Just need some advice, comments, and opinions

[Papa Splax]

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU RECOMMEND ME QUIT DOING, DO MORE OF, OR START DOING?

How can i get frags, I evenrually want a mandrin

I would also like to grow numerous other corals

so what do i need to do

 

My equipment is as follows

Main 55g aquarium w/ Overflow

T5 36in Lighting (blue & white) no moon

x2 600 Gpg Powerheads

1 Air pump

40lbs living liverock

30lbs dry liverock

50lbs livesand

 

30g 3 chamber custom refugium

(1)Bioballs

(2)6in sand bed

Heaters x2 (76 degrees)

150gph powerhead

Sea Sponge, Activated carbon

(3) 6lbs liverock and 900gph return pump

3in gravel

 

Fish/Inverts/Corals

1 butterfly fish

1 Nemo

1 sandsifting starfish

1 horseshoe crab

1 cardinal fish

1 tester Molly

15 tiny anenomes

 

Supplies

I dose with 5ml PurpleUp [Every other day]

I dose with 5ml of Trace Elements [2x / Month]

I dose with 5ml Stress Zymes [once weekly]

I feed 4ml Zooplex [daily]

Frozen Brine shrimp

[F&Fmgr]

Move to Ashburn, VA and buy everything here!!

 

just a couple things

1. id think about removing the bioballs, can cause more problems than good

2. get ro/di

3. get refractometer

4. drip acclimate your fish and inverts(corals should be fine since healthy params don't very too much)

5. Cut out the stress zyme junk, even good bacteria supps. can bloom and suck out the oxygen...

6. until you see steady trends, or find that routine dosing will suffice, in your alkalinity/dkH test it at lest 2x a week.

[Papa Splax]

Haha whats so good in VA lol

 

And i wish i could afford a RO/DI but cant,

also whats the refractormeter actually test only salt?

 

and quite using stress zymes only you say?

[Coral Hind]

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU RECOMMEND ME QUIT DOING, DO MORE OF, OR START DOING?

How can i get frags, I evenrually want a mandrin

I would also like to grow numerous other corals

so what do i need to do

I would recommend you becoming a paid member so you can have access to the "for sale/trade/free section". Plus you can get discounts from our many local vendors. What you see as a BB member is less then half of the forum available to a paid member.

[Mountaineer]

If you are not going to buy an RO/DI system at a minimum make sure you are buying and using RO/DI water from a reliable source.

[Papa Splax]

Where can i get that water from?

 

I was gonna start getting ocean water from far out on a good day...

put it in a 5g bottle seal it up tight and remove it from light for 5 days...

 

then use that as my water change / evaporation

 

Good idea, Bad idea?

[FearTheTerps]

You don't want to top off with saltwater. When evaporation occurs only the water evaps, the salt in the water stays behind. If you top off with the sea water it will raise your salinity levels. You can get water from your LFS or even most supermarkets have RO water machines now.

[trockafella]

I recommend you purchase a good book on Reefkeeping, read it several times and absorb the information. If all those other things are in your future plans to purchase, why not an RO/DI unit, its one of the most important pieces of equipment.

[Chad]

First, remember that nothing good happens fast in a reef tank.

 

Second, I recommed that you work on the basics of reef keeping husbandry. Basically lots of reading. You can do this with books like this one by Fenner or this one by Moe or much of the basic information is written up various articles online, some of which are linked to from this RC link (which is a good start).

 

I am not trying to deflect your questions, but the wide variance in topics and depth at which your questions are asked make it hard for us to answer without sounding fragmented.

 

Finally, I recommend that you find a mentor, someone who has kept a reef tank for more than a couple of years (they have been around the block) and ideally one that is close to you that can visit and see/help with your setup (maybe someone in the Myrtle Beach Aquarium Club). Forums can be a replacement for this, but you will find that there are many, many ways to successfully keep a reef and even more opinions about it. Having too many responses that sometimes seem conflicting can be very overwhelming for a beginner to sort out.

 

 

[BowieReefer84]

There is a very classy restaurant called "ocean blue" in Myrtle. They have a nice saltwater tank. I am sure they do not care for the tank themselves. Might want to find out who they use, and have them check out your system....

[Papa Splax]

Awesome, is there really a Myrtle Beach aquarium Club... or was that a for instance... as in find something of the sort... and i actually have like 8 beginner books very in depth with checklists, this that the other... the problem is i have read all of that numerous times and they never even mention Alkinity, purpleup, trace elements, nothing that experienced aquarists have... it is what it is a beginner book... i have kept a 150g saltwater for over 5 years... Saltwater although i am new and blown away at all i can do / do wrong... so i have been taking it slow which i hear from everyone... i know u cant rush things... i let my tank set and cycle for 5 months b4 adding any life to it... besides LR... So i finally got around to adding fish... which so far i think i solved there death problem it was lack of O2 thanks to afew on this forum and a friend of mine down here... i would love to find an expert down here i can bounce my ideas off of, that me amazing HAHA... i just dont want 6 months down the line all my fish die BC i forgot to add elements they needed... in my 150g fresh i have never seen freshwater fish grow so fast... i have a 18in Moray Eel, 8in Black Tipped Shark, and a Convict that has quatroupled in size in 2 months

[hypertech]

That post makes my head hurt. Are those fish you listed (and a shark) in your saltwater tank? Or are you mixing up your fresh and salt tanks in that post.

 

I recommend finding a good local mentor. Look at their setup and have them come look at yours. And, when asking questions on the forum, try to ask more clear questions that are more focused to one issue. It will help us give you better answers that aren't heading in a dozen directions.

[Brian Ward]

Reef Keepers of Myrtle Beach ... forum located on ReefCentral: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=338

[TonyD]

I think you meant a bala shark, not a black tipped shark right? Black tipped shark like Jaws requires a tank in the thousands of gallons range.

[Papa Splax]

No not a bala its a Columbian shark... aka Black tipped cat shark.. at least thats what the LPS had it listed as... hes cool though lol maxes out at 12' hes about half way in the 150g

[dbartco]

[Origami]

Carolina Aquarium Community is at http://www.carolinafishtalk.com/

(also known as the myrtle beach aquarium club - MBAC)

 

Hopefully they're a friendly group (I can't imagine that they wouldn't be). Connect with some locals and check out a system or two. You'll probably find it an invaluable experience.

 

One of the first books I got when looking into the hobby was Michael Paletta's "New Marine Aquarium - Step-by-step setup & stocking guide." While it doesn't give all the answers (nobody ever does), it gives you a solid start. It's less than $15 at Amazon and is an easy read.

 

A more complete reference is Bob Fenner's "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist." You'll pay a bit more - around $45 at Amazon - but there's more in it. It does not have the same step-by-step flavor to it, though.

 

Reading through some of your earlier posts, I would recommend at least starting with the Paletta book. You could probably go through it in a couple of days, gleaning a lot of very useful information about the fundamentals of equipment, setup, stocking, and maintenance. Once you're comfortable with that, pay a visit with one of those locals and maybe get the Fenner book.

 

Robert Metelsky also put together a decent book called Simplified Reefkeeping. I've forgotten the cost, but you get it directly from the author. Google "Simplified Reefkeeping" if interested.

 

Good luck with your adventure. When you get this tank established, please post a few pictures.

[Origami]

So many questions...

 

How can i get frags,

From a local shop or, if there's an active club, from the members. You can also buy frags online. Shipping can be expensive, so be sure you have some success with some "starter corals" (preferably from a local source) before dumping a lot of money into stuff.

 

 

I evenrually want a mandrin

Please research the needs of the species that you select for your tanks to ensure that your tank is appropriately sized and is ready to receive them, that you can provide appropriate care, and that they are compatible with other species in your tank.

 

I would also like to grow numerous other corals

so what do i need to do

As you might imagine, that's a very broad question. I'll answer it broadly: Provide the nutrients that the corals need and the environment (water chemistry, temperature, flow, and light) that they need.

 

My equipment is as follows

Main 55g aquarium w/ Overflow

T5 36in Lighting (blue & white) no moon

x2 600 Gpg Powerheads

1 Air pump

40lbs living liverock

30lbs dry liverock

50lbs livesand

With appropriate surface agitation to facilitate gas exchange, you should not need an air pump. Your two 600 gph powerheads don't sound like they provide much flow for the tank. I'm guessing that you need more. Depending upon the type of live rock, you may have a good start. If particularly dense, like Gulf rock, it may be almost on the low side. Fifty pounds of sand, if it's typical aragonite (70# per cubic foot), will give you about 2 inches of sand in a 55 gallon tank. That's probably OK. Personally, I like a deeper sand bed - 3 to 4 inches. I can't say anything about your lighting. You mention a length (36" over a 48" tank), but not the number or wattage of the lamps. It very well could be that light could be a limiting factor in what you could raise.

 

30g 3 chamber custom refugium

(1)Bioballs

(2)6in sand bed

Heaters x2 (76 degrees)

150gph powerhead

Sea Sponge, Activated carbon

(3) 6lbs liverock and 900gph return pump

3in gravel

Ditch the bioballs. They can become a detritus trap and elevate the nitrates in your system. If you were building a fish-only system, without corals, you could leave them in. Temperature is good on the heaters. Having two offers some redundancy. Hopefully they're an appropriate wattage for you conditions. I'm not sure what the 150 gph power head is for. Not sure what "Sea Sponge" is. I'm assuming that your activated carbon is just in a bag that lays in the sump. Flow-through setups are better - such as reactors - but this is better than no carbon. I would ditch the gravel, too. It just traps detritus which then rots, messing up your water chemistry. If you have enough sand in the tank, you really don't need more in the sump. Keep in mind that the 900 gph return pump actually is pumping much less than 900 gph when it has to lift water up to the tank level. Even at 400 gph, your sump turnover is probably 5-8 times your system's water volume. That's pretty good. I don't see a skimmer in this list. You might want to consider one.

 

Fish/Inverts/Corals

1 butterfly fish

1 Nemo

1 sandsifting starfish

1 horseshoe crab

1 cardinal fish

1 tester Molly

15 tiny anenomes

I'd be worried that the horseshoe will devour your sandbed fauna, and disrupt the biological filtering potential of your sand bed in the main tank. This could cause nitrate issues as the sandbed will largely be aerobic with little anaerobic regions. The butterfly fish may be a species at risk in your tank as it may require a special diet or be a finicky eater. I've heard of people acclimating mollies to salt water. They're supposed to be great at keeping hair algae down. I can't imagine what your 15 tiny anemones are. They could be beneficial or they could be pest anemones. A picture would help.

 

Supplies

I dose with 5ml PurpleUp [Every other day]

I dose with 5ml of Trace Elements [2x / Month]

I dose with 5ml Stress Zymes [once weekly]

I feed 4ml Zooplex [daily]

Frozen Brine shrimp

I'm skeptical of the value of PurpleUp. Unless you test your water chemistry and determine that you have a deficiency that you'd like to correct, you shouldn't dose. Not sure of the value of stresszyme. Zooplex may be ok, but it could also be polluting your water. It's pretty concentrated stuff. Brine shrimp have little nutritional value. Look for a better food or your fish will die from malnourishment.

[Coral Hind]

Yeah, that was the look on my face as I was reading it!!

 

We need to see some pictures of this guy!!

[Papa Splax]

Is there a good overall food? Like for freshwater theres mixture cubes... or are cubes overall not good at all?

 

And one last question of my many... If my tanks doing fine, and my water is testing fine for the following (Nitrates, Copper, Ammonia, calcium, Salt, PH, The other N one) should i change my tank around while the fish are in it? or should i let a friend hold the fish and make all these changes?