SW newbie

wrasseman_joe · Jul 7, 2016

Hello just joined up. Fish keeping for years, used to do African cichlids. Dove into saltwater, no pun intended. Did a custom fluval spec 5 I built a stand around drilled the tank and made a 20g tall sump with deep sand bend and a homemade protein skimmer. This was fun for a while but I wanted more than 1 goby... So ended up with a 92g corner tank with 20g sump swc 250 protein skimmer with a little macro algae fuge. Keep my levels in check. Maybe 100lbs live rock. 2 36" orbitmarine LEDs and a 36 bulb 3 watt led light full spectrum. Was already set up with fish so tore down and set back up within a few hours so cycling was easy. Up and running for 4 months. Learned the newbie woes of not having QT, now everything goes through copper qt after all the fish I got with the tank died due to diseased anthias I added.

Things are better over the last two months. 1 yellow fin fairy wrasse 1 chalk bass 1 melanurus wrasse 1 yellow coris 1 blue streak cleaner wrasse 1 blue line tang 1 picasso clown 4 nemurus chromis.

I don't know much about coral tanks and stocking, always heavily overstocked my cichlid tanks purposefully, what is my stocking level like above? I would really like to add another fish or two. Have my heart set on a flame angel (will add him last). Can I add more? How do you think a healthy eating longnose butterfly would do? Thank you!

jsker · Jul 7, 2016

Welcome to R2R

Chrisfish · Jul 7, 2016

Welcome, I can't answer your questions as I am fairly new to SW as well but you've picked the right place and your tank is looking really nice!

Salty1962 · Jul 8, 2016

Welcome to R2R!

eatbreakfast · Jul 9, 2016

Welcome!

Your chemistry will be able to tell you about your stocking levels. Each tank is different, and can handle different bioloads. That being said, you seem as though adding further fish shouldn't be a problem.

wrasseman_joe · Jul 9, 2016

eatbreakfast said:
Welcome!

Your chemistry will be able to tell you about your stocking levels. Each tank is different, and can handle different bioloads. That being said, you seem as though adding further fish shouldn't be a problem.

Yes I am ocd about my water and test nitrates phosphates alkalinity and spg daily and ammonia nitrites not as often. Everything is great, nitrates run a hair high 10-20ppm. Only corals I have issues with growing are acros so I just steer clear of those for the time being unless I run across some green bali slimer which I had great success with in my nano. So given the nitrate levels I've been thinking I'm at or close to the max. But tank is only a few months set up in this spot after the big move when I got it and nitrates were 40ppm and have been trending down for a while now so maybe the bacteria will catch up and nitrates will be close to nil in a few weeks. I do 10% water change every 2 weeks and dose seachem 2part, fuel and zooplankton. Now that I'm writing this all out I think I'm putting in too much nutrients, feed 3x a day too

wrasseman_joe · Jul 9, 2016

I check calcium daily too

eatbreakfast · Jul 9, 2016

Just continue to see if nitrates trend down. 10-20ppm is fine for LPS and softies. You may be able to still add.

melypr1985 · Jul 11, 2016

Welcome to R2R! Great tank!

KJ · Jul 11, 2016

Welcome to R2R

Diesel · Jul 11, 2016

mushroomrob · Jul 12, 2016

Welcome to R2R! Nice contrast in your tank!

dbl · Jul 12, 2016

Welcome to R2R.

stevo01 · Jul 12, 2016

Welcome to R2R, Your tank looks happy! Do you still have cichlids and what types?

I have a 55 gallon cichlid tank that I keep overstocked too. We use the overstocking method in cichlid tanks for the purpose of confusing the aggressive cichlids, that actually has a hormonious effect on them. Almost like cichlids have AADHD. All I know is that it works. But as you know it can make for real high nitrate levels. We clean our cichlid tank weekly/biweekly. In freshwater, I like to use a lot of plants to combat the high nitrates naturally. Unfortunately, cichlids will destroy any plant put into the tank. I've tried about a dozen species of plants and only 1 hasn't been torn to bits.

In my 20g reef tank I have 3 fish (Melanurus wrasse, Diamond goby, and firefish), a bunch of invertebrates consisting of roughly 20 small snails (cerith, nassarisus, turbo, mexican turbo, stometella), 20 small hermits (blue leg, red leg, scarlet, left hand zebra, thin lined, and a blue elbow), 3 shrimp (2 peppermint 1 skunk), 1 starfish (Sandsifting starfish), and a cluster of red dusters. I've got 35 species of coral frags/colonies, with the bulk of them soft/leather corals. Soft corals, filter feeding invertebrates, and macro algae are good ways of countering nitrates in a marine tank. The use of good cycled live sand and live rock is a huge nitrate combatant. Definetly want those good bacterias established. I've got about 50lbs of live rock and 40lbs of live sand. In addition, I dose phytoplankton, zooplankton, and keep a good population of Copepods and Amphipods. The system seems to be working well for me. It's been 7 months. My tank is healthy, with no fish loses, and all the life is thriving/growing. Is my tank overstocked? Probably.

I have a 65g DT with 40g sump/fuge, currently in setup phase. When it's up and running I'll be pulling out the hermits/snails that have got too big for the 20g and toss them in the fuge. The large hermits and snails have a way of knocking down frags even when they are glued. That's my only headache right now

stevo01 · Jul 12, 2016

Is the 92g made by deep blue?

SantaMonicaHelp · Jul 12, 2016

Welcome to R2R!!I am sorry on your loss of fish... I hope everything goes smooth this time

-MJ

wrasseman_joe · Jul 14, 2016

stevo01 said:
Is the 92g made by deep blue?

All-glass aquariums I believe. I am the 3rd or 4th owner and someone built the stand themselves during that time

wrasseman_joe · Jul 14, 2016

Thanks all for the warm welcome!

wrasseman_joe · Jul 14, 2016

stevo01 said:
Welcome to R2R, Your tank looks happy! Do you still have cichlids and what types?

I have a 55 gallon cichlid tank that I keep overstocked too. We use the overstocking method in cichlid tanks for the purpose of confusing the aggressive cichlids, that actually has a hormonious effect on them. Almost like cichlids have AADHD. All I know is that it works. But as you know it can make for real high nitrate levels. We clean our cichlid tank weekly/biweekly. In freshwater, I like to use a lot of plants to combat the high nitrates naturally. Unfortunately, cichlids will destroy any plant put into the tank. I've tried about a dozen species of plants and only 1 hasn't been torn to bits.

Thank you and nice tank!

I don't have cichlids any longer, the LFS gave me super great deals on credit/trades for SW and supplies. Never could get them to hang with plants. I had all male haps and peacocks.
Here's a link to my YouTube video after I set it up.

kireek · Jul 22, 2016

*Welcome to Reef2Reef @wrasseman_joe !* Nice set up! I think you should be able to add soft corals and various LPS at this time.Provided that your fish won't eat them.You can stock a tank with corals similar to a heavily planted FW aquarium.Just keep in mind that corals expand and will fight with one another.In my humble opinion one should not try to stock saltwater fish similar to a aggressive cichlid tank.Sound advice from @eatbreakfast .Keep a eye on your levels and adding a new fish or coral should be no problem.