Anyone in here?

Did a 30 gallon water change today. Nitrates went from off the chart (darker than 160) to 80. I suppose a 50% reduction in nitrates makes sense with a 50% water change.

We did a 30 gallon water change the day we moved the tank to my house and still got nitrates >160. I cannot imagine what they were before. But...he had neglected this tank for some time. It's hard to believe that anything has survived in there.

Today's other results:
pH 8.2
temp 77-79
ammonia 0
nitrites 0
nitrates 80

Any other suggestions? I'm hoping the protein skimmer will be delivered tomorrow. Perhaps that will help. Should I do another 30 gallon water change this weekend?
 
Your corals and fish will love you for giving them clean water to thrive in ;)

Once you have a skimmer and perform routine water changes, you should be in good shape.
 
You can do another 30g in a week or two. I wouldn't do it very often but once a week for a couple of weeks isn't terrible! I've done it.
 
Also, I'd yank that damsel and that tomato clown outta there. Both are mean as snakes and when you start to add other fish, those guys will pester the crud outta them.

I'm biased when it comes to those guys though as I super hate aggressive fish. PLENTY of other people get other very aggressive fish and it ends up fine! I just prefer a more peaceful tank.
 
It's just that...one can only hear so many stories about damsels eating the eyeballs of another fish or pestering another fish to death but you're pretty much done with all damsels, for good.

Everyone ALWAYS says "oh no, MINE is really peaceful" then two months later "yeah, it killed three fish in my tank over the weekend."

Cue *unsurprised* look from Mel.
 
I don't plan on keeping either of those fish....they came with the tank. I haven't given much thought to what kind of fish I'm going to put in there. I've been focused on getting this tank steered in the right direction.

I did put some snails, hermit crabs, a peppermint shrimp, and two ricordea mushrooms in about a month ago. They all seem to be doing okay. In fact, one of the mushrooms is splitting.

My son really wants some kind of puffer....so that could be a possibility.

But I'm not going to put anything in there for a while. Still have a little bit of work to do.
 
Oh yeah, the skimmer arrived today. Collected about a quarter of an inch of nasty looking skimmate after about an hour of use. So it seems to be working okay. Time will tell.
 
chriscrna said:
I don't plan on keeping either of those fish....they came with the tank. I haven't given much thought to what kind of fish I'm going to put in there. I've been focused on getting this tank steered in the right direction.

I did put some snails, hermit crabs, a peppermint shrimp, and two ricordea mushrooms in about a month ago. They all seem to be doing okay. In fact, one of the mushrooms is splitting.

My son really wants some kind of puffer....so that could be a possibility.

But I'm not going to put anything in there for a while. Still have a little bit of work to do.
Click to expand...

Most puffers are not reef safe (they eat inverts and coral).
 
Well that is good to know.

I took the kids to the coral reef today just to look around. (I have a six-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter) My son (who wanted a puffer) now has his heart set on a pair of black ocellaris and a rainbow wrasse.

Being that puffers are not reef safe, I guess that's good news for me. Of course in typical new saltwater owner fashion"¦ I would love to have a pair of clown fish host some sort of anemone.

Keep in mind, I still have quite a bit of work to do to my set up before any of this happens.

So we walked out of the coral reef with four red banded trochas snails and four turbo snails. A big step up from my one lonely turbo snail we already had.
 
A few updates.....

I put my Marcorock Key Largo dry rock through a muriatic acid bath. Probably overkill"¦ But I am in absolutely no hurry doing this tank. Plus, it was a pretty damn fun chemistry experiment. And a couple gallons of muriatic acid from Lowe's was only $15. I tested it out on a little bit of rubble for 20 minutes. I liked the result so I did the entire batch. Ended up keeping the rocks in the acid bath for about 30 minutes. Turned out pretty good. These rocks are very porous.
qaryga5y.jpg


Started work on my sump as well. West Knoxville Glass made me three 9.75 x 10 inch baffles. I put them in tonight. Suppose I'll let them sit for 2 or 3 days.
asa3y5ud.jpg


Got all my plumbing done.

Moved the RO/DI system from under the kitchen sink to the basement. Plus ran RO lines to the kitchen faucet and the refrigerator. The Mrs. is particularly happy about this. I no longer have 32 gallon trash cans sitting in the kitchen.

I am really loving this hobby so far.
 
Running the skimmer all weekend and another 30 gallon water change today. Nitrates 0. Big difference from the >160 I inherited not 2 months ago.

Give me your thoughts on my return.....

puqu7yja.jpg


I'm thinking about putting a spray bar off each tee. Think that would help keep detritus off the rocks and in suspension?

I've got an overpowered return pump for this size tank plus 2 power heads. So I've got more than enough flow. Do you think this would work or should I leave it up top?

Thoughts?
 
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Opinions?
4u8una7a.jpg


Since I've already got two ricordia mushroom polyps, I'm thinking about using one of these two rocks to sit in the front as a mushroom rock.

na3ameza.jpg


abavu9aj.jpg


Lol you guys are probably snoozing through most of my posts. But, it is pretty exciting for me. I'm sure you can remember starting out.
 
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I've read every one of you're posts. It's nice to see someone talking in here again. Keep the updates coming. Any way to get the picture links to work? Maybe it's cause I don't have tapatalk.
 
Yeah I can't see the pics on my laptop either. Like Mel said lots of flow is good, not sure how much power you will get out of spray bars though, they usually dissipate flow. Again I haven't seen them so maybe I'm wrong but I'm guessing you might get better results focusing slow out of each T instead of diffusing it.
hth, Chris
 
I love watching new builds, especially when they are well
thought out.
Like Chris said, spray bars difuse flow, it's best to utilize powerheads.
Keep the updates coming, I'm going to redo my plumbing this weekend, I'm going to install a manifold for a carbon reactor and bio pellet reactor.
 
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