Monroe14s First Build - 65g (lots of pics)

Tanks looking good so far! I myself have contemplated buying one of those pre-made kitchen cabinets. But, for the price, and considering my dad has a full on woodworking shop in his "garage", it'd be way cheaper for me to have him help me build something.

Back on topic, looking forward to how this turns out!

 

Congrats on the new setup. It seems like more and more 65 gallons are popping up around here ;D. I have one and I love it, be sure to check out this thread http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-off-your-fish-tanks/unofficial-65g-club-122271.html

It shows that you have done some major research before you set your tank up. This forum is one of the best ones around, lots of great information here! I like the vortech MP10, I'm stuck trying to decided between getting an MP10 or MP40 for my 65 gallon. What do you think about it? Does it have strong flow in the 65? Can you make a wave?

 

From what I can tell the mp10 is sufficient in that I have found no dead flow spots in the tank yet, and that's with it running at about 50% so far. If the powerhead is closer to the top and you crank it up you can get a wave going, but we found that out more by mistake when first putting it in lol so I can't say I've really attempted to get a wave going, I'd try it out for you in the spot it's placed now but we just added some baby clowns and I don't want to blow them across the tank

 

We finished the cycle over the last week (even though I don't believe we had a full-on "cycle" due to using pre-cured live rock, ammonia only went up to about .25 before settling back down, I even threw a shrimp in last Sunday trying to jump start things but once again it just went up to .25 and back down, LFS said we were probably good to go)

So we have some new additions!

Our first uninvited guest this week is a nice diatom bloom throughout the tank. So it was time to get our CUC. To start we got 10 hermit crabs and 10 snails.

Today we took a trip to my favorite LFS, unfortunately not so local, but worth it due to their reputation and selection. We ended up going home with these new friends 2 baby clowns about 3/4inch long. Brought them home and they are doing great, already ate some mysis that I threw in cause they looked like they were looking for some food. At first they just stayed in the spot we put them in at (as you can see in pics, right under the arch), but are now slowly adventuring off together to check out the rest of their new home. Sorry pics are kind of dark, took them with my iphone





Also got some coral... I know this may be a debatable subject but even though it's a "new" tank, we wanted to go with something we genuinely liked and try to give it what it needs, not something that may be "easy" to grow in a new tank but we had no interest in.. so we brought home a torch coral and a long tentacle plate coral. They both look great so far, I know that time will tell, but both have extended themselves to how they were at the store and we will take it from there Will keep everyone updated, will add pics of the coral soon

 

I can't believe I haven't seen this thread before. Welcome to 3reef.com. Great job on listening to the LFS guy. I never believe in a 24 hour cycle either. Goes against everything that I've learned and just plain doesn't make since to me lol. I also like your scape, great job.

Oh, we love pics here as well. Happy reefing.

 

Yeah it actually wasn't even 24hrs I don't think, we were at the store in the morning and he said we could add fish that evening... so that was a no brainer.., After everything I've read I hardly believed my tank was done cycling after a month-ish since I never had an ammonia spike, I still have to talk myself into it lol although I have been digging deeper into the forums and have found it's because of using rock that was already cured.

 

Using rock that was already cured is a way to set up a tank and really have to worry about a cycle just like what happened to you. That is probably one of the best ways to set up a new tank. I like to place the filter media that I will add to the new tank in one of my established tanks to establish a bacteria culture to help prevent a cycle as well.

 

I'm so happy we put all the research/setting-up-the-tank time in, although at times things were expensive (ok, a lot of times) and it felt like we were waiting forever, it was worth it for the amount of times I catch myself and my hubby looking at the tank at our new inhabitants, they're just so captivating, and all we have is 2 tiny clowns and some random corals! It has been fun watching these clowns.. we have literally been laughing at them as they check out the tank; one is happy hanging out by the rocks, the other stays by the overflow box fighting the current.. I was worried about him at first thinking he couldn't swim out of it, but we turned off the powerhead a few times and it just seems like he enjoys it.. who knows.. I'm just hoping he doesn't end up in the sump by morning. The lfs told us to feed them pe mysis shrimp because they're so small (which by the way, judging how they reacted when we put it in the tank, they won't be small for long lol) , but I have read in various threads to get them going on some pellets or flakes to supplement the shrimp, any recommendations on what to feed them?

Here's some more pics of them and the new coral:







the lights started to go down and it's arms retracted a little at this point




Enjoying the overflow box .. weirdo



***Also, spotted this sea star on the torch... can someone give me an id? is this good, bad...? should I remove him or just let him be? Sorry light was kind of low when I took this and couldn't get a great picture.. I will take more tomorrow if I can find him, hopefully. Doesn't look like asterina, it is is very proportionate and well formed

 

My clowns love Omega One Super Veggie Flakes and Ocean Nutrition Forumula One Marine Pellets.

 

You should be fine with the torch coral, but long tentacle plates are hard to keep. There are very few stories of people keeping them long term. Me and the girlfriend made the mistake of getting one and it didn't last long.

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