Newbie reefers... This is what we have so far.

[BuGG]

Hi MR,

My wife "inherited" a 34 gal Solana cube from her uncle who passed away recently. He was an avid reefer and had some really nice collection on his tank.

We've been very busy educating ourselves on how to keep up the reef tank. We've lost some corals, fish and even 3 clams. I guess you can say we dove right in to the hobby. Our only experience with an aquarium was a 10g freshwater.

So far, we've met some very nice people from this forum, CL and our LFS. I think we're getting the hang of it. I just wish we had enough preparation and knowledge to start the hobby and not have to lose livestock in the process.

Off the top of my head we have a scolymia, several frags of zoas, a blue ricordea, a couple of frags of palys, several montiporas, a brain coral, a rockful of pulsing xenias, star polyps, a toadstool leather coral, a finger leather coral, a purple tang, a firefish, several snails and starfish.

Thanks for the wealth of info on this forum. We're looking forward to meeting you guys in the next frag swap.

 

[kenconnect]

Welcome to mr.. And so sorry to hear about ur wifes uncle.. Wish you all the best and you will see this place is full of info about the hobbie and if you cant find out you can always make a thread to ask people QUESTIONS.. Best of luck

 

[BuGG]

Thanks! BTW, I uploaded some pics on the gallery, but they're not showing up under my username. Since I only have 2 posts, I can't add any URL links to my posts. I need at least 5.

 

[greybolt03]

Welcome to the club try uploading pics to photobucket then CPU and paste the link..

 

[BuGG]

Thanks!! I can't add any URLs to my post because I don't have enough posts yet (need at least 5). I will update this thread as soon as I can.

 

[BuGG]

Pictures added!

 

[masterswimmer]

First, sorry to hear of the loss of your/wife's uncle.
Second, welcome to MR. Great community with lots of knowledgeable reefers.
Third, glad to see you asking questions to help the survival rate of your charges.

In order to appropriately guide you, we'll need to know a bit more about your system.
What type of lighting are you running?
How long has the tank been running and cycled?
What skimmer, if any, are you using?
Are you using a refractometer or swing arm hydrometer to measure salinity now? What is the salinity reading?
What are the water parameters you're measuring on your test kits (ph, nitrite, nitrate, ammonia, calcium, alkalinity, magnesium)?

This is just a quick overview of the various info we'll need in order to help.

Best of luck,
Russ

 

[rookie07]

Sorry for your wife's and your lose.

I have 2 solanas.
Water evaporation and temperature swings are the 2 major issues with my solanas.
How do you keep the temperature stable, and how are you adding fresh water to the tank to compensate for evaporation?

Are you aware of the dangers of over feeding saltwater tanks?

How do you maintain water chemistry (replenish trace elements to the water, keep parameters stable)

As Mentioned above, tell as about your tank more, and your schedule for maintaining your tank (daily schedule, weekly schedule, etc)?

 

[BuGG]

Thanks for the helpful replies! I finally got the parameters from our reef test kits.

Salinity - 1.024
pH - 8.0
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 15
Calcium > 520
KH - 9
Phosphate - 0

I maintain a weekly water change schedule. I change a bucketful (5 gallons) every week and mix our own salt. To replenish, I usually add less than a gallon of freshwater weekly.

I forgot what type of lighting we use, but it is LED. I have a timer that goes on at 9AM for the white LEDs (for 9 hrs), then at 2PM for the blue LEDs (for 9 hrs). So there are times when both are on. The tank was already established when we got it. As far as I know we use the stock skimmer on the Solana.

To keep the temps down, I ordered a clear mesh kit from Bulk Reef Supply to make a custom top. I think the high temps during the summer contributed to the death of some of our livestock. I also recently got fans to blow hot air out. This has maintained the temps to around 80. Before we got the fans, our temps rose to the mid 80s!

BTW, I posted some pics here, but it says that a Moderator has to approve it first. I'll try to upload some pics again and hopefully it'll show up this time.

 

[BuGG]

 

[Awibrandy]

Sorry for the loss of your family member! Please accept my deepest condolences!

Welcome to MR!!!!

Please don't beat yourselves up on the loss of your uncle's animals!!! I know what it is like. I inherited my best friend's tank & animal when she passed, and I lost some of her animals. It can really bring you down with the feeling of letting your loved one down. Stay positive move forward, and with the help you will find here on MR you guys will be fine.:hug:

 

[BuGG]

Sorry for the loss of your family member! Please accept my deepest condolences!

Welcome to MR!!!!

Please don't beat yourselves up on the loss of your uncle's animals!!! I know what it is like. I inherited my best friend's tank & animal when she passed, and I lost some of her animals. It can really bring you down with the feeling of letting your loved one down. Stay positive move forward, and with the help you will find here on MR you guys will be fine.:hug:

Pics are up! Yay!

That's exactly what my wife and I are feeling. It seems like there's pressure on us to keep the corals and fish alive. So far, the scoly and the the purple tang are doing fine. We know that the tank is really small for the tang, so hopefully we'll be ready to move him to a bigger tank in the near future.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Sorry for your loss. Tank looks great.