Fishwrangler's 75gal Salty Adventure

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The only time i have noticed salt on the glass is when I set the hydrometer on the top.


I got a 20 pound piece of LR and the white rock so a rescape was in order

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I figured I'd need a powerhead sooner or later. Would a Hydor Koralia 425 or 2 work?

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That looks like it is a 75 gallon? Depending on what you want to do with the tank will vary the amount of water movement you want in the tank. For a fish only, you can get away with 10-20x the water volumn. So, say 750 out of the power heads. It is best IMO to use more than one so you can make a more varied flow in the tank and have less dead spots.
 
Ok so 2 Hydor Koralia 425s are on my shopping list. What about a Marineland magnum 350 for a water polisher?

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Why would you use ammonia to cycle a reef? We want to grow out organisms within the rock not OD them with ammonia...

Just sit back and let the tank cycle on it's own...
 
fish wrangler said:
Ok so 2 Hydor Koralia 425s are on my shopping list. What about a Marineland magnum 350 for a water polisher?

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Those pumps are EXTREMELY small. Like I use the 425 in 3g JBJ Picco.....

You should move that water a lot more. That's for a nano aquarium. Check out the Jebao WP-40 and WP-60. Same price as the hydor but so much better. You need a lot more turn over than those tiny horrible pumps. In my 50g I have 6 pumps and they all start above 1,000 GPH. In my 20g I have 5 pumps, the biggest is 800 GPH...

I would do much more than 10-20 times turn over for an ocean aquarium... These animals live on coral reefs and experiences pounds of water pressure.. You need to aim for something around 60-100 turnover if not more....

I made this video not too long ago to show other aquarist that water flow is needed, even in small aquariums with corals... I know its not a FOWLR but it goes to show more flow is needed than those small hydors. I could even add more flow and plan to as corals grow.

 
Sniperhank said:
Using either pure ammonia or something to decay like a cocktail shrimp will provide an ammonia source to cycle the tank.
Click to expand...

The tank has 20 pounds of live rock. This live rock likely already has the bacteria to support the nitrogen cycle. Adding ammonia or letting a shrimp decompose would only add extra work for the bacteria colony to recolonize to filtration standards. If an aquarist were to simply sit back and let live rock do it's thing, and wait for a positive test with no nitrite (and no ammonia) then we know the tank has a nitrogen cycle present.

I'd highly recommend against the addition of ammonia in any form. It is also likely your tank will NEVER receive fish taking a crap equivalent to a 1ppm or higher dose of ammonia... Frankly even .5 would be astonishing.. There's no need to nuke a tank with ammonia. The nitrosomonas and nitrobacter bacteria actually will recolonize quicker at lower levels of ammonia.... So if time is of interest to aquarist this is another reason to not dose this toxic nitrogen...

This bacteria is not going to really start to die off either if you don't "fuel" it.. It fuels itself :/
 
Reefer James said:
Adding ammonia or letting a shrimp decompose would only add extra work for the bacteria colony to recolonize to filtration standards. If an aquarist were to simply sit back and let live rock do it's thing, and wait for a positive test with no nitrite (and no ammonia) then we know the tank has a nitrogen cycle present.

I'd highly recommend against the addition of ammonia in any form. It is also likely your tank will NEVER receive fish taking a crap equivalent to a 1ppm or higher dose of ammonia... Frankly even .5 would be astonishing.. There's no need to nuke a tank with ammonia. The nitrosomonas and nitrobacter bacteria actually will recolonize quicker at lower levels of ammonia.... So if time is of interest to aquarist this is another reason to not dose this toxic nitrogen...

This bacteria is not going to really start to die off either if you don't "fuel" it.. It fuels itself :/
Click to expand...

How would adding ammonia hurt the rock? I don't know how long it was sitting in the lfs tank and if the bacteria on the rock was still alive.

What you are saying seems to go against what everyone else has said...

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fish wrangler said:
How would adding ammonia hurt the rock? I don't know how long it was sitting in the lfs tank and if the bacteria on the rock was still alive.

What you are saying seems to go against what everyone else has said...

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I would like to know as well. I cycled my 10g with a table shrimp just a few months ago and the ammonia hit 8.0ppm. It turned out just fine. I'm still new to salty so maybe we are missing something ??


Caleb
 
As long as it is pure ammonia, it won't hurt anything. Too much could cause issues, but nothing within the ranges we dose tanks. That said, I still like the cocktail shrimp over all.
Though that said, if there is that much live rock in the tank...and I mean actual rock that was already set up and has been kept wet, you should be just fine with a cycled tank ready for a fish.
 
I'm talking about how the actual bacteria colonizes and how the effects of ammonia slow it down. Some aquarist dose nitrite first, and then ammonia once the nitrobacter bacteria population is established, so that way this stage of the cycle is already established and allows for ammonia to me converted to nitrate quicker. Ammonia slows down this process in high concentrations.

This is why dosing ammonia is actually less beneficial. The goal of cycling a tank is to achieve the bacteria colony to support the nitrogen cycle. Once achieved we can grow and increase the size of the colony with addition of fish and monitoring our own feeding...

Am I saying using ammonia will not cycle a tank? No, but it sure will slow it down if dosed beyond the first day. And even if it's dosed the first day, if the live rock had organisms living on it, which it does, its live rock for all sake and purposes, the ammonia dose would be potentially leathal... These animals living on the rock are also responsible in many ways for filtration ability of live rock and achieving the cycle...

I don't mean "go against what everyone has said" I'm just following the preferences of the bacteria that achieve the nitrogen cycle and bringing it into aquaria... There's many ways to go about this hobby, I'm just aiming my approach towards the targeted goal.
 
As far as the live stuff on the rock ever since I got the rock I have seen a lot of different pods and other life on the rocks.

The last time I checked my ammonia it was .25ppm, and I wouldn't call that bad for any life.

I'll test my ammonia, trites, and trates tonight to see how the cycle is doing. If everything looks good next weekend I'll start stocking.
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And the results are in. Ammonia 0ppm, nitrite 5ppm maybe more, and my nitrates are 20ppm. Going to take the cod out tomorrow so the trites can go down.

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Ok. I'm hoping to have some fish in by July 12th...i mean live fish not the kind in my sump.

I was thinking of adding the clowns first, but if I do stock the damsels those will be first.

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Now is just the perfect time to plan out the stocking of your tank. It will easily be ready by the 12th...it not before then as it sounds like it will be. Clowns can go first, depending on what else you want to go in.
 
fish wrangler said:
Ocellaris clowfish ×4(2 amenomes with 2 clowns per nem right?), royal gramma ×1, pink spotted watchman goby ×2, sixline wrasse ×1, and foxface lo ×1. The order I would add the fish is how they are listed.

Maybe
Yellowtail damsel ×5
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