29 gallon first SW set up!

[mpr163]

So I've been dying to get a saltwater set up ever since I started working at one of my LFS' in September. After a long process, I decided to move my freshwater community fish into a 10 gallon and donate the rest to my work, and get going on some salt! I added 2 10lb bags of regular marine sand and mixed the saltwater to 1.020 and let things settle and warm up over-night. The next day I added 10lbs of live argonite sand and let that settle for about 4-5 hours before adding about 10lbs of live rock and some dead corals. Today I added about another pound of live rock, and these cool dried out urchin exoskeletons I found in one of our reef systems. Blue tuxedo urchins I believe. I was wondering if there was any negative effects I could have in the tank from those? They basically just seemed like empty shells to me, plus they were free and even got me a few copepods crawling out when I got home =] But I have a hob filter mostly running for water flow, and plan on maybe adding some rubble to the back of that before I start adding livestock. here is what i'm considering as far as stock...let me know what you think!

1x long nose hawkfish
1x ocellaris clown
1x orchid dottyback
1x blue spot jawfish
1x flame angel
1x yellow tail damsel (starter fish)

planning on sticking with a FOWLR for now, maybe adding corals later. Some of my liverock came with featherdusters on it, not sure how common that is or even if they will make it but I thought they looked pretty cool!

 

[CPRCPR]

bump bump very nice!

 

[TMartinez]

Sounds good to me... I'm running a 29 gal as well. i would add a little more live rock or if oyu'd like some base rock. Stock seems ok, however i'm not much of a damsel fan. If you plan on keeping it in the tank their could be issues between it and the clownfish.

If you are worried about those exoskeletons I would just watch your nitrates. If they are in good then no worries

 

[mpr163]

i got 3 pieces of base rock from *gasp* petco! but it accually had some nice coraline growing on it and it was wayyy cheaper than the fiji at my work...which is mostly what you can see here as the base rocks are underneath/behind. More live rock seems to come home with me everyday, so I can see myself having it full in no time haha. Now just convincing the boyfriend to splurge on a rotation pump for me =]

 

[TMartinez]

I got a Koralia 750 for $23 on amazon...

 

[mpr163]

do you have any opinion on the maxijets? we sell those at my work for 23.99, not including my discount haha. maxijet 400, that is.

 

[TMartinez]

as a circulation pump... meh... the Hydor Koralias get mad reviews and I love mine. I seriously have 1 in my tank and it provides enough movement for my whole tank. But if you get a discount it may be worth trying the Maxijets...

 

[vaipulu]

I would have to disagree, I think most people start with a damsel, my domino and clown had no problems at all, I think if you start them together young, before any territory is established you should be fine.. Good eye on the hawk fish I think there bad*** fish try I think the red ones are pretty sweet too. Try the sun coral I had a good experience without special lighting really helped me deiced of coral was really for me.


Awsome tank

Best of luck!


Vaipulu

 

[mpr163]

it can do a max of 500 gph in rotation pump form, and that almost seems like it'd be too much, but I'm not really sure. plus its convertible to a utility pump and I can hook it up easy to a protein skimmer when I get around to buying one.

 

[mpr163]

I would have to disagree, I think most people start with a damsel, my domino and clown had no problems at all, I think if you start them together young, before any territory is established you should be fine.. Good eye on the hawk fish I think there bad*** fish try I think the red ones are pretty sweet too. Try the sun coral I had a good experience without special lighting really helped me deiced of coral was really for me.


Awsome tank

Best of luck!


Vaipulu

yeah...the hawkfish just caught my eye instantly when we got in a shipment...its funny you mention lighting because I have like a literally 10 year old hood that I never used just took it out of the box and it looks really good...its just a 20 watt florescent but I was wondering if I put a 50/50 bulb in it if I could do a couple mushrooms near the top?