[swansondan]

Hey everyone, I finally bought my tank!

I decided on a 90 gallon tank
Custom Oak 36 inch Tall Stand and Halide Canopy
ASM skimmer G1X
2x250 Watt PFO Metal Halide Lighting with 20,000 K XM bulbs
250 watt heater
40lbs sand
100lbs jakarta live rock
Odyssey 700gph return pump
100 micron filter socks
Glass Versa top ***taking back
Hydrometer ***trading in for a refractometer
Digital Thermometer
Lrg glass mag float

Draining my freshwater tank on Tuesday, setting up my saltwater tank on Wednesday!

[eickhorn]

Great job !

I wish i could have bought a larger tank.
i only had one area to place mine.
So i got a 54 gallon corner tank

[swansondan]

Oh yeah, I forgot.

1 Koralia pump 600gph
1 Koralia pump 400gph

Also planned for the tank

Dan

[jimw369]

Well, now its official! Welcome to this awesome hobby!

Glad to see you took pogodzibs advice and got 2 return pumps.

Keep us posted and PLEASE post lots of pics! We like pics!

[swansondan]

Koralia pump are not really pumps they are more like water movers, they blow water out through them kinda like powerheads.

[msbdiving]

Can we see pics of your progress? Sounds like a lot of potential, nice stuff.

[swansondan]

Yeah I plan on taking pics of the whole process. I have not even picked it all up yet, the stand and the tank would not fit in my truck I am picking the rest up on Tuesday!!!!

[RyanG]

Congrats, can't wait to see you take pictures of all the equipment you got!

[swansondan]

Hi everyone...little worried now. I picked up the rest of the tank equipment on Wednesday. My LFS just recieved new live rock that day and said that was a great time to get it because it was so fresh! So I got it all and rushed home to set it up. I wanted to get the rock in the tank asap so that I could limit die off. I got it all set up at about 3:00am and checked the salinity it was about 1.025..So I put the rock in. Friday I decided to add my live sand. That clouded up the water of course but Saturday it looked ok. Is everything going like it should?

Thanks for you time.

Dan

[jimw369]

Sounds like all is OK. If your rock is uncured (which it sounds like it is) you will probably experience a certain amount of die off anyway. Did I see any power heads in the list of things you bought? (small pumps to move water inside the tank) Ill bet you are excited!
I know I was!

[swansondan]

I am pretty excited, I just hope everything is going as it should. My lights have not come in yet...very unhappy about that, supposed to be here last wed. Anyways I do have 2 Koralia pumps, like them a little better then the powerheads.

Dan

[jimw369]

Yeah, I looked at those pumps today at the lfs. I liked them. I am interested how well they work for you. Some good features the powerheads dont have.

If your tank cycles like mine did you will have some Detritus (die off) collecting on the sand and on your rock. Being new to the hobby this was a great way to play with my powerheads and actually see how the water currents worked in the tank. Good time to experiment a little and start figureing out what critters you want and where they can go related to the water movement.

Good time to start looking at your water temp variations and how you will control that. Some people are lucky I guess and there temp stays within a 2 degree swing all day. My tank with the warm weather outside and a return pump that creates heat can vary up to 6 degrees. I contro; it with 2, 4" box fans mounted inside the canopy(just built) with temp probes on them so they turn on and off when needed.

Now is a great time to experiment a little and learn first hand how the equipment works
and work out any bugs before your critters arrive.

Test Kit yet. Most people will say dont bother testing untill you think you are nearing the end of your cycle. I respectfully disagree. (most of these guys know more than I do!)
While the test results during cycle time are really irrevelant, it is a great time to start and develop a good habit. Say test every 3 days? Its fun to do anyway!(Im abnormal)

Start reading about water chemistry if you havent already (extremely important topic).

I must stop! Hope I havent overstepped my boundries.

Keep us informed. Post pics! We love pics!

[swansondan]

Yeah, that is my plan, lots of experimenting and playing with aquascaping and my koralia's. I have not started testing yet, I figured I would give it a few days and then start on Monday. I have bought some test kits, for ammonia, nitrate, nitrite ph. About the only thing I dont have (I think at least) that I need right now anyhow is a ro/di unit. I am also going to start a temperature log to see if there are any fluctuations.

[blind1993]

nice love to see the pics

[swansondan]

Help!!!!....

I forgot to mention I also got a anenome. It was doing really well at first, but now it is all shriveled up after I did a 20 gallon water change....My new parameters are

ph7.6
Nitrate 30
Nitrite-.3
Ammonia 0
Salainity 1.023


Alkalanity-way over 300!! Don't really know what that means. I mixed new water and I only put in about 5 cups of salt for 23 gallons or so, which is way low...but the sality tested to 1.023....should I add more salt....bringing the ph up?

Help Help Help Help

[dfurbee]

I think your nitrates are too high, and nitrites are suppose to be 0, salinity is fine, pH way to low, you need to use a buffer and raise it to 8.2 or 8.3. Hope this helps.

[jimw369]

Dan,

You need to slow down. Please take it from someone (myself) who lacks patience and has paid the price thru my dead animals. Not a pretty scenario is it? I am ashamed to tell people that about myself but if it can help someone else out, then so be it.

Your tank sounds like its near the end of its cycling process which means you have done a lot of things right to get to this point.

Your anenome could be just holed up for the night or for whatever other reason an anenome might have or it could be dying. If your water parameters were all reading 0 I would say its just the anenome doing its thing but because its so soon to be stocking your tank It could be anything.

Salinity 1.023-1.025 is fine no problems there. Reef tank wants to run around the 1.025 so Ive been told.

Nitrates, Nitrites and Amonia need to be at 0. The fact you are still getting a reading on Nitrites leads me to believe your tank has not completed the cycling process yet. Nitrites are going to 0 and at the same time nitrates are going up. When the nitrates and Amonia are at 0 you are there. However, as I have learned, Your tank is still not stable. I am beginning to believe it takes several months for everything to balance out and be controlable without having these chemical inbalances we are always trying to correct short term.

Do you have a cleaner crew yet? That should be the first thing in your tank after it cycles. If they do well then try a fish. (a cheap hardy one)

Let your tank do its thing, get some cleaners if you dont already have them, then get a cheap fish, and read up on water chemistry. That is what you must try to understand next.
Here is some good reading that has helped me.

Chemistry and the Aquarium
About.com: http://www.aquariacentral.com/articles/calcium.shtml
About.com: http://www.aquariacentral.com/articles/calcium.shtml

[jimw369]

Please dont think the article"calcium for dummies" was directed toward you. It is just an article I saved for myself.

One other thing. If you are doing water changes while your tank is still cycling it will prolong the cycle process. You are removing bacteria that is needed to change those nitrites into nitrates.

Things to really read up on:

Kalkwasser
Calcium
Buffers
Magneseum
Ph

These are all related and have an effect on each other.

[swansondan]

Thanks Jim!


It has been almost 4 weeks now...I had a cleanup crew on order from saltwater fish.com but canceled it becuase I was freaking out....Should I still get it...Here is what I had ordered.

1 x 30-90 Gallon Reef Package Not Shipped yet 0% $99.99
1 x Lettuce Nudibranch Not Shipped yet 0% $4.99
1 x Blueleg Hermit Crab - Group of 10 Not Shipped yet 0% $9.99
1 x Copepods - Group of 200 Not Shipped yet 0% $9.99
1 x Peppermint Shrimp - Group of 5 Not Shipped yet 0% $17.99
1 x Cerith Snail - Group of 10 Not Shipped yet 0% $9.99
1 x Turbo/Astrea Snail - Group of 10 Not Shipped yet 0% $9.99
1 x Purple Urchin - Group of 2 Not Shipped yet 0% $9.99
1 x Brittle Starfish

The reef package included this.
Scarlet Hermit Crab: 20
Blueleg Hermit Crab: 20
Nasssarius Snail: 10
Emerald Crab: 5
Coral Banded Shrimp: 1
Sally Lightfoot Crab: 1
Turbo/Astrea Snail: 20
Cleaner Clam - Limit 2: 2

Should I still get it?

Thanks
Dan

[reefnoob1991]

Slow downnn...your tank is going to go into cardiac arrest if you add this much way to fast.

[swansondan]

What is a good cleanup crew size? My list was a little off...some of that was for a friend..

1 x Blueleg Hermit Crab - Group of 10 Not Shipped yet 0% $9.99
1 x Turbo/Astrea Snail - Group of 10 Not Shipped yet 0% $9.99
1 of the sea urchins was for her as well...

So take the above off the list...still to big?

[reefnoob1991]

It'd be easier just going to the LFS and picking up probably 6 hermit crabs and 2-3 turbo snails for now

[e_baer]

You should add the 6 hermits and 2-3 snails and see how they do. If it seems as though they are doing good, you might wanna slowly add a few more every week. One thing you dont wanan do is add too much too quickly! it will put a huge burden on your natural filtration and your levels will go sky high. I did what you want to do, and TRUST ME! it didint go good at all! once all your levels are steady, you can probably add some hardy fish and see ho they do. I would suggest some chromis's or a hardy goby. are you planning on going reef, or FOWLR?

[swansondan]

Reef for sure...my fish and anenome are not dead yet...they seem to be doing ok at the moment...don't want to lose them...Can I just try and stick it out and get the water levels to what they should be then hang out for awhile?

Thanks
Dan

[reefnoob1991]

You need to get your SG up a little...ideal level is 1.024-1.026