quemist

Hey, guys!

I am in search of small pieces of live rock to get my tank started.

I used to have a good 60gal reef going at one time- but I decided to drop the hobby a couple of years ago. I have a 10gal tank I wanted to get started up again!

I have a beautiful great piece of rock I saved- but I am in search of some live rock to kick start it.

Anyone have anything that would work to help equilibrate my tank before I add any coral?

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I have a pencil urchin, if anyone is interested.

I would *love* some. PM'ed.

Hi! I have a beautiful tank, 29 gal, with very little coral. I currently have a Pencil Urchin, Peppermint Shrimp, snails, and a couple of very small frags. Anyone recommend or have to sell some of their "relatively boring" but starer coral?

Tested water today-- we are reef ready!!!!

In the meantime, I'm working on setting up my 29g tank. Can anyone explain what an underbed filter is? I'm assuming you'd have to change it if its a carbon pad....

Stay tuned for fun pictures!!

OK more fun questions:

1) My tank is still cycling, lower on the ammonia side, higher on the nitrites, low on nitrates. After it's steady on nitrates, then do I do a 20% change?

2) I know some things are sturdier than others, but I'm having lots of fun with snails and even got an urchin last week. What resources can I go to to tell me what is and isn't compatable?

Looking for some rock, if anyone is looking to sell!

I live in Central Austin.

OK I finally got a test kit and even took a sample of water to the aquadome for advice and they were super, super helpful.

Yes, the feather duster finally bit the dust, but interestingly I have a small one that is growing on the live rock I installed. I also have two small snails that are in pretty good shape.

Still cycling, but I'm in the process of re-doing my condo and putting things in places. I currently have a 10g, which I know is far too small and I think after all of my reading its going to end up becoming a quarantine tank or a small nano tank to put in my laboratory.

Being the super broke student I am, I'm looking to get a more permanent tank thats larger, i.e., it can equilibrate easier and I can keep it as my main tank to work on for a while.

I keep seeing 125g and 55g, but is there anything in between? I'm on a budget so I keep trolling the "free" section for the tanks and I've found a couple on CL. Shape? Ideas?

yeah, I like to do chemistry tests just for giggles....

So, I had a hawaiian feather duster that was attached to one of the live rocks I had. It's become less of a duster as its lots all of its little "feathers"

Is this because of the nitrogen cycling or because of it not being able to acclimate to the tank?

2. You will need to cycle your tank before you put any livestock in there (coral or fish). This will take you anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks. The longer you wait patiently now, the more headaches it will save you later. Best way to cycle: throw half of a frozen uncooked cocktail shrimp (cooked is fine too but uncooked works better) or a small piece of any uncooked fish in your tank. Watch it rot and melt away in a week. If you can get a saltwater test kit (~$25 at Petco), you will want to test your water around 2 weeks after you added the shrimp. You can also just take a small sample of your water to your fish store and have them test it for you. You need to wait until both ammonia and nitrite is down to 0 and nitrate is high. If you cannot test, waiting for 3 weeks after adding the shrimp is a safe bet. Since you already have live rock in your tank, your cycle shouldn't take too long.

4. The first livestock you want to add is snails. You can get $1 snails - astrea, turbo, cerith, nerite, nassarius... at your LFS. Watch the snails for a week or two. If they do fine, you are ready to slowly add coral frags or fishes. Since its a small tank you don't want to add any more than 2 nano-safe fishes (goby or clown).

Whoa! This is awesome!! I'm going to go check this out now...

One thing-if my screen name didn't give it away- i'm a chemist. I've done environmental testing for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. Currently trying to devise an easy method thats cheaper than the rest of the tests out there. If I develop a reliable home-based one.... you guys will be the first to try it!!

What kind of lights are you running?

I have.... a blue one and a white one... (noob here!) I'm not sure of the wavelengths, but I can check.

Hi, guys!

So I'll go ahead and update about what little progress I've made on my build and what weirdness is ensuing.

In "Keeping Austin Weird," I trade nemirn two tacos for lights, bulbs, and a 5gallon and a 10 gallon tank. I love that tacos are currency here.

When I told him I was starting my first reef he replies "Ohhhhhh mannnnnn...... yeah..... This isn't going to be the easiest to start out on, but good luck." I piled all of the equipment in my ragtop Jeep (secured with bungee cords) and drove veeeerrry carefully home.

Tanks were washed out, dried, and I purchased some "live sand" and reef-labeled sand. Added all of the sand to the 10g, then thought better of it and set 1/3 of it in the 5g. Mixed the water according to the package, then set aside the 5gal.

On the 10g, I have a set of two lights, a powerhead, filter, temperature monitor. I threw in three live rocks and a hawaiian featherduster.

However, when I added everything it became CLOUDY. I think the sand is just too fine.

This morning, it settled out a bit.

so here are some initial questions:

1) What can I do to prevent that silt from kicking up?

2) So..... Live rock. I get the concept of things growing on it, but is it going to "sprout" or should I get some frags?

3) What are some good starter things to put in a nano build?

Oooh! Thanks for all the great advice! I'm slowly learning and I've got a nano tank in the works now. I'm a chemist, so the nutrient cycling isn't too hard for me to figure out as of yet- Just making sure things don't die.

JeeperTy- Are you a Jeep driver? I'm an avid TJ fan....

Hi!

I'm a UT graduate student and I just stumbled upon this amazing world of building saltwater reef systems!!

If anyone is looking to sell equipment or "starter kits"- I'm ready to buy!!