60g build

[Tomchong22]

Well this is my tank. It is 60g tank that is soon to be a FOWLR. All the rocks are man made. There is about 70 lbs of rock with about 2 1/2in sand bed. Th sand bed is made up of a black and white sand mix on the bottom then sugar size white sand for the top. The sump is a 10g diy. I do have a few questions for the sump. I would like to keep macro algae in the first or second section. Should I do that or a dsp? Any suggestions? The first an second section is about 5 to 6 in high. Also I plan on getting these fish... 2 clown fish. A yellow tang . 1 royal gramma(maybe2) and. A lawnmower blenny. As far as a cuc I plan on getting 3 or 4 turbo snails 2 star fish and a few shrimp..(idk what kind yet) and suggestions on anything else i could add or not add? Here are some pics tell me what you think.

 

[tjm80]

Looks good. What did you use to make the rocks?

 

[mr_X]

just make sure you check the PH of that water before adding any livestock (along with ammonia nitrite...)
i don't think you have room in that 10 gallon for a DSB. i would just use some algae.

 

[Tomchong22]

Well I did use crushed coral for one but I did not like how it turned out. So I used the 3 2 1 mix. Salt. Portland cement and small rock ie gravel. I think they turned out pretty good.

 

[Tomchong22]

Yeah I don't plan on adding anything soon prob about 2 or 3 months in. Whenever the cycle gets done. Do u suggest using dr. Tims one and only? I have heard good things about it.

 

[mr_X]

na. it's a waste of money. culture your own bacteria. it's free. use an ammonia source, and just wait it out.

that is the equivalent of buying skimmate to fill your skimmer with!

 

[Tomchong22]

Alright cool. I plan on filling it up next week some time. Just have to wait for the overflow to arrive . Any suggestions for salt? I don't really want to use instant ocean mix. friends and everybody say it does not dissolve that well and takes along time for the tank to clear up.

 

[mr_X]

i think IO is fine for what you are going to do. otherwise, any salt will do.
btw, you are supposed to mix the salt and water in a different container..let it circulate with a power head and heater over night then add it to the tank. by that time the water is sure to be cleared up. it's not good to pour it in the tank while it's still cloudy- that means it's not mixed all the way and the parameters are sure to be off.

 

[Tomchong22]

Yeah I plan on mixing it up and letting it set for 2 days. My tank is in the basement so I have to get water out of a pipe leading to the water heater so the water is like 50 degrees. Lol way to cold. Have to let it heat up and everything before I can mix the salt in. Ok so I don't have an Ro/Di unit. Is tap ok? I know about the alga bloom u can get with just tap but that's not to hard to take care of.

 

[mr_X]

well, it's not great. how will you take care of an algae problem that is caused by your water? the way to take care of algae problems is to lower the nutrient level in the tank. you'll be adding more nutrients with every water change. you'll never win!

 

[Tomchong22]

Lol very true. I plan on keeping off the lights for some time to keep it down and allow the coroline algae to grow. Im hoping a good cuc and a lawnmower blenny will help control it. I just don't really have the extra cash to buy an Ro/di unit. And it's a little hard and expensive overtime to buy Ro water.

 

[tjm80]

Coralline algae needs light to grow as well, so that won't work. Plus the nutrients will still be in the water, so you'd just be delaying the algae explosion.

I spent $100 on an RO/DI off ebay. So far I'm pleased with it. Just gotta remember to stop filtering water before bed! lol

Here is a good article on why you should use RO/DI water. http://www.melevsreef.com/why_rodi.html

 

[Tomchong22]

I would totally agree withe the article. I would love to have the extra cash to get an Ro unit but I just don't have the extra cash. Starting a tank from scratch is pretty expensive lol. I started out thinking about $300 was good for a start tank.... But when I went out to pick out a tank I saw the 60 and could not turn it down. Fml. Hahaha so far I am in about $600ish and I still need a protein skimmer and 2 powerhead for circulation. All I can say is it's well worth the cost.

 

[tjm80]

I'm only a month ahead of you. IMHO the protein skimmer can wait, depending on what other filtration you have.

My recommendation is to skip out on the skimmer for now, get your RODI and do it right. Meanwhile, your tank is cycling and you can save up for a skimmer. You don't need the skimmer for cycling, and since you're using all base rock, your cycle will likely take longer than mine did. It still took me 3 weeks to cycle.

 

[Tomchong22]

Ok. Just thought of something. Is I ok to go ahead to fill it with. Tap for the initial fill. Then purchase a Ro unit when I he extra cash and do pwc with Ro water? Overtime will that work? Because I am planning on filling it This time next week.

 

[tjm80]

It would be better than just using tap water. Just a heads up though, I'm using RO/DI water and I have some hair algae trying to show up already.

As I said earlier - I'm only a month ahead of you as far as setting everything up. Take a look around and find something you don't use and sell it on craigslist. This hobby is a lot more expensive than I'd anticipated, so I sold some stuff.

 

[Tomchong22]

Haha yeah I totally wish I would have got into this like 3 year ago. Ok so this I a little off topic but I play guitar an have a Hal stack... Well the tank and the half stack are in the same room. I wouldn't think loud sound would affect the tank but thought I would ask. Does loud sound affect fish in an aquarium? If so looks like I will have to keep the volume down when playing.

 

[tjm80]

I would assume that depends more on the specific fish. But i'd be lying if I said I knew.

 

[Tomchong22]

Yeah I don't want to be totally rocking out and look over and see all my fish dead that would suck.

 

[Unicorn]

Loud sounds are not gonna kill the fish, but stress will! Loud sounds stress the fish which may kill it. You would never place your tank on top of the speaker bc of the sound waves irritating the water. Well, same thing happeneds in an enclosed room (eg basement), the sound waves are hitting the water and stressing the fish. Playing the guitar next to the fish is not bad, but playing heavy metal with ear breaking volume is
Use your judgement, but please be reasonable.

Me personally: switch to violin and play some Vivaldi LOL