Howdy!

Hey there, Ash & Mike here, we are getting into the salt-water reef tank thing... Ash has had a reef tank before and maintained it for about a year and half before she had to move. Mike on the other hand is new to this, but is very excited to learn!

We bought a whole set-up from our LFS. 55-gallon tank w/ hardwood stand, glass tops (lid) with a pretty spiffy light (it was not in stock so the store special ordered it for us--we are on a "lender light" until it comes in.)... We bought a mix of live rock, both cured and a few uncured pieces. Most of it was from Fiji, and we also scored some live rock "branches."

What we have in it right now:

2x 3-Striped Damsel Fish
1x Neon Goby (Small)

Our LFS said that we should wait about 2 more weeks until we start looking towards live corals and some other fish. They said that the Damsel fish were good "Starter" fish and would help with the cycling of the tank. ;D

Here's a picture of it:

 

wow i like the live rock stacking......how long has the water been in the tang?

 

sorry i mean tank*

 

The water has been in there for about 2.5 weeks now. I'm glad you think the rock-stack looks okay, we had a hard time finding something that didn't seem retarded-looking to the both of us...lol and we thought we may have purchased too many "branches" for the tank itself.

 

Welcome to 3reef my fellow Reefers. Keep in mind that cycling periods CAN last up to 12 weeks, so before you add any livestock, please test your water. Tank looks good. Let us know if you have/need any Q's answered. Luna

 

Welcome to 3reef! I dont even wanna think about the cost of a saltwater tank in Alaska. I know everything is more expensive there.

 

Nice. I like the aquascaping also but I would highly recommed one thing before the tank settles in. Move those rocks away from the side of the tank so you can clean the glass. You will never be able to keep the glass clean with the rocks that close. Been there done that.

Jack

 

Welcome to 3Reef>>>>>>

 

Thanks for the warm welcome! ^.^

We completely agrees with you, the people at our LFS assured us that the fish would be okay to add because they are "hardy" fish and they said it would help with the cycling process. We both know that the tank itself needs to cycle for at least a month or two before we can think about adding in anything else. Ash had the same species of Damsel fish back in her tank in Hawaii. We waited 2 weeks until adding them in. We have been testing the water quality rather obsessively, we bought of of these API Reef Master Test Kits (tests calcium, carbonate hardness, phosphate and nitrate levels), and we also use our hydrometer (I think that's what its called) to test the salinity levels of our tank daily. =)


And in response to Geekdafied: It's actually not as expensive as I thought it was going to be... In Hawaii it would have been just as expensive but we wouldn't have been able to purchase live sand or rock (no coral either, unfortunately)... so I am pretty happy about how it's turned out so far up here. We spent close to $3,000 for the initial set-up, the light that we are waiting to come in is what we splurged the most on though... that and the rock itself was about $12/pound. But all well-worth it, it will be something that will remind Ash of home (Hawaii) when the winter arrives, and the outside weather is -50 or so..lol

And to Tritonsgarden: Do you think that the rocks shouldn't be against the back wall as well, kind of like free standing in the middle? (Only reason I ask is that we would probably have to zip-tie everything if we did it that way...and we don't really want to disturb the tank too much.) Thanks for the compliment about the aquascaping, you have no idea how long we thought it over >.< lol