<note thread moved from general reef to the newbie section>
I hope you'll find this unusual start interesting, but also help me out. I'm a total newbie to reefing, but have freshwater plant tank experience so I understand the general concepts of aquarium "ecosystems". Anyway, please give me advice...I know that this is a less than optimal way to get into the hobby I bought a unique ~110g used reef setup 7 days ago after several weeks of reading about them and lurking on RC. The kicker is that the tank came with a beautiful adult blue hippo tang that forced me to get my setup working ASAP...he lived in a rubbermaid tub "dungeon" in my basement while this happened:
I was able to bring some water and liverock from the original owner to help keep him alive for the past week. So, yes I've violated all the RC advice about "take it slow" - but mostly for the tang's sake. As you'll soon see, I've also got corals in my tank on day 1, again not by choice. I definitely won't add any livestock until the tank stabilizes but right now I'm concentrating on keeping everything alive and healthy.
Here is the basic setup
110g tank, custom built for someone else, 51" x 21" interior footprint, 24" depth, pseudo-half hex - there are short 5" panels on each front corner, corner overflow with 1" drain
2x250MH, 14000k w/ 4x54 actinic and moonlight (unknown brand)
Octopus Extreme 200 in basement sump
Sump is 100g rubbermaid with a 20g refugium above it (with Chaetognatha), BlueLine 40 return pump gives ~ 400gph flow
2 150W titanium heaters
The tank is upstairs and is intended to be viewed from two primary directions - the front faces the living room and the left side faces the dining area, which is 2 ft higher. Thus, I'm trying to aquascape a tank that is visually exciting from all viewing angles. The tank's unusual shape gives it an interesting look. Here it is during my freshwater test:
I added some foam/sand/rock backdrops to disguise the overflow and give a sense of verticality to the tank. Unfortunately, the front bottom of the tank leaked so I had to drain it and reseal while the blue tang spent an extra 3 days in the "dungeon". But that gave me time to refine my sump setup a little bit:
Here it is in progress. Unfortunately the drier ventpipe runs directly across my sump but I'm dealing with limited space. The refugium sits on the shelf to the right. I'm currently feeding the refugium from the return flow using one of those three auxiliary spigots that you see. Alas, I discovered that my return pump isn't giving enough flow to keep up with the skimmer and also run the refugium so tomorrow I'm replumbing to feed the refugium from my drain line.
I have this tang that really needs a home so I'm trying to absolutely minimize any cycling by using cured live rock and as much water from the original tank as possible (only about 60g in the end). I arrange to get my liverock from a local reefer who is taking a "break". Turns out this is a major find. He's super nice with incredibly high quality rock that he sells super cheap - basically doing a favor to get a new reefer started. He'd fragged out most of his corals to friends but these rocks are still covered with polyps, montipora, and many others corals that I've yet to learn. Wow, I don't deserve such nice rocks yet but I'll do my best to keep these corals alive. Thus, I have to do all of my aquascaping in the tank full of water. Oh, and did I mention that I transfered the tang into the tank a day prior to get him out of the dungeon?
Here he is going into the tank. He was so freaked out by the "small" gallon ziploc that I didn't even acclimate him. He went straight into the water. Luckily it was all his original tank water that I'd been aerating for the past week so he survived. Regardless, now I'm aquascaping in a full tank with a fish and coral encrusted rocks. I felt so bad whenever a rock fell over...cringing when a coral got squished. But, they'll recover, at least if I can get water parameters under control quickly enough. I found that a snorkle helped a lot! Here is one example of some fantastic polyps:
These polyps opened up soon after the picture and look really great. The colors of the corals are really fantastic, but I must admit that most are much samller than I realized. RC photographers clearly use good macro lenses for their corals! Here is the "final" aquascape. I also built a base under the stand to boost the total height of the tank so that it is easily viewed from the dining area (which higher than the rest of the room). I really like the extra height. I'll try to provide a better pic once the water has cleared:
I've built a large outcrop on the left side with an open area hidden behind. The outcrop bridges to the back wall on one side. The center area will be cleaned up before I add ~1" of sand. There is a small island on the right side. What do you think? My goal was to make it visually interesting, with lots of caves for critters, ledges for corals and good water. Give me feedback because I still have to refine it. Also, any tricks for securing these formations better? I don't really have the acrylic rod option because I don't want to remove the rocks from the tank to drill them. One person suggested moving the formations back a little and provide more spaces for corals. I'll tweak the design tomorrow before adding sand.
So where am I now? Its day one and my water quality is worrisome. At least some die off is inevitable but I hope this isn't a portent of things to come:
SG=1.023 (okay but I'm going to increase it this week to ~1.025)
pH=8.0 (probably should be 8.2ish)
alk=2-2.5
NH3=0-.25ppm (not too bad considering..)
NO2=.1ppm
NO3=5-10ppm (wow is my RedSea test kit hard to read...)
PO3=.5ppm
temp=72F (apparently the thermostats on my heaters don't work well)
Isn't that PO3 crazy high for a new tank? I never tested the original tank's water, but all of water I'm adding is RO/DI with basic instant ocean saltmix. Its been less than 12 hours since the majority of the live rock was added so I have no clue how stable any of these readings will be but I will test again this evening.
Now that the tang has a home I can slow down a little. My main focus now is to keep as many of the corals alive as possible. Let me know any advice that you have. My immediate goals are:
1) 20g water changes daily to get the nitrates and phosphates down
2) adding a GFO reactor for the phosphate
3) increasing internal flow rate
4) stabilizing the rock formations - How stable is stable enough?
5) adding a 1" sand bed to the display tank and a 4"DSB to the refugium
Day 2 update
SG=1.024 (evaporation will increase it by the end of the week)
NH3=0-.25ppm (probably 0, which is a good sign!)
NO2=.1ppm
NO3=0ppm (wow is my RedSea test kit hard to read, but I repeated it twice...)
PO4=1ppm
temp=74.5F (should be to my target of 79 by the end of the day, my heaters' thermostats seem to be set 10 degrees too low!)
Ca=480 ppm
Mg=900 ppm (a little, which I've heard is a problem with instant ocean salt)
Okay, I guess that these look pretty good with the exception of the PO4. I bought the two little fishies reactor yesterday and some PHOSaR. I plan to set up the reactor today. I consider this a bandaid fix that will give me time to figure out why the new tank has such high PO4 - leaching from plastics, die off from the original seawater or liverock? I also plan to look into Mg dosing.
Another major development, I've now got adequate flow in the DT. I made a major purchase yesterday and added a vortech mp40w. It is great for flow. I really love watching the water movement patterns with the pump in reef crest (random flow), but the external motor is surprisingly loud for such a premium piece of equipment. The instructions said that it will take a week to settle in and quietdown, but we'll see. I may consider returning it if the noise doesn't disappear. In any event, I now have somewhere around 4000 to 5000gph flow in the tank! But, it also means that I have to be super frugal with any more purchases for a long, long time. It is all DIY for a while!
Today, I replumb the refugium, setup the PO4 reactor, finalize rock placement, and add ~1 inch of sand to the bottom of the tank. I also need to move a couple of the corals that are high up in the tank and haven't opened up yet because I assume they are being shocked by the light.
Reefers - please give me any advice or criticism. Just remember that I didn't go to LFS and buy corals and fish to put in my tank on day 1!
I hope you'll find this unusual start interesting, but also help me out. I'm a total newbie to reefing, but have freshwater plant tank experience so I understand the general concepts of aquarium "ecosystems". Anyway, please give me advice...I know that this is a less than optimal way to get into the hobby I bought a unique ~110g used reef setup 7 days ago after several weeks of reading about them and lurking on RC. The kicker is that the tank came with a beautiful adult blue hippo tang that forced me to get my setup working ASAP...he lived in a rubbermaid tub "dungeon" in my basement while this happened:
I was able to bring some water and liverock from the original owner to help keep him alive for the past week. So, yes I've violated all the RC advice about "take it slow" - but mostly for the tang's sake. As you'll soon see, I've also got corals in my tank on day 1, again not by choice. I definitely won't add any livestock until the tank stabilizes but right now I'm concentrating on keeping everything alive and healthy.
Here is the basic setup
110g tank, custom built for someone else, 51" x 21" interior footprint, 24" depth, pseudo-half hex - there are short 5" panels on each front corner, corner overflow with 1" drain
2x250MH, 14000k w/ 4x54 actinic and moonlight (unknown brand)
Octopus Extreme 200 in basement sump
Sump is 100g rubbermaid with a 20g refugium above it (with Chaetognatha), BlueLine 40 return pump gives ~ 400gph flow
2 150W titanium heaters
The tank is upstairs and is intended to be viewed from two primary directions - the front faces the living room and the left side faces the dining area, which is 2 ft higher. Thus, I'm trying to aquascape a tank that is visually exciting from all viewing angles. The tank's unusual shape gives it an interesting look. Here it is during my freshwater test:
I added some foam/sand/rock backdrops to disguise the overflow and give a sense of verticality to the tank. Unfortunately, the front bottom of the tank leaked so I had to drain it and reseal while the blue tang spent an extra 3 days in the "dungeon". But that gave me time to refine my sump setup a little bit:
Here it is in progress. Unfortunately the drier ventpipe runs directly across my sump but I'm dealing with limited space. The refugium sits on the shelf to the right. I'm currently feeding the refugium from the return flow using one of those three auxiliary spigots that you see. Alas, I discovered that my return pump isn't giving enough flow to keep up with the skimmer and also run the refugium so tomorrow I'm replumbing to feed the refugium from my drain line.
I have this tang that really needs a home so I'm trying to absolutely minimize any cycling by using cured live rock and as much water from the original tank as possible (only about 60g in the end). I arrange to get my liverock from a local reefer who is taking a "break". Turns out this is a major find. He's super nice with incredibly high quality rock that he sells super cheap - basically doing a favor to get a new reefer started. He'd fragged out most of his corals to friends but these rocks are still covered with polyps, montipora, and many others corals that I've yet to learn. Wow, I don't deserve such nice rocks yet but I'll do my best to keep these corals alive. Thus, I have to do all of my aquascaping in the tank full of water. Oh, and did I mention that I transfered the tang into the tank a day prior to get him out of the dungeon?
Here he is going into the tank. He was so freaked out by the "small" gallon ziploc that I didn't even acclimate him. He went straight into the water. Luckily it was all his original tank water that I'd been aerating for the past week so he survived. Regardless, now I'm aquascaping in a full tank with a fish and coral encrusted rocks. I felt so bad whenever a rock fell over...cringing when a coral got squished. But, they'll recover, at least if I can get water parameters under control quickly enough. I found that a snorkle helped a lot! Here is one example of some fantastic polyps:
These polyps opened up soon after the picture and look really great. The colors of the corals are really fantastic, but I must admit that most are much samller than I realized. RC photographers clearly use good macro lenses for their corals! Here is the "final" aquascape. I also built a base under the stand to boost the total height of the tank so that it is easily viewed from the dining area (which higher than the rest of the room). I really like the extra height. I'll try to provide a better pic once the water has cleared:
I've built a large outcrop on the left side with an open area hidden behind. The outcrop bridges to the back wall on one side. The center area will be cleaned up before I add ~1" of sand. There is a small island on the right side. What do you think? My goal was to make it visually interesting, with lots of caves for critters, ledges for corals and good water. Give me feedback because I still have to refine it. Also, any tricks for securing these formations better? I don't really have the acrylic rod option because I don't want to remove the rocks from the tank to drill them. One person suggested moving the formations back a little and provide more spaces for corals. I'll tweak the design tomorrow before adding sand.
So where am I now? Its day one and my water quality is worrisome. At least some die off is inevitable but I hope this isn't a portent of things to come:
SG=1.023 (okay but I'm going to increase it this week to ~1.025)
pH=8.0 (probably should be 8.2ish)
alk=2-2.5
NH3=0-.25ppm (not too bad considering..)
NO2=.1ppm
NO3=5-10ppm (wow is my RedSea test kit hard to read...)
PO3=.5ppm
temp=72F (apparently the thermostats on my heaters don't work well)
Isn't that PO3 crazy high for a new tank? I never tested the original tank's water, but all of water I'm adding is RO/DI with basic instant ocean saltmix. Its been less than 12 hours since the majority of the live rock was added so I have no clue how stable any of these readings will be but I will test again this evening.
Now that the tang has a home I can slow down a little. My main focus now is to keep as many of the corals alive as possible. Let me know any advice that you have. My immediate goals are:
1) 20g water changes daily to get the nitrates and phosphates down
2) adding a GFO reactor for the phosphate
3) increasing internal flow rate
4) stabilizing the rock formations - How stable is stable enough?
5) adding a 1" sand bed to the display tank and a 4"DSB to the refugium
Day 2 update
SG=1.024 (evaporation will increase it by the end of the week)
NH3=0-.25ppm (probably 0, which is a good sign!)
NO2=.1ppm
NO3=0ppm (wow is my RedSea test kit hard to read, but I repeated it twice...)
PO4=1ppm
temp=74.5F (should be to my target of 79 by the end of the day, my heaters' thermostats seem to be set 10 degrees too low!)
Ca=480 ppm
Mg=900 ppm (a little, which I've heard is a problem with instant ocean salt)
Okay, I guess that these look pretty good with the exception of the PO4. I bought the two little fishies reactor yesterday and some PHOSaR. I plan to set up the reactor today. I consider this a bandaid fix that will give me time to figure out why the new tank has such high PO4 - leaching from plastics, die off from the original seawater or liverock? I also plan to look into Mg dosing.
Another major development, I've now got adequate flow in the DT. I made a major purchase yesterday and added a vortech mp40w. It is great for flow. I really love watching the water movement patterns with the pump in reef crest (random flow), but the external motor is surprisingly loud for such a premium piece of equipment. The instructions said that it will take a week to settle in and quietdown, but we'll see. I may consider returning it if the noise doesn't disappear. In any event, I now have somewhere around 4000 to 5000gph flow in the tank! But, it also means that I have to be super frugal with any more purchases for a long, long time. It is all DIY for a while!
Today, I replumb the refugium, setup the PO4 reactor, finalize rock placement, and add ~1 inch of sand to the bottom of the tank. I also need to move a couple of the corals that are high up in the tank and haven't opened up yet because I assume they are being shocked by the light.
Reefers - please give me any advice or criticism. Just remember that I didn't go to LFS and buy corals and fish to put in my tank on day 1!
