[Joedirte83]

Greetings Reefers,

I have several pics of my 29G Reef that I have taken since I set the system up around 3 weeks ago. Of course, I will start off from the beginning with the purchase of the tank and filling it with sand, rock, and water for the first time. Over the next couple of days I will post additional pics to eventually arrive at the tank's current state.

The purchase was an impulse buy that I made while I was at one of the many LFS's in and around Charlotte. At the time I was planning out a 65G Reef Ready tank and designing the stand in hopes of placing the tank on the second floor, closer to my room if anything was to go wrong. Impatient as I am, I decided to place the 65G on the first floor and just start up a nano in my room, since I could get started the same day. I figured I could learn some valuable lessons before starting the 65G. Roughly $800 later we arrive at the time of these pictures:

FIRST 2.5 GALLONS OF WATER
Here is the pour into the tank. I wasn't really prepared for salt mixing on this date so I had to use my only 3 gallon bucket that I purchased for water changes on my 28G Bowfront freshwater tank. There is no dedicated mark for 3 gallons on the bucket so I had to use 2.5.

01 - First 2.5G of Water.pdf

20 LBS OF BAHAMA LIVE SAND
Wet live sand of course.

02 - 20lb of Bahama Live Sand.pdf

5 LBS OF LIVE ROCK RUBBLE
I went ahead and removed those dreaded bioballs that came already in the system and replaced them with live rock rubble. I found out that 5 lbs only fills half of BioMedia Chamber so I returned to the LFS the next day to purchase an additional 5 lbs.

03 - 5lb of Live Rock Rubble.pdf

COMPLETELLY FULL
Finally after mixing 2.5 gallons at a time the tank is full. Gotta love the startup cloudy water. Let's see how long it takes to clear up.

04 - Completely Full.pdf

That will wrap it up for this post for today. It takes a while to convert all the pics over to PDF so I can avoid the max file size and still have a quality pic. More photos are on the way.

[Joedirte83]

I didn't realize that PDF's would be a word link and not have a thumbnail pic of some sort. For the remaining photos that I post, I will add a small thumbnail size pic beside the link for the PDF, if you would like to view a more detailed picture you can just click the link.

Happy Reefing

[reefnoob1991]

Looking nice, I used a crushed coral 20 lb bag of arag alive on the bottom and a 20 lb bag arag alive of a finer coral to go ontop. This has only been up since last wednesday :-D

[Joedirte83]

Some new photos, or newer I should say. Most of these pictures were taken the first week.

THE NEXT MORNING
I figured the tank would take at least 24-48 hours to clear but to my surprise the tank was crystal clear the next morning. The rock in the tank is a piece from my freshwater tank. I allowed the rock to "cure" for approx. 2 weeks. I also used a bacteria booster during this time.

05 - The Next Morning.JPG

20 MORE LBS OF LIVE SAND
After adding 20 lbs of live sand I realized the bed was not as deep as I wanted it. So I went back to the LFS to purchase more. This time I bought Fiji Pink. The sand bed measures an average of 2 inches.

06 - 20 lbs More Live Sand.JPG

On this day I found an even localiler (sounds good) LFS, or as I am referring to it, the LLFS. The previous one I was going to is located about 2 miles from my work, which happens to be around 25 miles from my house. About an hour drive during Charlotte rush hours. The new LFS is located about 1.5 miles from my house. And all he sells in the store is saltwater and reef livestock and supplies. Jackpot.

25 LBS OF PREMIUM LIVE ROCK & TONGA
While visiting the LLFS on my first trip, I decided to go ahead and purchase the live rock for my tank. All of the live rock for sale at the LLFS has been curing for at least 4 weeks, mostly longer.

07 - More Clearing Time.JPG

3RD DAY
I awoke on day 3 to see this...

08 - 3rd Day w Live Rock.JPG

FINAL RESTING PLACE
By the time this picture was taken, I had rearranged the rocks several dozen times before leaving it at this. This picture was taken around the middle of week 2. Also, the picture shows my first coral purchase. A beautiful, pipe shaped rock covered in multi-colored zoo's. Greens mostly dominate, but some nice oranges and reds are taking shape.

09 - Live Rock in Final Resting Place.JPG

The aquascaping has since changed since the last photo. Not much though. The rocks form a circle of sand in the center of the tank with a low rock line in front and a high line in the back. The circle is visible in the last picture. The rock in the foreground is suspend on two rocks and closes the circle. Later I found out that this arrangement works wonders for localizing detritus that is not removed by the filter. Most of it ends up in small piles within the circle which makes cleanup a breeze.

For the next round of pics, I will introduce you to my saltwater crew.

[reefnoob1991]

Very nice! What do ya think of mine?

[dfurbee]

reefnoob1991, and joedirte, like both of the tanks!! Good work so far!

[Joedirte83]

reefnoob1991 - Nice Tank and Rock. It appears you have alot of coralline. I hope it flurishes. Good luck on your reefing adventure.

[blind1993]

you should put some live rock behind ur hole so that ur fish have a hiding spot when they are scard or stressed. it will help ur fish live longer

[reefnoob1991]

Changed up my AquaScape
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...7/100_2008.jpg

[Joedirte83]

That looks good. Have you been checking your parameters?

[reefnoob1991]

Yep...only problems are a little bit of nitrates.

[jimw369]

Great tanks guys! I love to see everybodys pics!

[blind1993]

just wait like 1 day more and u will be able to get more fish

but when u go take a water sample and tell them to test it so that u have a garuntee

[blind1993]

oh yea sorry bout the spelling

[Joedirte83]

Hello Everyone

It has been a while since I posted any pictures. My digital camera crapped out on me so I purchased a new one. I bought the new Samsung L73. I have been able to capture some good photos with it.

In the next line of photos I will introduce you to my cleaning crew. Due to the 5 max uploads; I will have to do it over several posts. I will be showing the photos in the order the item's introduction into the tank.

After using Weiss Organics Bacter Booster, my tank was fully cycled in two days. With the frequency of testing that I was performing, I didn't even catch the spikes. After two day, my ammonia and nitrites were at zero with my nitrates hovering around 10 ppm. I performed a 20% water change on the third day and the proceeded to pick out my cleaning crew.

The first items I purchased were three Mexican Red Leg Hermit Crabs (Coenobita sp.) and a Turbo Snail (Astrea tecta).

MEXICAN RED LEG HERMIT CRAB
10 - Mexican Red Leg Crab 2.jpg

UP AND CLOSE
10 - Mexican Red Leg Crab 3.jpg

I love how the Turbo Snail "partially" cleans the glass for me. I wonder how much time I would spend cleaning without snails present. I originally bought one Turbo but when I made my large live rock purchase for 65G (currently in the works), I found three Turbo hitch hikers. Here are two of my Turbo's.

CLEAN CLEAN
11 - Turbo Snail.jpg

IT"S THAT DOUBLE VISION
11 - Turbo Snail 2.jpg

My clean up remained at three crabs and one snail for approximately a week. After that, I went back to LFS to purchase some Blue Leg Hermit Crabs (Clibanarius tricolor). I bought six at the time.

BLUE LEGGER
12 - Blue Leg Hermit Crab.JPG

I also made another purchase at the same time as the Blue Leg's but you'll have to wait till the next post so I can upload the image.


HAPPY REEFING

[Fishhead Junkie]

less crabs, more fish!!! maybe move back alil farther from the tank...pics were a bit blurry. still, keep up the good work. check out my 29 gallon bio-cube.

[Joedirte83]

I'm doing this thread over time and I'm just introducing my cleaning crew. I will get to the fish and corals later. I will work on the quality of the pictures. The full size pics on my computer have amazing detail but due to RB's 97.7 kb limit on jpg, it's hard to scale them down in size to meet the limit and still keep the quality.

Nice tank, by the way. How long has it been established?

Just for the record, this 29G is just a starter, for lack of a better word, for my 65G. I'm not really going for amazing looks or show on this tank as most of its inhabitants will be transferred. This tank basically just allows me to get a head start with my livestock. This tank will eventually be converted to a frag tank plumbed to the show tank, with the Bio-Cube being a show tank itself.

[FINDING_NEMO]

very nice rock setup. post pics of ur fish when u get em.

[blind1993]

also start with a chromis not damsel