Just added my first livestock and corals...

[JammyBirch]

Bought two oscillarus clowns, my daughter picked them out and did a great job.

Also added a skunk cleaner shrimp, another chaeto ball..

Here is the kickers...the corals. Small hammer coral, and a small frag of Armor of God, Zoa...

My buddy told me I got really lucky with the cost, dropped $80 for all of it.

We will see how this goes...

Any "watch outs" from the experts please feel free to comment.

[Teenreefer15]

im hoping your tank is cycled and well established if so make sure you dip the corals and acclimate them very well.

[NSimpkins]

First of all congrats! It is a big day when you get to add things to the tank. Like nbyron asked is your tank cycled? Do you have a clean up crew already in the tank.

Another thing I will add is be patient. You may see your fish doing strange things, your cleaner shrimp may hide, etc. It's ok. Check you water parameters daily to see how the load is being handled by the tank. Be prepared to do a small water change to keep the parameters in line.

[JammyBirch]

Thanks...yes the tank is cycled. I have had the CUC installed for weeks and they are doing well. I was really not wanting the hammer just because it's a legit coral that everyone loves and seems as though it's for more experienced reef keepers...the guy at the LFS couldn't disagree more, basically he told me the hammer knows what to do all I have to do is manage the water, which I do and it is good.

Water changes are no big deal every other week and I alternate them with GFO.

First of all the clowns are already awesome...swimming around and goofing around. The shrimp is totally gone hiding, no idea where that is. The hammer is weird, the green hammers are mostly green, there are a couple that look blue though. The armor was starting to open up, light is off now.

Acclimation was dumping tablespoons of my water into the bag while floating the bag in the tank, I did this for ~20 minute, the clowns got it the same way pretty much doubled the bag amount with my water...

[rdrbssr11]

best advice i could give is take things slow. buying new stuff is fun, but i find it better to stretch things out over time.

[JammyBirch]

My question is about light acclimation and final amount. I have the Zoa low in the tank, the hammer is middle in relatively moderate flow zones.

I turned down the light to minimum for tonight, I thought tomorrow I'd put it to 25% and see how open the Zoa gets. Probably run it that way for a day or two then increase in 10% intervals.

[NSimpkins]

Jammy I would take a little longer on your light acclimation. Especially if you can control. What type of lights are you using?

[JammyBirch]

I have a reefbreeder value fixture, it has knobs for day and atinic light...

When will I know how much light is too much?

[Sk8r]

Understand that the hammer is a stony coral, and will require you to keep the calcium up: it will start eating if healthy, and it can gulp down enough to strip your water of it real fast. The way you handle that is to start with the parameters I have in my sig line, and add (for starters) a teaspoon of Mrs. Wages Pickling Lime (no joke: this is a real cheap and good calcium, and fish stores sell it) to your topoff water ---per gallon of water in the topoff container. You need 3 tests: alk, cal, and magnesium, and if you keep the magnesium where I recommend, or up to 1300, your calcium {lime} will satisfy that coral nicely---they can grow very fast. Put the hammer up high in your tank, and the zoa low in the rocks and at the opposite (outflow) end of the tank from the hammer---they don't like each other; and put a small sack of carbon (changed weekly) in your water flow to make sure they're nice to each other. That lime can increase to 2 tsp when that hammer has about 5-10 heads. Or if you get other stony coral. Good luck with it!

[JammyBirch]

Understand that the hammer is a stony coral, and will require you to keep the calcium up: it will start eating if healthy, and it can gulp down enough to strip your water of it real fast. The way you handle that is to start with the parameters I have in my sig line, and add (for starters) a teaspoon of Mrs. Wages Pickling Lime (no joke: this is a real cheap and good calcium, and fish stores sell it) to your topoff water ---per gallon of water in the topoff container. You need 3 tests: alk, cal, and magnesium, and if you keep the magnesium where I recommend, or up to 1300, your calcium {lime} will satisfy that coral nicely---they can grow very fast. Put the hammer up high in your tank, and the zoa low in the rocks and at the opposite (outflow) end of the tank from the hammer---they don't like each other; and put a small sack of carbon (changed weekly) in your water flow to make sure they're nice to each other. That lime can increase to 2 tsp when that hammer has about 5-10 heads. Or if you get other stony coral. Good luck with it!

Great advise as usual, thank you. I'll be monitoring water conditions daily for the first week or so. I'll need to pick up a Mg test kit and some pickling lime.

Thanks for the info.

[JammyBirch]

Jammy I would take a little longer on your light acclimation. Especially if you can control. What type of lights are you using?

Question about light acclimation. If a fish and coral came from a tank with high intensity light why acclimate? Seems like they would already be used to it.

[JammyBirch]

The hammer is all puffed up, looks great. The Zoa, not so much, most of the way open but not popping in the light like at the

http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums/o649/Flemingtb/25g%20Reef%20Tank/20141103_175629_zpspn3aihgr.jpg

[JammyBirch]

Understand that the hammer is a stony coral, and will require you to keep the calcium up: it will start eating if healthy, and it can gulp down enough to strip your water of it real fast. The way you handle that is to start with the parameters I have in my sig line, and add (for starters) a teaspoon of Mrs. Wages Pickling Lime (no joke: this is a real cheap and good calcium, and fish stores sell it) to your topoff water ---per gallon of water in the topoff container. You need 3 tests: alk, cal, and magnesium, and if you keep the magnesium where I recommend, or up to 1300, your calcium {lime} will satisfy that coral nicely---they can grow very fast. Put the hammer up high in your tank, and the zoa low in the rocks and at the opposite (outflow) end of the tank from the hammer---they don't like each other; and put a small sack of carbon (changed weekly) in your water flow to make sure they're nice to each other. That lime can increase to 2 tsp when that hammer has about 5-10 heads. Or if you get other stony coral. Good luck with it!

Hey Sk8er,

Quick question what do you think about B-Ionic Calcium suppliment? I think this is the easiest way for me to manage my system to keep coral growth healthy. Do you know if this has the Magnesium in it as well?

If not i might just get the complete Calcium, Alk and Mag kit from BRS...

[Sk8r]

I've never used B-Ionic. Tank scale/size does matter when picking a system of supplementation. I like the lime for a tank 50 gal and above, because it's just simple (and cheap!) to toss lime into my reservoir; but there are other good methods. Post a question about B-Ionic or 2-part, and see if you can get some experienced users to chime in.