank. Let me know if you want any more details. Sorry if I already posted this on this thread.