# New to saltwater



## jasert39 (May 1, 2003)

This will be my first sw and reef tank. Let me know what you think.

20L
small cpr HOB Refugium powered by maxijet 400 or 600 cant remember.
Maxijet 900 and a microjet (for now) for flow
about 30 lbs. or agronite sand with some seeder sand from 3 other established reefs.
20-25 lbs. or cured live rock
50 watt stealth heater

CPR bak pack skimmer with maxijet 1200 (being shipped to me monday)

Here are some current pics...about a week into cycle. There are a couple or snails that came along with the sand and rocks, lots or bristleworms and a couple brittlestar that I have seen. Seeing new stuff everyday crawling around in there.


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## patriotsfan (Sep 6, 2005)

looks good. i would like to try a set up like that. how much was for everything?


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## rbp 4 135 (Mar 2, 2004)

whats you lighting, and what are you thinking abput adding.


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## jasert39 (May 1, 2003)

> looks good. i would like to try a set up like that. how much was for everything?


Thanks...lol i havent really been keeping tank but quite a bit for a small tank. I have tried to get a lot of the stuff used, I got the lights and fuge from a guy on RC for 125 shipped. Got some live rock from someone for 3 buck a lb. But if i have to guess im in the 4-5 hundred dollar range, including sand, rock, equipment, salt, test kits, powerheads, etc.



> whats you lighting, and what are you thinking abput adding.


130 current powercompacts, 1 10K, 1 actinic. My plans are to keep it pretty simple, clean up crew, clowns, cleaner shrimp, maybe a peppermint if compatible. Zoos, shrooms, xenia to start maybe some frogspawn and hammers, we will see...taking this slow.


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## rbp 4 135 (Mar 2, 2004)

yep, ir reefing slow=good


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## C.D. (Jan 31, 2005)

looks great to me, i hate thinking about how much i spend on my tank. first is the initial setup costs like LR LS lights and equipment and then after taht my tank has been up for a bout three months and i spend no less than 20 a week for little stuff and maintenance. but its very fun stuff. i estimate i have about 4 bilion tiny brittle stars in my tank. lol. they just pop up everywhere.


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## mr.bearhasyourlady (Jun 1, 2004)

looks great...yea take your time for sure


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## hyphen (Apr 4, 2004)

stuff is lookin great. hope to see more progress pics and things move along







glad too see you started off on the right foot. what are your future plans?


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## jasert39 (May 1, 2003)

Thanks for all of the comments, surely going to go as slow as possible, im going to vegas in a couple weeks so i probably wont add anything at all until i get back. (feb 19th) I figure that it will give the tank plenty of time of finish its cycle.

Hyphen: Going to start of easy. As far as live stock I think I am going to go with two clown fish, cleaner shrimp, peppermint shrimp?, assorted crabs and snails. Easy coral in this tank zoas, shroom, xenia, etc. I figure I'll see how all this goes and if i go any bigger in the future.

Can anyone tell me the compatablilty (sp?) of different species of shrimp and how many should be in a tank my size.

thanks again.


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## rchan11 (May 6, 2004)

Here's a site that will help you.

http://www.marinedepotlive.com/inverts--shrimp.html


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## C.D. (Jan 31, 2005)

lol no matter what you do you need to have a mantis shrimp in there.

lol just kidding those things are vicious.....but kickass. mantis pic


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## jasert39 (May 1, 2003)

C.D. that is a cool ass looking shrimp, but cant have it devouring my entire tank lol...

is there some sort of rule as to how many shrimp can be in a tank? Could I have two cleaners and a peppermint along with the clowns. Could I have more shrimp than the three of them?>


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## C.D. (Jan 31, 2005)

i guess technically you could have a lot of shrimp but you would have to make sure they were fed adn make sure they are compatible. i.e. the mantis shrimp is not compatible with anything lol)


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## Guest (Jan 31, 2006)

Might I suggest setting up a fuge now, to save you the hassle of algae later? Trust me, the shyte grows EVERYWHERE, is hard to get rid of, ruins the whole tank eventually...I had to clean my rocks several times until I finally got rid of it.


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## jasert39 (May 1, 2003)

i have a cpr hob fuge running already stocked with a mixture of sand a miracle mud, a small peice of lr or two and cheato. I don't have a ton of algea in my tank now just a couple areas on the sand and a few or the rocks have some brown/green algea.


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## Guest (Jan 31, 2006)

jasert39 said:


> i have a cpr hob fuge running already stocked with a mixture of sand a miracle mud, a small peice of lr or two and cheato. I don't have a ton of algea in my tank now just a couple areas on the sand and a few or the rocks have some brown/green algea.










Well done.


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## illnino (Mar 6, 2004)

i see a good skimmer much better than a fuge. i used to think the oppisite. now i have both. untill you see what a good skimmer will pull out of your tank you wont know... but it takes out the waste before it can break down into anything useable by the algae.


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## jasert39 (May 1, 2003)

i think i am going to agree with you illino...I bought a cpr bak pak off a guy on nano-reef that I will have tomorrow hopefully. I figure that if i decide to upgrade or not that skimmer will do me good for a while. I wanted a remora but couldnt find a decent used one. This is selling me a two week old one so I should be good to go.

oh yeah illino dont forget me when you frag...lol


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## jiggy (Jun 27, 2004)

u need more liverock if u wanna go reef.. i couldda given u 120lbs of sand that i just threw on my driveway.. lol
i went barebottom for my sps reef.. 
if u dont wanna deal with algae problems.. use ro/di for topoff and water changes.. even if u dont wanna invest in an ro/di filter.. u can buy it at the petstore for like 30 cents a gallon


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## jasert39 (May 1, 2003)

jiggy...why do you say i need more rock? I read that about a pound a gallon on more what a good start. I didnt want to fill the tank up with lr since i will add some with the frag and coral that come later...

If i was misinformed please let me know. oh yeah, and I saw your thread on RC about that sand but you are all the way up in north jersey right? Little far for me.


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## Raptor (Jan 3, 2003)

Its more of a prefferance than a rule. 1-2 lbs a gallon. 1 being adaquate in biofiltration for your tank, and 2 lbs a gallon for astetics.
I for one dont like a cramped tank loaded with liverock.
I like to aquascape so it apears to be a good amount and i have ample flow thru it, and have plenty of room for fish and corals.


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## rbp 4 135 (Mar 2, 2004)

the pound per gallon ratio is just a guide line, rocks from different arears will weigh less or more than rocks form other areas. Lr harvested around flordia tends to be denser, and thus heavier than the porus lava based rock form figi and arears similar to that. Ti me it appears that you would have enough for sufficent biofiltration, but you can always add more if you want for asthetic purpose. Also keep in mind that most lfs sell corals that are atached to pieces of rock so you will acquire more rock that way also.


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## jasert39 (May 1, 2003)

some new pics taken today...all my levels have reached good levels and I added a clean up crew the other day.

here are some shots.


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## jasert39 (May 1, 2003)

well its been a couple months thought I would throw an update at you guys.

One Skunk Cleaner, one peppermint shrimp, one clownfish (getting another shortly)

Frogspawn, gsp, xenia, anethelia (sp?), couple zoos and shrooms.

Also added a bakpak skimmer seems to be doing well and purchase a used ro/di for water changes and to use in the auto top off that has been added since my last post as well

Here are some pics (terrible quality i know)


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## Guest (Mar 27, 2006)

Lookin good! I would grab a bit more LR tho.


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## Genin (Feb 4, 2003)

that is looking good man. the rocks have a nice color to them.


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## andiruleu (Jun 10, 2005)

its coming along great..

but what is all those white dots on the glass?


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## rbp 4 135 (Mar 2, 2004)

little spots of coraline mabey?


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## jasert39 (May 1, 2003)

thank for the comments...i did pick up another four pounds of rock this week ill post pics later.

Not sure about the white spots to be honest with you...if there were the beginnings or coraline that would be great.


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## Genin (Feb 4, 2003)

they're not the begining of coraline, but i don't know what they are either. the back wall of my nano cube has those white dots on it to. they can be scraped off, i am just too lazy and don't really care.


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## jasert39 (May 1, 2003)

Yeah I dont really care about the white dots either. Dont look like they are harming anything just I just let them be.


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## Raptor (Jan 3, 2003)

They are some kind of invert. (Filterfeeder) similar to barnacles IMO.
I havent seen a tank without them. Well unless you scrape them off.


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## jasert39 (May 1, 2003)

well this thread is quickly coming to an end...picked up a 40 breeder that I am moving all of this stuff to (sw is more addictive than p's), going to attempt to make this tank a sump/fuge. So if anyone is intrested my lights or cpr fuge let me know. lol. Building the stand this weekend I will post some pics when something gets done.


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## diamond4100 (Sep 26, 2005)

Could be tunicates I have them all over my glass


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