Fresh Meat! FOWLR N00b. 1st SW tank

[Tronix]

Hey at least I figured out what FOWLR meant before asking.

I'm dropping an introduction here in hopes to absorb some feedback and guidance from all you expert marine aquarists!

I've been keeping tanks on and off for a little over 20 years. I also grew up around the hobby. The last few tanks I had were Oscar tanks with a few misc cichlids. I had pretty good luck with my fish and would often grow them to such a large size that I would just sell them back to the stores and get new babies every other year or so.. I haven’t had a tank in almost 2 years and then the TV show "Tanked" got me itching again. This time however I decided to try my hand at the illustrious Saltwater Tank. I read a few books on setting up and about 2 weeks ago laid out a plan and started buying everything.

I bought a 75 Gallon Tank to get started. I used 2 bags of super fine aragonite/oolite (which took hours to rinse) then topped it off with 2 bags of Carribsea Live Sand (10x better). I should have used nothing but Live Sand (hindsight). I de-chlorinated my tap water and used Instant Ocean for my water source. I hooked up my filter and installed a temporary heater. It took all day for the sand to settle and the water to clear up. I tested the water and the Ph was 8.1 and the Nitrate, Nitrite and Ammonia were all zero and my SG was .024ish and the temp was 79-80. So It looked good to go. I let it cycle another day and then went out to my local shop and picked up a few live rocks. I popped them in and there was a nice size snail hidden in one of the rocks that crawled out and surprised me. I tested my water every day for 6 days and it was the same every day. I took a water samples to two different shops just to make sure my readings were correct and they both told me I had perfect water. I began adding fish a few days ago. I started with my favorite, an Emperor Angel and grabbed a Royal Gramma Baslet as well. Then I gathered up the family and took them to the fish store and they decided they really wanted a pair of Clown fish. We found a BEAUTIFUL pair that are already about 3" in length (about the same size as the Emperor). I've added a few more Live Rocks and the tank is looking/working fantastic. The fish are doing great. They get along and everything looks to be going perfect. I've been adding little things here and there and it's real close to being finished.

Here is my current setup:

75 Gallon Tank
Glass lids with custom stainless knobs.
Fluval 406 (100 gallon) Filter
300 Watt Hydor Inline heater (installed on the return)
Marineland Double Bright LED system
IRIS LED strip
36" LED Bubble Wall
Rena air pump (on order)
AquaClear 20 power head
Digital Timers for lights.
Digital Thermometer


Livestock:
1 Emperor Angel (Juvenile)
2 Clown Fish
1 Royal Gramma Baslet
1 Large Snail
Dozen or so micro baby snails.


I don't have the LED bubble wall going yet as the air pump hasn't come in so I’m using a power head for pushing air and water flow around the tank, Both lighting systems are on digital timers so that they get 8 hours of darkness and about an hour and a half of lunar lights in the evening and morning. During the day the IRIS strip is tuned to compliment the Marineland LEDs and provide stunning colors to the fish and Live Rock. I am currently feeding them frozen brine shrimp. I'm hoping for some suggestions with expanding their diet and offering other foods.

I'm pretty pleased with the setup. Any suggestions, concerns, warnings? Can someone tell me anything about the stuff growing on my Live Rock? I spent a good bit of time picking out some of neatest rocks I could find (the most expensive part of the setup).


Also.. I'm thinking of adding a Yellow Tang and eventually a Mandarin Goby. See any issues there?



Thanks in advance!

 

[Suatso]

Hi, your tank looks beautiful, really good. The only thing I doubt is if there was too little time to cycle, if i read right, your tank didn't cycle not even for a month, and all the livestock went in at the same time. That sounds like ammonia havok coming to town.

Hope that doesn't happen cause i've heard those emperor angelfish are not so hardy. Nemos can withstand a nuclear blast with no problem!

My tank has right now a 7 month old, that just last week I got all the liverock i wanted in there. And every time i've added a new fish ( I tried consistently to add one fish every month) i waited a month to allow the mini cycle to finish and the bacteria to process al the extra ammonia.




I went for the big pile of rock there

 

[Jeremy S.]

How long has this tank cycled? Looks nice so far.

I agree wit suatso though...my 40g tank cycled for months before I added any livestock. With that bio load and that short of a cycle I am very worried about your ammonia kicking in and wiping out everything.

 

[Suatso]

Oh sorry, as for your question, i would stop on the livestock, but the next one should definetely be the yellow tang. The mandarin is a very picky eater. Wether you buy on a regular basis some copepods, of you get alot of rock in there and wait for a healthy population of copepods to grow there

 

[Suatso]

How long has this tank cycled? Looks nice so far.

I agree wit suatso though...my 40g tank cycled for months before I added any livestock. With that bio load and that short of a cycle I am very worried about your ammonia kicking in and wiping out everything.

Jeremy, I cycled my tank for two months before I added my first yellow tang. And he's the happiest fish in may tank so far. Testing my water every week, waiting the day there was zero ammonia, and some nitrates built up, then water change, one turbo, test, waterchange, done? Fish

Also on thing I noticed, i added a whole bunch of rock, not all of it was alive, and that boosted my nitrates a lot, to 20ppm. I'm still lowering those, added the rock last monday

 

[AquaRick]

Great looking tank so far! A few things from what I can see/infer:

1) How long was your cycle? Did you add fish right after putting your tank together?

2) I don't think you have enough rock in your tank based on your picture. You're going to want a bit more, and at least 1-1.5 lbs/gallon.

3) The 75g is unfortuantely way too small for an emperor angel. They need a good 200g + tank. They grow quite fast and get over 1ft in length. I'd suggest returning it if you can for something that will fit your tank.

4) I'd suggest getting a skimmer if you can for your tank. It will greatly improve the health of the tank. If not, your canister may work with regular maintenance as they can be nitrate factories if not kept up.

5) A yellow tang is perfect for a 75g. I'd definitely recommend one. Very nice and vibrant

6) If you want to get a mandarin, please reasearch then a bit and wait until your tank matures. They are quite difficult to keep as they only eat copepods unless they are trained to eat forzen/prepared foods. One mandarin will consume nearly all the pods in a 75g tank unless you have a fuge and/or are willing to buy pods and add them to your tank often. (Just an FYI this is rediculously expen$ive)

Hope this helps.

 

[Jeremy S.]

Jeremy, I cycled my tank for two months before I added my first yellow tang. And he's the happiest fish in may tank so far. Testing my water every week, waiting the day there was zero ammonia, and some nitrates built up, then water change, one turbo, test, waterchange, done? Fish

Also on thing I noticed, i added a whole bunch of rock, not all of it was alive, and that boosted my nitrates a lot, to 20ppm. I'm still lowering those, added the rock last monday

I was directing my question at Tronix not you lol sorry for the confusion!

 

[Suatso]

I was directing my question at Tronix not you lol sorry for the confusion!

Hahah i know, i was just sharing some of my experience

 

[Jeremy S.]

Ah alright fair enough

Yea I've had my 4g nano tank up for over 2 weeks and its still cycling. A 75g should take much longer than a week.

 

[Beengirl]

Welcome to AA. I gotta agree with the guys here, that's a lot of fish to put in all at once into a tank that might have had a very light cycle. Hope that doesn't come back haunt you. I would check all levels everyday for a couple of weeks and do PWC as needed to keep them down. The emperor angel is my favorite fish, but gets REALLY big. You're gonna have to upgrade or take him back when he gets bigger cause they need 220g when full grown. I never got one cuz my tank's a 55g and way too small for one. Tank looks nice though. good luck!!

 

[Codyluthy]

Tht angel needs a 150 gal tank. And aslo if you ever plan to do reef I'd start of now if you use declorinated tap water your parts per million are probibly very high you want them round 0 . If you plan on haveing a serious tank I would highly highly recommend buying bs RO filter with a DI cartridge it'll make ur life a million times easier I dnt trust tap water in a marine tank

 

[emerald76]

Oh sorry, as for your question, i would stop on the livestock, but the next one should definetely be the yellow tang. The mandarin is a very picky eater. Wether you buy on a regular basis some copepods, of you get alot of rock in there and wait for a healthy population of copepods to grow there

The yellow tang will need a 6' tank.
I know others said they would be fine but these are VERY active fish that get rather large and require a fair amount of space to swim. They like to swim in bursts from one side of the tank to another.

 

[Tronix]

Thanks for all the advice/ questions! This is all very helpful. I'm still struggling to put everything together because as you all probably know, I can ask the same question to 5 people and will get 5 totally different answers.

I was told using LIVE sand provides instant cycling. In fact it's supposed to be guaranteed. My Live Rock is pre-cured and has come directly out of a very established tank from my local reef store.

I put the LS in and waited 2 days.. Tested.. All zero'd out.
Put the LR in and waited a week. My shop told me to bring a water sample in after 5 days and they would test it.. I waited a week and then took it in. It tested the same. Zero ammonia, zero nitrite and zero nitrates. I waited another couple of days and tests were still showing zero. They told me I was ready to go. I added the fish and I test the water every day.

So I cycled almost 2 weeks before adding fish even though they claim instant cycle. The fish have been in the tank for over 5 days now. I just tested the water and I'm still seeing zero ammonia and zero nitrates, however I do see a very small amount (.25) Nitrite for the first time.


I'm not too worried about the tank size for the Angel. If all goes well with this tank, I plan to start a 200g in the spring.

I'm confused about the amount of live rock though. Since you can obviously use NO live rock, how can I not have enough Live Rock? Right now I have about 40lbs in it. I'd really prefer to keep it that way because in essence it gives my fish nearly the same volume of area to swim as most 150g with 100lbs of LR. What is the downside of having 1/2lb per gallon vs 1lb per gallon?

 

[Keithhjs]

Your live rock is your filter. Nitrifying BB live there. The more rock you have, the better filtration you have. Also more places for pods to grow & hide, as well as places for your fish to hide & graze

 

[Suatso]

If you had no fish when you tested the water, that would mean you were "ready" to put ONE fish in, eventhough, i wouldn't call1 week cycling to be ready, even using live rock and live sand, because there was nothing to bring ammonia in (fish poo of decomposing matter)

Let's all hope everything comes out allright.

 

[Jeremy S.]

When I was setting up my nano tank a few weeks ago I saw where my live sand bag said "instant cycling" and I thought to myself 'man that's a load of BS...'

I cycled a 40g tank with 45lb live rock and 40lbs live sand for over a month and after it had cycled I only added in a few crabs and 1 Damsel (hardy as you can get!)

 

[Suatso]

Yeah, there's no such thing as an instant cycling. Everything is a natural or better said, biological process that has to complete on its own time.

Leave your ( beautiful ) tank be for a month or two, and monitor by yourself the water parameters, don't take it to your LFS because i've heard of stores that lie on the measurements just to sell aditives. Ifnitrates climb, water change.

 

[Beengirl]

Yeah, "instant cycling" is impossible. I used all LS and LR and a taw shrimp for my 55g and it still took about 4weeks to cycle. But there's already fish in there now, so I would just monitor the levels. I hope it all turns out well. You don't "need" LR at all. If you like the amount you have, just leave it at that. You have the Fluval (I love mine BTW), and that will work well. The rock you have will work as a natural filter too. Just make sure you rinse out all the components of the Fluval every week so that your nitrates don't increase. Also, just a BTW, saw that you're using tap water- bad idea. The tank might be okay for a little while, but at some point you're going to have a bad algae and/or cyano problem from the phosphates and other stuff in tap water. Tap can also contain trace of iron and other metals which are bad for fish. I don't have a RO/DI system, so I use 5g buckets and buy RO water from the lfs for 0.25/gal. It'll save you headaches in the future. Good luck and have fun with your new tank!! And welcome back to the world of fish!!

 

[Tronix]

Yeah, "instant cycling" is impossible. I used all LS and LR and a taw shrimp for my 55g and it still took about 4weeks to cycle. But there's already fish in there now, so I would just monitor the levels. I hope it all turns out well. You don't "need" LR at all. If you like the amount you have, just leave it at that. You have the Fluval (I love mine BTW), and that will work well. The rock you have will work as a natural filter too. Just make sure you rinse out all the components of the Fluval every week so that your nitrates don't increase. Also, just a BTW, saw that you're using tap water- bad idea. The tank might be okay for a little while, but at some point you're going to have a bad algae and/or cyano problem from the phosphates and other stuff in tap water. Tap can also contain trace of iron and other metals which are bad for fish. I don't have a RO/DI system, so I use 5g buckets and buy RO water from the lfs for 0.25/gal. It'll save you headaches in the future. Good luck and have fun with your new tank!! And welcome back to the world of fish!!

Thanks. I cleaned out the filter after the first day to clear out all the sand that it sucked up for the initial settle. I'll tear it down this weekend and rinse it again. I'm just running the stock media. Do you have any recommendations for other media to run, or should I just keep what's in there for awhile?

I'll try to find somewhere to start buying water. Or perhaps I'll look into just buying an RO filter. The only thing I've seen is the prepackaged boxes of sea water. My LFS actually recommended I just use my tap and water prep solution. They claim that's what they do, but to leave it settle for a few days. I can start doing 20% water changes each weekend. That should sort itself out after a couple of months?

 

[Beengirl]

Thanks. I cleaned out the filter after the first day to clear out all the sand that it sucked up for the initial settle. I'll tear it down this weekend and rinse it again. I'm just running the stock media. Do you have any recommendations for other media to run, or should I just keep what's in there for awhile?

I'll try to find somewhere to start buying water. Or perhaps I'll look into just buying an RO filter. The only thing I've seen is the prepackaged boxes of sea water. My LFS actually recommended I just use my tap and water prep solution. They claim that's what they do, but to leave it settle for a few days. I can start doing 20% water changes each weekend. That should sort itself out after a couple of months?

Wow! If your LFS is using tap, I would find a new LFS!! I have two LFS that sell RO water, but ya gotta ask about it, there's no sign or anything. If you have a Petco that does SW, that's one place I get mine. But not all Petco's do SW.

I kept the stock stuff in the Fluval for first month or so. Then I got rid of 1 carbon and added more biomax to that container and I changed out the remaining carbon (carbon lasts a month, chemipure should be good for about 3 months) for Chemipure. I didn't replace all at once, though- I did one each week till all 3 were replaced. Every week I rotate changing out 1 sponge item in the canister, whether its the long foam or polishing pad, and I rinse well all the other items. It only takes about 10 min to rinse to whole canister contents. Biomax will last a long time, though. Just don't change all foam at once or you'll lose most of your BB. When I changed to chemipure, my water did clear up even better, although I thought it was fine before that.