My first saltwater tank red sea max nano

[MickD]

So my children wanted a fish tank. I bought a 15 litre betta tank and a betta fish.. 2 months later I had a red sea max nano sat in the corner of my living room. I've never had a saltwater tank before but I thought I'd give a FOWLR a go. I did a lot of research before rushing in to buying anytging and decided a 20 gallon red sea max nano would be a good starter tank. I bought the tank used. It had all the original equipment with it. I also picked up some caribsea life rock and some sand on my way back with the tank

 

[MickD]

The day after I set up the tank I went to buy salt water from my LFS. I wish I had made my own now. I had a bucket of salt but had never made it before so bought enough to fill the tank. I also used bottle bacteria and let it run for a week

 

[Tahoe61]

Welcome.

You're in for quite the journey.

 

[MickD]

I bought my first fish. A pair of clown fish. They seemed happy enough. I let them settle in for 3 weeks before I added anything else

 

[MickD]

The tank had only been running a month when I decided the FOWLR would look nice with some soft corals.. I had added a h20ceon ATO, I added a wier baffle and a plate to cover the hole for the filter sock so I could use filter floss. I also added a wave maker and added my first corals. I picked up some rasta zoas and some orbitron zoas

 

[MickD]

The tank will have been running 3 months next week. I've decided to go from FOWLR to having some soft corals. I now have 2 lps and 2 sps. I don't plan on having many sps, but I had one given, and the other was cheap. The tank is probably a little new to have so many corals, but some of them are growing, so I'll see how it goes.

 

[kevgib67]

Ooh, you’ve been bitten by the saltwater bug! Looks great, enjoy.

 

[MickD]

I now have a tailspot blenny and a purple firefish. I have a few different zoas. Rasta, orbitron, Blueberry pie, pink diamond? Some small yellow zoas and some that are red and blue. Not sire what they are. I also have a green mushroom, kenya tree, GSP, povona, red montipora? A green branching hammer and a holy grail torch. Still trying to get some good pictures with blue light

 

[kevgib67]

I now have a tailspot blenny and a purple firefish. I have a few different zoas. Rasta, orbitron, Blueberry pie, pink diamond? Some small yellow zoas and some that are red and blue. Not sire what they are. I also have a green mushroom, kenya tree, GSP, povona, red montipora? A green branching hammer and a holy grail torch. Still trying to get some good pictures with blue light

You will love your tailspot blenny, small fish with a huge personality!

 

[MickD]

Not much to add to this at the minute other than some better pictures. I've just added a duncan coral. I now have a rodi unit so the evaporation is not a problem. It was a bit of a pain going to the lfs for water and the tds was high. It put me off having a bigger tank but now I really want to upgrade to around 250 litres. Like the look of reefer 250 or e260 but the horror stories about seam failures even on new tanks has really put me off larger red sea models. I like the sump at the back so the e series would have been ideal

 

[Gumbies R Us]

We have one of these tanks as well, and we love ours! Yours is looking great so far!

 

[Rlynch818]

Your tank is looking great! Could you tell me what setting you run your lights on? Thanks!

 

[Pizzafam!]

Looks great ,definitely motivation!!

 

[MickD]

Your tank is looking great! Could you tell me what setting you run your lights on? Thanks!

Sure. I run the blue light at 45% and white at 5%. I read that above 45% blue or 20% white will damage corals. I just added white light to what I think looks good. On a weekend I run 45% blue and white at 10% through the day and 0% white in the evening so I can see the colour of the fish through the day and the corals look bright In the evening. I haven't lost any corals yet.

 

[Rlynch818]

Sure. I run the blue light at 45% and white at 5%. I read that above 45% blue or 20% white will damage corals. I just added white light to what I think looks good. On a weekend I run 45% blue and white at 10% through the day and 0% white in the evening so I can see the colour of the fish through the day and the corals look bright In the evening. I haven't lost any corals yet.

Awesome! Thanks!