Starting a salt aquarium- fowlr for now

We're in the process of starting a salt aquarium. For now it will be a fowlr tank, but we may look into adding corals once we get water changes down. We don't want to overextend ourself, as we've tried nano reefs in the past and had very bad luck.

It's a 29 gallon, and I have just now gotten the sand and water in. I've added a little over half the salt I think I will need to get the salinity up. Hopefully salinity will be stable enough by tomorrow for us to add our liverock and begin the cycling process.

Fish we are considering:
-False Percula Clown*
-Firefish
-Dottyback of some type
-Six-line Wrasse
-Flame Angel

We're not sure yet what we'll end up choosing, except the clown-- that's a must have, and pretty much the whole reason we're attempting this again!

Nano tanks are a pain because things can go from good to bad REALLY quick. In my opinion, the quality of live rock will determine how frequent water changes are needed. I bought top quality live rock from a friend, who had a well established tank, and I rarely had to do water changes, but I also had the tank under stocked and fed lightly. Good luck with the tank, post some pictures once you get it set up :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by deftones2015

Nano tanks are a pain because things can go from good to bad REALLY quick. In my opinion, the quality of live rock will determine how frequent water changes are needed. I bought top quality live rock from a friend, who had a well established tank, and I rarely had to do water changes, but I also had the tank under stocked and fed lightly. Good luck with the tank, post some pictures once you get it set up :)

---

Yes, that was the issue I had... my 5.5 gallon reef was GORGEOUS for months, absolutely stunning. Then one day, POOF. Dead.

That's why we're going to stick with fish this time. I don't think the addition of live rock can hurt our fish interests, so I'll add some.

Live rock will help your fish. It gives them more natural of an enviroment as well as serves as a biological filter. The live rock contains bacteria that helps break down waste. It also has mini stars, bristle worms, pods, etc. They all help break down waste like extra food, fish waste, etc. If the live rock doesn't already contain this microfauna I would highly suggest seeding your tank with it. Some people hate bristle worms because they hurt like hell if you touch one, but they help eat any left over food and dying matter. Also, if you like corals, go with something easy like mushrooms or pulsing xenia or other soft corals.

I had some pulsing xenia, shrooms and zooanthids in my 5.5 gallon mini-reef I tried back in 2008. That tank looked GREAT for about 6 months or so and then one day it just melted down. Our last attempt at a reef, about a year later, we never got past liverock because those damn anemone's took over the rock. It was a pain in the @$$!!

Hence why we are starting with fish this time and not worrying about corals.

Yeah aptasia are a huge pain, I used to use to nuke them with pickling lime. I'd turn off the power heads, use a syringe with no needle to put the paste on them, then use a syphon to suck them out after 5 mins or so. FOWLR are nice tanks too.

So went to the LFS today and got our rock. We got a total of 40 pounds. 25 of liverock and 15 of baserock. It looks pretty good, but it's a bit cloudy at the moment so I am waiting to take pics. :banana:

We are pretty psyched! It's in our bedroom at the foot of our bed, and it'll make nice viewing, day and night.

So far as shrimp go, we really liked the look of the coral banded shrimp but I remember reading that they are not reef safe. Is this true? The LFS had them in some of their coral tanks. Would these shrimp be compatible with the fire or skunk cleaner shrimp??

They are reef safe. I would be careful keeping the 2 shrimp in a 29 gallon though. They may be fine given enough hiding spots though. Personally I would go with either or. Coral banded shrimp can get aggressive. I have kept a skunk cleaner and fire shrimp together in a 29 when I first started with no issues. I say try what you want and see if it works, sometimes things will work out sometimes they wont.

The only shrimp I know of that is not reef safe is camel shrimp. They have been known to eat coral.

A neat combo you might look into since you like the clown fish, is getting a nice anemone and some sexy shrimp. They're small and will live on the anemone but are really neat.

Not sure how I feel about nems. I've heard they are practically immortal in the wild but live very short lives in our tanks. I'd feel bad doing that. :(

We will have to consider the shrimps then. We really like the look of the coral banded shrimp and they seem so sturdy compared to the other shrimps. The guy at the LFS told us the peppermint shrimp are good too because they eat the aptasia??

What's your opinion on crabs in the tank? My fiance likes the sallylightfoots and I think they look cool, too, but I've heard mixed reviews on crabs in the tank.

Crabs are alright, but don't mix snails and crabs. In my tank (after I watched the crabs kill the snails for their shells) I kept either or. I went through a crab phase for a while, but the snails seemed to live longer for me, so I kept snails, nassarius for the detritus and turbos and various others for algae. As for shrimp, go with what you like. I have kept all three in a 75 with no issues. The fire and skunk cleaner stayed up in the rock, and the coral banded stayed in the rock caves on the floor. Peppermint shrimp MAY eat aptasia. I had probably 4 or 5 and seen one possibly eating aptasia. That is a hit or miss on those shrimp. I wouldn't buy the shrimp in hopes in aptasia control because you may be disappointed. I love the other 3 shrimp. Personally I like the fire shrimp because of the bright red. The coral banded are nice too though but can get aggressive. The skunks are neat because if your fish will allow it, it will pick dead scales etc. off of the fish, I mostly saw that on my tang though.

As for anemones, they do need high quality water. Clowns will host quite a few diff coral though. I had a pair that hosted a wall hammer for a long time. Sometimes that can cause issues with the coral being irritated, but the wall hammer seemed fine with it. I would def. wait a while if you decide to do a nem though. You may try going over to http://reefcentral.com/ and look around on there. There are a lot of reef clubs on there by state, you may be able to find a club near you and be able to get some sand or a really good piece of live rock from one of them cheap and be able to seed your tank a lot better than the lfs live rock. You can also get used equipment cheap and corals as well as fish sometimes (if you can find a club near by). They also have tons of forums to look through to answer any questions that may come up.

So here's a few photos of it. We checked the salinity this morning and it was perfect, so we bought our liverock today. 40 total pounds-- 25 of which was true liverock, the rest base rock. I am going to add another filter to the upper right corner for better flow there. The filter is rated for 30 gallons. I have the media in there but I think I might take that out-- from what I've read it will just generate nitrates that aren't needed, and the liverock will take care of all the filtration.

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g6...s/Marine29.jpg

There's already some tentacles poking out of a crevice.

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g6...Tentacles2.jpg

See the red arrows? I'm thinking serpent star, maybe two.

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g6.../Tentacles.jpg

Got some nice aquacultured liverock that had a lot of stuff on it already. Not sure what the stuff is... corals of some type and some sort of macroalgae.

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g6...trus/ACLR1.jpg

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g6...trus/ACLR2.jpg

You can see one of our turbo snails in this pic.

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g6...trus/ACLR3.jpg

Now the waiting begins. I figure 2-4 weeks before we can add anything else that's alive. We'll probably start with some inverts.

Did I mention the bad news??

I used to have about 330 gallons of aquariums of varying sizes. I got burned out and got rid of all but my 55 gallon planted tank about a year ago.

My GF, who is now my fiance, never said anything when I broke them down, because it mean more room for our snakes... but she told me today she misses my aquariums and was encouraging me to pursue the addition of a 125 gallon FW cichlid tank.

So now I'm starting to get the "itch," just not sure if I'm gonna have room to scratch it. Ha!

That rock with the coral on it looks like it's likely some sort of cup coral or other non photosynthetic type, I'd get an id on it and find out because it would need feedings several times a week if so like a sun coral. Might not be what you want in a small fowlr since it will add waste but you could probably easily find someone who wants it.

Hey, tank looks nice. The corals looks like some sort of zoo or pally. They're photosynthetic so nothing to worry about.

Be careful using a filter. If you use that make sure you take the media out. All it does is collect crap from the water and turn it into nitrites and nitrates. Have you thought about buying a skimmer? That's what I would do personally. Don't go with a cyclone though they're junk. I'd stay away from the bakpaks and prizm as well. They're hang on tank skimmers, used them all, and threw them all away lol. A skimmer would be a good idea though. You could also just do regular water changes and be careful how much you feed.

The legs sticking out do look like a serpent sea star. They are good at helping with eating extra food in the tank.

Tank looks good, you'll have to post some more pix once you get the inverts or fish in.

Already took the media out.

I had a Coralife Needle Wheel skimmer for the 50 I tried to do a while back and read some bad stuff about it being prone to overflowing and wetting everything. Honestly I don't have the funds at the moment for any of the high cost skimmers, like the undertank ones.

Glad to hear those corals are photosynthetic. They looked like polyps to me, and not like sun coral. There was also a right ton of them on the rock in that tank and I can't imagine a shop having a ton of heterotrophic corals around-- that would take a lot of man hours to feed.

I would say ull be fine with no skimmer. Just be careful on stocking levels and dont over feed. Water changes will help as well. The live rock looks pretty good too. I rarely see live rock at stores here with purple coraline on it.

Yeah, this liverock is GREAT. However... we think the shellfish attached to the one rock is alive! Tara saw it move this morning, and yesterday, it was open a little... today? Closed. Ack! What to do?! I don't even know what it is, but if it dies, it'll foul the whole tank!

Depends on what it is and how large it is. If it survived in the fish store tank, chances are it will live in yours as well. Have you seen any bristle worms? They look like flat red worms that have a long body, not short and oval or anything like that. They also have bristles protruding from their sides. If you have them in there, it'll be fine. I had a full size copperband butterfly flip out and get stuck in my rock which took me almost a week before I found it, and when I did, it was covered in bristle worms and almost completely eaten. I know for sure if they hadn't eaten it, it would have fouled my tank big time lol. I don't think salt water is as difficult as some people act, so I would just set back and let it take its course. Just make sure it sets for a while before doing much.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hypancistrus

So went to the LFS today and got our rock. We got a total of 40 pounds. 25 of liverock and 15 of baserock. It looks pretty good, but it's a bit cloudy at the moment so I am waiting to take pics. :banana:

We are pretty psyched! It's in our bedroom at the foot of our bed, and it'll make nice viewing, day and night.

So far as shrimp go, we really liked the look of the coral banded shrimp but I remember reading that they are not reef safe. Is this true? The LFS had them in some of their coral tanks. Would these shrimp be compatible with the fire or skunk cleaner shrimp??

---

We had a coral banded shrimp and it was a lot of fun to watch. However we were told not to put any other shrimp in with him. Aquahobby.com is a great place to find out about different fish species and hobbyist experience with them. Here is a link to the coral banded shrimp. http://www.aquahobby.com/marine/e_stenopus.php

Is that coral a softie or have a hard skeleton? Looks like LPS to me.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GoingPostal

Is that coral a softie or have a hard skeleton? Looks like LPS to me.

---

The pic you're talking about looks like a favia skeleton to me

Holy cow I could never have a saltwater fish tank, just reading this thread I am baffled, but they sure are gorgeous! Good luck to you!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by deftones2015

Depends on what it is and how large it is. If it survived in the fish store tank, chances are it will live in yours as well. Have you seen any bristle worms?.

---

Haven't seen any as of yet, but I don't recall seeing them right away in my other attempts, either, and yet they were there when I broke the tanks down. So I'm assuming they are there.

You can see the clam thing in the picture with the red macroalgae on it. It's tall and upright in orientation.

So far as the other corals-- I haven't the foggiest idea what they are. We are going to start with some zooanthids and xenia. I eventually would like to get some LPS... frogspawn and hammer coral in particular!

Frogspawn and hammer are some of my favorite coral. Be careful with xenia because it can take over your tank pretty quick. You can start with lps if you want. Just make sure water quality is in check before adding anything. Nice thing about coral is they don't add to your bio load unless you feed them.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by deftones2015

Frogspawn and hammer are some of my favorite coral. Be careful with xenia because it can take over your tank pretty quick. You can start with lps if you want. Just make sure water quality is in check before adding anything. Nice thing about coral is they don't add to your bio load unless you feed them.

---

Yeah, I had xenia in one of my previous attempts-- a 5.5 gallon nano tank. I'm familiar with it's "weed like" properties.

lol yeah, I have a friend who tried it out in his 55 and it pretty much dominated his tank.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by deftones2015

lol yeah, I have a friend who tried it out in his 55 and it pretty much dominated his tank.

---

Mine spread pretty quick in the 55, but it was one of my favorites. I actually found an old photo of the 5.5 gallon mini-reef I had before it went kaput. I will have to upload it and post it. It was a pretty little tank.