New to salt water

Hello, my wife and I just started our first salt water tank! Its been up for about a week with just the crushed coral in the bottom with the filter and thermostat running. We took a sample to the fish store today and the water checked out pretty good so we got a couple of clown fish. The folks at our local shop are full of information and said clowns were pretty easy to take care of, and should work out pretty good. ANYWAY...heres our setup:
We got a package deal from a pet store chain that came with everything
28 gal bow front tank
Aqueon filter
All-glass thermostat and lid
not sure what the brand of the tank is

as for plans, we really want to start with a small live rock structure and work from there. maybe add a few more fish, maybe a tang and a few shrimp.

 

Welcome

 

Welcome to 3reef and the hobby. Sorry to burst your bubble right off the bat, but a 28 gal is way too small for a tang. There are plenty of other things that you can keep and clownfish are great. IMO

 

The tank sounds like it is an AllGlass Aquarium tank... Mine when I ordered it came in with all that stuff ages ago for my 29g rect.

However Please be aware that your tank needs to go through the cycling process Which can last anywhere from 1-2 months (Sometimes longer). It builds up ammonia and nitrites which i believe are toxic to fish and turns them into nitrates. Basicly you need to let the tank build up the bacteria needed to consume those items. I didnt let my tank cycle and lost a few fish. With Saltwater its not a very friendly situation to the wallet.

However I would try to avoid putting any Tang in an aquarium that small for most tangs get to the length of 10+ Inches. and the aquarium is just to small for them to even move . It is also recommended that Tangs are the last addition and not added to the aquarium till about 6 months after the tank has been established.

Best of wishes!

 

welcome to the site, and well since you haven't put live rock in the tank yet, make sure you either purchase fully cured live rock or cure the live rock in a seperate tank, and when you add that it might put it into a mini cycle. i've never had crushed coral but haven't read one good thing about it, since it traps debri and thats bad, but since you have it its a little to late. also another good investment is a full marine test kit, since you want to test daily since its a new tank. once you get all the live rock, you just need a few powerheads and then eventually ditch the filter, also even though it a smaller tank, look into a protein skimmer. also don't stop reading all these great websites... and again be PATIENT! when you get a chance we all love pictures.

 

Yeah, good note on the cycling, forgot to mention that. While some people say that you can add a fish right off the bat to help the tank cycle, it's pretty stressful on them. Clownfish are pretty hardy so you should be ok. Just monitor them very closely and if you see them start to act strange, tank them back to your LFS and see it they will hold them for you for awhile, until your tank finishes cycling. If you don't already have one, you need to your own testing supplies so you can monitor your cycle and now when it is safe to add fish.

 

Indeed it will be small for a tang. Sounds like your off to a running start. I wanted to give you a tip on your live rock arch plans. Because you already have fish in your tank you wont be able to add live rock as it would start a nitrogen cycle that could potentially kill your fish. You could however add a dry rock arch that will become live over some time in your tank. The best way of doing this will be to build an arch from some dry rock. Most fish stores should carry a type of putty that you can use to cement the rock together into your own custom arch. After that has been in the tank for about two weeks I would suggest buying a very small piece of live rock with lots of purple coralline on it and put that in the tank also. This will help seed the dry rock arch.

I'm glad to see your planning on adding live rock. Once its established it will provide much better filtration than your power filter. Looking ahead to the future you are going to need at least one power head to get enough flow through your live rock for it to act as filtration.

Welcome to 3reef.

 

Great addition. Would have added more but I'm on my phone.

Also forgot! Welcome to 3reef. Everyones very friendly and if you ever have a question don't be afraid to ask!

 

welcome to 3 reef clown fan
Steve

 

Hello and welcome to 3reef