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Unread 12/27/2016, 11:33 PM   #1
PdThaDude
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Location: DFW, Texas
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Question New to the salt game, Came with some Questons (New Member)

Hello All,
My name is Paul I'm a long time freshwater tank owner and I'm ready to restart the fire for the hobby and move into saltwater. Let me start off with a little background with me. I'm 29 from the DFW area in Texas and owned many freshwater tanks all my life from 10gal up 55 gal stocking from gold fish to cichlids to full out planted tanks. After 4 months of researching and reading books everything I know from fresh means nothing in the world of saltwater beside knowing how Ph and nitrate and ammonia levels work. My brother is a long time hobbiest in salt with a 250 gal cube and a 55 gal reef only tanks. He owns a very successful company and for the past 7 years has been able to have a tank service come by his house and do the manintenance on his tanks every other week, although he his very knowledgeable he cant answer all my question's and with info on the net and books all over the spectrum.

Let me tell you about my set up
I will start off with I think is my 1st mistake was, I was out shopping on black Friday decided to go into petsmart because dog food was half off. long story short I impulse bought a 60 gal tank and stand for 130 dollars. it was a great deal but I did it before I did the research on what tank I would need to keep the fish I want, but ill get in to why in the details
Tank 48"Wx12"Dx24"H (the 12" deep is one of the problems I'm running into)
Sump 36"Wx10"Dx16"H with refugium (Custom built it my self cuz nothing else would fit under)
Protein Skimmer E Shopps s-120
Dry Rock reef saver 40lbs in display and 10lbs in the sump
Return Pump Sicce Syncra silent 3.0 (714gph)
Powerheads 2 Sicce Voyager 2 (800gph each)
Live Sand bed 2" deep
lighting CurrentUSA 48" Loop LED (coming soon after cycle)
120 gal rated heater
So my 1st question is are there any red flags that are jumping out, with this set up? I feel like it should be able to handle a pretty good bio load once after everything is established
2nd question, with my rock work everything I read says it should be placed in the middle of the tank to give more swimming space and not to let toxins build up. is that more a rule of thumb? cause with my 12" deep tank its really cutting the tank in half right now I have it a inch off the back wall and about 5 to 6 inches open on the front.
3rd question, active carbon I would really like to use it to help to keep the water clear. I'm running out of space in the sump but I don't mind giving it up but looking for the most bang for my buck.

Fish stocking (which I'm still a month away from)
this is by far the most controversial subject on the net, so I'm going to list my dream stock that I think is in within reason after driving my self crazy reading everything I can on the net. looking for redflags, maybe a stocking order, and maybe if it could be over stocked

Clean up crew (open for suggestion) peppermint shrimp how many? not sure yet and maybe some turbo snails still no clue on how many
1- ocellaris clown
3- pajama cardinals
3 to 4- bicolor chromis damsels
1- diamond goby
1- flame dwarf angel
1- orchid dottyback
1- dwarf lionfish (yes I know a pipedream I'm thinking)
I would like to get the tank up and running for 6 to 8 months but I would like to put some coral and anemone in but that's way down the road.
like I said this is my dream stocking and yes I know it goes against every inch per gallon rule of thumb but I think with the stock bio load per fish being some what low it could be maybe pulled off. I'm very open to suggestions and very open minded to other types for fish. its just the inch to gallon rule of thumb gets depressing that i can only keep 3 fish depending what rule you follow.
Thank you for your time, i look forward to being a member here and yalls response


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Unread 12/28/2016, 01:34 AM   #2
GimpyFin
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Welcome to the forum. Are you drilling the tank or are you getting a hang on overflow? (Didn't see it mentioned, so just curious.) Your equipment list looks ok, but you might want different lighting. (Taking into consideration you want corals and an anemone at some point.) Current USA makes ok lights for the price, they're just not very powerful.

Active carbon is a toss up. I never use it personally, but some people like to. As for stock list, I'd skip the lionfish as they have the potential to eat any fish that can fit in their mouth. Dottybacks can be aggressive too, so that might be one to avoid as well. Anyway, just my $.02. Good luck.


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Unread 12/28/2016, 01:45 AM   #3
LJC6780
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I'm also working on a stocking list for my 75 gallon work in progress ... ive heard conflicting info on the chromis. I've heard they like to be in schools and I've heard that they will eventually kill everyone off til there is only 1. And to just keep 1. I am thinking the schools are more for huge tanks where you can actually have a school of 10-12 or something ...

From my understanding the lion will kill everyone else in the tank, it I could be wrong.

I also have on my list, ocellaris clown pair, orchid dottyback, banggai cardinal pair, diamond goby, a green clown goby ...

I also bought a blue leg hermit and a star snail today for the BC29 temporary tank while I'm working on the 75. It came with some fish and corals so I needed to get my other tank setup for now!

I've also done a bit of reading and it seems that having 1-2 skunk cleaner shrimp is a good thing. They will clean the fish of parasites and will pair up together.

I don't really understand all of the SW stocking rules myself so we will see what happens when I actually narrow down my list!


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Unread 12/28/2016, 06:49 AM   #4
RobZilla04
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For what it is worth I have an Orchid Dottyback along with 2 clowns, 2 cardinal fish, 2 red anthias, 3 chromis, 1 lawnmower blenny, 2 damsels, and a mandarin goby. No problems with aggression from any.


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Unread 12/28/2016, 08:41 AM   #5
nursedude
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I know you acknowledged this already, but any chance you could upgrade the tank. Down the road you will really want more width.


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Unread 12/28/2016, 09:22 AM   #6
Denbf58
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To Reef Central skip the lion as far as chromis you need a good amount of cave and holes they can hide in to help lower aggression and the current leds may not be strong enough for anemone might want to look in to t5s or better leds


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Unread 12/28/2016, 12:43 PM   #7
PdThaDude
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GimpyFin View Post
Welcome to the forum. Are you drilling the tank or are you getting a hang on overflow? (Didn't see it mentioned, so just curious.) Your equipment list looks ok, but you might want different lighting. (Taking into consideration you want corals and an anemone at some point.) Current USA makes ok lights for the price, they're just not very powerful.

Active carbon is a toss up. I never use it personally, but some people like to. As for stock list, I'd skip the lionfish as they have the potential to eat any fish that can fit in their mouth. Dottybacks can be aggressive too, so that might be one to avoid as well. Anyway, just my $.02. Good luck.
Hey ill be running a 11/4 pvc overflow with two and a half inch diameter weir


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Unread 12/28/2016, 12:45 PM   #8
PdThaDude
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nursedude View Post
I know you acknowledged this already, but any chance you could upgrade the tank. Down the road you will really want more width.
Yes definitely you will be upgraded later down the road I figured since I already have it it could be a good starter tank
Later down the road I'll be looking to keep Tang's and triggers


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Unread 12/28/2016, 03:42 PM   #9
PdThaDude
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Denbf58 View Post

To Reef Central skip the lion as far as chromis you need a good amount of cave and holes they can hide in to help lower aggression and the current leds may not be strong enough for anemone might want to look in to t5s or better leds
Hey thanks for the welcome
Ya i figured the the lionfish was out of the picture do you have any other suggestions to replace the chromis?


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Unread 12/28/2016, 07:48 PM   #10
nursedude
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And how rude am I, Welcome!


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