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After reading this thread I have discovered that I was given a lot of bad advice on my saltwater aquarium. I have a 29gal Eclipse Bio wheel marine starter kit. I was told this was all I would need. I'm not as naive as that so I did buy a powerhead for added flow and the one and only protein skimmer they had at the store, its made by Nano Cube. I also changed out one of the bulbs for a Marine Glow bulb (blue light). Right now there is a glass heater it the tank, I have however purchased a plastic one to place in the tank. I have 3 turbo snails, about 5 hermits, an Atlantic anemone, an emerald crab, a cleaner shrimp, a firefish, a green chromis, and some kind of clown fish. I have about 11 lbs of rock, and about 12 lbs of live rock. I have a lot of what I assume is green and purple algae growing in my tank (not sure if that is bad or good). Quick question on the cleaner shrimp. How often are they supposed to molt/shed? Mine molts about once a week, and even twice a couple times. He is huge now! Even my Emerald crab has molted three times since I have gotten him. Is this a normal rate of molting or am I stressing them? When I got the anemone I was told to buy some kind of liquid nutrient to put in the water. I did a little research however and have been feeding it shrimp pellets instead. He (it) has been looking great so I assume I’m not killing it by doing so. I have noticed all these white things floating around in the water. When they latch onto the glass they look like snowflakes. Is it plankton? Is there something I should get to eat it? There is a TON of it in my water. I don’t have any corals because I am too chicken to try them yet. I’ve only had this tank for about two months. I already want to upgrade to a 75 gal though! I bought a test kit and I have test strips that I use as well. I’m really paranoid about my water levels. So far its been perfect, which surprises me since I feel like I have no clue about what I am doing! At first I was doing 4-5gal water changes once a week, now its about every two weeks. As of now I will stop using distilled water (again I was told it was ok to use). Is the water from those osmosis machines that they have at the grocery store ok to use? Sorry about all the questions! Here is an older picture of the tank. I've added more rock and moved things around a bit since this was taken.  The "Clown" 
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Dec 7, 2008 05:27
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| # ¿ May 1, 2024 21:48 |
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Thank you for all the info! I live out in the middle of nowhere in Texas. The only stores in town that have anything saltwater are PetCo and a local mom and pop store that seems to specialize in reptiles and birds. They have some saltwater fish but not much. I figured the protein skimmer wasn’t all that good. I will definitely buy the AquaC Remora. Here is a picture of the “rock” I was sold. It is very porous and already seems to have things growing on it.  After reading the thread I have prepared myself for my Firefish’s demise. I feel bad because I drove an hour to get him and he’s pretty awesome. I have an empty 20gal sitting around, maybe I will get it set up and give him a new home. I tried to get a picture of the things floating in my water but they are just too small. Even in super micro mode my camera couldn’t pick them up. So I did the next best thing, MS Paint. I am no artist. I don’t know if its plankton, but if it is there is so much of it that I don’t think my single cleaner shrimp could eat it all.  I have been using a flake food along with the shrimp pellets. I will stop using them and switch over to frozen. I am almost certain the food is what is causing my cleaner shrimp to molt so often. Nutrient levels? This may explain my algae problem. The tank as of this morning. 
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Dec 7, 2008 15:55
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Psimitry posted:Hey! You're in luck - does it look anything like this? It looks a LOT like this. I probably have at least 100 (quite possibly more) of those little guys swimming around in my water.
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Dec 9, 2008 04:25
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Desert Bus posted:That looks a LOT like what seems to commonly be called "Texas Hole Rock." No clue if it's any good or bad for SW setups. If the guy at the mom and pop store can be trusted then its safe. I would not recommend it though(if it is safe to use), its really heavy rock. The Fiji live rock that I got is much lighter.
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Dec 9, 2008 22:00
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Update on my tank: There has been no molting since my last post! I have been alternating with frozen and then a small amount of flake food. My fish seem to be a little slow and don't like the frozen food as much as the flake stuff. I stopped with the shrimp pellets but had to start using them again for my anemone. It started to wander and move around a lot when I was using just the frozen. So it gets a shrimp pellet about every other day and he has been staying put. I also got two corals as an early Christmas present. He claims that the fish store told him they were polyp coral and brain coral.  Right now they are in my fully cycled tank. My emerald crab won’t leave the Polyp coral alone though so it might need to be re-homed along with the firefish. My husband has been getting into my saltwater tank almost more than I have. For an early Christmas present he bought me a 29gal BioCube that is now set up in my living room. At the moment it is cycling with just live sand. I have a shipment of 22 lbs of Fiji live rock coming from Drs Foster and Smith. I want to start off right for this tank. I did a fishless cycle for my last tank and I would like to do the same for this one. I would like for the new tank to be the home of my firefish. Keeping that in mind I need a clean-up crew that does not involve crabs. I was thinking maybe a tuxedo urchin, a cleaner shrimp, a pom-pom/boxer crab (I’ve read they really are harmless, if not I’ll take them off the list), some snails, and….? Would sexy shrimp be ok? I’ll also want a couple fish as well as the firefish. Would an onyx/black-white clown be suitable? I would also like corals in this tank. When the time is right I may add the polyp coral to this tank if my emerald crab is still harassing it. Edit: Who do you guys use online to shop for saltwater fish/inverts/corals? VyperRDH fucked around with this message at 17:40 on Dec 21, 2008 |
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Dec 21, 2008 17:37
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Psimitry posted:It's really a testament to the industry that corals that would have loving cost you an arm and a leg a few years ago are now considered "common." The zoanthids pictured are really awesome looking, hardy, and will frag very well. $45 actually, but we drove all the way to Austin to get them (about 4 hours round trip). The mom and pop store as well as the petco by me don't sell corals.
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Dec 23, 2008 03:49
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I found a hitchhiker in my established tank. I'm guessing its an Asterina starfish. I'm not sure if he was on the corals I added a few days ago or if he was on the new piece of live rock that I added today. I am very happy with the live rock that I got from Drs Foster and Smith. It has TONS of stuff growing on it. My only complaint is that I ordered 22 lbs of live rock and got it in the form of three large rocks. Two of them are in the new tank along with a couple rocks from my established tank. I added the other rock to my established tank.
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Dec 26, 2008 02:06
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Chiming in on the emerald crabs not being entirely reef safe. I have no fish missing but the other day I caught my emerald plucking my mushrooms and zoanthoids off their rocks. He didn't eat any, just popped them off and watched them float away.
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Feb 26, 2009 02:21
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I have a few questions, but some background first. A little over a year ago I set up a 29 gal saltwater aquarium. Its doing great and I have very slowly been adding coral to it. My husband wasn’t thrilled at first. I really love fish and I’d have an aquarium in every room if I could. My previous tanks have all been freshwater and easy to take care of. After a couple of months my husband started to really get into maintenance on the saltwater tank. We now have a second 29 gal that has been up and running for 8 months. I think my husband is into saltwater tanks more then I am. He reads up on care and maintenance, fusses over water conditions, and enjoys picking out fish/corals. I always catch him sitting in front of the tank and just watching. Since discovering his love for saltwater tanks I have been secretly saving up money so we could get a much larger tank. I’m thinking somewhere between 75-150 gallons and we do want it to be a reef tank. My questions are in regard to what type/brand of equipment you all would recommend? Any tips? Here’s a rough list. Let me know if I left anything out. Heater Cooling system Power heads (how many?)/wave maker Protein skimmer Sump system/ pump/filter Lighting/cooling fans RO/DI I’ve heard its better to have two heaters, just in case. I’ve also read that putting eggcrate (or something similar) on the bottom is a good idea to spread out the weight of the rocks. Is it ok to put that much live rock in the tank, I imagine that would be a lot of extra weight? Dr. Foster and Smith have a “tidal system” for a sump, is that any good? Sears sells RO units so we’ll probably get one from there since they will install it for us. I need to go check if they have RO/DI. Also, how hard is it to move a saltwater tank? We know that in 5 years we will be moving from this house. Should we wait to get a larger tank until after the move or is it possible to move a large saltwater tank? Could we break everything down, put in all in Tupperware and move it that way? When we moved out to Texas I transported my 50gal freshwater tank that way and we only lost one fish. If we really should wait that is fine. Dr. Foster and Smith have this system on sale right now http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3730+15517&pcatid=15517 My question is; is it worth the money? Obviously I would buy the T-5 lighting option. There is a local fish store that we are conferring with. My only complaint with them is that they are more interested in pushing their maintanence and set up service then giving out advice. So I decided that I needed some goon advice too.
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Aug 9, 2009 19:41
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A quick update. This weekend my husband and I are checking out an aquarium for sale. We may have hit the jackpot on craigslist. There is a 175gal saltwater aquarium for sale, complete with tank, stand, liverock, fish, coral, and all accessories. The family is moving and can't bring the tank with them. They want $1500 for the whole set up. Granted its possible that I may still have to upgrade some things in the set up (I’ll know for sure what they are using when we go take a look at it tomorrow). I figure if I bought a new tank and then all the liverock for it I’d easily be spending $1500+. Not to mention the price of coral. There is a LFS that I may be able to trade/store credit fish/inverts if they have the tank stocked with species that should not be in the tank together. So my question lies in how are we going to transport everything. They only live a 10-15 min drive away from us. I’m assuming the whole Tupperware transport is the way to go? We plan on saving as much of the tank water as possible. I know the corals will need to stay submerged, if I keep the liverock damp will they be fine or should I also have them submerged in the tank water. We’ll rent a truck to move the tank and stand since we don’t own a pickup. Should we remove all the sand or can we leave some in the bottom of the tank? How would you move a fully stocked 175gal aquarium?
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Sep 5, 2009 18:54
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We did it. My husband and I went to take a look at the tank we found on Craigslist and my husband decided to go for it. It’s a 180 gallon tank. It was stocked and running, we got the whole complete setup. The owner helped take it down, move it to our house, and showed/helped us set it back up. Its been up and running at our house since labor day, as you can see we're going through the brown algae stage. The lighting is by Coralife, it has the blue and white lights as well as lunar glow. The lights have fans on the top and the hood of the tank has vent fans to remove the heat. It also has a UV Sterilizer that is a Vecton UV25. I don’t know what kind of pump it has, I’ll try and get a picture of it. There are no heaters, so far the temp has remained between 74-76 degrees (we live in central Texas, and keep our house between 75-79 degrees). I’ve attached pictures of the sump and the protein skimmer (not sure what brand).   Here’s the list of what its stocked with: 1 Sailfin Tang 1 Yellow sailfin Tang 1 Regal Tang 2 Maroon clownfish (mated pair) with host anemone 2 Six line wrasse 2 Yellow tail damsels 2 Blue damsels 1 Green Chromis 1 Coral Beauty dwarf Angel 1 Fire dwarf Angel 1 Sunk cleaner shrimp 1 Fire cleaner shrimp 1 Coral banded shrimp Assorted hermits/dwarf hermits Assorted snails Several Emerald crabs A lobster of some sort (purple and red) Various coral So now the questions. Will the tank be ok without heaters (for now anyway)? The weather is very mild here and we always keep the house around 76 degrees. Will the lighting need to be upgraded? I don’t know anything about Coralife lights.
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Sep 24, 2009 03:05
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Our light appears to be this one : http://www.marineandreef.com/Lunar_Aqualight_72_inch_Coralife_p/res53409.htm So it looks like we will probably have to upgrade. Suggestions welcome! We do have a RO unit with a reservoir tank. We’ve been using that water for water changes and for topping off the tank. I will work on the protein skimmer to try and have less water enter it. When I took that picture I had topped off the tank and was messing with the settings on the skimmer. I do have a question about the UV Sterilizer. How often should that be on? Right now it is set up to be on all the time.
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Sep 25, 2009 02:09
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Psimitry posted:RO isn't RO/DI. DI means deionization and is a finishing polish to your water before it goes into your tank. You can get a whole lot of phosphates that make it through an RO system that can and will cause massive algae growth. DI ordered from Drs Foster and Smith, thanks! ludnix posted:I would just run the UV steralizer when your having a problem like a phytoplankton bloom or something. They have a limited bulb life so it seems unnecessary to run them 24/7. I wouldn't have suggested buying one, but since you have it I would just go ahead and run it when you feel the water needs to be cleared of a bacterial or plankton bloom. Thanks for the info. I'll be sure to turn it off. I had wondered if it was a bit of overkill to have it on all the time.
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Sep 25, 2009 03:07
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Some of the corals we like/are looking at recommend a T5 or higher. So I'm thinking we should upgrade to a T5HO. I know its important to have individual reflectors, anything else? We're going to talk with the guys at our LFS, but I am worried they may steer us wrong. EDIT: And when I check another website it says that the coals will do fine under compact lighting as long as they are placed near the top. Seems to depend on who you ask. VyperRDH fucked around with this message at 15:35 on Sep 26, 2009 |
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Sep 26, 2009 15:03
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We upgraded the lights. We now have the Nova Extreme 4x39 (two of the 36")T5HO. Everything is going great. The protein skimmer is running fine now after some adjusting. Our water levels are right where they should be. We just have one problem...the lobster. At least I think its him. My fire cleaner shrimp disappeared a couple days ago and today we discovered the skunk cleaner shrimp chopped in half, and the blue starfish that I bought this weekend has a leg missing and seems to be torn up in general. I’ve already ordered one of the pest traps to try and catch him. I can’t see one of the emerald crabs doing that kind of damage, none of them are large enough, so I’m assuming it’s the lobster. He appears to be a Debelius’ Reef Lobster.
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Sep 27, 2009 15:50
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Just a quick update. Since putting in the new lighting the anemone has almost doubled in size and the corals are spreading like crazy (even the Birds Nest). We are still trying to trap the lobster, no luck yet.
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Oct 20, 2009 02:34
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| # ¿ May 1, 2024 21:48 |
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Help! I have a Precision Marine RLP1500 pump for my Redline series protein skimmer. Today the needle wheel broke. I have google searched, and checked everywhere I know and I can't seem to find any parts for it. I don't even see the pump being sold by itself. I would hate to have to spend $300 on a new skimmer for a $4 part.
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Dec 3, 2009 02:28
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