Why did I get that starfish...

Hello,

Short time reader, first time poster. I bought my first saltwater squarium a little over a month ago. I've got a 34 gallon tank with maybe 15 pounds of live rock and about 2 inches of live sand at the bottom. My original thought was to start a community tank, and didn't pay any mind to the frags or mushrooms the local fish store had for sale. That being said, I have a filter with biowheels that do 75gph but other than that there is very little flow in my tank.

After about two weeks of testing, I felt that I had appropriate chem levels for fish and went shopping. We knew we wanted at the very least two ocellaris clowns, and chose those right away.

On the way to the register, my partner spotted a chocolate chip horned seastar; which I must admit looks really cool. What I didn't know at the time was that this starfish isn't "reef safe" and that I would shortly thereafter fall in love with reefs.

Now that I've began typing all this, I realize this is an introduction thread and not a question thread - I s'pose I'll head over that way.

 

lol, welcome to 3 reef Rhame

do you have a sump yet ? so you can place the Chocolate chip in?

 

Congrats onyour new setup and welcome to the reefer world! Glad to hear you are testing and getting you chem right before adding fish.

A few tips though. Biowheels do not really have a place in the SW hobby as if not properly maintained they will become a nitrate factory much like a canister fitler, trickle filter, or any mechanical filtration that is not cleaned frequently. Also for flow a single filter will not be enough for a SW tank nevermind one with corals. Saltwater is very thick and when pumps are turned off it almost looks like things are floating in a tank of clear jelly. A couple of powerheads will go a LONG way in preventing certain types of algae growth as well as promote health in corals and fish through proper oxygenation and waste removal. A freshwater tank can get away with only fitlers because of how thin the water is but in saltwater it doesnt work that well.

Finally the BIGGEST thing you can do is research EVERYTHING!!!! everything from different pieces of equipment, test kits, and most importantly any and all livestock including fish, corals, plants, and even inverts such as crabs snail or starfish. A CC star will not only eat you corals, but also grow way to large for that size of a tank. A little research will go a long way in saving money and preventing headaches and problems.

Best of luck and with any question post here and you will get answers. Browse the forums and read the stickies as well as searching key words for things related to your question as there is lots of good information here that gets buried sometimes.

 

Not yet, no. Actually now that you ask, I feel like an inadequate sea star owner! I would like to get a sump system, but the amount of information on the web is incredibly overwhelming.

Where is a good place to start? I understand the mechanics of a sump system but not the application - if that makes any sense.

 

A sump is a seperate tank that serves 2 main purposes. The most important being the fact that it adds overall water volume to the system to help make it more stable and dilute waste. The second main purpose is to hide the majority of the ugly equipment so it is out of site of the display tank. It also can serve as a pod factory to help keep the population up in the DT as they can grow without predators in the fuge/sump. It is also a place to banish harmful little critters or put fighting fish in time out to calm them down or while you search for a new home. It can also serve as a station for acclimation new fish away from the other fish in the DT so they can acclimate to captive diets without competing for food right away.

As for building one others will chime in as I do not have one on my tank at the moment but will on my next one for sure.

 

Thanks for all of the information! I'll do some digging in the threads, the idea of a do-it-yourself sump system is intriguing to me.

 

Welcome to 3reef.

At least you picked the hardiest starfish, it may not be reef safe but it will do better long term.

 

Welcome to the hobby! Yes, chocolate chip starfish are pretty hardy but not reef safe as you said. There is a huge amount of information on this forum for just about any topic. There are several reefers on here that have DIY sumps. I think Todd Sails has one made out of a rubber tub if I'm not mistaken.

You've come to a great place to learn and for help! Welcome to the addiction

 

Welcome,at least that starfish is easy to catch.

 

welcome to this forum loool!