Jumping in & Failing!

[jk1151]

Hello All-

I have been perusing this site for awhile now and love to read and learn from so many knowledgeable people. Years ago I tried to get into the Salt Water Hobby but didn't do so hot and felt horrible for my poor skills so I broke my tank down and sold everything. Well the itch came back and I am hear to try again. I feel much more confident this time as I have been doing nothing but researching for months prior to just jumping in. I plan on starting very small and working my way up. I also chose to put a great deal of investment in to my equipment from the start hoping to really get things off on the right foot. I have been obsessively watching BRStv videos and that has been very helpful. They seem like a great company; do you all have good experience with them too? I have a few LFS near me but not a ton unless I drive a ways. Anyone living in Northern Colorado please let me know what stores you frequent!

As far as my failings go, we have had 2 separate Red Sea Tanks delivered and upon delivery both were chipped/cracked a bit in the bottom corner so I am sitting staring at a broken tank awaiting for my 3rd delivery and hoping this one will be good to go! I was too nervous trying to fix the chip that occurred in my first tank from transport. 3rd time is a charm right?

My current goals:
1- cycle my tank appropriately; my LFS keeps saying I can put rock, sand and Dr. Tim's in and then put clownfish the next day to help cycle. I think I'd prefer to do it "right" and cycle with nothing but live rock, sand, no lights, and phantom feeding the tank for a few weeks or so?
2- once I am sure cycle is done add my first set of copepods and clean up critters. Then eventually a couple clownfish, some type of small tang, maybe firefish, and then a year or so down the road when I feel like I have good microfauna and copepods maybe a sand sifting goby and/or mandarin. I don't want to get a mandarin if I shouldn't but I am hoping if I am patient enough and provide a safe place for copepods within a year or so of adding new ones I would have a good population to support a captive bread mandarin???
3- After a few months and after cycling and adding some fish I want to add some softies and not too difficult corals at which time I will have to figure out what type of system to run/dose for corals. I was interested in the Red Sea Reefer Program. Anyone have experience with it and cost? Or should I just use Kalk or 2 stage dosing or something?
4- Just be able to maintain a nice easy as can be mixed reef with not too many demanding SPS corals until I get super addicted but at that point hopefully have a pretty good grasp on needs of my tank.


I see a lot of people going through tank builds in here and I just don't think I have enough outside the box thinking yet to justify a build thread but here is the equipment I have secured so far and some extra thoughts;

-Red Sea Reefer 425XL and original sump layout (I plan on just using their plumbing I think; I have done a lot of reading about hard plumbing and it is very intriguing but I am not sure it is something I can tackle right now. I am hoping I can use the plumbing that comes with the Red Seas and upgrade eventually.)
* My biggest hang up with current sump design is finding a place for a makeshift refugium. I have been thinking about using egg crate to make a section I can have rubble and chaeto for housing pods or buying an in tank refugium and putting that in sump for same purpose.
Here are some other things I have bought so far:
-COR 15 return pump
-New APEX kit with energy bar and 4 probes
- No3PO4X
- RO/DI 4 stage BRS deluxe
- Caribsea Pink Fiji Arag-Alive
-Carbisea Dry Live Rock- shapes boxes
- Red Sea RSK protein Skimmer (I might upgrade to the RSK 600 but can't decide).
- One & Only to help cycle
- Tropic Marin Sea Salt
- 2 Maxspect Gyre XF330
- Hanna instruments testing instruments - many different ones. When just starting out and doing mainly FOWLR I wasn't sure what all ones I would need for that purpose so I just bought a whole bunch knowing I'd like to have softies, then LPS and finally a go at SPS but in like a year or longer.
-Tunze Osmolater 3155
- Red Sea 4" filter cups to replace filters socks and maybe use those to put Carbon or something in them with filter floss on top of some type?
- Inkbird Temp controller with finnex 300 watt heater
- Pod hotel (again hoping to figure out how to have a small refugium somewhere for them as well but thought I could try this as I am working on it. )
-8x8x4 marine pure block for sump
-ROX Carbon; was just going to put in to filter cups
-garbage cans and containers for water changes and fish acclimation if not going to QT
-misc food and feeding equipment
-small tank for QT tank with heater, filter (can i use it to quarantine fish and corals or would I need 2 separate tanks?

Questions:

1- what am I missing?
2- What am I wrong on?
3- Thanks for taking any time out of your day to even read through this! Hopefully I posted in the right area and the right way I look forward to hearing anyone's thoughts!

Kim

 

[lapin]

Howdy

Hello All-

I have been perusing this site for awhile now and love to read and learn from so many knowledgeable people.

My current goals:
1- cycle my tank appropriately; my LFS keeps saying I can put rock, sand and Dr. Tim's in and then put clownfish the next day to help cycle. I think I'd prefer to do it "right" and cycle with nothing but live rock, sand, no lights, and phantom feeding the tank for a few weeks or so?

Sounds like a good idea

2- once I am sure cycle is done add my first set of copepods and clean up critters. Then eventually a couple clownfish, some type of small tang, maybe firefish, and then a year or so down the road when I feel like I have good microfauna and copepods maybe a sand sifting goby and/or mandarin. I don't want to get a mandarin if I shouldn't but I am hoping if I am patient enough and provide a safe place for copepods within a year or so of adding new ones I would have a good population to support a captive bread mandarin???

Sounds good too.

3- After a few months and after cycling and adding some fish I want to add some softies and not too difficult corals at which time I will have to figure out what type of system to run/dose for corals. I was interested in the Red Sea Reefer Program. Anyone have experience with it and cost? Or should I just use Kalk or 2 stage dosing or something?

Dont even worry about dosing. Water changes work just fine for adding what corals need . Once you see that water changes cant keep up then maybe dosing is in the cards

 

[MERKEY]

Hello and welcome!

Sounds like this will be a fun build once the tank comes in not cracked

Hope the 3rd one is all good for you!!

 

[jk1151]

Oh and I forgot; I have two AI 26HDs brand new that came with tank as well.

 

[jk1151]

Howdy


Sounds like a good idea

Sounds good too.

Dont even worry about dosing. Water changes work just fine for adding what corals need . Once you see that water changes cant keep up then maybe dosing is in the cards

Awesome thanks for that! I will definitely try that first and go from there.

 

[Quietman]

Hi...looks like a well thought out plan to me. Just go slow and don't try to load up system before it's ready. Need nutrients for refugium (I have 170 and that sump doesn't support either - but I didn't want a refugium so that worked out ok), and for pods and for CUC (do CUC in batches as you increase load).

Good luck!!!

 

[scottedontknow]

Do you get to keep the broken tanks?

 

[Peace River]

I agree with the others - this is a good plan and great start to a build thread (whether you meant to or not). Dr. Tim’s is a good product - please wait on adding fish until the cycle is complete.

 

[jk1151]

Do you get to keep the broken tanks?

I do have the first broken tank. The other (which was way worse) the freight company took back.

 

[jk1151]

Hello and welcome!

Sounds like this will be a fun build once the tank comes in not cracked

Hope the 3rd one is all good for you!!

Thanks! 3rd one was a charm and I am now finally cycling!

 

[ccombs]

Sounds like you got a great plan. Be patient and stick to it and you'll be just fine!

 

[El_Guapo13]

Awesome plan. Like everyone keeps emphasizing, go slow and add cuc as needed to cioe qith bioload of the tank.

As for fish, go even slower and add in smaller batches, if not one at a time. Obviously if you get a pair of clowns, add at once just like if you get 6 chromis add those together, but don't go crazy and add 2 clowns, 10 chromis, a tang, an angel, a puffer, and twenty other fish all at once or even a few days apart. Go slow. Add the clowns. Next month if all looks good, add something else, rinse and repeat until you have reached the limit for your tank.

Also if you can, quarantine all fish. If you can't, then try very, very hard to pick out the healthiest looking fish you can find in stores.

Lastly, be prepared to get hitchhikers in your tank from live rock, live sand, and even on coral frags. When you do get some hitchhikers, do not panic. Take a picture, and come here and ask if you do not already recognize it, and we will help you out and advise on whther or not you need to get rid of it or if it is a good thing for the tank.

I look forward to see how your tank turns out.

 

[jk1151]

Awesome plan. Like everyone keeps emphasizing, go slow and add cuc as needed to cioe qith bioload of the tank.

As for fish, go even slower and add in smaller batches, if not one at a time. Obviously if you get a pair of clowns, add at once just like if you get 6 chromis add those together, but don't go crazy and add 2 clowns, 10 chromis, a tang, an angel, a puffer, and twenty other fish all at once or even a few days apart. Go slow. Add the clowns. Next month if all looks good, add something else, rinse and repeat until you have reached the limit for your tank.

Also if you can, quarantine all fish. If you can't, then try very, very hard to pick out the healthiest looking fish you can find in stores.

Lastly, be prepared to get hitchhikers in your tank from live rock, live sand, and even on coral frags. When you do get some hitchhikers, do not panic. Take a picture, and come here and ask if you do not already recognize it, and we will help you out and advise on whther or not you need to get rid of it or if it is a good thing for the tank.

I look forward to see how your tank turns out.

Thank you so much for your helpful response. I just finished setting up my QT tank tonight! I plan on doing as much correct as I can for sure. I appreciate the help!

 

[krbnsol]

that QT tank will be of a big help.

 

[jk1151]

Ok- I got my quarantine tank set up and plan on heading to Denver this weekend to check out some stores down there and find my first set of clownfish! Thanks for all the helpful advice as I start getting set up. Tank is done cycling I think; 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 20 ppm nitrates but will do a water change tomorrow to hopefully get rid of some of those although I don’t think that is too bad of a #. I also split my skimmer area to make a small fuge so I can start building a pod population up. I put pods and photo in yesterday from AlgaeBarn! Giving them a head start before anything else goes in. I hope that seeds it well enough for a start. I only have lights on for the picture. I figure that even though the tank is cycled it will still be about 30 or so days before anything goes in because I am going to qt our clowns.

Ps..don’t judge my cord disorganization. I wasn’t 100% sure how I wanted to set it up so I put up a temp solution to try and work through the best way to organize all that stuff

 

[jk1151]

Got our two new clowns. A little disappointed When we got home from the fish store because their salinity it was 1.014 and unfortunately in my quarantine tank I had a salinity of 1.025 so after reading some options on the forum I slowly slowly slowly tried to acclimate them and they are now finally in the tank and I hope they are going to be OK. Someone had posted a good idea for the QT tank I wish I had seen ahead of time; only have it half filled so you can either increase of decrease your tank with RODI or saltwater depending on salinity from fish store. I hope they will be ok.

 

[Sonja]

Your clowns are lovely, looking forward to seeing your tank come together.

 

[jk1151]

Just updating this for my own sake . I finally learned how to get my first badge so that was fun! Clownfish are doing well but still in QT tank. They had a stringy white poop so did one round of treatment with Metro only soaked in food with focus waited a while and still some a little white poop so I am finishing up another round of GC with Focus on their food. Then going to finally put in DT tank. I was probably overly cautious with watching them but decided I didn't want to prophylactically treat if I didn't have to. So I have been watching them very closely for over month and only medication I have give is the two above. I did add some plastic plants and stuff to QT so it didn't seem so sad in there. I changed by DT rocks cape and am trying to decide if I like it better or not (new picture below). The other rocks cape seemed like it might be too high to add corals to and also like it was blocking the flow of my Gyre. So I tried to change it up this weekend and see if I like it any better. Any feedback is welcome. I have one Cleaner Shrimp in there as he molted in invert QT so what I read made it seem like he could be moved as he would have no parasites on him due to the molt. I also added one set of Zooanthids that I took off plug they came on, did a few dips, glued to a new frag and put it in there; seems to be doing well so far. Other than that just trying to be super patient with things. Patience is hard for me and I am not good at it so I think I have overcorrected and am being too patient! Anyways, hope everyone is well and if you have any feedback or preference on my new rock scape vs old scape let me know! Thanks all.

 

[jk1151]

Does anyone know how to change the title of this build thread? I didn't mean to make it a build thread originally so I didn't title it as such and for some reason it is bothering me now..