New 65 gallon

[White Lightning]

Approximately five weeks ago I finally made the plunge into saltwater. This decision was made after four years of keeping a brackish and three freshwater tanks. I love this hobby!

I figured I would share my progress so far. I have a 65 gallon tank, 3 Maxi jets 1200 with approx 80 lbs of Figi Totoka LR. A wide variety of 30 or more snails: Margarita, conch, zebra, turbo, and astrea. One damsel, a serpent star and a pink tip anemone. ( A few people have told me that anemones prefer a more established tank but it seems to be doing okay. He was given to me by one of my staff. He moved from the rock he came on and re-attached himself to another rock where the flow is much greater.

Currently I am running power compacts but will be upgrading to a 6 bulb T5 Tek light by Sunlight Supply.

Eventually I will be getting a skimmer and more Live rock. Until then I will be doing more frequent water changes. I do not plan to have a sump. Who knows..... maybe later on down the road???

I am wondering when I can start adding corals? I know...I know...Only bad things happen fast in this hobby. Although so tempting, I am going to take it slow.

I also wanted to thank everyone for all the helpful advice over the last two years.

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[yellowtang]

Your set up is looking great!!!
and your anemone seems to be holding it together for the time being......
even in well established set up, anemones can die suddenly....you mentioned having
inverts and a damsels.......if they have managed to stay alive ,this means
your tank has cycled quite well....and continues to progress.
As for adding Corals......might be a good idea to get softies 1st to see their development
and since you're using PC in what I assume being a 24'' tall tank.....you might want to
just start with softies.....In few weeks you might want to add some LPS (frags to control your
cost and see if they will make it).
the other tip I might want to give u is take your time and don't Rush......
cheers

[Hookup]

Mod those MaxiJets for extra flow... there are kits available, you cannot have too much flow...

Wait on the corals till you get your skimmer and lights (IMO).

Look into Phosban & Carbon reactors & Media as well...  There are used phosban reactors available from time-to-time...

How long has your tank been running?  I'm not going to tell ya what you seem to already know about tank-age... just curious how far along you are.

[White Lightning]

The tank is still very new, at five weeks. I am really hoping that the anemone survives. He's very interesting. Last night I fed him a very small rosie and it was fascinating to watch him devour it.

As mentioned in my first post, I will be getting new lights on Tuesday. That was my plan...to start with some softies. I am hoping that there will be some interesting frags at the auction. 

As for a phosban reactor....I am assuming that has something to do with removing phosphates?

I have a question.....should I be adding any additives to the water? Or does that depend on what type of corals I will be adding? I'm going to keep posting pictures as teh tank progresses. My cheap camera broke last week and I specifically bought a much better camera to take those macro shots. Now it's just a matter of figuring out how to optimize it's use.

[xenon]

The tank is still very new, at five weeks. I am really hoping that the anemone survives. He's very interesting. Last night I fed him a very small rosie and it was fascinating to watch him devour it.

As mentioned in my first post, I will be getting new lights on Tuesday. That was my plan...to start with some softies. I am hoping that there will be some interesting frags at the auction. 

As for a phosban reactor....I am assuming that has something to do with removing phosphates?

I have a question.....should I be adding any additives to the water? Or does that depend on what type of corals I will be adding? I'm going to keep posting pictures as teh tank progresses. My cheap camera broke last week and I specifically bought a much better camera to take those macro shots. Now it's just a matter of figuring out how to optimize it's use.

The only additives you should care about at this stage is calcium, alkalinity and magnesium. You can get the Kent Tech CB 2-part and Kent Tech-M to maintain those levels but I don't expect they would fluctuate much without any corals/coraline in your tank.

[Hookup]

phosban reactors are a brand name from two little fishies (I think) and are used to get media into your filtering process.. such as phosphate removers and carbon.. (the two most common)

Your tank is 5 weeks old, why not give it some time to settle in before additives/trace/etc?   These things bring your tank into balance, after it is out of balance... i.e. with a good salt mix you started off with excellent water, then stuff happens, like corals and fishes, and some of those elements get consumed... at the age of your tank I cannot imagine anything has consumed anything yet...

Get some salfert test kits, if you do not already have, and do some tests to check your params.. go from there...

SW is a simple hobby, there is a process, follow-it and you get success... Run some tests and slowly adjust to whatever it is you want to achieve... which is based upon whatever you've read/believe in and what you're keeping in your tank....

If you do not know what it is you are building it' will be next to impossible to get there... What is your goal for your tank?  SPS/LPS/SOFTY/MIXED/FISH/Special?   Something else?  Until you decide it'll be hard for any of us to help.

[Zzippper]

Funny - my 65 gallon tank has very similar aqua-scaping - right down to the vertical looking rock on the left side of the tank.



A more mature tank, mind you - but very similar rock work.

Z

[White Lightning]

Your tank looks amazing! Being that we have the same size tank, what kind of equipment do you run on it? Specifically lights. I am going to purchase some new lights this week and pretty much decided on a 6 bulb (39 watts each) T5 fixture made by Sunlight Supply.

I plan on adding another 20-30 lbs of live rock. I would like a higher wall.

[White Lightning]

Looking at my tank today I am noticing that I finally have some coraline algae growing on a couple of the rocks. I was thinking of buying some "purple up" to boost the growth.

With that being said I was also planning on getting a pair of clarkii clowns. Or is it too soon. If not, do you think it would be wise to get rid of the damsel as I understand that they can be very territorial.

[Cheebs]

Purple up works, I use Bio-Calcium and the coralline is everywhere.

As for the clowns, I don't think it's too early.  Clowns are usually very hardy, in fact most people I know int he hobby started out with clowns, thats what I did.  With a tank your size I don't think there will be too much trouble with the damsel, but keep an eye on it.  Also, if your lucky and your clowns host your anemone soon after you introduce them, make sure you keep an eye on it as well. Clowns can be pretty rough on their anemones without knowing it, and considering the age of your tank if it takes a turn for the worst it might go down fast.  You can easily cover it with some sort of plastic container full of holes, as long as it still gets light/flow.

[Zzippper]

Your tank looks amazing! Being that we have the same size tank, what kind of equipment do you run on it? Specifically lights. I am going to purchase some new lights this week and pretty much decided on a 6 bulb (39 watts each) T5 fixture made by Sunlight Supply.

Octopus dual HOB skimmer, 10 g sump and a DIY sulphur denitrator.
Lights are 2 x 250 w Metal Halides (14K bulbs for now - switching to 20K soon) plus 2 x 65 w actinitics.

IMO Halidies are the way to go definitely. No restrictions of what you can keep.

Z

[White Lightning]

When you say "it might go down fast" are you referring to the anemone or the tank?

[Cheebs]

Oh the anemone of course, the tank looks great! The anemone looks nice too, but keep an eye on it what I mean

[White Lightning]

I figured I would give an update of the progress. It's been a busy week...I've travelled all over the city and have met a few different OVAS members on my quest for a kick-a*s marine set up.

Thanks ottawadiscus, az,  buzzard, and ovasadam for all the great advice!

So I've added a few things to the tank: a new lighting system, 2 clarkii clowns, various frags and a dual hang on back reef octopus skimmer. (which I am still trying to figure out how to use.) Let me know what you think.

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[Zzippper]

So I've added a few things to the tank: ... dual hang on back reef octopus skimmer. (which I am still trying to figure out how to use.) Let me know what you think.

Copy cat   

Z

[White Lightning]

Haha! I've never worked a skimmer before. It seems complicated. The instruction manual couldn't be any more vague. My tank is still only six weeks old but the water parameters have been pretty steady thus far. I have some small frags that have so far survived what will be almost a week. I'm gonna wait the next few weeks and see how they do.

I am so happy to have finally started up a saltwater tank. I've been thinking that I've wanted to try one for a couple years now. It is a million times more interesting than my freshwater tanks. It was only hours before I added the clown fish that he started hosting the anenome. What a cool thing to watch...... The snails and crabs have a pretty interesting relationship. Then then there is the sea serpent who crawls around. the tank......It's awesome I tell ya!

[salvini55]

I'm so jealous Randy!!!!!

[White Lightning]

So now I am almost three months in and I figured I coudl give an update on teh tank. Everything is going well. The toadstool I picked upi three weeks ago is finally starting to open up and mt GSP is growing like mad. I picked up a fox face this weekend. Oh what a wonderful hobby!

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[White Lightning]

Another month has passed since my last update.....since then, I have added a few more corals and few more punds of rock. Some of these new additions include: candy cane coral ,green striped mushrooms, a feather duster, a spaghetti leather (thanks RossW), and a coral banded shrimp. Things are still progressing slowly.

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[jeffd]

nice progress. People who are patient and like to read and are not looking for instant results usually do well with saltwater\marine. There are some that just want something purty to look at in their living room to impress the guests to the house, then there are others that really want to learn about the hobby and understand it.

The first type of person IMO will do ok if they are paying someone to maintain their system or as long as their luck runs for.

Nice looking tank.