Getting ready to start up my first SW!

[adamsarmywife]

I'm sooooo excited!! :laugh: I'm converting my 75 FW. I set it up about 4months ago :twitcy: and now I'm kicking myself in the bum for not going SW off the bat lol Just waiting for the rest of my FW buyers to pick up stuff this weekend and I will be emptying the tank and getting started with clean up. I will probably be picking up my LR from a local guy as long as he has enough left. I will be adding crushed coral instead of sand and 20lbs of Fiji LR to get it started. I'll post as things progress!
Katy

[Katalyst]

:Welcome: Hi Katy! Good to see you on the forums! We need more Army wives around here, I'm one too! :wink: Can't wait to see your set up! Welcome to CAC!

PS
How are the shrimp?

[CACAdmin]

:Cool:Sounds like fun! It's always exciting to start a new project. 75G is a nice size and ought to make for a beautiful SW tank. I look forward to seeing it progress.

[WaterPond]

I am excited to see this. It sounds like its going to be great. Just don't rush into things. I would recommend getting some base rock too, its best to have about a pound of rock per gallon. Get the 20lbs of live rock, and get some base rock (or lace rock). It all helps with natural biological flitration, the more surface area on rock, the healthier your tank will be :)

[Melody]

:Welcome: Sounds like a fun project, I'd be excited too.::D:

You're a Canadian Forces wife Kat, we don't have an army, welcome to Canada :laugh: :BOLTS:But before you smuck me with a dead fish, it was actually a Canadian Forces guy who corrected me on that once, at the tender age of twenty-something. I blushed to the hairline, lemme tell ya!

[Katalyst]

:Welcome: Sounds like a fun project, I'd be excited too.::D:

You're a Canadian Forces wife Kat, we don't have an army, welcome to Canada :laugh: :BOLTS:But before you smuck me with a dead fish, it was actually a Canadian Forces guy who corrected me on that once, at the tender age of twenty-something. I blushed to the hairline, lemme tell ya!

LOL Well tell that to the guy I'm married to! He's been in the forces for 19 years and refers to himself as an 'Army Guy'. Me I don't mind either way, as long as he still gets to wear the uniform! :laugh:

[Melody]

The uniform is the only reason the guy in question got past the first 'hello' and even then it was "Nice to meet you but let's face it, chances are you won't be coming back to Inuvik... goodnight" :laugh: ... but that's besides the point. :wink:

[Katalyst]

The uniform is the only reason the guy in question got past the first 'hello' and even then it was "Nice to meet you but let's face it, chances are you won't be coming back to Inuvik... goodnight" :laugh: ... but that's besides the point. :wink:
:ROFL:

[Melody]

Methinks Kat entered 'Inuvik' into her GPS :laugh:

[Rbacchiega]

Can I ask why you decided to go with crushed coral instead of aragonite sand or even bare bottom? If you're planning on making this into a reef setup, you might want to rethink that, crushed coral, if not properly looked after can be quite the problem

[Melody]

Can I ask why you decided to go with crushed coral instead of aragonite sand or even bare bottom? If you're planning on making this into a reef setup, you might want to rethink that, crushed coral, if not properly looked after can be quite the problem

Maybe she intends to look after it properly....lol.. what kind of problems?

[putter]

Crushed coral will trap more gunk there fore create more ammonia/nitrites, an agronite bed tends to allow the gunk to remain in the water colum longer so it can eventualy find its way to the sump and skimmer.

[Melody]

Nothing that a good vacuum routine won't fix :smile: . I think they both come with their own issues. Bare bottom is awesome to address it all though. Its funny how we can let a tank go for a week or two and not realize how dirty it can get. When there's nothing there to hide it we can't miss the mess. One overfeeding can easily go unnoticed in any other scenario. It was my first bare tank that showed me just how much I overfed, in fact. I thought I was feeding very sparingly but watched half of the food drift down to the bottom untouched. :wideeyed: But then again, without substrate you have less beneficial bacteria surfaces resulting in less efficient natural maintenance.... I guess everything has a downside.

Shouldn't we have pictures by now? :Waiting:

[CACAdmin]

Just wondering how things are progressing with your first SW tank... we'd love you to share your experience. Pics too if you get a chance.:yes:

[Slipstream]

vacuuming a SW tank is bit difficult if you dont want to suck up the substrate.. LOL..
Plus, having sand, is more natural than crushed coral. And bare botom sw tanks just dont look as good... IMO... Not to mention that there are a lot more limitations of livestock that U can have in a bb tank than a sanded tank. Like any inverts, and gobys, and blennys, etc.. Some of the nicest fish are those that spend most of their time on or near the sand, Like the sand sifting goby, or the Mandarin goby.