The Supreme Guide To Setting Up A Saltwater Reef Aquarium

Daniel@R2R

Living the Reef Life
View Badges
Joined
Nov 18, 2012
Messages
37,334
Reaction score
63,109
Location
Fontana, California
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
Just bumping this for those who may not have seen it. It's a very helpful article.
 

Eienna

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 9, 2013
Messages
5,758
Reaction score
548
Location
Eddyville, KY, USA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Hi all. I just joined today and i'm looking forward to picking your brains I'm a complete newbie. Got a biocube Father's Day weekend and have been hooked ever since (no pun attended). Upgraded to a 125 about two months ago and hubby and I are working on that tank, now. We want to have a mix of sps and lps as well as a few fish. I'd love suggestions as to what type of lighting we should invest in. Also, I had a beautiful blue clam that all of a sudden started looking not so great and then it just died. All of the meat is gone, though. I have a fire shrimp, clean up crew, strawberry conch, wrasse, anthias, and hawk fish in the tank. What's the most likely culprit? Thanks!
What species of wrasse?
Sometimes the clam will come with parasites such as pyramid snails. Check this video out.
 

mpjmeyer

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 19, 2013
Messages
664
Reaction score
1,176
Location
St. Louis
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Awesome write up!!! But as most of you know, I still have a question lol. After algae comes into play for the first time, do I need to scrub that off or will a clean up crew take care of the rocks and cleaning most of the algae except for the glass??
 

gorrita

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
May 20, 2013
Messages
42
Reaction score
25
Location
nj,usa
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
After having my FO no live rock tank up for 8 months,the salt water guy at my store thinks I should not use a canister filter at all,instead he wants me to empty out trays and put live rock in it and use a regular hang on filter. What's your thoughts peeps?
 

seastar

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Jun 12, 2015
Messages
679
Reaction score
759
Location
St Johns, FL
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Awesome write up!!! But as most of you know, I still have a question lol. After algae comes into play for the first time, do I need to scrub that off or will a clean up crew take care of the rocks and cleaning most of the algae except for the glass??

In short, I see my job as needing to keep up with the glass, but I appreciate when the CUC takes a few passes at it and I run a refugium or bio-pellets or similar method to keep the majority of the algae at bay.

This is a few months later, but in my mind I like to have some CUC who's specific role is catered to keeping the rocks and sand bed "mostly" clean. I say this because a lot of people will go bananas on the CUC and order far too many, which just ends up having them die off when the job is done, which adds to nitrates, which adds to algae and so on. :)
After having my FO no live rock tank up for 8 months,the salt water guy at my store thinks I should not use a canister filter at all,instead he wants me to empty out trays and put live rock in it and use a regular hang on filter. What's your thoughts peeps?

What size is your tank? What is your maintenance schedule of your canister filter a the moment? I'd have to say I probably agree with what they are saying. The biological advantage of having some live rock will help keep things far more balanced.
 

Dom

Full Time Reef Keeper
View Badges
Joined
Apr 29, 2016
Messages
5,679
Reaction score
6,277
Location
NY
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I have just got my first saltwater aquarium.
I have added the salt, and i Measures 0.018 in salt. Is this enough ?
ImageUploadedByREEF2REEF1388153636.645957.jpg

Yeah; you want it to be between 1.023-1.026. I keep mine at 35ppt which converts to a salinity of 1.026.
 

Frop

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 7, 2016
Messages
1,256
Reaction score
1,063
Location
California
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Yeah; you want it to be between 1.023-1.026. I keep mine at 35ppt which converts to a salinity of 1.026.

I always aimed for 1.025 just incase my meter is off .001 then I can still be good :)
 

Dom

Full Time Reef Keeper
View Badges
Joined
Apr 29, 2016
Messages
5,679
Reaction score
6,277
Location
NY
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I always aimed for 1.025 just incase my meter is off .001 then I can still be good :)

I used to keep it lower. But after joining R2R, I learned a lot about reef chemistry and the relationship between salinity and calcium levels. To get my calcium levels up, it was necessary to bring my salinity up a bit.
 

Daniel@R2R

Living the Reef Life
View Badges
Joined
Nov 18, 2012
Messages
37,334
Reaction score
63,109
Location
Fontana, California
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
I've seen a few questions today about starting a reef tank. Bumping this helpful guide.
 

Scrappy RN

I'm your Huckleberry!
View Badges
Joined
Jul 1, 2016
Messages
327
Reaction score
359
Location
Louisville, KY, USA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Great article! Thanks for writing it!
I just read it completely through for the second time. The first was almost a year ago before I bought my setup. I put a setup on layaway at the LFS and now that I actually got it up and running this weekend I read back through to make sure I didn't miss anything. All the research I did in between the readings helped tremendously because now I understand a lot more of what you were talking about, lol.
Can't wait for the cycling to complete so I can start getting my fish, corals and inverts!

Thanks again!
 

Hugo Garcia

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 13, 2017
Messages
170
Reaction score
55
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Is there a way to make sure the water level stays always the same? Like some kind of system to add water when it evaporates?
 

Aquatic acrobat in your aquarium: Have you ever kept an eel?

  • I currently keep an eel in my tank.

    Votes: 29 14.4%
  • I have kept an eel in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 34 16.9%
  • I have not kept an eel in my tank, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 36 17.9%
  • I have no plans to keep an eel.

    Votes: 99 49.3%
  • Other.

    Votes: 3 1.5%

New Posts

Back
Top