Fresh Start Brand new jbj 45

[bri66799]

You're not familiar with the tank it has a filter system in the back behind black plexiglass .I have protein skimmer, adjustable wavemaker ,Orion LT 120 light which I haven't even figured out how to use yet with the settings first question is should I go with RO water it's an expense that I really can't afford right now but I don't want to have algae problems ???for the substrate I was going to go with caribsea arag-alive 60lbs ? According to the calculator that gives me about three and a half inches of substrate I plan on just putting some live rock and making just live rock not sure what type of fish I'm going to do but something that won't overgrowth at size tank

 

[King Fisher]

Ive seen those tanks advertised. I think it has the pump, bio balls and sponge in the back??? Pretty cool setup. I'm interested to see how it performs. I can't give any info on SW.

 

[bri66799]

Once I get it going I'll let you know

 

[bri66799]

I just powered it up with water in it to see how the pumps would flow their a little bit weak but there only 16 watts each I was looking up videos where people put one more powerful pump with a Y fitting for both exits and it's better thankfully I have a very powerful powerhead that will keep the flow in the tank

 

[bri66799]

Until I get an RO water maker which should be by next month I'm just going to use the see phos clear the two 266 gallon per hour pump are a little bit weak I'm thinking about upgrading to a more powerful pump and putting a y connection on it like I saw on the YouTube video I do have a nice powerful powerhead that's adjustable weave maker and it seems to be helping a lot of the foe I had the mag Drive 950 on my old one 25 tank I was wondering if they made a smaller version of that filter because it is Rock Solid never stops maybe like a 700 gallon for an hour because right now the to 266 is I don't think you're cutting it

 

[King Fisher]

So you're still getting at least 10x turn over an hour on the pumps it came with?

 

[bri66799]

There are two 266 GPh return pumps

 

[bri66799]

They both have direct input to the tank less than 1 foot of tubing so I'm assuming it's at least 500 gallons an hour and it's 45 gallon tank 11x a hour

 

[King Fisher]

I know they lose some power when it passes through your media as well.

I think as long as you're getting at least 10x an hour that is pretty decent. 15x would be better so you upgrading wouldn't be a bad idea.

 

[King Fisher]

Is that an acrylic or glass tank?

 

[bri66799]

Glass

 

[bri66799]

I was thinking about getting 2 320 gallon per an hour pumps to replace the stock ones because I don't feel like playing around with plumbing they also come in 550 gallon per hour would two of those be too much for the size tank

 

[King Fisher]

Nice. I've only seen the acrylic.

With the two 320's your looking at 14x turn over. With the 550's your looking at 24x. I guess the question is there going to be to much flow with the 550's. I'm positive the 320's will be fine where that's concerned.

 

[bri66799]

Okay thank you do you think I could try one of the 320s with one of the stock ones or do they have to be even and by the way the back that separates the tank from the filter area is acrylic the rest of the tank is glass

 

[bri66799]

Tank has been emptied and refilled with RO water I already noticed it's a lot clearer tomorrow the rest of the stuff comes and it should be running by the weekend the idea of getting one of the 320 pumps was to see if it's that much difference of a flow if I like it I will get II or I could just get one seven or eight hundred gph three-quarter out then a y splitter 3/4 in + two half inch out anyones opinion is welcome

 

[King Fisher]

I think you could try all those ideas and see which one you like best. Mixing different size pumps won't do anything bad to your tank. It will just make one side of your tank have more flow than the other.

 

[bri66799]

For now I think I'm going to leave it with the two 266 pumps and the wavemaker seems to have plenty of flow

 

[bri66799]

I have 40 pounds of Base Rock coming in tomorrow I was wondering should I rinse it with regular tap water or should I use RO water?

 

[King Fisher]

I would think it would be alright as long as you added dechlorinator to your tank water after you put it in. I generally scrub my decor down with tap water then rinse it with bottled water, add it to the tank then add dechlorinator which is probably overkill. If you got access to RO I'd just use that.

How did you get that 45g with two pumps?? I started looking into these tanks and the only ones with two pumps are the 100g to 180g tanks? I also cannot find one with glass...only acrylic.

 

[Sniperhank]

That's a tricky question. Since it's almost impossible to know what is in your tap water, unless you work for the water department, many say the safest thing to do is to use nothing but ro/di water...because the stuff you're fearful of isn't something a chlorine treatment from a bottle will fix. Sadly saltwater is a lot harder to keep than the goldfish we kept as kids.
With all of that said, when I was having troubles with my current system I hit almost all of the rock inside the system with the pressure washer. Obviously no ro/di there! If you're going to spray them down, tap should be fine. If you're going to soak them for a long period of time you'll want to aim for ro/di to prevent too much leaching into the rock of whatever is in the tap water.