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-   -   The Salt Life. (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2177487)

acbaro 06/04/2012 10:23 AM

The Salt Life.
 
A couple months ago my wife and I walked into our LFS and left to go setup our very first SW tank! We were definitely excited and headed straight home with no delay. Now I've always had FW tanks and always had african cichlids and would always here the horror stories that go around about SW tanks. How much work they are to maintain, how much they cost, etc.. well now I laugh when I hear the same thing people tell me that I used to say! I absolutely love my SW tank and have it right next to the dinner table to so every time I goto eat I flick the lights on and there is my beauty! We have only been in the salt life for coming on 3 months now!

Just recently I found out that my tank would be considered a nano reef tank. It is a 29G and I currently have 57lbs of LR and 30lbs of LS. I have 1 Hydor Koralia 1050gph pump, an AC 50, and a Coralife Dual Lamp T5 fixture with a 10k and actinic bulb, both 31 watt, and of course a glass heater which hasn't failed me yet(knock of wood). I currently have 2 ocellaris clowns, 1 mocha and 1 normal, they seem to be sticking around each other a lot, the mocha being the more dominant. I have 1 Striped serpent sea star, 1 quart hermit, 2 blue-knuckle hermits, 4 snails, and a scooter blenny which I haven't seen in a couple days. I've definitely had a few fish come and go, blue damsel, magenta basslet, and yellow watchmen but they all got returned for aggressiveness except for the watchmen who died unexpectedly. I also had 2 cleaner shrimp, one that was eaten by the basslet and the other that died for no reason. After going through all this I've decided to turn my spare 10g into a sump and I built a custom box that works like a HOB refugium that will sit on top of the tank, sucking water from the skimmer chamber into the fuge and then dumping the water in the return section to be sent back to the tank. I already purchased the protein skimmer for my tank and now I'm in the process of ordering the rest of my stuff online, including an eshopps overflow, tam rio 50 pump(for the fuge), a mag-drive 5 return pump, a Two little fishies Phosphate reactor and some flexi tubing for all the pipework. I definitely have some plans for my tank, which includes getting some anemones for the clowns and adding some ricordea's and other beautiful corals for the mix. I want a goby shrimp pair for my tank, and I want to try another cleaner shrimp and maybe get one or two more fish after all that. I'm open minded to try different things so please feel free to voice your comments, questions or concerns!

Now for my wife, she decided she wanted her own little tank:D! She didn't want anything bigger than the 2.5G because its "cute" :lolspin:. She got her tank and has about 2 or 3 lbs of LS, 5 lbs of LR, an AC 20 for a filter and to create flow through the tank, and a little 5w submersible heater for her tank. I gave her SW from my established tank so pretty much the next day we were able to go and get her first fish! She got herself a yellow clown goby, and a sexy shrimp. We definitely plan on getting some more sexy's and whenever the LFS gets in a green clown goby she may want to add him to the tank. Now she doesn't know much about corals and I don't feel comfortable saying I know a lot about corals either. We have a marineland LED fixture for her tank and it has 3 moon lights that act as RB's when the day light is switched on. Will that be sufficient enough to work for some corals to put in her tank? If so what corals can she put inside of her tiny tank? She also wants to put a star fish in her tank, and my question is what would be a safe star to put in it? Better yet If we can get a List of all the fish, corals, and inverts that would be safe to put in her 2.5g that would be good to know :thumbsup:! Also is the AC20 good enough to create enough water flow in her tank to not need a wave pump? Also what kind of protein skimmer can she use for her tank? If we can get a list of equipment that is good for her tank that would be nice also :D!

Now enough of the boring part and onto the pictures! This will be our build thread so to speak for our tank so like I said any help, tips or constructive criticism is openly welcome!

It doesn't make it a good thread unless theres pictures! :crazy1:

My tank
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-j...A15%2520AM.jpg

The wifey's tank(you can see her sexy shrimp and clown goby in the pic)
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-B...A48%2520AM.jpg


Randoms:

My sump and protein skimmer
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-5...A07%2520PM.jpg

Now I don't know if the placement of my skimmer is correct. The baffles are 9" so I don't know how high I need my skimmer to be in the chamber and it doesn't state in the manual either! If someone can assist me with that!

My refugium bulbs, which one should I use for better growth of the chaeto I'll be putting in there or should I use them both?
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-N...A37%2520PM.jpg

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-T...A01%2520AM.jpg

Thanks for looking and following our salt life! We look forward to seeing the progression of our tanks and hope you enjoy it just as much as we do!

Anthony

keener1830 06/04/2012 12:41 PM

You don't need a skimmer for the 2.5 gallon just do water changes weekly and there should be no problem. I would not put a second fish in a tank that small. A general rule of thumb is that the smaller the tank the harder it will be to keep everything stable as the smallest offset can mess up the entire tank fast. I had one that size there fun good luck.

acbaro 06/05/2012 11:29 AM

Ah ok I just figured for when I added corals but if they will be fine without a protein skimmer and just doing water changes then great!

Chaotic Reefer4u 06/05/2012 01:30 PM

Very Nice acbaro, congrat's to you and your wifey...


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