New to Saltwater Aquariums and 3reef

Welcome to 3REEF!
Can you put up some pics or the anemone? That may help with ID.
The bristle worms are nasty lil things. DO NOT touch them, you will regret it. You can remove them, they breed quickly. I dont know if they are harmful or not, so i will leave that to some one else. The anemone (if they ARE Aiptasia) will need to be removed or killed.
PackLeader will tell you to use Joe's juice, which is very good. I use Blue Vet Aiptasia Killer, and it worked nicely. I also used peppermint shrimp(which are fun) To kill them, but thats a 50-50 shot. And make sure they are peppermints and not Camels (they look VERY similar) You could also inject them with hot water or lemon juice.
But DONT do any of that yet until we can get some picks and make a full ID.

 

Ok this is a picture of what I believe is Aiptasia

 

yup..thats them. I haven't gotten around to removing mine yet.
ditto on the no livestock yet thing. a damsel or two would be ok, you still want your tank to cycle. Be advised they are mean little boogers. But they are cheap, and i guess if you wanted you could just bring them back to the fish store if you think your damsels will harass anything you plan to get.

yellow tail damsels are the least agressive, especially when there is more than one (i guess two or three?). mine was very fun to watch, i ended giving him to someone else who was cycling their tank.

 

oh, and get a water test kit if you haven't gotten one yet. the bare bones kit would be nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, and pH. perform the tests often to keep track of your tanks maturation process.

 

So no water changes until my tank is cycled? What do you do if my NH3/4, No2, No3, SG or Po4 are not correct? Is this what is meant when people say your tank will spike?

 

Your parameters will spike. Go through that web site I posted, it will help you alot. Luna

 

Another Floridian! Were on a roll! Welcome aboard

 

Your NH4 will increase dramatically (spike first), then it will come down in concentration, then the nitrite will spike, then it will come down, then the nitrate will spike and it will come down a bit before it rises again. There are several things you can do to control nitrate. You will have some anaerobic bacteria in the LR ready to take care of some of it, but not all.

For now, don't worry about that. Just keep it in the back of your mind and we'll get to that later.......or....on second thought.....you could buy a denitrator now from Tangster and get that curing and by the time your tank is ready the denitrator will be ready too. Food for thought.

Do not rip the aiptasia off. That action will create more. Use Joe's Juice or the like to erradicate them. Then get a peppermint shrimp later on to get to the ones you missed.

Some people do not put damsels in until the tank has cycled. I am a believer in putting one yellow-tail damsel in from the get go. Everyone is right here IMO. It just boils down to personal preference. The wrong thing to do is to start stocking your tank like it's cycled from the beginning.....which brings me to a point. I don't care what the LFS says. I wouldn't consider a tank established just by adding some LS and some of their water. Ever. You simply will not have the population of bacteria to handle the bioload. So you need to go really slow. Really, really slow. Do your testing and wait until the parameters tell you that you have finished cycling. And Luna had excellent points. Just follow them and you cannot lose.

Now, you have five pounds of rock. That is OK. From here on out, I would save money and unnecessary hitchhickers (like the bristleworms) and get base rock. Your target is 1lb/gallon for a FOWLR and 1.5 to 2lb/gallon for a reef tank. We are talking about, basically, half price rock. The rock will go from dead to alive in no time. And it will color up also.

And swaggar is right about the BW. They sting.

If you have not gotton test kits yet and you want to spend some money on good ones, Salifert is really good. Do not get the strips. They suck.

Enough for now........have fun.........John.

 

And what's up with the East Coast newbies? What about West Coast? At this point, I settle for inland a state or two.

 

Welcome from your neighbor across the bay in Tampa! Your setup sounds similar to mine when I got into the hobby about 4 years ago, just with a smaller tank.

I removed the biowheels from my Emperor filter shortly after reading about the nitrate issue in the forums, it does make a big difference. I also recommend the Remora protein skimmer, I have that one myself, just hang it on the back and you're set.

What do you have for lighting?