Woodstock's (1st salt tank) Beginner Reef

[woodstock '69]

I started a thread a few months ago when I set up my first and only salt tank (had a fw tank for about 18 months). I didn’t do a very good job with the thread and it was hard to follow. If you will forgive me, I would like to start it over with the hope of making it easier to follow and more helpful to other beginners.


I started my reef in October 2006 and this pic was taken on October 4. This is my TEST fill with tap water. I marked the gallons and depths with postit’s in case I needed them later.




I made this light stand for my PFO 150hqi 14k Ushio.




I bought the black tank for my reef to match the size of my 50 gal fw tank.



A better look at my reef’s fw brother tank.


Michael

[dragonforce]

Wow this is going to look great im sure! Good job they look cool side by side

[woodstock '69]

dragonforce - Thanks man. I appreciate it! I am going to try to get this thread caught up today and tomorrow so it will hang together a little better.

I filled the tank with rodi water on the 15th of October. I bought the typhoon III and so far is seems great. Not having seen one in operation it’s hard to compare.

I bought 4 large pieces of live rock (34 lbs pikuni I think?). I figured it would eventually make the tank easier to work on if I needed to. Like removing rock down the road to maybe catch a fish, or because of some kind of outbreak? Better safe than sorry I guess.




Not happy with the rocks yet, but I hope I will get there eventually.







You can’t really see them but I added about 6 snails and 2 peppermint shrimp after the tank cycled with the lr. In fact I never saw a spike (probably because of the rock?)



I got my first 3 corals on December 15. I bought a hammer and frogspawn and my lfs gave me a free acropora digitata frag to see if it would live.

Frogspawn.




Hammer.


I also got a pair of perculas.



Full tank pic on December 18


Michael

[GQ22]

nice, i love the light hanger

[woodstock '69]

I think it cost me about $14 (but that includes the cheapest mitre box in the world - he he)

Next thing I bought was a midas blennie. Then I went on a coral tear. I had planned (I have planned this tank for 2 years) not to keep any sps and didn’t think my tank or my skill would support it. But as soon as I started really looking at corals to buy, I fell in love with them. I was also SURE that I would buy real slowly, 3 weeks in-between purchases, but just couldn’t. I am a little surprised at myself.

I got this montipora cap first.


Then I got this birds nest coral.


Here is another full tank shot


Michael

[woodstock '69]

OK.... I am freaking out. I just fed my guys some finely chopped (doesn't chop too good) raw shrimp. I notice on the substrate this weird looking thing. I think it is one of my peppermint shrimps without a shell.

I know they molt, but do they walk around without a shell? Almost invisible.....it looks so creepy. Is that what it is?

Michael

[InvaderJim]

Can you get a pic? It's possible it molted, but it's strange that it would be walking around without a shell.

[tgcreef]

both tanks are amazing man nice discus

[Jesse-KT]

Nice setup! Sorry I can't give any help on the peppermint problem. For your first SW tank, it looks good to me.

[woodstock '69]

First thing - I thought it was moving and eating - because it kept moving around this piece of shrimp. But then I found my 2 peppermint shrimp and realized it was the molt being driven around by the currents. Very spooky.

Second thing - thanks for the nice comments. I don't know why it should matter but somehow getting others in the know to "sign off" on your tank gives you a barometer of how you are doing.


Third thing - I got an african flameback dwarf angel. S/He is the bomb!


Here is another full tank shot. The thing I want to mention is that up until this point, nothing is permanent in the tank. If you notice, the rockscape keeps changing a little in the pictures. I’ll keep rearranging them until I get them to a point that suits. You can see that I bought a couple more small (about 3lbs each) lrocks. I thought I was going to need them for aquascaping in the weeks ahead.

Nothing has been glued together yet and I try to make sure they are mostly stable each time I rearrange them. This way I am able to move the corals and rocks around until I figure it out.

Full tank shot


Michael

[woodstock '69]

Been a month so I will try to get the thread up to date.

I got a blasto



And then I got a zoo. I can't find the origional pic but this one is after 4 weeks growth.



So here is a full pic with my latest additions.



More to come

Michael

[woodstock '69]

I do have one nagging question that has been bugging and bugging me.

I won't bore you by posting each days test numbers but I am steadily (as in about 5 days per week) adding "Seachem's Reef Builder Raises Carbonate Hardness" 1/2 tsp to 42gal (the directions say start with 1/2 tsp twice a week for 45 gal) to my tank and it is about all I can do to keep the alk in the upper 7dKH range. So I am putting in more than twice what the bottle calls for yet can't get my alk up in the 8-9 range.

I know that upper 7's is probably ok, but I would rather have it in the mid 8's - don't really have a good reason, just think it sounds right. So why can't I get it up higher?

MG stays around 1200 to 1300, and CA stays around 400.

Ideas?

Michael

[samson78945]

good looking tank

[drummereef]

I was wondering where your tank went! Looks great.

[woodstock '69]

Thanx for the compliments.

Hey Drummer, any ideas on why I can't keep my alk up? Do I just need to add more? How often do people need to add alk when they do it manually out of a jar. Daily, weekly?

[vanmo92]

Tank looks nice.

[Zestay]

more pix!

[Joshua1023]

I have the same issue. And find myself doing the same thing. I just add supplement daily. Just out of Curiosity, what salt brand do you use?

[woodstock '69]

Hey Joshua,

Wasn't master blaster a mad max character?

I use tropic marin regular blend. Maybe that is part of it, although lots of people say that tropic marin is supposed to have all the right amount of the right ingredients, supplements, and trace elements.

[mg426]

Thats a nice start, great work !!

[TarheelFrag]

Looking good!

[Zoos]

Nice looking tank, the light rick is cool

[woodstock '69]

I added a young flameback angel a few weeks ago, and a 4" mandarin a couple of days ago. I just noticed that my 2 peppermint shrimps are not around. I added them near the start of my tank in Oct 2006 and they have looked fine since.

Will either of these fish (especially the mandarin - - he came from someone elses tank so not a baby) eat/kill the peppermints?

And shouldn't I see shrimp parts floating around the tank?

Michael

[woodstock '69]

oops!

Sorry, didn't mean to actually post this in this thread, but for some reason it won't let me delete, it says "I don't have permission to delete" - have tried a few times.

[drummereef]

Originally posted by woodstock '69
Hey Drummer, any ideas on why I can't keep my alk up? Do I just need to add more? How often do people need to add alk when they do it manually out of a jar. Daily, weekly?

Dude, sorry I missed this question. It's been a month! Did you get your alkalinity sorted out? What are you using again to suppliment alk and calcium?