New to SW and MAS!! Building first tank, 32G BC

TexChuck

Premium Member
Hi all !I'm very happy to have found you folks. ?I'm in Dallas, and am reentering the fishkeeping hobby after a long break since childhood. ?My youngest daughter fell in love with glo fish, and after 3 months of learning, we have a very successful and thriving gene-spliced freshwater abomination tank :) ?(It's actually a very peaceful tank, the science is just crazy)My older daughter mentioned a desire to have an urchin and a shrimp, and that's all I needed to convince the wife that this was a good family thing for us to do, and more importantly look the other way as I start spending with abandon on SW gear. ?:)Current setup:32g Coralife BioCube, bought at Dallas North Aquarium. ?I added 30# of live sand (Caribsea pink fiji in 2 grain sizes), and 30# of Fiji rock from there. ?That looked sad once assembled with their RO/DI 0 SW, so I went to Apex on Monday and picked up another 15# of live rock. ?he told me the island name where it came from, but my brain is like swiss cheese these days... ?Regardless, it looks great and I redid the aquascape. ?I'd love some critiques !!! ?First pic is our first hitchhiker we've noticed -- a tiny starfish that made our morning.?In chamber 1 and 3 I have Aqueon 100W heaters set at 80, and have nothing in the media trays in chamber 2. ?I've ordered the CL Skimmer which doesn't have the best reviews, but I know it will fit without mods.?Ultimate stocking goals are a shrimp or 3, a small urchin (this is the most important!!! ?She stepped one one a couple of summers ago and still has a bit of spine in her foot, so this is a 'face your fear' tank :)), CuC, and a small fish or two. ?Daughter would love a clown and I've been reading about some tank raised clowns that seem like they would be nice. ?I really want to try my hand at keeping corals.?I'm reading threads about light upgrades, intank media baskets, fugue setup mods, etc and am slightly overwhelmed. ?But in the meantime, we're going to enjoy watching these rocks grow and cycle. ?I also joined MAS just now -- not sure if it has shown up yet or not on my profile. ?I'm pretty sure I did it wrong and paid through paypal without listing my forum screenname, which the system prompted me more than once to do. ?Oops :)Glad to have found you folks and looking forward to getting to know fish folks in the area!View attachment 579
 
Welcome?to the club TexChuck! Glad you found us and joined!Looks like you got everything going for the cycle and aquascape done.How long has it been cycling so far? Have you done anything to kick start the cycle??Might make sure you get a cleaning magnet for the glass and be sure it can get all the way around without touching any of your aquascape.You may also want to start a build thread, in that section, so you can document your build , ask questions and we can see your progress and give some ideas.http://www.dfwmas.org/community/tank-builds-up-to-100-gal/Great job so far!
 
Thank you for the warm welcome! ? ?Sand, first load of rock and water went in on Saturday. ?I'd read a lot of conflicting stuff on kick starting my cycle, so I opted to do nothing and see if the initial die off from my rock (if there is much of one) will kick start things. ?I dosed pure ammonia to cycle my last FW tank to get the bacteria going, but with all the live stuff I put in this tank I'm not sure if I need to add anything else. ?I'm not in a hurry for whatever that is worth :) ??I'll start a build thread. ?I started first here since I'm a newbie and didn't want to clutter the build thread with newbie type questions...
 
Oh your good! You started in the right place for sure.?Cool so your just starting to cycle then. You'll probably be fine just waiting as long as your testing the water to make sure the tank does go through a cycle. Your rocks looked fairly clean from the pics so you'll just want to be sure. Here is link from Marc's blog that I have always used successfully.http://www.melevsreef.com/cycle"I'm not in a hurry for whatever that is worth" - Actually worth a lot in this hobby, we like to hear that lol. As long as you take things slow and be patient you should be very successful :) Your off to a great start!Looking forward to the build thread and us all being able to help you be successful.P.S. - My kiddos are starting a FW glow tank too...fish go in next week :p?
 
Thank you !!! ?Bookmarked the link. ?Immediate take away is to turn off the lights :p ?I'm embarassed to say I haven't even tested the water for ammonia yet; I've been too busy staring at the rocks. ? I'll start my testing log tonight. ?I created a build thread and linked the same pics. ?Thanks for the suggestions.What fish are you stocking in your glo tank? ? They've been a lot of fun for us... Here's a video, and credit goes to the folks at aquaticcommunity.com for a ton of help. ?I'm continually impressed with how helpful everyone has been so far that I've encountered in this hobby. ? ?Chuck's Glo TankThe dwarf orange crayfish were a BAD idea, by the way -- all the literature suggests that they're peaceful and compatible with small fish, but that was not my experience. ?Those 2 'cute' lil buggers took out 3 glo tetra's in less than 3 days before I was able to get them out. ?My oldest daughter witnessed part of it and ran off screaming. ?
 
Good deal!Not too sure on the stocking yet, probably just the different color tetras for now. I am still doing research with them on what the plan will be lol. I have never done FW before. :-/Tank looks nice!I might have newbie questions for you later! :p
 
The Barb's are pretty aggressive, and the danio's are fast... ?I like the tetra's the most. ? The other fish I have in there is an Electric Blue Ram. ?I have to feed him separately, but he's a fun centerpiece fish for the tank. ?You see 1 plant in there -- working on her letting me replace more flourescent plastic with real, but she likes her glo plastic. ?Bonus it makes a great night light.?Some of the colors are better than the others -- red, pink, green. ?The blue and purple are a bit more washed out. ?
 
Never thought I'd come on a marine forum and offer genespliced freshwater fish advice, but hey, glad I could help :) ?Here's what I followed when I did my FW cycle :http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aquariumforum/showthread.php?t=5640?
 
Welcome the DFWMAS! ?Looking forward to meeting you at one of our upcoming club events....let the addiction begin!
 
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