Salty reef chick
New Member
Hi!
So after many years of wanting to set up a reef tank I am finally starting on my salty journey.
I have kept FW for the last five years, the last two and a half was a 29 gallon planted tank that was rock solid. I sold it so now I can set up my 32.5 gallon Fluval Flex.
My plan is to use CaribSea Ocean’s Direct sand and live rock from a friend’s tank, based on the preliminary results from BRS and their biome test. My goal is to establish a solid biome from the start.
I’m also thinking of adding some hardy corals right away, such as Xenia and some mushroom corals as indicator corals based on listening to the Reef Builders podcasts and reading Dana Riddle’s articles on coral nutrition. Some corals uptake ammonia so they might help with
ammonia.
Also I want to add some macro algae after a while to help with nutrients and because they’re pretty. I’m thinking of caulerpa, halymenia, gracilaria, codium, and a couple others. I had cabomba y planted FW tank so I’m well used to trimming plants on a regular basis.
As far as fish, I want to go with two clownfish, one or two dart fish, a shrimp goby of some sort, a clown goby, maybe a royal gramma, and an orange tail damsel if they’re ever in stock at Biota.
For CUC, I’m thinking the usual suspects plus some mini brittle starfish from either Addictive Reef Keeping or IPSF.
So, what advice do you all have? Does this sound like a solid plan? I’ve been doing tons and tons of research so I have an idea about all this. Also, for anyone who has kept coral right away, was there anything you did to help them grow? What corals did you keep? Did you feed them from the start?
Thank you!
So after many years of wanting to set up a reef tank I am finally starting on my salty journey.
I have kept FW for the last five years, the last two and a half was a 29 gallon planted tank that was rock solid. I sold it so now I can set up my 32.5 gallon Fluval Flex.
My plan is to use CaribSea Ocean’s Direct sand and live rock from a friend’s tank, based on the preliminary results from BRS and their biome test. My goal is to establish a solid biome from the start.
I’m also thinking of adding some hardy corals right away, such as Xenia and some mushroom corals as indicator corals based on listening to the Reef Builders podcasts and reading Dana Riddle’s articles on coral nutrition. Some corals uptake ammonia so they might help with
ammonia.
Also I want to add some macro algae after a while to help with nutrients and because they’re pretty. I’m thinking of caulerpa, halymenia, gracilaria, codium, and a couple others. I had cabomba y planted FW tank so I’m well used to trimming plants on a regular basis.
As far as fish, I want to go with two clownfish, one or two dart fish, a shrimp goby of some sort, a clown goby, maybe a royal gramma, and an orange tail damsel if they’re ever in stock at Biota.
For CUC, I’m thinking the usual suspects plus some mini brittle starfish from either Addictive Reef Keeping or IPSF.
So, what advice do you all have? Does this sound like a solid plan? I’ve been doing tons and tons of research so I have an idea about all this. Also, for anyone who has kept coral right away, was there anything you did to help them grow? What corals did you keep? Did you feed them from the start?
Thank you!
