newbie okinawa

spent another bit of cash much to the wife's dismay. I found a large lfs that has a decent amount of SW accessories.. only problem is 90% of it is in japanese. lol
i picked up some Aqua Medic Reef Construct, rio 2100 power head to move the water (990-120 cm) and a red sea large water test kit. they had a hang on the side protein skimmer, and also a protein skimmer that i believe is designed to be placed in the filter (?).


there was no egg crate for sale so I am unsure what to use to place my rock on in order to keep the rocks off my glass base.. or is it unnecessary? I'd hate to crack my tank. LOL

 

You want the rock to sit on the glass especially if your going to get any kind of golby for your tank. They like to dig and if you set your rock on top of the sand and they did beside it, that will cause the rock to fall against the glass or tumble down and crush livestock.

 

filled the tank with fresh to check for leaks, no problems. I wish I had my camera to take pics for you guys bu I can.... oooh I see it. I'll post pics later.

oh, is the pump I bought for water movement to big? see my last post about what I bought.

 

saltwater is heavy stuff so I got a half a tank filled, plus all beach harvested sand and two rocks.. one is porous and come to find out had some spots of blue.. my guess is coral starting out and also after an hour of being set in.. it had at least 6 crabs inhabiting it.. they are eating off the dark green algae that was on the rock... you can see one here

this is one of the rocks

the tank at half full


from what i have been reading, this is useless?

 

light from a window hits just a small part of my tank but that part of my tank always has green on the glass.i have a bunch of snails that hang out there and clean it but if it was a larger area they would not be able to keep up and the whole tank would start turning green.any form of algae is bad to have in your display tank and sun light will make it grow fast.when you collect stuff fron the ocean,go as far from shore as possible to collect.theres more pollution at the shore line.those biowheels on the filter are'nt needed as the liverock will give you all the biological filtration you need,but i guess they won't hurt.i hope you added salt before putting the live rock in cause fresh water will kill all the good bugs,they go into osmotic shock and die then you have just rock.

 

its seawater i picked up there too, three big tupperware bins filled about 1/3 of the way, the sand was put in a sandbag, placed in the water and thrown into the tank.

what test kits are you guys using? the kit I have doesn't give a PPM like yours , just "bad, good, added to much".. damn english translated instructions failed me.. figured em out.

ph 8.1, NO2 = 0 NO3 = 0 ammonia = 0

my crabs are just chillin and eating the green on the rocks (that sounds bad, sorry)

should I drop a raw shrimp in the tank even though its natural sea water?


how does the two part epoxy work? it says it can be used under water, do i just mix it out of the tank, then apply to the rocks in the tank?

 

ammonia spiked a tad, up to about .50.
the tank is almost full, i left room for more rocks
snails and hermitts are enjoying it. no real blume like everyone else's start

 

well it seems as though my tank went through a very small adjustment cycle and that was it. For those that missed it, I cheated and used ocean water from the local beach, along with it's sand and i have been steadily picking up interesting rocks.
temp average is 78 degrees
ammonia hit aa high of .5, is now .3 a day after getting my side hanging skimmer running properly
ph is at 8.2
nitrate hit a high of 2.5
nitrate .5

cleaning crew.. half a dozen black w/white striped snails
half dozen black w/yellow striped snails

handfull of brown and white shelled snails (growing by the day)

to many small crabs to count.
found this guy eating my cleanup crew, making me catch more:

some rocks after picking them out of the shallows and putting them here


another cleaner


i dont know the names because everything is written in Japanese at the LFS, i also got a cleaner fish that looks like a locust from the head, and a big snail I bought that looks like it has a trunk, lol
and a red and white striped shrimp.


i think the lack of problems on my critters is due to the use of seawater and established live rock and sand.

I have also noticed that in just a few days what i thought was dead coral has spots of purple growing... is this coral alive?


I am currently looking into proper lighting as well as a filter.


oh, how do I get the forum to show listings with the newest posts on the bottom last page not the top first?

 

well it seems as though my tank went through a very small adjustment cycle and that was it. For those that missed it, I cheated and used ocean water from the local beach, along with it's sand and i have been steadily picking up interesting rocks.
temp average is 78 degrees
ammonia hit aa high of .5, is now .3 a day after getting my side hanging skimmer running properly Let that ammonia get down to 0 before adding any more critters - Your tank is still in cycle it appears..

ph is at 8.2
nitrate hit a high of 2.5
nitrate .5

cleaning crew.. half a dozen black w/white striped snails
half dozen black w/yellow striped snails
to many small crabs to count.
--- get the crabs out if you can. These are predators and will continue to have snails for lunch...snails may be dieing because of hypersensitivity to high ammonia and nitrates in tank.


i dont know the names because everything is written in Japanese at the LFS, i also got a cleaner fish that looks like a locust from the head, and a big snail I bought that looks like it has a trunk, lol --- Post pics and we will try to help identify.

i think the lack of problems on my critters is due to the use of seawater and established live rock and sand. --- Should be of great help!


I have also noticed that in just a few days what i thought was dead coral has spots of purple growing... is this coral alive? -- Sure that coral is alive...that is whole point! --- that purple is probably coraline algae getting started -- pretty stuff.

I am currently looking into proper lighting as well as a filter - Lighting important, filter not. Your LR and sand will act a a filter for you.

oh, how do I get the forum to show listings with the newest posts on the bottom last page not the top first? --- Just post as a reply, and it will appear on last page on bottom.

Sounds like all is looking good. Just let LR settle in. May take couple of weeks --- not long, but exposure to air and change of setting, temp etc. is bound to cause a small cycle.

 

Thanks a ton!

filter is on the back burner, now I spent half the "work" day researching lights... expensive!


any suggestions for a 55gal?