My Tank With Not As Many Mistakes

Inspired by Mathews wonderful thread I have decided to document my tank and it's journeys. I have a made a few mistakes along the way and have to correct them. And it is fairly young so I will be adding and changing a lot of things. I will post some pics later tonight.


55 USG
Marine
Approx 25-30 USLbs LR

Here is a broad shot of my tank, very unexciting





Here is the LR on the left. I can't tell if the two sponges are growing or dying.


Here is a shot of the U shaped cave I made towards the middle.


Here is a shot of the oldest piece I have, approximately 6-7 months old.


Here is the rock on the right and the one in the back which is the newest at about 2 months in my tank.


Here is the rock on the far right(different angle). You can see in this picture, although it appears black, the purple what I am assuming is a sponge.

You are going to get many differing opinions on this site about recommendations and such. Personally I wouldn't assume anyone here is a pro. Most of us wouldn't consider ourselves pros, just a little more educated than a newbie! The hobby changes so fast I don't think anyone can keep up with it all and post here with any frequency. My advise is to research all options before you do anything. Also see if there is a local reef club or aquarium society in your area where you can find good local advise and help.

I personally have three suggestions for you to research. First is your substrate. It looks like colored gravel or maybe crushed coral. I would suggest replacing it with aggronite sand before doing anything else. Your overall maintainence will be diminished and will most likely be a more pleasing experience than the gravel.

The next two can be combined into filtration issues. I would look at getting rid of the HOB and using live rock with power heads instead. Don't just do this. Slowly build up the live rock amount in the tank and then work on removing the filter. This way you won't get a mini cycle.

So far it looks like you are off to a good start and that is a nice size tank for a first marine setup.

Thanks for the info, the substrate is haf agronite and half crushed coral(i think) all the aronite sifted to the bottom though. I did consider this and it will take a while, but I intend on doing that next. Thanks again!!

I also have one suggestion... I believe that was a cleaner wrasse I saw in the picture. Most cleaner wrasses I've ever heard of kept in tanks smaller than 100gallons have died due to starvation. 90% of individual cleaner wrasses wont eat prepared foods, and subsist off of cleaning parasites off of larger fishes. If you dont see him eating with your chromis, I'd be a little worried for his longterm health.

Agree with Ski. You shouldn't really have a Cleaner Wrasse in there. I would give it back to your LFS or find it a better home.

Also change your gravel to a marine substrate. You do not know how adversely it could effect your PH.

I never thought about that with the Cleaner. As a test I just fed them some flakes and the Cleaner did join the others and munched some down. Seems like I also remember him eat brine shrimp too.

Well, if he has made the transition to prepared foods then you're very lucky and he should do fine longterm. Be careful every time you add new fish to make sure that he's not out-competed for food. If he stops eating the prepared stuff, beware...

Ahh, Cleaner Wrasse, Cleaner Wrasse...

One of the first saltwater fish I ever had was a Cleaner Wrasse. It was my favourite fish. It fed very well on frozen foods, flying in the face of the new advice I got. I bought him because in an old book of mine said they were easy to keep. Mine was, it even survived the cycling of the tank ( I didn't know what a "fishless cycle" was back then) . Ironically, cryptocaryon brought him to his untimely demise.

So after the ich breakout had diminished, I got another one. He ate the first night I brought him in, then hid in a cave until he died. Oddly enough, he wasn't stuck; he just liked that cave so much, even to eat was not a good enough reason to leave it, apparently.

-Lynden

I just wanted to let you guys know that I appreciate your advise and take it seriously. I was seriously thinking about finding a new home for the cleaner wrasse, but I thought I would try one last test. I thawed some brine shrimp and dumped it in. I watched him eat 14 smaller size brine shrimp and that was enough proof for me. I guess I am very fortunate because it really is a beuatiful and cool fish. I will pay attention to his eating habits though. If they diminish I will find him a new home. I like to think that, even though I enjoy the fish, their survival and comfort comes first.

Nice looking so far

I would think about a background before you go any further! I made that mistake and MAN oh MAN!!! It was so hard to do.

Nice looking Live rock how much do you have it there? What size it the tank (dimensions)

You’re on the right track
!

So I am going to put some sort of background in, but first I do want to change the substrate. Am I correct in saying that I can buy the more expensive Live Sand and it will start the nitrification almost after I put it in. And the I could also buy the Regular Ocean floor sand and it would just take time to build up it's filtering properties.


Also how do I rinse it?

and is there a way to put it into my tank that won't make it crazy. I was thinking of lowering it down to the floor in a 1cup measuring scoop and gently pooring it in.

Do I need to remove the larger stuff? Right now it is 50/50 mix of aragonite and crushed coral.

Id wash it out-side in some buckets and a hose. Just rinse till the water becomes clear. It may tae a while, but trust me, youll want to do a thourough job of it though, so you wont end up with a white cloud!

Id just use the sand you have. Dont buy Live Sand, its a waste of time and money. You new sand will seed in no time with that mature LR!

Adding it.....hmmm. Ive never added sand to a tank after I put in rock, so id suggest slowly adding in a cup like you mentioned before!

I might need a few more details on rinsing. The stuff is so damn fine I don't know what to do.

And this is absolutley STUPID trying to get all the larger gravel out without taking out the Aragonite already in there. This will take me a whole week.

by no means a marine expert, but looking at your tank it looks like your using a standard hood with 2 lights. If so, then they are probably 20w bulbs giving you well under 1wpg. This might make some lr hard to grow. But, might be wrong.