Diary of my first saltwater tank...Awesome.

[Speakerman]

I spend 3 dollars on the hydro...I'm not going to expect it to be that accurate. I will get a refacto when I get some money.

I don't have access to RO water so I have to use treated tap water. I realize this may give me some problems with algea. I also used pool filter sand...which may also give me a problem with algea and present a semi inhabitable place for sand dwellers and cleaners...

This is my first tank...and don't expect to get everything right. I'm not too encredibly worried about it to be honest.

The best any of you can do is help me in the right direction with the equipment I have.

Yes I realize I can't put that many fish in a saltwater tank. Instead of 1" per gallon which is actually a bit much...it's more like 5-6" per gallon and that is also pushing it.

I'm planning on only putting a couple fish in the tank and build a reef.

 

[Speakerman]

Well I finally got a couple peices of LR. I got the only two peices I liked at PetCo and I'm supposed to be getting a the rest tonight from a buddy in town.

Here is a pretty good pic, the large peice has some pretty coraline growing on it and actually I think has some form of coral on it.

Can anybody tell me what type of coral it is? It can't be anything too cool because it was actually turned facing the sand, so it wasn't getting much light.

 

[hc8719]

I don't have access to RO water so I have to use treated tap water. I realize this may give me some problems with algea. I also used pool filter sand...which may also give me a problem with algea and present a semi inhabitable place for sand dwellers and cleaners...

hold up? im not quite a saltie yet, but i too recently found out about RO water. is this a must? or can i just use my "PURE" water filter from the sink. or even dechlor water. i dont mind a bit of algae.

 

[Speakerman]

Tap water is suposed to have a lot of silicate in it. Which is why most people don't prefer to use it. Diatoms are known to show up much stronger when tap water is used.

This goes the same with pool filter sand. It's a silicate sand I think. Again Diatoms like silicate.

Thats my take on it...

 

[hc8719]

ive never gotten diatoms in my fw tanks, are they more popular when salt is in the water? otherwise it would save me alot of money not buying a RO machine. but it sounds too good to be true, can an experienced saltie back this up? i'd appreciate it

 

[Guest]

background

Speakerman can I make a suggestion? I am also building a reef. I painted the back black. When you have real corals a fake background kind of takes away from the corals. I know it is you tank but I just wanted to see what you liked.

Also pool filter sand is not really a good idea. I think you know that. I would take it out now because it will be much more difficult later. An established sandbed is important so you should really think about that.

And keep in mind what people advised about the hood. You need area for gas exchange or your PH will be to low.

Here is what my 30 looks like on week 3 with the black backgound and about 50 lbs of LR.

EDIT: I just read that you put filter media from your freshwater tank? This is not a good idea either just so you know. Take it out and let the bacteria establish. IMO anyway

 

[angelscrx]

Too much crap gets in the tank from tap water. chlorine is used among other nasty chemicals to (so call) treat water at water stations and then travel miles of old pipes to get to your sink. PURE filters clean the water good enough to drink but think about it; a pure filter has one stage of media, even the smallest RO/DI unit has three stages. How much cleaner do you think the RO/DI water is? I would not even consider starting a new tank now without an RO/DI unit. I would want any new inhabitants to go into an environment that will stress them the least. Think about all they have gone through already to get to your tank?

 

[Speakerman]

Re: background

Speakerman can I make a suggestion? I am also building a reef. I painted the back black. When you have real corals a fake background kind of takes away from the corals. I know it is you tank but I just wanted to see what you liked.

Also pool filter sand is not really a good idea. I think you know that. I would take it out now because it will be much more difficult later. An established sandbed is important so you should really think about that.

And keep in mind what people advised about the hood. You need area for gas exchange or your PH will be to low.

Here is what my 30 looks like on week 3 with the black backgound and about 50 lbs of LR.

Thanks for the suggestions bro. Don't think that I'm just blowing them off. I'm doing this tank this way for a reason. If it turns out that a year from now I have a succesful tank that didn't give me any problems... We will all know it is possible.

I've got a 150 gallon tank bro...I'm setting that one up next. When I do THAT one...Everything is going to be perfect. This tank however is kind of a test to see where this is going to take me.

As for the background. I like it.

I'm a stubborn Texan lol.

 

[hc8719]

thanks angel

and sorry speakerman, i kinda got another question going on your thread, i'll let you go back to you

 

[SeeDemTails]

Good luck with your tank.....

I hate to say it but you are doing a lot of things wrong, and I doubt you will enjoy dealing with these easily corrected problems now.

3 serious problems I see right now:

You are using the wrong type of same and that will cause PH issues and issues with keeping certain types of animals.....

You do not have enough flow, and I would not trust cheap equipment from petco. What if one of those cheap PH's breaks and you loose a bunch of flow or worse over heats from breaking and kills your tank.....

You are using tap water and you will have a ton of probelms with nusience algae....this is not like freshwater, this stuff will take over you tank and make it unsightly....

This is an expensive hobby.....If you dont plan on doing things right you might as well give up for your wallets sake and the sake of your future livestock.

I am not trying to bash on you, just trying to help you avoid the same costley lessons I have learned in the past.....

Good luck with your tank....I would take the reccomendations you get here very seriously and always consult these guys before you buy anything for your tank!

PS...I forgot to tell you, you can calibrate your hydro by marking where is shows with sea water or water that you know for a fact is 1.025.

 

[Speakerman]

As for the sand I have about half silicate and half aragonite sand. The silicate is pool filter sand and the aragonite is sand out of the tanks at the LFS.

I have plenty of flow, I've got an xP1, the skimmer, and I've got an aquaclear 70 PH. Ever since I've put it in there I've started seeing dunes forming.

My tap water could or could not have a problem with algea. We will see. That just has to do with where I am located and what is in the water.

This isn't that expensive of a hobby. It's more fun than anything.

Allready checked the hydro. Reads perfect.

Angelscrx was saying that tap water has too much chlorine in the water and thats why its not good...Well chlorine is probobly the least imported additive to the water. Silicate in tap water is what causes algea growth. Chlorine and chloramine can be dealt with rather simply.

Anywho, I will get an RO unit in the future when I set up my big tank. No biggy.

Mike your tank looks awesome btw.

 

[austinsdad]

calibrate your hydro by marking where is shows with sea water or water that you know for a fact is 1.025

Calibrate with distilled water and set at zero.

 

[Speakerman]

Sweet I got a couple more peices of fully cured LR with all kinds of live on them.

I will get some more pics when I have completed getting all the rock I want...And maybe when the cycle finishes.

EDIT: Here are some pics of the rocks I just got about 2 hours ago. The lady I got them from gave me a couple frags to experiment with also.

 

[Speakerman]

well my ammonia is still 1.0 nitrite 0 and nitrate 0...........so I guess I'm a long ways off...I'll update again in 2-4 days or so.

 

[roka64]

Looking pretty good.

 

[Speakerman]

Thank you, I'm trying to set up a fuge right now...I'd get pics of that next...it's so cramped under there....no room for anything else whatsoever

 

[clubsuperduty]

Dude that looks awesome man. Ill deff have to come by and check it out. How long ago did you start the cycle?

 

[clubsuperduty]

Well that little power head I got crapped out on me...lol...I'm so mad...

I've bought so much stuff from Petsmart and never had any problem...but I've bought stuff from petco and pretty much 50% or more of the stuff has broken within just a couple days.

Stick with the petsmart on univ it sucks they dont sell sw fish but take any add in there online and they will beat it I got two emperor 280s for 20.00 a piece. and a whisper 100 aerator for 10.00 and he trew in free tubing I know its only 2.00 for tubing but hey they will really help you out if you roll in there once a week. lol i am really liking the tank

 

[Speakerman]

EDIT: hey Alex you can come check it out tonight if you want. I think I am going to go get some stuff from Home Depot and start building the new hood for it and get the tops made for the overflow box and the sump. We can build a hood for your tank too if you want.


Aight well here is a new pic i just took. I got quite a bit more live rock, and I also set up my sump.

Right now it has 1400 gph flow. Thats a turn over rate of about 33.3 times per hour. Which issn't too bad I don't believe.

I put some big packets of carbon in the sump. I'm going to leave them there for a couple days to try and remove some of the chemicals from the water. It cleared up a lot in the last 2 days.

 

[roka64]

I could be wrong, but I think you might need the water to go through the carbon, for it to filter properly. What kind of chemicals are in your water?