Starting a salt aquarium- fowlr for now

[Hypancistrus]

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.



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



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



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.





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



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.

[Hypancistrus]

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!

[GoingPostal]

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.

[deftones2015]

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.

[Hypancistrus]

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.

[deftones2015]

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.

[Hypancistrus]

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!

[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? 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.

[MoshBalls]

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.

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

[GoingPostal]

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