New Tank With Pic

[Stugotz]

Here is my first saltwater tank. Its a 29 gal. FOWLR

Equipment so far:

29Gal All-Glass
Fluval 205
Rio 600 Power Head
Rena 150 Heater
Coralife Aqualight T-5


I currently have 40 Lbs of CaribSea Aragalive sand and just added 30 Lbs of live rock from Gulf-view. This rock looks GREAT!!!


Tell me what you guys think so far about the tank and its setup. I am thinking about adding a Protein Skimmer. Any suggestions? I was looking at the BAK-PAK or RamoraC. Also any Beginner Fowlr books would be great too.


Thanks Vince

 

[Lynden]

It has potential

Skimmers are useful, however not essential. If you don't have a cleanup crew, I would get one, as they help keep the water clear.

 

[Stugotz]

I have not added any clean up crew yet other then the few snails that were on the live rock. I am waiting for the tank to cycle before i add anything. I check the levels last night after about 24 hours with the rock they were:
Temp- 78°F
Ammonia- .5
Nitrite- .5
Nitrate- 20
pH- 7.8
Salinity- 1.024


How high with should the Ammonia get? I did add a raw shrimp for about 2 days about a week ago then took it out because it started to come apart in the tank at that point the ammonia was at 1.0.

 

[SkiFletch]

The ammonia level depends directly upon the amount of dieoff in the tank. The "common" ammonia spike is 0.5-2ppm for those wh live near their LFS and get the rock in saltwater quickly after purchase. Sometimes you can have higher ammonia, sometimes lower. Your parameters seem very normal

 

[Mr Miagi]

If you don't have a cleanup crew, I would get one, as they help keep the water clear.

Correction, they dont keep the "water" clean, they keep the tank glass and rock work "clean".

Its nice Stugotz! Good caves for the fish to retreat too! What fish are you planning?

 

[DebsR]

really nice looking rock - very lively

 

[daneeboy]

looking good. i didnt have a ammonia or nitrite spike at all!!! or if i did it happened so quick it didnt show up on tests. I did have a teeny bit of nitrate but its now gone and i got a big algae boom. I took my water to a mate who works in a LFS to confirm my tests where not out and he got same reading as me.

My rock was only out of water 30 mins so was still wet when i dumped it in my tank and is crawling with life.

Ive just added 5 snails and 5 crabs to start cleaning up