Shenlung
Tankless Wonder
...or is Fish Heads a better title? Reef Rockers? Oceanic Occupationalists?
.....anyways, I just got my first tank about 3 weeks ago, a well established(5 yr+) 55 gallon with a couple good sized pieces of LR (about 25 lbs, by my guess) a hanging skimmer, dual hanging filters, and the biggest heater I've ever seen, as well as a single powerhead (which is not nearly enough for a reef setup, but I'm working on it!) It also came with a Stars and Stripes puffer ( 6 inches), a Picasso Trigger ( 4.5 inches) and a Red Volitan Lionfish ( 7 inches). A sad mistake by myself cost me the lionfish when I got a nitrate spike that exceeded 150 ppm...because of my slight OCD....I'll explain:
The tank came with all of the above, as well as a whole bunch of empty 5 gallon buckets, a big blue bucket of instant ocean, a hydrometer (floating bulb type with thermometer in it), net, and CHEMICALS!!! YAY!!!
I used the water clarifier after dumping in the water (which caused a cloud of mythic proportions) in the manufacturers recommended dosage which is one capful (5 ml) for every U.S. Gallon. I put one capful in one filter, one in the other filter, then my OCD kicked in and I dumped the third capful...... in the skimmer. Yes, I am a newb. It promptly regurgitated every lovely thing it had gathered into the water, causing a nitrate spike of almost 125 ppm. Ammonia shot to around 60 ppm and nitrites were about the same. Many frantic emails and phone calls later, I applied amqual+ and things started returning to normal. Fast forward 2.5 weeks, and you find a tank that has stabilized, and an email from someone offering to buy my remaining fish (the trigger, puffer, and wolf eel I purchased prior to the clarifier incident) who happens to know of a wonderful little forum full of people who can help the idiots and uneducated masses such as myself from making silly needless mistakes again....and here we are today.
I have since purchased a Nova Extreme 4x 54watt lighting setup with 2x 10,000k and 2x 4500k actinic bulbs, an LED type moonlight lamp, an assortment of damsels, 3 clowns, an anemone that I have yet to figure out What type it is, and two different corals that I'm not sure about. Needless to say, I have made some mistakes. I probably shouldn't have coral in there yet (although they are doing very well, and the Purple Up isn't hurting the formula either), I seriously need to get rid of the big fish, as they are behind a partition and are thusly taking up valuable real estate from the rest of the tank. I definitely need another powerhead, and I need to convert my old 20 gallon tank into a sump at some point. I have only just begun this wonderful journey in my transition from fresh to salt, and though I have made mistakes, I'm eager to learn how to correct them. I look at the coral reef setups at Rumford pet center (one of my LFS's) and I go "I want that!" and then I come home and sigh, knowing I have a whole lot of work ahead of me before I hit that point.
I can only hope that I don't make too big an a** out of myself before I get there
Greetings from Warwick,
Chris
Edit: I refuse to take a picture with the partition in with the big fish, as it's horrid looking and I'm not pleased at all with it yet. The big fish are supposed to be leaving tomorrow night, which will let me do a little fine-tuning of rock/coral placement and some minor algae clean-up....then you'll get your pictures
.....anyways, I just got my first tank about 3 weeks ago, a well established(5 yr+) 55 gallon with a couple good sized pieces of LR (about 25 lbs, by my guess) a hanging skimmer, dual hanging filters, and the biggest heater I've ever seen, as well as a single powerhead (which is not nearly enough for a reef setup, but I'm working on it!) It also came with a Stars and Stripes puffer ( 6 inches), a Picasso Trigger ( 4.5 inches) and a Red Volitan Lionfish ( 7 inches). A sad mistake by myself cost me the lionfish when I got a nitrate spike that exceeded 150 ppm...because of my slight OCD....I'll explain:
The tank came with all of the above, as well as a whole bunch of empty 5 gallon buckets, a big blue bucket of instant ocean, a hydrometer (floating bulb type with thermometer in it), net, and CHEMICALS!!! YAY!!!
I used the water clarifier after dumping in the water (which caused a cloud of mythic proportions) in the manufacturers recommended dosage which is one capful (5 ml) for every U.S. Gallon. I put one capful in one filter, one in the other filter, then my OCD kicked in and I dumped the third capful...... in the skimmer. Yes, I am a newb. It promptly regurgitated every lovely thing it had gathered into the water, causing a nitrate spike of almost 125 ppm. Ammonia shot to around 60 ppm and nitrites were about the same. Many frantic emails and phone calls later, I applied amqual+ and things started returning to normal. Fast forward 2.5 weeks, and you find a tank that has stabilized, and an email from someone offering to buy my remaining fish (the trigger, puffer, and wolf eel I purchased prior to the clarifier incident) who happens to know of a wonderful little forum full of people who can help the idiots and uneducated masses such as myself from making silly needless mistakes again....and here we are today.I have since purchased a Nova Extreme 4x 54watt lighting setup with 2x 10,000k and 2x 4500k actinic bulbs, an LED type moonlight lamp, an assortment of damsels, 3 clowns, an anemone that I have yet to figure out What type it is, and two different corals that I'm not sure about. Needless to say, I have made some mistakes. I probably shouldn't have coral in there yet (although they are doing very well, and the Purple Up isn't hurting the formula either), I seriously need to get rid of the big fish, as they are behind a partition and are thusly taking up valuable real estate from the rest of the tank. I definitely need another powerhead, and I need to convert my old 20 gallon tank into a sump at some point. I have only just begun this wonderful journey in my transition from fresh to salt, and though I have made mistakes, I'm eager to learn how to correct them. I look at the coral reef setups at Rumford pet center (one of my LFS's) and I go "I want that!" and then I come home and sigh, knowing I have a whole lot of work ahead of me before I hit that point.
I can only hope that I don't make too big an a** out of myself before I get there
Greetings from Warwick,
Chris
Edit: I refuse to take a picture with the partition in with the big fish, as it's horrid looking and I'm not pleased at all with it yet. The big fish are supposed to be leaving tomorrow night, which will let me do a little fine-tuning of rock/coral placement and some minor algae clean-up....then you'll get your pictures
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