Brand new to reefing!

[CrimsonTide]

Awesome. Any recommendations now? I am going to clean the tank and then do a 50% water change. Got my first fish still in the quarantine tank that I set up last week. Went with a clown since they are hardy. No need for a clean up crew at the moment right? Only when I start to see a problem?

I would do as big of a water change as you can. You will eventually need clean up crew. They won't have much to do at first so you can wait a week or so. You would essentially be having to feed them bc they have no work to do right away but you will need them pretty quickly just not day 1. You can however get a nassarius snail if you wanted to eat leftover fish food. Then get more of them as your tank gets more established.

 

[Glowurm]

House is right around the mid 70's. Really odd though, I used this heater when I was mixing the salt water originally and had it set to 78 and that is exactly what it heated the water to when I was mixing it in the garage. Bring the tank upstairs and set it up and the water reads 80. I lowered the temp on the heater to 73 just to see if it would do anything and it didn't even move the temp 1 degree less haha. Interestingly enough though....I removed the heater all together and for the past 5 hours the temp has been a beautiful 78 degrees! So we shall see if that temperature remains stable throughout the summer. I looked up chillers and wow do they get expensive!

Get yourself an inkbird, since i bought mine i've not had a single concern re the temperature of the tank, relatively cheap at £30 and will help you avoid costly mistakes (or crashes etc) as it has both an audiable alarm and is wifi enabled so will send you alerts.

Like you i am currently cycling my first tank and have a couple of clowns in a QT tank waiting for cycle completion. My cycle isn't going as well as yours unfortunately, seems Red Sea ammonia test isn't especially good and had been giving my false readings.

 

[DustinDec]

I definitely agree with others about having a controller of some sort to help with the heater. I have a couple fluval heaters, and they're difficult to dial in well. I got an inkbird, calibrated with ice water, and it added an extra layer of redundancy. Even if the inkbird goes a bit high, the fluval will turn off at a certain point anyways. That said, I've just upgraded to an Apex controller so I could use the trident (I enjoy automating) and that works even better. But for now, just start with an inkbird, grab the one with wifi support.

 

[ReefNoobs]

WOOO! First big water change has been done! Did a 10 gallon water change and now just waiting for the remainder of all built up bits that I scratched off to be sucked into the filter sock. Excited to introduce my first fish to the tank this weekend. Thinking of adding a Storm Clownfish. Fell in love with their colors!

Can't thank you all enough again for all the help you've been providing me with! I will be sure to post some pictures of the new addition to the tank this weekend as well.

 

[ReefNoobs]

I am officially a reef tank dad! Was originally only going to start with one clown fish, but I came across someone who was actually breaking down their reef and wanted to sell these two beauties! Picked them up right away and they were exactly what I was looking for. I could stare at this tank for hours now.

Been trying to dial in the lighting. Found a video from BRStv that was a couple years old, but made a recommendation for settings on the AI HD16 for 25g tanks. So far it doesn't look too bad in my opinions, but I do prefer tanks a bit lighter in color which probably means adding more white.

 

[Glowurm]

I am officially a reef tank dad! Was originally only going to start with one clown fish, but I came across someone who was actually breaking down their reef and wanted to sell these two beauties! Picked them up right away and they were exactly what I was looking for. I could stare at this tank for hours now.

Been trying to dial in the lighting. Found a video from BRStv that was a couple years old, but made a recommendation for settings on the AI HD16 for 25g tanks. So far it doesn't look too bad in my opinions, but I do prefer tanks a bit lighter in color which probably means adding more white.

Congrats, think i am probably a week behind you in the process, every ammonia test kit gives me different readings mind (Red Sea being useless) but my nitrates are starting to pick up, so assuming nitrites finally breaking down.

What tank you got (gallon etc)? Seems we running same lighting, got a pair of Primes myself.

 

[ReefNoobs]

Congrats, think i am probably a week behind you in the process, every ammonia test kit gives me different readings mind (Red Sea being useless) but my nitrates are starting to pick up, so assuming nitrites finally breaking down.

What tank you got (gallon etc)? Seems we running same lighting, got a pair of Primes myself.

Oh it's going to amazing when you're cycle is finally complete. I waited a few more days after I was reading zero ammonia and nitrites just to be sure. I went with a Waterbox 25g Peninsula. A really good size just to get started and understand everything before going to a much larger tanks way down the road.

Really liking this AI Prime lights as well. Hopfully I have the settings all done up right. I really need to measure PAR levels to ensure they are withing the LPS/Softie ranges.

 

[Nano_Man]

Love the pictures of your tank and fish look great

 

[Drummer98]

Both the tank and the fish look great! Can I ask what your quarantine procedure was?

 

[ReefNoobs]

Both the tank and the fish look great! Can I ask what your quarantine procedure was?

Thanks so much! I just went off what BRS and everyone on this thread suggested which was 20 gallon tank (I did 10g) with a Fluval Aquaclear 30 pump. Put piece of PVC piping in the tank so they could hide and just observed them for about 20 days while my tank was cycling. Constantly monitored the ammonia levels in the quarantine tank and did water changed about every 2 - 3 days.

 

[Drummer98]

No copper or medications ?

 

[ReefNoobs]

No copper or medications ?

They were not displaying any signs of having an illness so, I didn't put any meds into the tank. At least that was the message I was gathering regarding quarantining fish. Just observe and see if anything arises withing the 30 days and then react to an illness if you happen to observe one.