Hi everyone, i am setting up my first sw tank next week, it is a 24 gallon, with refugium in the back replacing stock filter, 50/50 pc lighting, and comes already stocked with a decent amount of lr, a purple tip anemone, a kenya tree, a yellow damsel, and a watchman gobie, with live sand, i also have access to as much Fiji base rock as i would like this is my very first venture into saltwater any advice for take-down to transport to setup and maintenance would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance
Ok, you asked for advice so here it goes. You bought a very small tank to start out with. Is it something that will work? Sure. BUT it is also a very delicate balancing act for the beginner and has a very small tolerance for mistakes. Read all you can here and elsewhere and ask lots of questions. You have another thread looking for coral, probably should back off for a bit. Tanks of this size are easy to overstock and hard to manage as to water quality unless you are very careful. Monitor your water closely. Good luck!
if you read my other thread correctly I said I wanted corals later after my tank settles in, the tank was being broken down from an acquaintance getting out of the hobby, so instead of just tossing it, it was given to me,so yes
I would say I'm sure at this moment it is right for me thanks for your help
well the tank is up and running since yesterday, the kenyas are out looking beautiful, and the fish are making their presence known i guess thats all i can ask for at the moment thanks guys !!
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Obviously, you want to make the transport go as quickly as possible. If buckets are sitting for any lenghth of time (beyond a couple hours) you will want to agitate them to get O2 in the water. Literally blowing bubbles through a tube will work. A small air pump is better/easier. Keep any water with animals in it warm. I would separate the anemone from the fish and kenya tree during transport. I have no scientific reason for doing so - it just seems wise to me. I would likely dump the water hosting the anemone too, for the same unknown reasons.
What jay13 and others will say is - a small tank means parameters can change very quickly so you need to monitor often, daily for a tank that size. (One gallon of evaporation is harder on a 24G tank than it would be for a 120G tank...) But, with just those two fish, and an almost impossible to kill Kenya Tree, you should be fine. You can make a really cool looking tank with soft corals, even some LPS in a tank that size, with those PC lights. Inverts don't usually add much to bio-load either, so you can have fun with crabs.
With just two fish be careful not to overfeed... It's hard to feed such a small amount. Inverts will help to eat the excess.
Enjoy the hobby. Read a lot. The folks here will share quite a bit. Take it slowly. Jimsflies can correct my mis-quoting of him, but "nothing good ever happens fast in a reef aquarium".
had a small diatom bloom lasted two days covered some Rick and maybe a quarter of the sand, woke up this morning and its all almost gone, things are looking good so far! any advice at this point?
My advice is just keep monitoring things. Give it some more time to fully settle in. The bloom was an indication that nutrients were stirred up in the move. The diatoms will eat any silicates stirred up, bloom then die off. As they die you may see a spike in nitrates which will feed another algae bloom. This bloom should also settle down with waterchanges and the use of a cuc. How this progresses will indicate if the tank reestablished or if the algea becomes too great it means something is off.
well finally got some testing kits and here are the results , tank has been up and running at my house since 3/31
ph-7.8
nitrate-0
nitrite-0
ammonia-0
phosphate-was hard to tell but between 1-2....high? advice?
alkalinity- within normal range
salinity- within normal range
any hints,tips, advice would be appreciated
can i start adding some corals or should i still wait awhile? dont want to rush anything
newbie seeks advice
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