Hello reefers, soon to be reefers and previous reefers!
One week ago I move from the "soon to be reefer" to the "reefer" category myself, when I bought my first saltwater aquarium. An already up and running Red Sea Reefer 170.
My name Filip, I live in northern Sweden and have for some years now been interested to get in to the saltwater hobby. I have had some freshwater aquariums for the past 3.5 years and done a little bit of tetra and scalar breeding. But since I have been studying and living in a student apartment for the past 4 yeas, I felt like a saltwater tank needed to wait. But now with the time spent at university behind me and with a more spacious apartment, it was time to start look for a deal.
Finding a saltwater aquarium around the area where I am from is not super easy because of the small amount of hobbyists and the limited supply. As an example, there just one wholesaler that transport aquarium fish up here, and my closest LFS that got limited some saltwater fish/equipment is a 2 hours drive away and the second closest over 5 hours.
So when I found this offer, I took it. Everything to run the aquarium was included such as the general equipment, a bucket of salt and some fish food. But this also meant that I did not have all the equipment I might have liked, such as water test kits and and so on.
After the transportation I tried to assemble Red Sea Reefer but without success, all the 3 pipes leaked at the connection to the sump and I noticed small cracks in the plastic at the threads. Waiting for replacement parts was not an alternative so early the next morning I went to buy thread sealing tape and super glue as a last resort. But I managed to get everything sealed with tape alone so that was great.
After the setup with heating and salt mixing and acclimation, I put in all the live rock with corals and anemones, shrimps, clean up crew and a fish.
Me (with corona/stay at home hair) setting up the tank. You can also se my freshwater tank in the reflection
Full tank shot (FTS)
1 Banded Coral Shrimp
1 Blood Red Fire Shrimp
Around 6 Bubble Tip Anemones (BTA)
Green Star Polyp(GSP)
3 types of mushroom corals
2 types of Kenya Tree corals
Colony of Palythoas
2 Hermit Crabs
2 Bumble Bee Snail
2 other snails
Lots of mystery objects
Also lost of aptasia and vermited snails :/
I don't know the name of everything just yet, but I would appreciate if someone could help me id some corals and mystery objects later on.
Coral Banded Shrimp
Blood Red Fire Shrimp
Red Hermit Crab, don't know exact species
- aquarium 130 l, 34 gal
- sump 35 l, 9 gal
Light: CTLite G4
Skimmer: Bubble Magus Curve 5
Streamer: Eheim
Return pump: Jebao
The very next day after the setup the water was cloudy, I was worried that an anemone might have died but instead it looked like an anemone had split (most likely as a stress reaction). All anemones in general was quite closed, and for some you could not see any tentacles at all.
I also noticed 5 white spots on the Damsels fins. First I thought if Ich but with a closer inspection I thought it looked more like some general infection/fungi. So if I just could get the Damsel to eat well to build up its immune system, the spots should go away. But that was easier said then done. I tried pellets, flake food, Mysis Shrimp and Artemia without success.
4 days passed and I started to get worried again. I decided to try to let the frozen Mysis cube melt together with a garlic clove. And finally the Damsel decided that now was the time to eat.
Over the next days the white spots on the Damsel went away and the Anemones started to look better and better.
At this point, one week after the tank setup, I feel like the tank is somewhat under control, but I have still no clue about water parameters except salinity.
I have also forgot to mention that for now I will use tap water for salt mixing and auto top off (ATO). But I think I will look into buying some kind of water treatment unit in the future.
Here are some water analytics data from the water treatment plant if anybody is interested (I think most values will be understandable even though its in Swedish).
< means that they hit the low of their measuring equipment, so the real value is lower
The plans for the near future of this aquarium is to first of all get some stability, wait for my ordered water test kits to arrive so I can get some knowledge about the water parameters. After that I want to do a reefscape and add sand, and then when everything is stable look to add some new lifeforms to the tank.
If you managed to read this far, thank you! I hope you are interested to follow along the progression of this Red Sea Reefer 170 and my first saltwater tank journey.
Have a great day!
One week ago I move from the "soon to be reefer" to the "reefer" category myself, when I bought my first saltwater aquarium. An already up and running Red Sea Reefer 170.
My name Filip, I live in northern Sweden and have for some years now been interested to get in to the saltwater hobby. I have had some freshwater aquariums for the past 3.5 years and done a little bit of tetra and scalar breeding. But since I have been studying and living in a student apartment for the past 4 yeas, I felt like a saltwater tank needed to wait. But now with the time spent at university behind me and with a more spacious apartment, it was time to start look for a deal.
Finding a saltwater aquarium around the area where I am from is not super easy because of the small amount of hobbyists and the limited supply. As an example, there just one wholesaler that transport aquarium fish up here, and my closest LFS that got limited some saltwater fish/equipment is a 2 hours drive away and the second closest over 5 hours.
So when I found this offer, I took it. Everything to run the aquarium was included such as the general equipment, a bucket of salt and some fish food. But this also meant that I did not have all the equipment I might have liked, such as water test kits and and so on.
After the transportation I tried to assemble Red Sea Reefer but without success, all the 3 pipes leaked at the connection to the sump and I noticed small cracks in the plastic at the threads. Waiting for replacement parts was not an alternative so early the next morning I went to buy thread sealing tape and super glue as a last resort. But I managed to get everything sealed with tape alone so that was great.
After the setup with heating and salt mixing and acclimation, I put in all the live rock with corals and anemones, shrimps, clean up crew and a fish.
Me (with corona/stay at home hair) setting up the tank. You can also se my freshwater tank in the reflection
Full tank shot (FTS)
Stock list:
1 Azure Damsefish1 Banded Coral Shrimp
1 Blood Red Fire Shrimp
Around 6 Bubble Tip Anemones (BTA)
Green Star Polyp(GSP)
3 types of mushroom corals
2 types of Kenya Tree corals
Colony of Palythoas
2 Hermit Crabs
2 Bumble Bee Snail
2 other snails
Lots of mystery objects
Also lost of aptasia and vermited snails :/
I don't know the name of everything just yet, but I would appreciate if someone could help me id some corals and mystery objects later on.
Coral Banded Shrimp
Blood Red Fire Shrimp
Red Hermit Crab, don't know exact species
Equipment list:
Aquarium: Red Sea Reefer 170- aquarium 130 l, 34 gal
- sump 35 l, 9 gal
Light: CTLite G4
Skimmer: Bubble Magus Curve 5
Streamer: Eheim
Return pump: Jebao
The very next day after the setup the water was cloudy, I was worried that an anemone might have died but instead it looked like an anemone had split (most likely as a stress reaction). All anemones in general was quite closed, and for some you could not see any tentacles at all.
I also noticed 5 white spots on the Damsels fins. First I thought if Ich but with a closer inspection I thought it looked more like some general infection/fungi. So if I just could get the Damsel to eat well to build up its immune system, the spots should go away. But that was easier said then done. I tried pellets, flake food, Mysis Shrimp and Artemia without success.
4 days passed and I started to get worried again. I decided to try to let the frozen Mysis cube melt together with a garlic clove. And finally the Damsel decided that now was the time to eat.
Over the next days the white spots on the Damsel went away and the Anemones started to look better and better.
At this point, one week after the tank setup, I feel like the tank is somewhat under control, but I have still no clue about water parameters except salinity.
I have also forgot to mention that for now I will use tap water for salt mixing and auto top off (ATO). But I think I will look into buying some kind of water treatment unit in the future.
Here are some water analytics data from the water treatment plant if anybody is interested (I think most values will be understandable even though its in Swedish).
< means that they hit the low of their measuring equipment, so the real value is lower
The plans for the near future of this aquarium is to first of all get some stability, wait for my ordered water test kits to arrive so I can get some knowledge about the water parameters. After that I want to do a reefscape and add sand, and then when everything is stable look to add some new lifeforms to the tank.
If you managed to read this far, thank you! I hope you are interested to follow along the progression of this Red Sea Reefer 170 and my first saltwater tank journey.
Have a great day!
