New here/Unconventional setup/new to hobby/LOVE IT

[rudy3]

Hello, Everyone!

I am very excited for this hobby and to be part of this community. I am new to salt and would love to hear your constructive feedback on my setup.
My freshwater tank is established and has been healthy for about 6 months.
My Salt tank has been cycling for 2 weeks, 25 lbs base rock with a 2 lb live rock to seed coraline and beneficial bacteria.

Questions:
Should I start with a softy coral or fish for livestock? Which species is best for starting out?
What temps should i be maintaining? My Current temps are somewhat stable at 79, being the end of spring, should I be considering some type of chiller?

Salt-
Stand: Ikea Expedit
Salt Mix: Kent Reef Salt
Tank: TopFin 29 Gallon, de-rimmed, painted back glass with foil to control light and temps
Light: Viparspectra 165W
Filtration: Fluval 307 Note: no room for sump/refugium
Livestock: nothing yet
Other: Hyggar Wave maker, one more coming today

Fresh-
Tank: AquaTop Pisces
Filtration: AquaTop Pisces
Light: AquaTop Pisces
Livestock: 8x White Cloud Mountain Minnows, 5x Pigmy Corydoras, ~20 Rili shrimp
Other: Co2 generator with solenoid valve

 

[Sean Clark]

Welcome to the club. Glad you are here.

 

[Kristopher Conlin]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!! Looking pretty good so far! I would definitely recommend starting with soft corals. Zoanthids are beautiful and easy to grow. Green star polyp and xenia can get out of control so do them on an island if you want them.

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

Welcome to R2R! Your temperature is good now, but keep an eye on it. Generally, 81 is the maximum temperature that our reefs can sustain. I would suggest that you wait to add coral for 4-6 months, but you can add fish now.

 

[vetteguy53081]

 

[youcallmenny1]

Welcome to the club!

 

[rudy3]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!! Looking pretty good so far! I would definitely recommend staring with soft corals. Zoanthids are beautiful and easy to grow. Green star polyp and xenia can get out of control so do them on an island if you want them.

Thank you so much for the advice, i will keep that in mind!

 

[bnord]

Great to have you and welcome

AS above, you can do Zoas - green star polyp or Xenia on a island rock - clean the frag with a toothbrush dipped in H2O2

A clown fish pair is great -

but over all - go slow - wait a week longer than you think - then wait 2 more days...

Should be a great tank

 

[rudy3]

Welcome to R2R! Your temperature is good now, but keep an eye on it. Generally, 81 is the maximum temperature that our reefs can sustain. I would suggest that you wait to add coral for 4-6 months, but you can add fish now.

Thank you! any advice on which small hardy fish I could add? Firefish or clowns or is something else recommended?

 

[rudy3]

Great to have you and welcome

AS above, you can do Zoas - green star polyp or Xenia on a island rock - clean the frag with a toothbrush dipped in H2O2

A clown fish pair is great -

but over all - go slow - wait a week longer than you think - then wait 2 more days...

Should be a great tank

Thank you so much! ill wait for a couple more weeks to add fish.

 

[Reeferjunkie]

Welcome to r2r . Patience is key and do your research before buying anything and cross your sources of information from different places . I would get a leather or mushroom coral to start with. Enjoy

 

[rudy3]

Welcome to r2r . Patience is key and do your research before buying anything and cross your sources of information from different places . I would get a leather or mushroom coral to start with. Enjoy

Great advice and thank you for the welcome!

 

[rmorris_14]

welcome!

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

As far as small fish go, I would recommend a royal gramma. They are colorful, and have interesting behavior. You could also try various gobies, peaceful damselfish, and blennies. I hope that this helps!

 

[Bucs20fan]

Looks great! Welcome!! Keep an eye on your silicone, Taking that rim off of a top fin can be tricky and the seals arent meant to deal with the pressure without the rim. Not saying anything is wrong with it, but stress will always show in the silicone seals before you have a failure.

 

[N1tew0lf1212]

Welcome to the r2r team and the salt life tanks look great.

 

[Zach B]

Welcome

 

[X-37B]

Did you brace the top after removing the rim? Those tanks are not designed to have the rim removed.

 

[cgripp256]

Welcome!

I’m no expert but I’m what I would consider an advanced beginner. I’m a voracious consumer of information and data. I tend to go overboard a bit.

You’ll find that you will receive a plethora of recommendations on how to approach growing out your tank here and elsewhere.

I found the BRS series very helpful.
They have a few; 52 weeks of reefing, 5 min series, and the newer beginner series. I watched them all. Lol

Instead of telling you what to do I’ll share what has so far worked for me.

I have a 32 gallon Biocube. I started with live rock and sand for an “instant” cycle on 3/12/22.

I began with a clown and then a damsel 2 weeks later. I didn’t QT the clown (which I completely stressed over). I did a two week observation QT on the damsel that I acquired from a solid LFS. Then a week or two later a small clean up crew of snails and crabs. That was it initially. A few weeks later with no issues showing I began adding some Zoas, then a hammer, then an RBT anemone. I added 2 cleaner shrimp too.
Now I have Xenia, lepto, cyphasteea, birdsnest and goniopora.

I watch my parameters like a hawk and am religious about water changes weekly. I even picked up a used Apex because like I said, I’m a data nerd.

Good luck and welcome again!

 

[rudy3]

Looks great! Welcome!! Keep an eye on your silicone, Taking that rim off of a top fin can be tricky and the seals arent meant to deal with the pressure without the rim. Not saying anything is wrong with it, but stress will always show in the silicone seals before you have a failure.

well that's not assuring but honestly none of the seals seem to have expanded or have any additional stress on them. That being said, I don't know what to look for in terms of identifying a potential failure other than a leak. Will a leak always happen before a catastrophic failure or could one of the sides just blow out randomly? What's the thought on euro bracing?