Hello Everyone

[TroyReeF]

My name is Brian and I live in Troy. I have had fresh water fish for years. So between my Gal and Kim over at Aquatic Specialist I have took the plunge to "SALT" I bought a 125 gal tank and all the the goodies. I had to build my stand and canopy but that was pretty fun. It's been running for about a week and salinity is holding at 1.025. I added the pieces of live rock yesterday. The plan was to have corrals on the rock, sand, and ship along the back wall. And still have plenty of swim area. Any suggestions on weather to add more rock or not would be welcome.

[DarinSchmidt]

if you build/have a sump area, you can always load that with LR so that you dont clutter your Display Tank.

[TroyReeF]

I have a sump, with bio balls and my protein skimmer. I just wanted a little rock to give the tank some different levels of corrals.

[Sunny]

Looks good.  Like the ships.   Rocks are a good thing when fish get stressed.  Gives them a place to go to feel secure.  At night when the lights go out, most of the fish are in their hiding places within the rocks. 

[Boonjob]

First Hello, And Welcom to the boards; Glad to have ya!

Looks cool, good job... The Bio Balls will work the same as the LR, so aslong as you have enough bio balls to allow enough bacteira to filter your bio load you should be fine without having to "need" to add more rock... I love that back drop... and did you seal the ship? some ornaments/paints won't hold up to saltwater and will degrade over time realeasing plenty of nasties in your tank... as for the fish needing hiding places this is true, Some will bury themselves in the sand other need caves... I would assume your ship is hollow so it will offer some hiding however a really terretorial fish could claim the whole ship causing alot of stress to smaller/docile fish... The general rule is the more hiding places you create the less they tend to hide.

Though there is no severe problem keeping it the way you have it... one could assume less hiding creates tension in the tank among it's inhabitants, tension is stress, stress lowers immunity systems, lowered immunity systems can bring on lots of sickness/illness among your fish(especially in a FO tank) namely ich(and it has been going around something fierce lately)... just something to look into throwing in a few more rock just for making caves(they would also serve to help the bioload aswell)

Also you may want to play with them alittle, but it may be in your interest to move your power heads down a little closer to the bottom( just alittle above the half way mark on your tank) IMHO

[TroyReeF]

Thank you. Move the power heads down ? Is that for the corrals I will be adding ?

[Boonjob]

Well, moving the power heads down wouldn't be just for the coral, rather you want to stir your tank... and right now your just stirring the top water... you want them to push the excess waste/nutrients from the bottom/falling, up to your overflow so that they can be filtered out... if your power heads are too high you may experience a build up of excess food/detritus collections on the bottom of the tank...

Also I didnt realize you had intention of adding coral, I thought it was a FO tank... in that case I would strongly suggest sealing that display piece 100% before adding any coral and also consider using more LR, not only for adding more space to place corals but also this would be a situation where LR starts to become more beneficial at filtering than a Wet/dry using bioballs(IMO)...

Not saying to make a refugium or anything of the sort to start with but I would suggest running that tank as a FO(fish only) for aslong as you can, to get your feet "wet" in the marine world and to allow yourself time read up/research on keeping a reef and making things like a refugium,deep sand bed etc...

If you have any question, feel free to ask, we have tons of very knowledgable people who love to help.

[lazylivin]

I am not usually a fan of decorations but it works in your tank. I like it. Welcome to Ohio Reef.

[micki]

Welcome aboard!

[Kenn]

I would say "Welcome aboard"  but you brought your own ship

Keep an eye on the bio-balls, they have a nasty habit of getting dirty and clogged with tank waste so they can stop doing their job.

[HUNGER]

Welcome to the club.

[kattz]

Arrgh, matey.  (pirate ship in tank)  Welcome to the club!

[hatcher2014]

welcome to Ohio Reef love the ship and IMO i would add more rock cause in my experience it is nice to have a place were each fish can call home i mean you dont want to share your bed with stranges lol. great set up

[TroyReeF]

Thank you all for the welcome and comments. Seems more rock is the thought.... So more rock it is.