Hello my name is Ryan. I just set up a 30 gallon salt tank with sand and liverock. It had the sand in it for around 2 1/2 months. I have been adding the live rock to very slowly. Last Thursday, I added two clowns and I'm wondering what my next step is? Can I add more live rock to my tank?
New to the forum
- Thread starter Ryan
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daugherty
part time reefer
welcome to the reef. and yes you can keep adding rock to you tank as long as it is cured. just wait before you add anymore fish. start thinking about what you want for a cleaning crew. with a tank that small you are very limited on the fish that you can put in it. i would only put in one more fish at the most but it will have to be a small one.
Bifferwine
I am a girl
Hi and welcome!
Go ahead and add more rock, but do it slowly, like one or two pieces at a time. Live rock has the potential to spike your parameters a little bit, but clowns are hardy and should be fine if that happens.
Do you have a cleaner crew? If you don't already, that would be your next step. I recommend a variety of snails such as astraea, nassarius, trochus, cerith, and for a tank that size, one Mexican turbo. One emerald crab, and either a brittle star or serpent star would be good too. Maybe a cleaner shrimp or a pair of peppermint shrimp.
Go ahead and add more rock, but do it slowly, like one or two pieces at a time. Live rock has the potential to spike your parameters a little bit, but clowns are hardy and should be fine if that happens.
Do you have a cleaner crew? If you don't already, that would be your next step. I recommend a variety of snails such as astraea, nassarius, trochus, cerith, and for a tank that size, one Mexican turbo. One emerald crab, and either a brittle star or serpent star would be good too. Maybe a cleaner shrimp or a pair of peppermint shrimp.
Bifferwine
I am a girl
On a small tank like yours, there really aren't any GREAT protein skimmers. But any protein skimmer is better than nothing. The one you bought should be just fine, as long as you keep up with regular water changes.
Piggy
Reef enthusiast
Welcome to the Reef. The above has you covered.
SSalty
Team Liquid Force
Make sure you check your nitrite/ammonia levels before adding inverts. Inverts are very sensitive.
reeffreak
Reef pro
Welcome to the site!
Thanks guys!
Tonight I went and bought a 65 watt 50/50 straight pin compact fluorescent lamp for my lighting (Coralife). I also was given a 32 watt Smartlite Retrofit (PowerCompact) Can anyone tell me if I have enough lighting or need to get more? My local store said that this should do for the size of the tank. Right now I have both going and it seems to be working very well.
Thanks,
Ryan
Tonight I went and bought a 65 watt 50/50 straight pin compact fluorescent lamp for my lighting (Coralife). I also was given a 32 watt Smartlite Retrofit (PowerCompact) Can anyone tell me if I have enough lighting or need to get more? My local store said that this should do for the size of the tank. Right now I have both going and it seems to be working very well.
Thanks,
Ryan
yote
In Memoriam
Welcome to the reef.
Your light should be fine for most soft corals.
Your light should be fine for most soft corals.
messiah023
Reefing newb
Hi Ryan, welcome.
I have a 30g too and have had much success with it.
I use a Coralife Aqualight with (2) 36w Power Compacts. Once is True Actinic 03, the other is a 10K daylight.
I keep a handful of small fish and inverts (shrimps, crabs, snails).
I also keep 3 frogspawn corals, a torch coral, lettuce coral and bubble coral. Most LPS can be housed in your 30g.
I had the biocube skimmer......for about 1 1/2 days...
I found it to be very horrible (in my opinion).
I replaced it with a HOB skimmer from Octopus, I would recommend this to anyone. Once I put it in, my water quality changed 100%. Everything looked better in the tank, I was getting tons of skimmate from it and purple Coraline algae started to grow.It works with an airstone and didn't collect much. It also took up valuable tanks space and the stone would have to be replaced often. I use the HB-100F.
I also use a Koralia 1 for water movement in the tank.
I run an Eheim Ecco canister filter as well. I don't use the Eheim substrate in the filter, I replaced it with a nitrate absorbing media called Denitrate.
I didn't think it would do anything, but to my surprise, my consistant 20ppm nitrate level was reduced to 5-10ppm within 1 month.
The Eheim also creates another direction of flow from the return line.
Good luck.....keep us all updated.
I have a 30g too and have had much success with it.
I use a Coralife Aqualight with (2) 36w Power Compacts. Once is True Actinic 03, the other is a 10K daylight.
I keep a handful of small fish and inverts (shrimps, crabs, snails).
I also keep 3 frogspawn corals, a torch coral, lettuce coral and bubble coral. Most LPS can be housed in your 30g.
I had the biocube skimmer......for about 1 1/2 days...
I found it to be very horrible (in my opinion).
I replaced it with a HOB skimmer from Octopus, I would recommend this to anyone. Once I put it in, my water quality changed 100%. Everything looked better in the tank, I was getting tons of skimmate from it and purple Coraline algae started to grow.It works with an airstone and didn't collect much. It also took up valuable tanks space and the stone would have to be replaced often. I use the HB-100F.
I also use a Koralia 1 for water movement in the tank.
I run an Eheim Ecco canister filter as well. I don't use the Eheim substrate in the filter, I replaced it with a nitrate absorbing media called Denitrate.
I didn't think it would do anything, but to my surprise, my consistant 20ppm nitrate level was reduced to 5-10ppm within 1 month.
The Eheim also creates another direction of flow from the return line.
Good luck.....keep us all updated.
RyanG
Reef enthusiast
From one Ryan to another WELCOME!
Thank you very much for the replies as I'm just a rookie.:D
So I take it your lights aren't the width of the tank because I too have a 30 inch tank with a 24 inch light along with the other 15 inch that is the 32 watt.
I forgot to tell everyone that I do have a start of a cleaning crew and that's 5 snails, 1 hermit crab (red legs), and 1 peppermint shrimp. The cleaning crew has been in there before my clowns. Any suggestions to this please let me know or if you think I should add more.
So my store also recommended to me that I get a bubble anenome (sp) as soon as possible? What do you guys think? Also, man do I have a lot of questions... :shock: My sand has a thin layer of tan going across it and was told my snails would help on cleaning this up? Just making sure I'm hearing it right coming from my store....
So I take it your lights aren't the width of the tank because I too have a 30 inch tank with a 24 inch light along with the other 15 inch that is the 32 watt.
I forgot to tell everyone that I do have a start of a cleaning crew and that's 5 snails, 1 hermit crab (red legs), and 1 peppermint shrimp. The cleaning crew has been in there before my clowns. Any suggestions to this please let me know or if you think I should add more.
So my store also recommended to me that I get a bubble anenome (sp) as soon as possible? What do you guys think? Also, man do I have a lot of questions... :shock: My sand has a thin layer of tan going across it and was told my snails would help on cleaning this up? Just making sure I'm hearing it right coming from my store....
RyanG
Reef enthusiast
DONT GET AN ANEMONE! Let your tank mature for a year before attempting one that is uber-aweful advice to give a new guy. They need very very high light needs.
RyanG
Reef enthusiast
Yeah they need 8-10wpg of Halide or 8wpg of T5
yote
In Memoriam
RyanGs right on the anemone.Hold off on those untill your tanks matured and stabilized.They just cant handle the parameter swings that a new system goes through.
As for your clean up crew,let the algae guide you.Just enough to keep up with the job,but not so many that they end up starving to death.
As for your clean up crew,let the algae guide you.Just enough to keep up with the job,but not so many that they end up starving to death.
daugherty
part time reefer
just dont jump into anything to fast take your time with the tank and you will have a great system if you rush it you will end up wasting a lot of money from things dieing
