1st tank. Current setup and plans. What else?

[GrantMeThePower]

Hi all.

This is my first tank. I have a 60 gallon acrylic tank. It has about 70 lbs of live rock. Under the tank is a 3 chamber sump. The first chamber is just the intake from the overflow, second chamber is the protein skimmer (seaclone 150) and the third is the return pump.

Under the stand is also a eheim cannister filter and the ballast for my lights.

Lights are made by Hamilton and are 4 x 96W, 2 10K and 2 actinics.

The tank was filled about two and a half months ago. All the rock was already precured. I added some bacteria to start the cycle. The cycle went and i ended up with a TON of nitrates. Had a diatom bloom.

The nitrates were still over 100 so i started doing water changes. I've changed the water 5 times, the first couple were 30 gallon changes, the next three were 15 gallon changes. The nitrates are down to about 20 now.

After joining these boards i realized a couple things keeping my nitrates high and just fixed them this week.

1. I had a filter sock from the previous owner. Didn't know it needed to be changed or cleaned. It was gross. Took it out.
2. Took out all the filter pads between the baffles of the sump.
3. Replaced everything in the cannister filter, which was still running everything from the first guy's set up. It was gross.

I'm now running ChemPure and live rock in the cannister filter.

My protein skimmer removes VERY little skimmate. Really, i only clean it because i think i should. But it doesn't even fill 1/2 way in 3 weeks.

I've since put in some frogspawn (that was about 2.5 weeks ago) a friend gave me and its doing really really well. its beautiful and already seems bigger.

this week I added some mushrooms. they also look great.

i have added calcium so its at 450.

I added iodine

What i want to do is keep seahorses. I know the frogspawn needs to go but for the time being its pretty and i'll give it back to my friend when the time comes.

What i was hoping for was some advice on what to do. Obviously i need to keep changing the water to remove nitrates, but I dont know about feeding coral or anything like that. What do i need to feed them? What should I add next?

i can't add the seahorses until october because of my travel schedule and i know they need to be fed each day, and I will often be gone over weekends until october.

Thank you!

 

[kau_cinta_ku]

I never feed my corals, they eat whatever food they can catch when I feed the fish, and they eat the fish poo.

as for adding iodine, unless your testing for it do not add it. same goes with anything you add to the tank.

why would the frogspawn have to go when you add seahorses?

the seaclone skimmer is a junk skimmer to begin with, but you can ask in the DIY forum for advice on how to make it work better.

 

[GrantMeThePower]

I added the iodine because my LFS told me i needed to add one drop per week for the mushrooms.

I dont have fish so i'm not feeding fish right now, which is why i was thinking i needed to give the corals something

The frogspawn can hurt the seahorses, i thought. I read a tankmates guide and it said to never put frogspawn in with seahorses.

I know now that the seaclone skimmer is junk. I want to upgrade it.

 

[fivesmallworlds]

Yup, upgrade the skimmer is step number 1! I had been previously running a SeaClone 100 on a 29g system and it did practically nothing. I butchered it and used the mj1200 for more flow in my new 75g. I skim a little on the wet side, but my collection cup on my octopus 200 (8" diameter x 6-7" tall) is nearly full every 3-4 days with THE smelliest yuck I've ever seen come out of a tank...

Find out how much room you have in the sump and buy the biggest badest skimmer you can possibly fit!

No need to add iodine. Mushrooms will do fine on their own and don't need any supplement. In fact iodine can have an adverse effect on invertebrates (shrimp etc.) causing them to molt excessively and likely perish.

Keep doing large water changes until you have:
1. Upgraded to an appropriate skimmer
2. Depleted the nitrates

Hope that helps, good luck

 

[StupidsReef]

The canister filter is junk as well. And I'd buy a few more pounds of LR, Not a lot maybe around 30 LBS. And then do what the other poster advised.

And Seahorses need to be feed at least 3 times a day. Your going to need to do some serouis skimmimg as they are messy little eaters too.

 

[GrantMeThePower]

Thanks guys.

I just ordered the MSX 160. I've read good things about that one.

Why is the canister filter junk? I heard Ehiems were good and as long as I keep it clean and change out the carbon often, wouldn't that be good for the nitrate removal?

Edit- and when you say large water changes, is 15 gallons a week ok, or do i need to do more than that?

 

[Sk8r]

Eheims are good---just that, as you found, they can contribute to nitrate problems if running with media. I'll tell you what that Eheim can do: get a 1 micron cartridge and store it in a cool, dry place. The day your tank gets severely mucked up, run that cartridge in the Eheim and you'll see your tank crystal clear in an hour. Don't do it except in emergencies: it takes out copepods as well: but it can save your bacon. But ultimately, as your tank stabilizes, you may want to take it totally out of the loop and store it for an emergency---or a need for quarantine.

6 gallons a week (10%) would be a regular change; 12 g an emergency. Don't do more than that: it can actually make the tank TOO clean.