24 replies to this topic

[fraxinius]

Being a saltwater newbie but long time freshy I thought I might pass on a few things i wished i had done different for my 10g nano reef..
i use 3x reading glasses and hand lens for closer look...buy your cleanup crew small, big crabs and snails rough up your corals and make a lot of work for you...keep rockwork far enough from glass for algae work,we all have to do it sometime...set base live rock deep in sand if you intend to have diggers, pistol shrimp dig A LOT....plot out your moves when u need to get in a tank,,,avalanches suck!...have plenty of flat surfaces for coral placement, the more natural, irregular reef texture will come as u add livestock..learn how to frag...and always, PATIENCE, do your research,dont over feed or under light

[Anthozoan]

Thanks! The tips on examination and flat spots help. On the base live rock, I've seen it recommended to place any base rock BEFORE sand so that it's not possible for it to get shifted. Apparently a fair bit can be dissolved over time as corals take up the calcium in solution.

On pistol shrimp, I'd heard they tend to be nuisances but I've also read about folks keeping them with companion gobies. Any comments on your experience?

[Luke33]

Other newb advice would be don't waste your money on live sand.

[pwoller]

Have rubbermaid containers ready. If your in the hobby long enough you"ll need them eventually!

Dont look for a quick fix for anything in this hobby.

[fraxinius]

Yes, i love my yellow watchman..had him 2 months before tiger pistol..they paired up 5 mins after i put the shrimp in...they dig a lot but do settle down to just touch ups, very entertaining, have to respond to some corals on the bottom getting buried or dragged into the hole..if u dont mess with their tunnels they will dig less...goby feeding off well aged sand bed ...not sure, but think that "snow" generated by digging is feeding some of the other corals.. i feed just 2x weekly....25+ corals in tank too...very pleased today,,my peppermint shrimp has finally started eating apitasia after 2 weeks...hooraaay!!!

[fraxinius]

something else i didnt think much at first, i was putting some of the corals in at angles,especially with the long frag tails.. but most of them seem to do best with their original orientation..i was cutting some of them off for better placement..seems like i need to move them a few times before i get the right spot anyway...space and light and flow rationed out in a nano..

[fraxinius]

something else i didnt think much at first, i was putting some of the corals in at angles,especially with the long frag tails.. but most of them seem to do best with their original orientation..i was cutting some of them off for better placement..seems like i need to move them a few times before i get the right spot anyway...space and light and flow rationed out in a nano.. i found some pretty good magnifying loupes and even a small $10 microscope at radio shack, i use them for work but i m gonna bring it home to check out the sand..might be a good meeting topic to actually look at what is in live sand..

[Msr224]

Don't get too caught up in all the additives with a new tank. Spend the money wisely. Invest in an RO/DI this will save countless trips to the store. Good RO/DI water and a good salt mix is the basis of a reef.

We have ALL made this mistake.....Plan your purchases out for livestock....That really beautiful coral may be a good price but when it dies because you don't know it's requirements... Same thing for fish and other livestock. Lots of beautiful fish out there but some of them are very specific feeders and require an intense feeding schedule or even worse won't ever eat in a home aquarium. It's sad but one of the most beautiful fish out there is in this category....the mandarin. Many people are successful with one but very few of them have young tanks.

[dogum99]

Quarantine everything. Will save you a lot of problems in the long run.

[fraxinius]

i m only going to keep the 1 goby and 1 pistol shrimp, have a peppermint shrimp too and the normal cuc and live rock fauna, dozens of critters on the live rock pretty good purple going too...i dont use any additives except 1 balance block each month but do 25% water change every 3 weeks..water test arent perfect but get better all the time with my basic setup keeping the coral selection to some of the easiest types, spend hrs on research, in lfs,and you tube..fussiest coral right now is the st thomas mushroom..trying to find just the right placement has been hard and the coral is poorly attached to frag mount. any body keeping these?

[noodlenugs]

Dip!!!!!!

[sdebord]

Lots of good stuff guys. Do I smell a sticky post?

Mine suggestions would be:
Start small and learn the basics - be sure you like the hobby, the work, the commitment, and money involved before going full bore with a big tank. Research your purchases before buying any piece of livestock or equipment. Buy a RO/DI. Learn nutrient and Ca/alk control.

[fraxinius]

For me, i get a little nervous with dipping and other specialized treatments, but i forced myself to learn dipping ..you tube was a lot of help..i look over everything with a 20x loupe b4 installing also..i have been pretty slow at adding livestock, poverty kinda sets the pace:)...i had only fresh live rock and sand for 2 months then installed a further established rock ..it came with tons of hitchikers and 5 shades of purple coraline (?) spread all over the tank...just the rocks alone are full of amazing critters....i know its not well recommended but the aged live rock really turned the tank on.. i aspire to get my reef as nice as those i see in here and other sites..it has been looking pretty good lately, they really perk up up with a feeding..

[fraxinius]

older pic from the top, better now

[pwoller]

Dip all your corals from the start!

[Anthozoan]

...i know its not well recommended but the aged live rock really turned the tank on..

Are you referring to adding items that haven't been quarantined? I've read that EVERYTHING - including live rock and sand should be quarantined before being added to the display tank. I'm not sure how that would work when setting up a tank to begin with unless you start with sterile sand/rock and add smaller pieces of live rock for seeding.

Also, have the critters reproduced and spread to your other rocks or just the coraline?

[dogum99]

Are you referring to adding items that haven't been quarantined? I've read that EVERYTHING - including live rock and sand should be quarantined before being added to the display tank. I'm not sure how that would work when setting up a tank to begin with unless you start with sterile sand/rock and add smaller pieces of live rock for seeding.

Also, have the critters reproduced and spread to your other rocks or just the coraline?

Yeah they will reproduce and take over all the rocks over time. I don't think you really need to qt rock and sand. I have never QT those. If you are going to qt those you might as well by dry sand and base rock.

[fraxinius]

eventually my current nano will be the seed of a bigger tank...tank was empty for months aftr rock and sand..nothing worse than apitasia so far..postive hitchikers include what i comsider normal stuff, stomatellas, peanut worms, copepods, amphipods, tanaids, hair worms, spaghetti worms, tunicates, 1 barnacle, grey sponge, pineapple sponge,vermetid snail.bristleworms,starfish,..........unknowns include a clam like mollusk, (turkey wing?), unknown small shrimps,small gorgonians and mucus net casters,none of these are in excessive numbers and some have come and gone as rock matured...some can only be seen in the middle of the night with a flashlight..lol..one of the wierdest things are the peanut worms....1 of the hithhikers was a condylactus anenome, tank and light werent right for her (is anyones), lost her and yellow encrusting sponge..awesome button polyyps, superman mushroom and others have done fine..all those critters sound like an overfed tank but i gotta feed a little to grow the corals a little faster, i have fragged a few of them to share and trade when they start getting large,,hurry up acans!!!

[fraxinius]

i dont know how others do their tanks,, but i have enough time on my hands sometimes to sit by the tank and look at things , inch by inch in the live rock.. i use lenses to see things up close...i would like to take an aged rock and disect it sometime to see all that is actually in some of em.(of course i would try to keep it alive..

[Anthozoan]

Yeah they will reproduce and take over all the rocks over time. I don't think you really need to qt rock and sand. I have never QT those. If you are going to qt those you might as well by dry sand and base rock.

Here's the articleand the quote:

I would urge aquarists to quarantine everything added to their tanks that could possibly carry a pathogen or pest, or that needs extra care: fishes, motile invertebrates, corals, live rock, live sand, etc. Basically, anything that is wet should be quarantined.

For rock (and probably rubble as well), he talks about flatworms, nudibranchs, majano and aiptasia as hitchhikers.

Here's another article that's also really insistent on quarantining. It does make sense to me but it would be pretty limiting on the amount added at one time. Perhaps the initial assembly of the display could be done as a temporary quarantine tank.

Interestingly enough, he also talks about having the quarantine last 30 days AFTER the last treatment for any pests found. A more recent post on another forum says that he's since doubled that to sixty days. I think that there are some pests that can appear (hatch, etc) after a month. Your lenses would be a great tool in doing examinations, fraxinius. Where did you get them?