50 gal salt water set-up

You know, even my 12 YO , who doesn't like my fish tanks much is getting into this one, she's even enjoying chasing LR all over and seeing other reef set ups, Imagining what ours could be. "Dad I like that one, can we have one of those?" Don't have a wife to reign in my spending, but when the daughters are onboard, things can get outta hand quickly. LOL

WOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO, ive been watching this thread for awhile and saw how long it took you to get this rolling... but the pictures look great... well worth the wait! congratulations! Im excited for you.

Looking Good, nice set up

2nd day with LR amonia, nitrate and nitrite read zero, when will the amonia spike come? and about how long for the brown algae bloom?

You might need to seed the cycle. Did you put a piece of raw shrimp in the tank? It might be a week or two for the spike and then the brown algae can last a long time. Just use a turkey baster and blow it off the rocks and coral. Do you have a magfloat for cleaning the glass? You'll need one. You will use a Magfloat and turkey baster just about every day!

You don't always get a spike or algae bloom, especially if starting with live rock in the system. Just keep an eye on the parameters. Some people recommend seeding a tank, personally I never have or wouldn't.

I never had a brown algae bllom in any of my set ups, however, I always started with part live sand, and live rock.

Not trying to go against what Lilfishie says, just another way of doing things.

Good Luck

I agree with you. I never had an ammonia spike either. I started with live rock from an existing tank too. But just being on the safe side I still put food in the tank and waited a couple weeks just to make sure. The good bacteria needs to eat too and if it starts to die off it could cause an ammonia spike too.
What I did was add a piece of raw shrimp and a couple crabs and snails. It all helped IMO.

unconv-reefer wrote:Not trying to go against what Lilfishie says, just another way of doing things.

And no worries. I believe you said it before, what worked for me may not work for someone else and what may work for you would be a combination of what worked for others. More info for those asking for it the better informed they are.

I agree, nice to be able to say soemthing w/out having someone throw attitude back.
Thank You

I throw in a little oyster eggs (live) to help with the new bacteria, same concept different direction.

unconv-reefer wrote:I agree, nice to be able to say soemthing w/out having someone throw attitude back.
Thank You

Yeah, thats not me. You get any attitude from me, dont take it seriously. It will be all in fun!

Great, you won't meet a bigger smart *ss than me but at times when I type it really comes out wrong.

I miss identified my xenia, it looks more like anthelia

No you were right the first time. It is commonly known as blue xenia. Thats what it looks like to me. I have some anthelia too. If you would like some someday. You can come up and get it. I have a piece on a small rock with some colorful zoas. Cheep.

I'll try to post a pic of both later....if I remember

I would have to agree on being blue xenia, had some took over everything, but looks good

a friend told mre to keep this stuff isolated in a part of the tank with sand all the way around, to help keep it from spreading too far.

OK readings say amonia 0, nitrate 0, nitrite 0 and I am getting abit of brown algae on rocks and sand. 4 days after LR.

Sounds like your on your way. I'm getting brown algae on the rocks in my 90 too. I added another power head for a little more flow.

I am thinking of a closed loop without drilling.If I start plumbing I'll post it. i saw something like this on a buddy system

I got snails and fish today, I got 20 snails from barrier today, some nerites and some other kind, I then stopped at sierra in renton and got a firefish goby and a scooter blenny. I read up on these when I got home, the goby will be fine , but I was unaware the scooter blenny has similar food requirements as the mandarin goby,,, crap I didn't want to deal with adding pods yet. we'll see if he'll eat anything else later, I'll try for pics when they settle in.

Blenny should be okay with small meaty foods. Shrimp, mysis, scallops. I freeze it and then while frozen I shave really small pieces off, thaw it in fresh water. My tail spot blenny eats frozen and small pellet food.
One thing to check is what the store is feeding them and always ask to see the fish eat. And ask how long they have had the fish. I like to know that the fish has been there for a little while and is healthy and eating. If it has only been there a day or two, or not eating yet, IMO you dont want to expose it to more stress transporting it again and acclimating it to new surroundings so soon after it was shipped to the store.

mmmmm ... fish flavored shave ice.

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firefish goby
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bad pic of the little blenny
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snail cleaning up

Must resist. Too many current projects. must resist...

Vic wrote:Must resist. Too many current projects. must resist...

Resistance is futile!

Sorry just had to say it!

Oh blennies are algae eaters too so they will help clean up algae from the rock and glass.

Hey feeney cool looking goby

got some zoas from lilfishie the other week, added some kenya tree and athelia today and several sps and some small "might not lives",,,, meaning broken pieces of misc corals that may or may not survive, I'll try to get pics tomorrow when things settle in a bit.

aaronfeeney wrote: I'll try to get pics tomorrow when things settle in a bit.

Paitently waiting for pics

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having a helluva time getting no flash macro pics.