2007 project first sw tank

[pitahall]

Ok I finally decided to start a sw tank. That being said let the money pit began. I have two fw tanks and have had little to no problems with them over the last two years. Thanks to countless hours of research on the internet I have decided to go against everything I have heard about sw and started a 5 gal Wal-Mart eclipse rip off(the one with everything under the hood) . I started on the 30 of Dec 2007 with just a few coral dead heads my mother sent from Guam. After setting up the tank I found out that the lfs was going out of business so I got lr crabs and salt all at half price. I have done a few things to the tank so far diy style. I have add 2x18 cf 50/50 lighting from nanotunners.com, a small fan for heat, three led lights for moon lighting and a small power head from a fountain for more movement. So far I have seen so many neat thing in this little tank that has made me all but lose all interest in my fw tanks. I have decided to make this solely a reef tank no fish and I want to try to get as much color into it as I can through zoas. Also I have decided that while there somethings in my tank already that are “badâ€

 

[islandcreation]

Any pics? And WELCOME.... :mrgreen:

 

[islandcreation]

Nice setup. Do you always do water changes? Is there a protein skimmer and is there a surface skimmer too? Thanks... For the bristles their great scavengers! But they look creepy the larger they get!

 

[pitahall]

I am religious about water changes it gets 1 gallon +- every 4 days. I hope to stretch that out in the future but while it is young err on the safe side. no skimmer just the mech and carbon filter that came with it though with out the bio wheel. so far it has done the job but unless some of the hair algae stops I might be making a trip (60 miles to nearest lfs) to get one and some more crabs maybe a frag or two. I hope to get enough filter feeders in that I won't have to worry about it. you are right about the worms i panicked the first time I saw one going from hole to hole!Thoughts?

 

[Trogdor]

looks like it's off to a nice start. i'm jealous, i started my tank a day before and my cycle still isn't finished...not fair...lol

 

[dancefish]

GREAT TANK ;-) so where bouts in GUAM did the rosk come from my guess is it came from the south end of the island used to be stationed there back in the 80s some totally awesmoe places to dive there was a place we used to go on the north end just below the air base then bout a mile hike north water soooo clear then it just dropped off into oblivion so many cool fish then over into tumonbay ( forgive spelling ) middle of island where all hotels are great flat to swim in w/ a huge single rock to swim around / lost turquise rick there do to large morey eel scare the boogebies *^^&%%$( out of me but wow one of better places I ever dove
looks lick you off to great start on your tank but why no fish either way looks great & sorry bout the rambling dont get to talk much about some places I've been goood luck on your tank

 

[pitahall]

thanks for the praise.

Thank you. I guess I got lucky with the dead heads still having a little dead stuff in it so the cycle only took about 10 days or so. that and i had very good rock from a show tank that was being taken down that had been up for about six months (at about 3$/lb) very little die off from it. I do feel that I did push it a bit with the two crabs and the zoas, but that was because my lfs was shuting down. Though I did not have a real strong cycle at all according to the cheap walmart test kit I never had any serious levels of anything.

Why no fish? I think that untill I get this up and running successfully for about six months or so I don't want to add the stress that a fish can bring. keep in mind that this is only a 5gal tank and my first one as well. Maybe after that a small clown or something. I guess looking back at the first post i forgot to mention that if this works out well I will be finding a home for the oscar in me 20gal FW and starting a larger reef/fish tank. Really this is just a training tank and what I can afford right now. But after having it for just this long i think i will leave this one up even after I start a new one. This thing is just too cool and might work well for frags to grow a bit before a bigger tank.

ok now on to Guam :cool1: my mother moved there about a year ago for a job with the FAA (working on radar at both bases) after all of her life in Wyoming . A bit of a change but it is 10F here and 84F there at the moment that is with the sun up as well. I think she got most of this stuff from the beaches along tumon bay. you can pick it up on the shore as long as you are not on one of the reserves. the diving is great my mother snorkels most every day and even my father had a ball doing it when he went over to visit. he will be moving as soon as they can sell the house state side. after getting into sw tanks now I really can't what for my honeymoon over there in a year and a half. it will be great to see everything for hundreds of yards instead of in a small tank. That and it will be great to see that much water(not that much in Wyoming).

I have written more then I meant too but this is just such a great site and great question and comments! keep them coming!

 

[skipm]

:welcome to the board, I look forward to hearing more about your progress.

 

[pitahall]

made it to one month

Well it has been a month and no major disasters yet. I have added three more BL crabs and a snail some purple zoas. I also did a couple frags of the gsp and they are doing great. My paly turned white for a bit but are now a good shade of green. as far as the diy in me the last two weeks: I have filed down me led moonlights to give a greater spread to the beam (instead of three lines I get the whole tank lit ) I took out the filter pad and added a piece of acrylic to raise the water level and then added some lr rubble. Everything is doing great in this tank and I love looking at it all the time. Feel free to leave your thoughts question and concerns. now what everyone looks forward too The Pics

 

[pitahall]

more pics