New to Knoxville and salt water
- Thread starter chemfisher
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chemfisher
Active Member
I don't have any fish yet so I'm not too concerned at the moment and as far as my cycle goes the ammonia is almost back to zero with nitrite still climbing so I'm thinking that its making good progress!!
k2parkstar
Z&P Snob
Awesome, your right on track
I had an open-topped tank for YEARS and had no issues at all. I have bugs get into the tank with or without a canopy so I don't think it really matters.
As Travis said, your primary concern is going to be in considering which fish to buy...you cannot buy fish that are known jumpers...like jawfish. They WILL jump. It's only a matter of time. Someone will get away with it for months and then one day...carpet surfing. I don't consider this a reason to close off the top of your tank. I mean, I love an open topped tank personally. But you just have to steer clear of jumping fish.
oldSWseamomma
Community Member
Have been reading along with this thread and I am also new to SW. I've had my tank for just over a year and what everyone is advising on here is true - take it slow and your rewards will be so worth it and read, read, read. I put 60 lbs of cultured Fiji LR in my 34 gal tank from the Coral Reef and let my tank go thru about 2 cycles before adding any CUC or fish. Once I had the CUC in and all my levels were good I started planning out how many and which fish I wanted in my tank. I added the fish (all non-aggressive) according to their temperment meaning the most docile first then 2 weeks later another and then again another 2 weeks inbetween each fish. The last fish in was a Coral Beauty and it was fine for about 9mths and then he took over the tank and started stressing out all the other fish - so now he lives in my friends 125 gal tank and I won't put in anymore semi-aggressive fish. So take your time you'll be glad you did. I'm now ready to start adding some corals and have been doing a lot of research on what I can have in my tank and the care they need. Here is a picture of my tank - it's a Red Sea Mas 130D and you can see it is still mostly a FOWLR tank.
LeighannW
Active Member
Im also new to saltwater abd we just bought a medium sized yellow tang.and my clown fish and my six line wrasse both jumped into my over flow box after 1 day of introducing my tang. So we went th
To the hardware store and got plexiglass. It's a bit cheaper than acrylic but we will upgrade later. So eventually you might want to have something to cover it and also it helps with evaporation.
To the hardware store and got plexiglass. It's a bit cheaper than acrylic but we will upgrade later. So eventually you might want to have something to cover it and also it helps with evaporation.
NanoPoseidon
Active Member
Please tell me your tank is 10 gallon nanocube! LOL... I always love it when someone (on "ANY" forum) mentions a tang, the first thing people start swinging with is, "You know that should be in a bigger tank! How cruel are you!" As if tangs are a higher class fish and deserve more liberties... hahaha Sorry! That was my rant for the day! I like your quick thinking for DIY!Im also new to saltwater abd we just bought a medium sized yellow tang.and my clown fish and my six line wrasse both jumped into my over flow box after 1 day of introducing my tang. So we went th
To the hardware store and got plexiglass. It's a bit cheaper than acrylic but we will upgrade later. So eventually you might want to have something to cover it and also it helps with evaporation.
oldSWseamomma
Community Member
Hahahaha ! Yes don't let the Tang Police find out you have one in small tank :mod:
Gladfelter
Valuable Member
HALT!!!! Or get an Urchin to the face! Lol
chemfisher
Active Member
Well glad to say that it appears I've successfully killed two aiptasia yesterday and my tank is at zero ammonia and zero nitrites today!!! I've also got a decent diatom outbreak going on in the Ls ... So I'm going to be needing a cuc soon but not sure what to get .
If there is a good link or if you guys have some suggestions on what I should get would be great ! I am going to have some corals and nems eventually so I don't want anything that will hurt those or anything that'll be non. Fish friendly as well.
I want some sort of snails maybe a few crabs and I like shrimp. So let me hear what you think!!
If there is a good link or if you guys have some suggestions on what I should get would be great ! I am going to have some corals and nems eventually so I don't want anything that will hurt those or anything that'll be non. Fish friendly as well.
I want some sort of snails maybe a few crabs and I like shrimp. So let me hear what you think!!
k2parkstar
Z&P Snob
Looks like a few people are working on a group buy, I'd jump in on that if I were you. I prefer snails to crabs, personally. I've got about 20 blue hermits, 4 turbo snails, 30 nassauris snails (these are my favorite cleaners) 40' dwarf Ceriths, 10 Florida Ceriths, and a few nerite snail, 1 scarlet hermit, 1 Halloween hermit. In my 45g cube
Gladfelter
Valuable Member
Before you get any shrimp decide on what type of fish your getting. For instance I wanted a Trigger really bad so no shrimp for me. Well maybe pistol shrimp but you rarely see them. But since I got the Trigger I will probably go ahead and get the Flame Hawk I've wanted too since I prob won't have shrimp anyways
NanoPoseidon
Active Member
Snails definitely seem to be more tank friendly. Any reputable sight that sells Clean Up Crews will have good descriptions of each species eating habits. It is definitely good to have a mixture. In reality, most of them always have their pros/cons. For instance, Mexican Turbos are the most effective algae eaters you can get, however they tend to knock over corals and small rocks if they are not secured (I recommend these and have 2 in my 34 Solana). Nassarius are great for stirring up your sandbed since they stay there most of the time and they eat a lot of the uneaten food that makes it to the bottom. Dwarf Ceriths are small and get into crevices much easier then others and are an efficient algae eater. Astrea and nerites have also been good snails for me. Stay away from Bumble Bee and Margarita snails. They are a popular choice and are carried by many of our LFS however they are more specific to certain types of tanks. Bumble Bee's look cool and are sand sifters but they eat the "good" micro fauna that's in your sand (the aspect that makes it "live"). The Margarita snails are more for less termperate tanks and prefer cooler water. Ofcourse I go against the grain a little when it comes to crabs (they sometimes pester coral and will steal food from them when target feeding if your not watching them). I think they add another "watch" factor to the tank since they are so fun to watch. There are also inverts that attack specific types of algae, such as emerald crabs for bubble algae, etc. This is just a few things that have come out of my research and experiences! Like always, understanding your Tank Specifics and the routes you want to go in will help you identify what you really need! I hope this helps and isn't too wordy! NP
NanoPoseidon
Active Member
Also, if you don't do the group buy and are looking for other places to order from online, John at Reefcleaners will give you a custom package based off tank info you give him (what kind of aqua scheme you are going for, dimensions, water volume, etc.). I haven't used them personally but always hear good things about them.
oldSWseamomma
Community Member
I second NanoPoseidon's post :smile: And John at ReefCleaners is so great ! He helped me beef up my CUC and sent specific snails to take care of a red cyano algae problem that was starting. He sent me a "snailbomb" package meaning more snails than what I thought I ordered (no extra charge of course) and they took care of the evil red cyano. I have one Mexican Turbo snail (aptly name "Bubba") and he has been in my tank since I started it. He is now (and I'm not exaggerating) 4 inches wide and 3 1/2 inches tall ! Huge ! In fact have been toying with taking him back to Coral Reef and trade him in for some younger smaller MT snails as I want to start putting in corals and he WILL knock them over. And I know the reason I started getting little spot of the dredded red cyano is that I put in a Madarin Dragonet a little while ago and in training her to eat frozen foods and pellets resulting in over feeding the tank. Now she's eating great and I have cut back on the over feeding. So there is a lesson in there - don't over feed your tank.
Funny...I prefer crabs to snails! hah hah. Snails always seem to fall over and die.
I do however agree that nassarius are awesome. I also like turbos but they tend to knock things over, which isn't a huge deal if everything is epoxied down.
My favorite crabs are the blue legs. Don't get mithrax crabs if you want corals.
I do however agree that nassarius are awesome. I also like turbos but they tend to knock things over, which isn't a huge deal if everything is epoxied down.
My favorite crabs are the blue legs. Don't get mithrax crabs if you want corals.
chemfisher
Active Member
Ok thanks for the responses! Looks like I've a little research to do to see for sure what ill be wanting. But I'm thinking mostly snails and probably a few crabs ( I agree with Nano that they're more interesting to watch ) just gotta figure out which types I want in my tank.
k2parkstar
Z&P Snob
Check out reefcleaners, even if you don't buy from them(they are great) there website is a great tool for research
NanoPoseidon
Active Member
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