Addicted

Hi all! First time actually joining a forum for anything, maybe you can teach an old dog new tricks. Hope to be posting some pics of my tank builds soon but for now my only two tanks are a 55gallon glass with fish, liverock and the tiniest little green star polyp I could still see. Been set up only about 3 and a half months now and doing ok but nitrates are starting to climb. Other tank is my first nano... 6 gallon eclipse with 4 yellow tail damsels a few snails and one little 2 pound piece of live rock all seeming to do well so far! I'm pretty new at salt water having had fresh water for years including discus, fresh water stingrays, african cichlids and many others. Hope to get ideas and some help and maybe even be of some help if I can! I think I'm officially becoming a salt addict. Oh and thanks Gabby! for telling me about this forum!

 

Welcome! Can't wait to see the pics. I usually like to put 1 pound of Live rock per gallon, so in the 6 gallon I would put 6 pounds of rock. Other people pack 2 or even 3 pounds per gallon on bigger tanks!! This will help with the filtration. Your nitrate problem may be cause by over-feeding. What type of filtration do you have on your tanks?

I think you're going to really like this place, bud!

- Mag.

 

welcome to 3 reef greybeard

Just my opinion, but 4 damsels in a 6 gallon tank, is going to prove difficult to maintain long term

oxygen can become an issue, with that high a stocking in a relatively small volume of water
you would need to do regular water changes to keep up with nutrient issues
territoriality will also become an issue as these Damsels grow
and if you get 2 that decide to pair up, then the other 2 are going to have a bit of a problem avoiding the scuffling that will ensue

I would have 2 maximum in that sized tank
and many of here would probably say that 1 , would be a much better option
sorry to be the bearer of bad news

Steve

 

Hello Greybeard! ;D And welcome to 3REEF! Looking forward to seeing your pictures.

 

Hello! Glad to see you joined... I'm posting pics of the clowns I bought from you right now!

 

The Nano tank gets a 2 gallon water change about every 5 days swapping it with water from the 55 gallon tank. The 6 gallon nano has the original eclipse filter running (about 80 gallons per hour?) and along with the two pounds live rock another dead hard coral (about 2 pound) and 3 inches of crushed coral. I'm prepared at first site of trouble to pull any damsels and put them into another tank. (they are only about half grown right now)
55 gallon tank has coral life 65gal needle wheel skimmer, 3250 gallon per hour power head, 50 pounds fiji live rock and about 40 pounds dead rock with about 4 inches of crushed coral substrate. Looking to use the 40 gallon long tank sitting under this 55 as a sump/refugeium as soon as I build overflow box and get glass cut for dividers. also just added 4 little mangrove pods hanging free at top of tank. Work in progress for sure. Oh incase you wonder, lights are 2 T5 aquatic life 10,000k and actinic. Thanks for replys!
and man you guys are fast at the replys!!! ha ha

 

Cool Gabby! Cant wait to see!

 

Hello and welcome to 3reef

 

thank you

 

I told you! We like this site a lot and spend lots of time browsing it!!

I'm glad to see you have adequate filtration in your 55 with the skimmer and plenty of rock!! That will really, really help you when bacteria gets all over it! I would also definitely go with the sump/fuge combo. It is of major assistance in nitrate removal when you add macros to the sump as well.
Now, the bad news: I used to have a gravel bed, with crushed coral on top (about 2 inches of it) and nitrates were an issue at that point. What I learned later here was that the crushed coral will trap more detritus (fish poop) than sand for example, since there are more space between each piece of crushed coral for it to get in.
After 3 months of being setup this way, I had to tear the tank down and do a radical change of substrate. I chose then the caribsea aragonite reef sand. And I'm very happy with it! Looks nice, easy to clean and it will slowly release clacium into the water to help with coral growth. This is just my experience and I am, by no means, telling you that you should change the substrate. Check it out and see how it works for you and if the nitrates keep coming back shortly after water changes, give this a thought.

It's good to have you, bud! Let us know any questions you may have. We like to help.