First SW tank

Well, after all these years, I have a SW tank.
I set up the little tank I thought was a 12 gal, turns out it is a 15 gal extra tall, foot print of a 10, but way taller.
I got 10 gal of water, the sand and filter media right out of on of the tanks at the lfs, topped it off with 5 gal of new SW, two live rocks that have little anemones already on them. I got 2 "test fish" (some type of damsel fish, they are purple-blue with yellow tails, and there were 2 tiny hermit crab hitchhikers on the rocks.

Very cool! Sounds like you're off to a good start.

Looking forward to some pics of your new adventure.

Good luck good luck. Have lots of fun. Watching a salt water tank grow is so much fun!

Well, the Eclipse hood is a PIA! I had one that someone had given me, but the light switch was bad, and we couldn't get it to work, so I bought another hood, tested the light before I bought it, it worked OK.
I stored it for several months, then I set up the tank last week end.
The light worked for about 2 days, and now won't turn on...
It seems to be in the switch, AGAIN! I'm calling Marineland this morning to complain!
Other wise tank is OK, fish are swimming, and little anemones are opened up.

That's awesome J, well except for the bad light part. Can't wait to see some pictures.

Well, they're all still swimming, creeping, whatever!
Saturday we went back to the store, I got more live rock, an occilarus
clown fish, and a "chocolate chip" starfish.
I have ordered a HO light fixture, so I can get some corals.
Addictive, yes, expensive, H#ll yes..... lol
picutures soon, promise!

That sounds great! Looking forward to the shots.

Here's my first attempt at a photo...
The lfs people didn't seem to think the little anemones were a big deal, but I was quiet excited to find them on the live rock I bought.

nice pics they are gonna look cool when they get biggger

I'd be excited too! I love those little anemones. Do you know how big they will get? How do you feed them?

Choc. Chip star fish eat coral. I know from experience. I just set up a 30g this past christmas, and I love it, but I wasted a lot of money with bad local fish shop info.

I also was told that the live rock I bought was cured- it wasn't and all the live stuff on it died, and at the time that is what I was buying it for.

My son was happy Christmas morning to find a sw tank, but because the rock was curing, it was only brown algae and dead rock.

This is what it looks like now:

Wow, that is awesome! My intentions at first was fish only with live rock,
but as I said, it's addictive. I can always trade back the starfish later on when I get to the point of adding coral.
This lfs is the only one in town that buys/sells used equipment, and that will buy livestock.
Right now we are having fun watching "Chip" creep around the tank.]
So far the live rock seems to be stayinn alive, and the little anemones are
a kind that don't get much bigger than what they are, like the end of your
finger. The tank i got the live rock out of at the store is full of them.

Yeah, the starfish is busy scouring the live rock, which was covered with
red, purple and green algae, but he seems to be chowing down on that, so
as much as I like him, he will have to go back to store, along with one of the
yellow tailed damsels that thinks he owns the tank.
When I get back from trip to Maryland, I'll think about wheres we want to go next.

There are a lot of cool and colorful reef safe starfish. Just do research on your own and don't take the word of the guy selling you the fish. There are a lot of things you can put in there that won't go together, and a lot that are very delicate.
If this is your first go at it I would stick with captive bred clowns, any of the cleaner shrimp, a couple starfish, crabs and snails and just ride it out with them for a while.
Most soft coral is fairly easy, but it is expensive.

I got back from Maryland with all creatures finny alive and swimmin', but the little SW tank had had a HO light added a few days before I left and the glass was covered with brown diatom algae.
So, after a good cleaning, a partial water change, and a re-arranging of rocks, it's looking good again.
I found another SW fish store, it's pretty new, and owned by a couple of doctors, so it's just their little hobby. They breed some of their own fish, and corals, and their prices are reasonable. The young man they had working in the store was very knowledgeable, didn't try to sell me anything, just answered all my questions.
I think as time goes on, I may try some mushroom coral, frog spawn, and buttom polyps....

Sounds great J, hook us up with some pic's

mike you took the words right outta my mouth

I tried building a little "chaeto" filter today. I had one of those little Rapids
Mini cannister filters that have the translucent plastic cannister. I filled it with little ceramic rings and some chaeto algae, got a light on it, I guess we'll see how it goes....

Careful Jocelyn. That's how the DIY bug gets under your skin. Looking forward to more pics of this tank.

Ha, Ha.... I've already got a little bite of the DIY bug.... I'm always "enhancing" the plumbing options. I made a 3 foot spray bar for my 33 long, and used some clear plastic one-piece photo frames to hold the HO light in place on top of the SW tank.

we wont pictures heheh

I tried to get a video the other day, but the HO light took all the color out of rocks, etc. I will try again, but with just a regular tank light and see if it comes out better!

I may try this one day..

It is addictive, but an expensive addiction....lol