Synderju's 29 Gallon Reef Tank

So I'm not exactly "new to the hobby" just new to reef aquariums. My girlfriend had a 20 gallon saltwater aquarium that I really loved. At the time my 29 gallon was a freshwater planted community tank. I loved all the plants and all the work that went with them. Since we moved in together however, we thought it would be best to condense and keep just one display tank (not including our quarantine tank) Since we both loved her tank so much we decided to turn, or at least attempt to turn my 29 into a reef aquarium. We cleaned it out good and seeded it with her existing 15 lbs of live rock and old filter media. I also purchased an additional 15 lbs of live rock and we intend to get more soon. We have about a 2 inch bed of crushed coral for substrate. We are running an AquaClear 50 filter, a 14-29 gallon Oceanic BioCube protein skimmer, and two 425 gph power heads. We also have two 18w t5 high output daylight bulbs and two t5 high output actinic blue bulbs for lighting. Currently the tank is home to one True Percula Clown and a pair of Firefish. I guess I'm just looking to see what everyone thinks so far. Also I know the protein skimmer we have is not the best but I've read some good reviews and seen some youtube videos of it working very well. Financially, it is the best we can afford right now and it is better than no skimmer at all. I am however, having a little trouble getting it set right if anyone has any advice on that I would greatly appreciate it. Let me know what you think.

Thanks,
Justin

Hello and Welcome!

Lets see some pics!

Generally with small tanks you can just do waterchange, no real need for a skimmer at all. Also crushed coral can lead to issues because it traps poop, uneaten foods, another other junk, which rots leading to nitrate issues. Depending on the corals you want to keep, this maybe a big problem.

I agree, sandbed would have been MUCH better. I have a 50g with crushed coral substrated and have had ongoing problems with it since I set it up 2 years ago.. Even with some pretty good filtration equipment, and usually zero nitrates. It seems like im always fighing some type of algae battle. I'm FINALLY getting to upgrade to a 75g and will definetly be switching to sand.

Good luck with your tank however and your new Endeavor's in saltwater! Its AMAZING! ;)

And yes, Pics Please!

Hello and welcome aboard.

Thanks everyone! If we begin encountering problems with the crushed coral do you think taking some out and adding some live sand would work? It is what we were initially going to do but we liked the look of the coral so much and I read a lot of positives to the crushed coral too. Also, my gf had Aptasia anemones in her tank and after we transferred everything over we thought we got rid of everything bad but I noticed one on the glass. I really don't want to fuss around with injecting them or trying to zap them. I read Peppermint Shrimp work well what are your thoughts on this? I will get some pics up soon hopefully!
Thanks,
-Justin

Answered my own question there with a little research. Don't think I'll try a mix. Eventually I may switch to a sand bottom but for now I will be sure to clean the crushed coral well when doing water changes with a gravel vacuum.

Also peps can be hit or miss with the aiptasia, but it wouldnt hurt to try them!

Yea, I've read that they dont always work but I really dont wanna try to inject them and they are hard to kill without them reproducing

Buy some Aiptasia X. It's not an injection, easy to use, safe for everything else in the tank, and effective.

Is Aiptasia X something I can just add to the water then? I thought that you had to inject the anemone with that product.That would be good since I intend to keep some soft corals in the future and I know that the shrimp can sometimes attack those as well.
Thank you,
Justin

You don't inject it, you just squirt it on the pest, and the liquid hardens. It is only harmful to things that it touches, and it's very easy to apply - I just smother them.

Added 1 peppermint shrimp to the tank over a week ago, and no sign of the pest anemones

I made quite a few updates and I haven't really posted anything in awhile. Here are some pictures of the tank thus far. Added almost another 10 lbs of live rock last night to the tank. current inhabitants are 1 Peppermint Shrimp, 1 Cleaner Shrimp, some snails and a few blue legged crabs. Also my girlfriend had the Maxijet powerhead just laying around and I figured I'd angle it up for some surface agitation. Water Parameters are great right now hopefully the fish can be moved in from the quarantine tank soon. Still have more live rock to add and we are ordering our new light soon! Once that comes in we are hoping to start with some soft corals!

looks good, it will be nice when you can get your fish in there

Thanks! Ah I can't wait for them to go back in. They developed bacteria infections after Ick treatment. No surprise there though I read it could happen when you FW dip them. We picked up some meds for them and they are doing much better. Also took your advice on the crushed coral and we now have very fine sand as a substrate and it looks much nicer and we have virtually no nitrates!

I like the texture of the rock in the middle. Very nice looking. I would put a black background on it. I just use a peice of posterboard so it can easily be taken off. Looks good so far though!

Glad to hear they are doing better!

But you really shouldnt do a freshwater dip, IMO it does more damage than good

Thanks! That rock was expensive! But hand picked. :)

Yeah, freshwater dips are kind of a last resort for us. We don't like doing them but when the fish has ick all over their gills there's not much else that can be done.

We are going to be adding a black background soon too.

We are having trouble growing coralline algae though. Any advice? We are currently using Kent Marine Purple Tech. Thanks everyone! :)

In my expirience the corraline just grows over time by itself. Just get a couple rocks woth corraline on it and it will spread. I wouldn't add very much of the purple tech, it doesn't seem to do too much.

As always patience is the name of the game it seems lol.