New to the hobby

Art13 · 09/13/2013, 05:07 PM

New here so i figured I would introduce myself. While i'm new to saltwater i've always kept planted freshwater for years but since I lived in an apartment, I never could have the setup for saltwater. Now that I recently bought a house, I could set up my first tank.

It started as a FOWLR 50 gallon and my intention was to use this as my first starter tank and I have a 140 gallon tank I will be doing down the road that will be a reef tank. Never mind the cyno on a couple of the rocks, that will hopefully clear up soon. I have well water were I live with a large R/O unit and the water tested well save for a slight register on the nitrates which i thought would be ok but it's not looking that way so I have a new R/O on it's way that should help me deal with that issue, also, the hermits seem to love it at night as when i turn the lights on in the morning there is only a slight trace of it left. I am currently running a skimmer along with a canister with bioballs only, no sponges no charcoal, partially because i've always gone away from those with my planted tanks, and i've read different articles both ways on using them and not using them. The coralline is just starting to come in nicely, I should mention the tank is 3 months old at this time. I was given a box of live rock, i guess you would call it the bleached kind, with no organisms left in it, seeded the tank with the corraline to introduce it, and dumped in some bottles of bacteria to get the cycle going, as well as a 4" live sand bed. What i did find strange was i did get the red/brown algae growth in the tank for about a week, it then turned a dark brown and all of it pretty much died off, i'm not sure if that's normal or not, but I haven't lost anything else in the tank. currently, as for fish, i have a purple firefish, bi color blenny, green clown goby, purple dottyback (hasn't shown much aggression, he was the only one that worried me), three green chromis and a clown, my kids wouldn't let me leave the store without nemo. as for inverts i have a green crab (the name escapes me) and his red counterpart, two peppermint shrimp, a feather duster, some blue leg hermits as well as one other type, a few astrea snails, cerith, nassarius, and a red sea star. Responses and critiques are more than welcome as I am new to all this, and i'm also interested in responses to reducing my nitrates better, i don't have room for a hob or below tank refugium on this one, hopefully with the R/O things will go better but unless my test kit is just off (i used a different kit to test my household water) i'm always registering 20-30ppm on the nitrates, even after i did a 30% water change yesterday. I think it's an AP kit and i'm not so sure i trust it anymore as it always seems to turn the same color time and time again. I am going to eventually introduce a few coral into the tank, softies, some palys and zoos, once my nitrates comes down, and i'm also wondering if there is anyone in the south jersey area that does their own fragging or which forum i should be posting that under. I would like to find a leather first since i've read they are the most tolerant of water conditions.

09/13/2013, 05:07 PM	#1
Art13 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: South Jersey Posts: 1,444	New to the hobby New here so i figured I would introduce myself. While i'm new to saltwater i've always kept planted freshwater for years but since I lived in an apartment, I never could have the setup for saltwater. Now that I recently bought a house, I could set up my first tank. It started as a FOWLR 50 gallon and my intention was to use this as my first starter tank and I have a 140 gallon tank I will be doing down the road that will be a reef tank. Never mind the cyno on a couple of the rocks, that will hopefully clear up soon. I have well water were I live with a large R/O unit and the water tested well save for a slight register on the nitrates which i thought would be ok but it's not looking that way so I have a new R/O on it's way that should help me deal with that issue, also, the hermits seem to love it at night as when i turn the lights on in the morning there is only a slight trace of it left. I am currently running a skimmer along with a canister with bioballs only, no sponges no charcoal, partially because i've always gone away from those with my planted tanks, and i've read different articles both ways on using them and not using them. The coralline is just starting to come in nicely, I should mention the tank is 3 months old at this time. I was given a box of live rock, i guess you would call it the bleached kind, with no organisms left in it, seeded the tank with the corraline to introduce it, and dumped in some bottles of bacteria to get the cycle going, as well as a 4" live sand bed. What i did find strange was i did get the red/brown algae growth in the tank for about a week, it then turned a dark brown and all of it pretty much died off, i'm not sure if that's normal or not, but I haven't lost anything else in the tank. currently, as for fish, i have a purple firefish, bi color blenny, green clown goby, purple dottyback (hasn't shown much aggression, he was the only one that worried me), three green chromis and a clown, my kids wouldn't let me leave the store without nemo. as for inverts i have a green crab (the name escapes me) and his red counterpart, two peppermint shrimp, a feather duster, some blue leg hermits as well as one other type, a few astrea snails, cerith, nassarius, and a red sea star. Responses and critiques are more than welcome as I am new to all this, and i'm also interested in responses to reducing my nitrates better, i don't have room for a hob or below tank refugium on this one, hopefully with the R/O things will go better but unless my test kit is just off (i used a different kit to test my household water) i'm always registering 20-30ppm on the nitrates, even after i did a 30% water change yesterday. I think it's an AP kit and i'm not so sure i trust it anymore as it always seems to turn the same color time and time again. I am going to eventually introduce a few coral into the tank, softies, some palys and zoos, once my nitrates comes down, and i'm also wondering if there is anyone in the south jersey area that does their own fragging or which forum i should be posting that under. I would like to find a leather first since i've read they are the most tolerant of water conditions.