My first aquarium ever... saltwater....

[aquaanox]

Greetings all..

Honestly, i dont know what ive gotten myself into but after practically living on online forums for the past 2 weeks, and reading reading reading saltwater aquarium books, here is what i have ended up with:

1) 29g tennecor acrylic tank
2) 30 inch coralife aqualight lunar deluxe PC light (2x65). I diconnected the cheapo noisy daylight fan, removed the lower acrylic cover to dissipate the heat, and the light seems to work just fine. doesnt heat up leaving it on for about 7-8 hours a day.
3) Aquac remora with maxijet 1200 pump. I did the paper towel mod to reduce noise, but still getting a lot of micro bubbles.. Hoping they will go away after the break-in period! so far its only been installed for 2 days.
4) Eheim Ecco 2236 canister filter.. btw, why do these external canister filters make that low pitched humming sound ? I dont have a cabinet door on my stand, so when the room is very very quiet at night, it can be a bit irritating. Ive cleaned out the impeller shaft, shook it around and gotten all the air bubbles out, filled up the canister to the top etc etc.. that low hum is still there. Dont get me wrong, its very quiet maybe, ill stick some dynamat around it, and hopefully eliminate the problem.
While i was at it, i also tried a fluval 205 and a rena filstar xp - they all have that hummmm... gonna stick with the eheim for now since its defiantely looks and feels like a higher quality filter.
5) premixed/precanned salt water
6) 25 lbs of live rock, and about 5 lbs of whatever rock
7) i bag of live sand

Tank has been cycling for about 4 days now and i need to get the water tested etc...

any advice? comments on the cannister hum, skimmer bubbles etc ?

~cheers!

 

[melosu58]

Welcome to AA. Great looking tank.

 

[roka64]

WELCOME TO AA!!

That is a nice looking tank. I would suggest the API SW testing kit http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+4345+4452&pcatid=4452 for monitoring your cycle and water parameters. I like the fluvials, but I hear good things about the eheims. I have removed the foam from my canister, if not cleaned regularly, they can be nitrate factories.
So far it looks like you are off to a great start!
Props for doing a fishless cycle!
What are your plans for this tank?

 

[austinsdad]

Looking good and sounds like you did some good research.

I'd get that test kit ASAP. I'd prefer to see the ammonia rise and fall as the nitrites go up. That as opposed to assuming it all happened. That's just me. For instance, I would prefer to know just how high the ammonia might go up. Somehow I feel I know more that way. Not sure why though.

Welcome to AA!!!! Hope to see you around more.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Welcome to AA.

Love the tank. Looks great.

 

[aquaanox]

thanks all... btw after reading some more, it looks like i can ditch the eheim canister filter altogether ?? and basically just use LR, sand and the skimmer for filteration ? this would solve the irritating low frequency hum from the filter that i am not crazy about.

Also, is there a way to make quieten down the maxi jet 1200 vibration (its hooked up to the aquaCremora protien skimmer.

thanks in advance!

 

[Devilishturtles]

You don't need the canister filter at all, nope. You can get by with just LR, Sand, and skimmer. The canister allows for an area to put filter media if you ever need it, such as phosphate reducing media or some activated carbon. You can also achieve the same thing with a hang-on-back style filter though.

Don't know about the vibration with the MJ 1200. Mine seems relatively quiet.

HTH

 

[fijiwigi]

I Personally did not care for the Maxi-Jets all that much. I bought 2 hydor koralia's and 2 maxi-jets and I have 1 oceanrunner pump running my skimmer. The Maxi-jets are mixing saltwater in my mixing tub and thats about it. Never tried one on a skimmer but I love the hydor koralia's I cant hear them at all and the flow is smooth doesn't feel like the tsunami I had from the maxi-jets.And my oceanrunner 2500 pump is totally silent Also http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3579+12320&pcatid=12320 If you get 2 of the biowheel 100 you can keep 1 on your tank using it to store chemical media and 1 on a 10gal Quarantine tank So when you need your QT tank you can just add saltwater to the 10gal and move the biowheel over so the beneficial biological fitration is ready for quarantine.

 

[aquaanox]

i figured out the problem with the vibration and the maxi-jet. The pump was connected directly to the intake on the skimmer; adding some hose made the install cleaner and eliminated the vibration.