HelloReef offers truly all-in-one aquarium kits that come with everything you need. If you've ever wanted an underwater paradise in your home but didn't know how to get started, HelloReef is here to help!
what's the best cuc member to clean up sand bed? my turbos, nass, and bumbles aren't getting it done. getting hermits worry me in case they go after the turbos
So I like cerith, nassarius, sand sifting gobies, and conchs. If you have a small tank, just get the snails, but if there is enough food for a sand sifting goby... it will go to town! :-)
I finally found you! Man you are a hard guy to keep up with LOL. So glad to see your new videos Matthew! Hoping you are doing well and look forward to many more videos.
Haha, thanks for hunting me down! I am doing great. I actually work for the parent company of HelloReef called Aperture... They also own BRS, Ecotech, AI, Neptune, etc, so you'll see me bounce around all of the channels! But I've been busy working on our new HelloReef tank videos, that I haven't made any public videos in a long time!
What about Babylon Snails i love there orange white and black coloration on them and when I put a piece of shrimp he’s the 1st on it even over my 50 cent coin size hermit crab
Never had a saltwater tank. But I’ve been keeping reptiles and freshwater fish for majority of my life. I’ve always dreamed of having a saltwater aquarium but it always seemed so overwhelming and out reach. After years of research, I finally just got a 39 gal, rimless lagoon tank. I’m planning on DIY’ing my own filtration, and setting it up to eventually house my dream fish, a mandarin dragonet. I can’t tell you how much your videos have helped, and definitely wanted to thank you. I’m taking it slow, but I’m slowly accumulating more and more gear, and hopefully should have it up and running in a couple of months!
First off, congratulations! It's a huge step setting up your first saltwater tank. Good for you. And second, thank you. Those were some really kind words. I'm grateful for hobbyists like you who take the time to reach out. Best of luck and keep me updated with how the build is going! :-) -Matthew
Great question. We highly recommend doing a weekly water change. There are experienced hobbyists who do much less or don't do them at all, but I have found that, especially for the beginner, nothing, and I mean nothing, beats the value you get out of a weekly water change! :-)
The maximum you can ever put in a tank is 2 clownfish. They are highly territorial, and the only other way to do it is to have a 120 gallon tank or larger and build a clownfish harem with like 30 clowns... but that is definitely not a beginner tank! :-)
Hi there, I'm not sure exactly what you are asking, but those Alk and Mg numbers are very low. I'm actually not sure if fish/coral could live with an alkalinity that low. You may be okay in a fish only tank, but even snails and hermit crabs would struggle to build their exoskeletons with such low alk and mg.
@@HelloReef hello first thanks for responding. I meant my reef tank salinity is 1026 and alk 5.1 and magnesium is 930 I want to know can I add magnesium and Alk I afraid if I those magnesium and Alk my salinity raising up I doubt maybe my testers is failed sorry for my English.
Thanks! They've got me so busy working on our new GloFish kit that I haven't been able to make a public video for HelloReef or BRS in months! But I appreciate the kind words for sure, keeps me motivated! :-)
Hello, I have a question regarding the cycle process. It’s been 2 weeks since I followed all the steps and I have 0.25 ammonia and 0 nitrites. I was never able to see nitrites with test kits. My nitrates is 2.5 and is slowly going up 0.1-0.3 everyday. Is my tank cycled?
Hi there, thanks for the question. It sounds like your tank is either cycled, or cycling. An ammonia level of 0.25 is nice and low. Just keep tracking the ammonia every few days. If it keeps going up, then the tank is still cycling. But if it holds steady and/or starts going down, then yes, your tank is cycled!
Yes, that does sound right. Let me think about it again for a second. 5 herbivorous snails, 5 carnivorous snails, 5 small hermits, 1 skunk cleaner, 2 peppermint shrimp, a small pincushion sea urchin, and two clownfish. I don't currently have the pistol shrimp and goby.My tank is thriving with this stock list. My anemones completely blanket the tank now, and I started with 8 I think, and now have about 25!
Yes, absolutely. There are pros and cons to using dry rock, but that's all I ever use. It does tank longer to establish a healthy bacterial biome, but I've not found it to be a huge problem. If you are adding reef rock, you can always rinse it off with some tap water first if it is dusty.
??? Small dilemma…please help! I followed the cycling steps. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to test the water until day 5. My readings showed 0Nitrites 0Nitrates 0.5ppm Ammonia. How do I know if I ever got a Nitrite/Ammonia spike? If my ammonia goes to 0 and my Nitrites remain 0…does that mean I’m cycled?
Great question. The only way to truly know if the tank has cycled is to test every few days. Since you only waited five days, I'm going to assume the tank has started the cycle. 0.5 ppt ammonia isn't terrible, but keep an eye on it to see if it creeps any higher. Test every couple days for ammonia and nitrite. I'm guessing you will start to see nitrite show up quite soon. Once that happens, then your ammonia will start to go down. If the ammonia starts getting close to 1.0ppm, I would do a larger water change, say 40-50 percent, just to protect your fish. You could also add a product like Seachem prime, which converts harmful ammonia into something non-toxic (although it will still show up in your ammonia test). Sounds like everything is actually going to plan right now, so just keep testing. -Matthew
I used to use those magnetic cleaners with the microfiber or something. Never worked well. I just cleaned out an old tank and found a razor blade scraper in the basement, tried that, and it has changed my life.
I just received my first ever micro tank to start learning about SW tanks as a freshwater gal for years; I only want SPS corals and once I learn much in a year or two, I will buy a Red Sea max tank and go for a beautiful reef tank with no more than 3 fish if at all .. thank you so much teaching me how to do this
Heck yeah! The light is perfect for anemones, and the setting we show you in the course is set up for anemones. I started with 8 small anemones, and now have over 20 and you can't even see the aquascape! I think we are going to be posting a before/after picture on our Instagram soon, so check it out.
You dont need RODI water for fish and rock only tank. Just use tap water and throw in some Seachem prime and stability until ammonia and nitrides zero out.
Question, do I really need to set up a seperate quarentine tank for my helloreef tank for future sick fish? Or is there an easier more practical way to deal with this?
Best practice is to absolutely set up a quarantine tank. I know it's not what most hobbyists want to hear, but it's the truth. That being said, I bet 90% of saltwater hobbyists don't do this. But the issue is that if your tank is happy and healthy, and you add in a new fish without quarantine, there is a chance everything will go just fine, and in fact, many hobbyists do this all the time and seem to have no problem. That's because they've been lucky. Adding a new fish to the tank just runs the risk of adding disease, disease you may not see yet on the fish. And what can happen is that new fish can get sick, spread it to everybody else, and then unfortunately wipe out all of the fish. It's super sad. And if that happens, you have to wait over two months before adding another fish just to make sure the disease is gone. You could ask the Local Fish Store if they would qt for you. Or you can just set up a super simple QT by picking up a 10 gallon aquarium from your local big box store, some large pieces of pipe for hiding, a hob filter and heater, and you've got a temporary quarantine that you can break down in three weeks when you are done. Hope that helps!
@@HelloReef so if i set up a seperate tank with filter and heater, do i need to cycle it like the helloreef tank? Or do I just fill it with new seawater when a fish is sick and do weekly water changes?
You don't need to cycle it, but you will want to test for ammonia, maybe get an ammonia neutralizer like Seachem Prime, and then do large weekly water changes. :-)
💯% agreed. It’s something I need to do on the regular every two weeks. Even though I add trace elements water changes imo are vital to the stability of the reef
Most complete beginners won’t have access to seeded media but that can be a way to overcome the patience barrier that we all suffer from. Yes you advanced hobbiest. You were impatient too. Live rock can introduce pests, but it’s easier to learn while doing opposed to dealing with tank crashes, new tank syndrome and expensive dead livestock.
Great question. You can, but I didn't. The main concern is to overload the tank with too much bioload. Even thought the tank is already cycled, as you add more animals, it increased the bioload, and the biological filter will need time to multiply to catch up. So adding slowly is always better.
Ah man how is this channel only 3k subs. Such a gem. A video explaining flow concepts would be super helpful. Always seems like mine is too much or not enough and I can’t read the signs of either
I noticed the Hello Reef kit has an open top, I am also aware that clown fish are prone to jumping out of tanks with no covers. Why wasnt a full cover included in this kit? What do you recommend?
Great point and the honest answer? It didn’t fit! But, there is an easy solution. Check out the pre made Innovative Marine mesh screen. The one for the 15 gallon Nuvo fusion fits perfectly! www.bulkreefsupply.com/15-nuvo-fusion-safescreen-mesh-screen-lid-innovative-marine.html?queryID=9683eadab18df44b5890171197996129&objectID=15852&indexName=brs_prod_m2_default_products
Second this. I purchased this cover and it is a perfect fit for my HelloReef. My clowns definitely like to jump so get the screen before you move them into your display tank.
Hi Matthew, I was thinking of buying the Hanna Phosphate Test kit, Do I need to buy the Calibration Check Set from the beginning ? or can I buy them later ?
First off, love the phosphate kit... use it weekly. And to be honest... I've never used the calibration check set. They come factory calibrated and I've never had a problem with mine. So depending on your comfort level, you could probably just never buy it!
@HelloReef hello, do I really need to set up and maintain a whole new "quarentine tank" for introducing new fish and for potential sick fish? There has to be an eaiser way to deal with a sick fish than setting up a whole new tank.... esp for this little HelloReef tank.
that's a great question. As of now you can only access the course with the kit. The 50 videos in the course are 100% specific to the kit, so you will definitely get the most value out of the videos with the kit. But I understand that unfortunately right now the HelloReef kit is only available in the USA. So let me talk to my team about our options here. Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment and ask a great question. -Matthew
MATTHEW!!!!! My First Fish Tank got me into the hobby! I’ve missed your videos so much, and am so happy to have found you here at Hello Reef. Your reefing videos are hands down the best!
that is so kind of you! I really appreciate you taking the time to leave such a nice comment, and I'm super glad to hear my videos were helpful! -Matthew
I like this series and you’ve done a great job on it Matthew. A lot of people don’t take the time to acclimate properly in regards to temperature and lighting which can cause a lot of unnecessary stress.
It important to understand the importance of medicated quarantine. I use copper power at 2.5 and make sure the fish eat before they bag them. I use seachem focus with general cure and expel P . I freeze the mixture and feed Twice a day for 2 weeks minimum. I use the Hanna checker to ramp up the copper power and keep my level at 2.5
Yes, I think quarantine is one of the most important things. While I absolutely love our HelloReef kit, one frustration I've had is there was no place for quarantine. I mean, how do you tell a beginner to set up a tank, and then set up a second tank to qt fish. It's just so complicated. But you just gave me an idea... Our goal with this kit was to take a total beginner to proficient in 6 weeks. But, a lot of them are going to move on to something else, maybe a bigger tank. I think what our program needs is a video near the end of the course all about the importance of quarantine, and an explanation as to why we didn't tell them to do it when setting up their tank. Thanks for this great reminder @notso987! -matthew
I just started two months ago and have two 5 gallon and a bio cube 14. One of the 5 gallons I got already set up for about a year and a half. I'm pleased with my choices as of now but I'm sure I will trade two for a bigger one.
Totally get that. I think most hobbyists go bigger and bigger. My own journey was similar. My first big tank was a 120 gallon. That was right when I started turning my hobby into my career. I grew to have 7 different tanks, each with a different biotope. I hired somebody to come in once a week and do my water testing and water changes so I could focus on content creation. Over time it got a little to much for me, and now I have two tanks. My HelloReef which is amazingly full of nems, and a soon to arrive Waterbox 80 gallon peninsula. That will house a special project for the next six months, and then I'm thinking something really cool! Thanks for sharing a part of your journey, I enjoy hearing about it! -Matthew
Good advice Matthew on adding a CUC as well as the importance of acclimating your new fish. Keeping a CUC well fed will pay dividends as they will be less tempted to munch on your Corals. Personally I add hikari wafers at night to my tank so my horde of Tangs won’t eat them. 😊
