Am I Heading In The Right Direction?

[Zippeay]

Ok so I'm new to this whole fish tank thing. I've been having 100 people tell me 100 different things about my tank so I've decided to have 1000 people probably tell me more lol. Anyway here is my tank, the top rocks are LR, the bigger rocks on the bottom are what I was given with the tank when I bought it. I have a 300GPH pump, a heater currently 72 deg., A filter "The kind with the wheel, which the guy has used for about 3 years before I bought it and I haven't changed anything but the flat filter". The substrate is crushed coral, the total lbs of LR I have currently is 6 lbs "I know I need more but I don't have the $$$ just yet". My biggest question is do I really NEED 25 more lbs or LR? Is the substrate ok? I'm in the military and I will have to leave the tank with my wife a lot so I don't want to get any really delicate fish cause she's kinda of a flake sometimes. I was thinking maybe a couple clown fish, those really cool shrimp "the orange with white stripes" and maybe a few other hardy fish "I'm open to suggestions". The tank is a 35 gallon tank so I know I can't get too crazy with it. I just want a nice simple happy tank for my daughter cause she loves fish. Anything wrong with what I'm thinking, I'm planning on getting probably 20 lbs or LR today or tomorrow but I'm not putting any fish in it for about another month, its been up and running now for 3 days. Ok well it seems as though I'm a retard and I can't figure out how to post a pic of my tank ) Sooo... I guess for now hopefully someone can look at the link and see what I'm talking about Fishtank pics. Thanks a lot in advance guys

 

[pleder]

I'll volunteer to be 101.

With the tank setup you have it would be more stable to add the additional liverock. Liverock and the crushed coral once it develops the proper bacteria will act as a filtering agent in your system filtering out the ammonia and starting your nitrogen cycle.

From you description it sounds like your filter is a simple floss pad with a biowheel. It's an HOB style probably a Penguin or a Marine Land? IMO remove the biowheel. They are nitrate factories and your tank will be better without it. I know it's scary and everyone else is telling you different, but that is what I would do. I ran a 18g, and a 44g for a couple of years using only the LR, and LS as filtration with a filter similiar to yours with no biowheel and no filter pad. JME

As for the rock, yeah I would get more. It might just be the picture, but it looks like much of the rock you have now is not LR, Is that the case? Marine is not like fresh, you can't just put any type of rock in there, some types will poison your tank.

On the stocking guide since it's your first tank, I would keep it easy. Those shrimp are going to be good. You could look into volcanic red shrimp as well. They are very tough and if you forget to feed them for a couple of years they'll be alive, not happy but alive (I'm serious on the years part, it's crazy but true, look into desktop biospheres).

If the tank is for your daughter I bet she will love the electric blue color damsle fish. They are a great beginner fish. Almost bullet proof and still have that fun and exciting bright color. They are kind of bullies though so housing them with smaller fish may prove problamatic.

Many types of gobies and blennies are easy to care for and great beginner fish. I'd stay away from the manderin gobies, and the dragnet gobies. They are lucious to look at, but very hard to keep especially in a 35, without some serious equipment additions. It is the fish that actually got me into really researching salt water, (after I had it and a seahorse, I was a dumb newbie) and started my addiction. Damm $10 fish cost me about $400 in equipment just to keep the pod life up enough to feed. So, I'd stay away, at least for now.

The carpenter's flasher wrasse is also a great beginner fish choice and very colorful. I would introduce these first to your system as they has a tendency to get picked on. Make sure you get one that is eating frozen mysis or frozen brine. Make the LFS let you watch it eat frozen, if they don't don't buy the fish. Some LFS's are picky about this, I find a handful of twenties and "I came to buy the fish, if you don't feed it infornt of me, I'm leaving," will persuade even the most persistent LFS owner. I have a luxury that I live with 2o minutes of about 12 LFS's so even if the fish does eat the ammonia will not have time to build up in the bag before I get the fish into it's QT tank.

Some snails are intresting to watch as well. I like the Top Crown Snails (aestrea endoza) alot. The bumble bee snails (Pusiostoma sp., Engina sp) are also very intresting. The Naussarius snails (Nassarius distortus) are also cool especially for kids because they look like unicorn snails ( jut say that she'll love it )

These are just some of the options available. Different species of fish have different restrictions on tank mates. I would go to some sites like Liveaquaria.com for example and take a look around. Make sure you get something that can live in your tank. When you figured out what you woule like to keep, come back and post and we can help you with compatabilitiy.

Also back top your equipment for a moment. What kind of maxijet is that? If it is just going to be a FOWLR (Fish only with live rock) system, you might want to add another one. Maybe place it so the flow will go through your rocks once they are added. This will eliminate deadspots and really utilize the filtration of the LR since your filter is kinda on the small side.

Also to save some coin, you could buy lr that has been dried. It is usually much cheaper but will take some time to fully develop the aerobic bacteria. But if you don't mind stocking your tank slowly which I would really reccomend, then it is fine.

Good Luck

 

[krosebush]

I am new to the hobby as well but I will help you as much as I can. First off, I would definitely have 1lb LR for every gallon, and if you're going to be placing coral or inverts I would go 1.5lb LR for every gallon. This will really help with the biological filtration and tank stability. Another thing I would recommend would be to crank the temperature up a lil' bit between 75-82 degrees. If you're going to be leaving it to your wife and kid, I would probably put some damsels, gobies, or firefish in the tank, which with that tank size I would probably only add 2 more fish and 3 at the most. I hope it all goes well for you!

 

[SkiFletch]

Ok, well technically a nano tank, so here goes

Yes, get more LR. More LR will make the tank a little more shall we say stable when you're not around to care for it. Don't push your stocking levels at all since you wont be around constantly. Teach your wife how to measure for chemicals and do water changes when nitrates get high

As far as fish goes, Clowns are a great hardy choice. I've also heard people report that they can't kill their damsels and green chromis no matter how hard they try. I'd stay away from the damsels though since they can get aggressive. I'll let others with more experience suggest some good fish, but if I can also reccomend that you put some LR rubble in the HOB filter that you have there instead of filter floss or media. Also, I'd reccomend removing the tube on the inlet of your Maxi-Jet pump there as it will only be a matter of time before it clogs up

Whats your water chemistry like atm?

 

[pleder]

I would recommend would be to crank the temperature up a lil' bit between 75-82 degrees.

Curious as to why you would recommend this?

I have always kept my systems at the lower ends of the spectrums to help stunt bacteria growth. It has been found that many common fishes diseases are caused by bacterias that become less virulent and some are even negated by the lower temps.

The temperature might need to be modified depending on what species he chooses, but IME keeping a tank at the lower temperature spectrum has prooved succsessful. In 5 years I have never had any disease, or parasite problem with any of my fish or corals. My tank is at 74F and holding.

 

[Zippeay]

Thanks guys, well I don't actually plan on putting fish in it for about another 3-4 weeks because for 1, I'm leaving for 2 weeks on Sunday. And for 2 its a new tank and I don't want to kill anything just yet. I'm not sure about my water make up just yet because I don't have the stuff to test it. But I live close by a fish store "They only have saltwater tanks" and I trust them because they have some beautiful tanks and all the fish seem healthy and they'll test my water for free "Which I'm going to do in about an hour". The only thing I have to test my water atm is the thing "sorry don't know the name of it" that checks for the salt levels. The salt level is right at what the chart recommends so I'm assuming that it is right for now. Well thanks for the help guys. O one more thing is the the rock I have in there that isn't LR is from the guy I bought the tank from and he said it was dead coral? and lava rock? I think thats right, anyway I'll post more pics when I put more LR in either tonight or tomorrow. Thanks again -Zipp

 

[Opcn]

Your heater needs to be high enought that the lights don't creat temp swings, in a small tank this can be a big problem, te lights in my 24 gallon aquapod get the water up to 84 F, so I keep my heater at 82 F 82-84 per 24hr is alot better than 72-84 per 24hr. The snails we get in the hobby generally like the cooler end, especially red footed moon snails and margarita snails, however Nerite snails can take temps up to 94 for a week or more (unfortunately I know this from experience ) Corals also like things abit warmer (well the corals we get in the hoby) 78 is a good temperature generally speaking.

 

[pleder]

I would take the lava rock out. It has been known to leach minerals and metals over time. It does depend on where the rock came from. Lava rock that is manufactored has more of a tendency to leach metals. It is not worth the risk IMO.

I got around the heat issue from the lights by using fans. I have two copmuter fans in my canopy, and a clip on fan I got at Target for like $10 on my refugium. The lights in the canopy do not hit the surface but help to keep the air under the canopy cool. The fan in the sump is pointed right at the water and does cause a ripple effect. It does increas the amount of RODI top off water I need to add to supplement for evaporation, but to me the overall health of my speciments are worth the added troubles. It's all set up on a float switch anyway so all I really do is add the 20g of fresh water every two weeks. I have 322W on my system, as well as a UV at a very low flow. Without the fans my tank would be in the low 80's.

Some of the fish I keep are very prone to bacterial infections so the extra precautions are needed.

 

[Zippeay]

Ok so I went to the store and bought some more rock new tank pics as you can see. The guy tested my water and said everything was normal except my alkalinity level was higher than he'd ever seen before. Here's the run down
Salinity - 1.030
Phosphate- 0.0
Nitrate- 20 mg/L
Alkalinity- 260
Amonia- 1.2 mg/L
He said he'd sell me good water for 25 cents a gallon but since I didn't have anything to put it in he told me that I could just go buy filtered water at the store "Which I did and did a 4 gallon water change", it brought my salt content down to 1.022 which is what the meter say's is safe. So tomorrow I'm gonna bring another water sample to him and see if that helped the Alkalinity situation out.
He said the reason he thinks my Alkalinity was so high is because I used tap water . I didn't know I was supposed to use filtered water because I hadn't done any research and was going off the word of the guy I bought it from . Tomorrow I plan on buying another 20 lbs of LR but I need to find another store that sells it here in Utah "Ogden area, if someone knows please let me know, thanks ". Because the place I've been going to only has smaller sized pieces right now and he's not sure when they will get more in. I'd like to get 1 or 2 more Large pieces so I don't have to stack so many pieces, plus I think it looks better with bigger pieces. O I almost forgot I'm taking out the bio wheel after I post this also. The guy at the Pet store said I should throw the wheel out but change the flat filter once a month??? Is that right??? I'm sure he's trying to make a sale but he seemed really nice, he spent like an hour and a half just going through different rocks so that I had the best ones they had left. So he seems like he's not only there to make money. Anyway thanks guys for all your help, I can't wait to get back home and add some fish, man all the corals and stuff they have there look soooo... nice also but I'm gonna get my feet wet first before I jump all the way into this.

 

[Zippeay]

O I think I've decided on the fish I want when the time is right. I'd like 2 clowns, 1 hawkfish, and 1 other small fish my wife liked "Half neon yellow and half neon pink". Would this be too many fish for my 35 gallon tank? Thanks again -Zipp

 

[pleder]

Tap water can not only have trace metals, but also contain other additives such as chlorine and chloramine. There are conditioners that neutralize these, however tap water is also usually high in phosphates where I am from so RO water is much better.

The lava rock leaching metals will also raise your alkinlinity.

What temp was the temp when it read 1.022? The SG can be affected by temperature. You need both numbers for an accurate assessment.

Was the half and half a royal gramma basslet? I think those 4 would be O.K. in that tank.

 

[Zippeay]

Cool thanks, the Temp was at 72 I need to turn the heater up just a tad bit. I'm going to take the lava rock out tomorrow when I go buy more LR, that way it'll be 100% LR in there. Yes and I think your right about the fish name also, thanks a lot! Could I get away with more fish? Or should I just stick with those 4? I would really like an Angel fish but every thing I've looked at needs a bigger tank than what I have. I think those 4 I mentioned plus a couple clean up crew creatures should be about right I think, I just don't want them to be too over crowded. Thanks again -Zipp

 

[SkiFletch]

I'm not sure about stocking for a 30gal FOWLR tank, but whatever more experienced members with that size around here suggest is what I'd do... Dont wanna push things if you're away from the tank for too long

 

[pleder]

YOu could ditch one of the clowns and get one of the dwarf angels for some variety. 5 fish in a 30g is not that bad though IMO. My brother had a 29 with a Clown, Lemon Peel Angel, Huma Huma Trigger, Flame Angel, and a Valentino puffer and all was well. His filter was very similiar to yours as well.

 

[Aquascaper]

Stick with the two Clowns as they will be more active together and 'play'
The Royal Gramma tends to hide a lot but is great for a burst of colour when it pops out
The Hawkfish will just hang out and look pretty
Maybe add a Coral Beauty as these are one of the smaller Dwarf Angels and are a very active fish

I'd leave the stocking at that.

Recommendation 1: I personally wouldn't add any fish until you've added all your live rock and made sure the tanks cycled. Adding live rock that has die-off on it can cause a mini-cycle which could kill the fish so only add them once your readings are stable at 0ppm Ammonia & 0ppm Nitrites.

Recommendation 2: Add the fish slowly over time, don't buy them all at once. This will give the live rock chance to cope with the increased bioload and prevent a mini-cycle. If you use the stocking list above add them in the order of Clowns, Angel, Hawkfish, Gramma - this will help reduce agression as the most territorial fish go in last.

HTH