Pics Of my first salt water tank

30 gal, 15lbs of live rock, Artificial coral piece i'm not wanting to rush in and go balls out with a reef system just yet. Fluval 204 canister filtration system its about 6 weeks old we have 2 damsels in it right now. but they are hiding in the picture lol they have survived since week one and the cycle is nearing completion

 

I would say get rid if the bubbler but that's just me.. Gonna have a terrible salt creep problem. Otherwise looks giid

 

Second thought.. Your base is going to be a terrible nitrate factory and it looks to be just sold rocks which won't do anything for a biological filter..

 

Nice tank and welcome to the hobby. Salt tanks are designed for sand beds so you'll eventually have an issue there.

 

with out the bubbles I get this nasty bio film on that sits on top.. when i added it, it went away because of the surface agitation it creates. so far no salt creep though maybe i will unplug it at night just to be safe. Haven't had any problems with nitrates being to high yet biggest reading i have had so far was 10 but it went back down. but i might add some crushed coral if you think that will help

 

Welcome to 3Reef!

You will find that the typical SW tank does not use a cannister filter, but it can be done provided you clean it often.

Agree with the bubbles, again, not typical for a SW tank.

As far as substrate, I use Crushed Coral (CC), seems to work well, others think it traps too much detritus.

A surface skimming overflow box with a sump will help with the scum on top, also water movement/power head will help too.

Again, welcome

 

Durty, there's an attachment you can get for your canister filter that will skim the top of the water. Here's a link to the unit i used on my Marine Planted tank in the past:

Tom Aquatics Aquarium Surface Skimmer

This works really well since it will auto-adjust itself as the water level in your tank changes due to evaporation.

 

Well, that looks pretty cool!

I didn't look at shipping, but did you see that price? (Good/fair price) Don't they know it's for a SW fish tank?

;-)

 

Is that surface skimmer the same thing as a protein skimmer?? My tank is 30 gal should i be using a protein skimmer??

 

Love the shape of the tank and it looks very nice! I actually like the bubbles ...anyway, you probably will want to change out the substrate eventually. What are your goals for the tank? Are you wanting to just keep fish or add corals at some point? That will help determine what your needs will be. FWIW, I've always had a skimmer even when my tank was FO. However, I know there are other reefers on here that keep reef tanks with no skimmer. You will have to be very good in terms of keeping up regular water changes to go that route.