eschaton
Fishaholic
I finally entered the salty side of the hobby this weekend. There were a few bumps along the way, but I seem to be on the way to a good tank.
Saturday, I cleaned up my old 20-gallon tank that was unused, set up lights, heaters, and powerhead, and went to my favorite LFS. They only sell freshwater stock, but have some saltwater supplies. I picked up salt, a refractometer, and saltwater bulbs for one of my old freshwater fixtures (they only had one set of the 24 inch T-5s). Talked with the manager, who does nano-reefing on the side, and he convinced me to get a small bubble filter used (for only $7), along with convincing me to skip using a skimmer (he said in his own experience things like Tunicates, Sponges, and other interesting fauna are actually more likely to grow without a skimmer. Perhaps most importantly, he told me the best place in the area to pick up live rock that has already been cycled in tanks. He told me that the only thing to watch out for was Aiptasia Anemones.
Went back to my place and set up the tank basics. Set the temperature for 81 degrees. Added salt until the specific gravity was 1.0255. Put a bit of crushed coral in the bottom to fix the PH at 8.4. I didn't have any argonite sand however, so that had to wait till today.
Today, I went to the LFS he recommended. They indeed had a pretty good saltwater selection, along with a large number of interesting bits of live rock for around $8 per pound. Most of the tanks, however, did have at least one Aiptasia in them. I did my best to avoid those, but discovered after purchasing that one of the tanks I picked rock out of had red flatworms in it. Ahh!!! Hopefully they'll not be a major breakout, though from what I understand they're more a nuisance than an actual problem in a tank. Also bought argonite sand and purchased a small bit of rubble/live sand. This store also didn't have the 24-inch T-5's I was looking for.
Got back home, and finished the initial setup. The bag of sand said it needed thorough rinsing, and indeed horrible, black silt came off of the sand. I got as much of it out as possible, but the water still ended up all but opaque for quite awhile. With no other option, I just sort of placed the live-rock randomly so it could be underwater while I waited for the tank to clear up enough to do real aquascaping.
I went to another store in an attempt to find the T-5's, and also because I had heard they were the only local source of live sand. They also didn't have the bulbs I needed, but I did pick up the sand - which looks rather unimpressive, but only cost $2.50 per pound. For the same price, I picked up another 2.5 pounds of rubble too - mostly boring lumps, but one really nice long staghorn-like fragment, and one good flat bit for bracing.
On a whim, I stopped by Petco on the way back. They also didn't have my lights (are Coralife bulbs that rare?), though I did buy a mag-float.
When I got back home, I found the temperature in my tank had unexpectedly climbed to 86 degrees. I was rather confused as to why this could be, considering I had had the lights and the heater on the previous day no problem (eventually I realized the powerhead got clogged due to the silt and was overheating and bleeding into the tank). Anyway, I sort of panicked and did a partial water change with cold bottled water mixed with salt. Because I was hurried, I didn't get the salinity perfect, and as a result my specific gravity dropped to 1.024, which I'm not happy about. However, I'm just going to let it evaporate to a lower level for now, and deal with boosting the salinity for the total volume again next week. The tank has now dropped to 83 degrees and seems to be doing fine.
The live rock is very high quality stuff. I've seen plenty of life, including a few small brittle stars, polychete worms (the largest was four inches), and various little pods. About half of it's already covered with coraline algae. I did find and kill two Aiptasia on one bit of rock, so I'm hoping a major outbreak won't happen. Supposedly all the rock and sand is already cycled, so I should be seeing the algae bloom within the next few weeks.
My digital camera is a battery hog, and right now I'm all out of batteries. I'll attach some pictures tomorrow and see what you folks think of my aquascaping.
Saturday, I cleaned up my old 20-gallon tank that was unused, set up lights, heaters, and powerhead, and went to my favorite LFS. They only sell freshwater stock, but have some saltwater supplies. I picked up salt, a refractometer, and saltwater bulbs for one of my old freshwater fixtures (they only had one set of the 24 inch T-5s). Talked with the manager, who does nano-reefing on the side, and he convinced me to get a small bubble filter used (for only $7), along with convincing me to skip using a skimmer (he said in his own experience things like Tunicates, Sponges, and other interesting fauna are actually more likely to grow without a skimmer. Perhaps most importantly, he told me the best place in the area to pick up live rock that has already been cycled in tanks. He told me that the only thing to watch out for was Aiptasia Anemones.
Went back to my place and set up the tank basics. Set the temperature for 81 degrees. Added salt until the specific gravity was 1.0255. Put a bit of crushed coral in the bottom to fix the PH at 8.4. I didn't have any argonite sand however, so that had to wait till today.
Today, I went to the LFS he recommended. They indeed had a pretty good saltwater selection, along with a large number of interesting bits of live rock for around $8 per pound. Most of the tanks, however, did have at least one Aiptasia in them. I did my best to avoid those, but discovered after purchasing that one of the tanks I picked rock out of had red flatworms in it. Ahh!!! Hopefully they'll not be a major breakout, though from what I understand they're more a nuisance than an actual problem in a tank. Also bought argonite sand and purchased a small bit of rubble/live sand. This store also didn't have the 24-inch T-5's I was looking for.
Got back home, and finished the initial setup. The bag of sand said it needed thorough rinsing, and indeed horrible, black silt came off of the sand. I got as much of it out as possible, but the water still ended up all but opaque for quite awhile. With no other option, I just sort of placed the live-rock randomly so it could be underwater while I waited for the tank to clear up enough to do real aquascaping.
I went to another store in an attempt to find the T-5's, and also because I had heard they were the only local source of live sand. They also didn't have the bulbs I needed, but I did pick up the sand - which looks rather unimpressive, but only cost $2.50 per pound. For the same price, I picked up another 2.5 pounds of rubble too - mostly boring lumps, but one really nice long staghorn-like fragment, and one good flat bit for bracing.
On a whim, I stopped by Petco on the way back. They also didn't have my lights (are Coralife bulbs that rare?), though I did buy a mag-float.
When I got back home, I found the temperature in my tank had unexpectedly climbed to 86 degrees. I was rather confused as to why this could be, considering I had had the lights and the heater on the previous day no problem (eventually I realized the powerhead got clogged due to the silt and was overheating and bleeding into the tank). Anyway, I sort of panicked and did a partial water change with cold bottled water mixed with salt. Because I was hurried, I didn't get the salinity perfect, and as a result my specific gravity dropped to 1.024, which I'm not happy about. However, I'm just going to let it evaporate to a lower level for now, and deal with boosting the salinity for the total volume again next week. The tank has now dropped to 83 degrees and seems to be doing fine.
The live rock is very high quality stuff. I've seen plenty of life, including a few small brittle stars, polychete worms (the largest was four inches), and various little pods. About half of it's already covered with coraline algae. I did find and kill two Aiptasia on one bit of rock, so I'm hoping a major outbreak won't happen. Supposedly all the rock and sand is already cycled, so I should be seeing the algae bloom within the next few weeks.
My digital camera is a battery hog, and right now I'm all out of batteries. I'll attach some pictures tomorrow and see what you folks think of my aquascaping.
It looks as though it's dividing into three smaller polyps all in a row. I don't want to risk trying to mangle it again, so I'll likely just wait on a peppermint shrimp. Or maybe I'll just try using a siphon on it. 
