35G Saltwater Reef Journal

Day 1
After being dormant in the fish hobby for 5 years after taking down my 175g and 300g reef tanks, which I had for a total of 6 years; I decided to start up again! I went to the LFS a month ago and took a look at what they had in stock and i decided on the 30-40g range, not to big and not to small for my tastes plus i'm gonna be moving in 6 months or so and I wanted a compact tank to be able to bring with me for easy moving. Upon finding the red sea max I was amazed by how the tank is completely self obtained and how well built it was. I did my homework and found out about their excellent customer service and so the rest was history. A month later (3 days ago) I bought the 35g red sea max 130d with a 15% discount.

I came home and set it up immediately, solid tank and very well built. Very impressed. After setup I began creating RO water and only to realize I forgot the salt doh!I filled the tank 3/4 of the way before I called it a night.

Day 2
After filling the tank and making sure all the pumps and lights were running properly I was off to the LFS, where I purchased 40 lbs of live sand and 22 lbs of live rock already cured with coraline algae already showing and also the salt. When I got home I made some RO and got the salinity level in my tank right while i let the live sand and rock sit (every hour or so I poured a little saltwater on them). After getting the salinity right I added my old dry rock as a base and stacked the live rock on top and built lots of caves and what not. About a total of 28lbs of rock, a little high but I like the setup. I just let it run and clear up after the sand and rock went in. Set the automatic timer for the light for 6 hrs of big lights and have been increasing 2 hours each day till I get to 12. Following the red sea's manual.

Day 3
Woke up and the tank was crystal clear and did a water quality test and everything was at acceptable levels. Cycle hadn't yet begun. Salinity, temp., water flow all good.
I went ahead and cleaned out the mechanical filter and skimmer. The skimmer decided to over skim =(. And not the skimmer isnt skimming enough. Can't seem to get it to produce correctly, oh well practice makes perfect. Just let the tank run and do its job. Also did a 10% water change for farts and giggles. Man oh man water changes are so easy when your not dealing with large tanks =)

Day 4 7/15/12
Still no algae growth and so today I decided to run to the LFS to grab a few crabs and a cheap damsel. Got my water tested while I was there. Salinity a bit low from water change but everything else was good and acceptable. A little bit of nitrite. Grabbed more water testing strips after knocking all of mine into the tank last night......... Currently the 3 crabs and the damsel are being dripped to acclimate. letting the drip lines run for an hour and a half before I add them. Will post how it all comes out when the fish are in the tank.

Crabs are in after an hour of dripping. Putting damsel in after another 30 mins for a total of 1hr 30mins. 1 drop per second. My goal with these critters is to speed up cycle and increase bio load.

The damsel is now in, but he's hiding so i wiil have to find him later for a photo op. done posting for now.

Yeah I like these tanks. Very neat.Wooho two days after adding live rock then adding fish. Might be a tad early. Keep checking your water parameters as you may still get ammonia and nitrite. What other stocking are you thinking?

It is early than you're used to, but there's 6 years of reefing in this journal and there is a school of thought that allows hardy fish like damsels and some inverts to be placed into the tank at this time, especially when we're dealing with cured rock.

Many of my tanks have gone through the cycling process with little or no spikes. I'd watch the nitrite levels.

That is a lovely tank. Red Sea makes a kick butt product. What's the salinity? And the lighting? What are the tank goals? I've eyed that tank for a while now.

L

PS: Want me to move this to the journal section?

Looks good! I will be following this one.

Thanks for the interest everybody! and the reason for the added livestock early is to increase bioload, im trying to get the tank to kick start the cycling process. The sooner the better. Damsels are also extremely hardy and cheap. I'm using the same process I used to break in my 175g and 300g tanks. Except with those i just bought a lot of guppies for the bioload(cheaper and they survive the salt 75% of the time).

Just did some checks on tank. temp is a bit high at 79.6 but I just kicked the built in chiller on and it will be stabilized soon enough. Salinity is at 1.0235. The lights are what comes with it which are more than enough to grow corals and what not of any kind. Lights are 110w high intensity T5 compact lighting. thats 4w per liter. And x4 LED moonlights.

Water test:Ammonia is at an acceptable level. nitrate's are 0. nitrite's are stressed. total alkalinity is ideal and ph is a tid bid high. which is all to be expected from increasing the load. Doing a water change tomorrow to stabilize or later tonight.

yes please move to journal section. Its been a good minute since i've navigated these forums.

As for goals for tank i have a few. I plan to purchase a snowflake eel as soon as tank seems safe to me. They are by far my fav animal to keep in a fish tank. I do realize they grow to be to big, therefore I will purchase the eel at smallest size available and trade him in as soon as he becomes to big for a new small one.

I also plan to care for many corals/anemone/clown fish. and whatever else I might find a good fit. Of course I will make sure not to overstock. I'm gonna be going by a standard of 15 inches of fish. I'm just gonna have to figure it out as I go. I def want a very vibrant tank tho. So we'll see in the near future =)

I think that you will find that any small fish will become a tasty snack if you are getting a snowflake.

You sound like a man with a plan.

ainsy said:

I think that you will find that any small fish will become a tasty snack if you are getting a snowflake.

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I think that's why he opted for a damsel and not a $100 blue spot jawfish.

Like I said, it's definitely not the method I used to start off, but I do understand that many successful reefs are started in just this way.

I live in Miami, reefs over here are very commonplace.

Kyle, what made you get rid of the other two tanks? What did you keep in them? I'm very curious. I keep very small tanks normally and have never had one even near that size.

L

To be honest i'm a drug addict and alcoholic in recovery and life is what made me get rid of them. But now i'm 6 months sober and making a comeback with the fishies. I kept all sorts of stuff in them haha. so many fish. A lot of tang species since tangs are my favorite, seahorses, eels, anemones, various corals, and a small stingray in the 300g(and many more ,but I just dont feel like listing). But i'm off to college soon and couldn't have a big tank this time around. So that's why i opted with the smaller one that I can move around if needed.

Yes I realize the snowflake will eat small fish. The damsel is purely for cycling, it's not even possible to remove the damsel if rock is in the tank ,so to be honest I hope the eel eats the damsel. HAHA sorry if that's inhumane to the fishies =)

tested this morning temp is at 79.1. salinity is at 1.224. ph is at 7.8 a bit low. alkanity is perfect. nitrite at about 0.5 and no nitrates. ammonia is at an acceptable level.
this is with a waterchange last night. (10%)

I wont be buying anything more until the algae starts attacking! Then i'll grab a few snails.

lljdma06 said:

I think that's why he opted for a damsel and not a $100 blue spot jawfish.

L

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I didn't mean that - it was the clownfish mentioned later that I was talking about.

kyle sicard said:

To be honest i'm a drug addict and alcoholic in recovery and life is what made me get rid of them. But now i'm 6 months sober and making a comeback with the fishies.

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That is very honest of you...congratulations on your 6 months. I am sure that getting back into fishkeeping will help with your recovery. I know it has helped me through some tough times in my life.

Gonna stalk this thread I think