Critique me!

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Blazingreef123

New member
So I posted this because I want to see exactly what all I am doing right, and exactly what all I am doing WRONG. Seriously guys, tell me everything you see wrong, and preferably how to remedy the problem.

PHOTOS HERE: http://i1044.photobucket.com/albums/b441/Blazingreef123/Full tank shot_zpsbnwqp2fx.jpg

Some specs about the tank; 75g DT, 29g sump/refugium. 80lbs rock (besides the purple rock you see in there for seed rock all of it was dry rock). 2 800GPH powerheads, 600w metal halide, 80lbs live sand, 396GPH return pump, small unfortunately not thriving piece of cheato algae (hopefully this will be remedied soon I just ordered a new light to hang over the refugium) and lastly a 300w eheim jager heater.

Thanks in advance for your time!
 
P.S. I purposely didn't clean the glass before taking the pictures because I wanted to know if it was normal that I have to clean my glass about every other day to 3 days just to keep that brown film off of it. I have read a few forums on here which suggest it may be either diatoms or dinoflagellates. I don't know.
 
Rock way to close to glass (left side..possibly back) making cleaning impossible and creating stagnant areas where sufficient flow is difficult..

I'll bet lack of GFCI protection on submerged mains powered equipment..

Inferior drain system (hard to see it all) but I don't see anything to address surface skimming or tuning..

You shop at Petco... ha ha

Clearly you have cyano,etc.. issues.. possibly due to lack of maintenance

No skimmer..

No sure what the HOB filter in the sump is doing..

and WHY.. oh WHY would you run a 600W MH on a tank with only fish/shrimp?
 
A new tank needs time to mature and go through the ugly phases while its becoming its own ecosystem.. So cyano/diatoms/brown-green algae,etc.. are all totally normal and provided you are moving in the right direction they will all pass/subside..
 
Change glass top on DT out for screen. Don't get the HOB filter on the sump at all. Don't understand your overflow. Are you just using pipes? If so get an overflow box. Your flow in the DT is very weak not sure if that's ok for a fish only system but if you plan on corals it's to weak.
 
Last edited:
So rock needs to be moved, will do.

Correct on the GFCI I'm renting currently and I do not want to make any changes to the outlet. This will only be temporary as I just moved.

Ill post a pick of the drain system on photobucket so just snag that link again, its a DIY version of the bean animal overflow. But with no box (yet).

Petco dollar per gallon sales are literally impossible for me to pass up. Especially the 40g breeders.

My maintenance may be lacking, I do 20% water changes every two weeks, and scrub the glass and collect all the algae/diatoms that come off of it with a net and throw it out. I do as much nutrient exporting as I can but most of it seems to stay in the water column. I try and feed sparingly about every other day, switching between spectrum pellets and mysis shrimp.

HOB filter was placed there to collect all the algae I scrubbed off front refugium glass to watch my amphipods and copepods. I forgot to take it off lol.

The plan a few weeks ago was to start slowly accumulating corals and putting them under the 600w but I made the decision a few days ago to address all of my problems and straighten them out on here first before I start purchasing corals and possibly not caring for them correctly. This 600w is probably going to be replaced with a 4 bulb t5HO setup I bought a few months ago with some ATI bulbs. Reason being, I cant find any 600w bulbs for reef tank spectrums.
 
Are you returning the water through one of those 3 pipes? If so move the return to the other side of the tank. You only have two power heads at 800gph your going to need bigger power heads or more.
 
SFish said:
Are you returning the water through one of those 3 pipes? If so move the return to the other side of the tank. You only have two power heads at 800gph your going to need bigger power heads or more.
Click to expand...

No return line is at the left back side of tank, those 3 lines are all drains. okay ill have to get some more powerheads. How many GPH total flow should I be looking at?
 
SFish said:
Change glass top on DT out for screen. Don't get the HOB filter on the sump at all. Don't understand your overflow. Are you just using pipes? If so get an overflow box. Your flow in the DT is very weak not sure if that's ok for a fish only system but if you plan on corals it's to weak.
Click to expand...

I didn't see that you edited this, yes it's the bean animal overflow but since I couldn't get an overflow box at the time I just purchased a few inches of pipe for the tops and drilled tons of holes in each one at the water level I wanted.
 
Definitely need to purchase an in sump skimmer. As for your GFCI it's worth the investment (20$) and extremely easy to install!! Even if you have it done, do it! Safety first.

As for flow I definitely recommend a gyre 130 or 150 but your choice. 130 is most probably enough.

20% every two weeks is good if you have a good skimmer, if not I would do 20% weekly.

As for corals, what salty are you using? What are you Cal, Mg, DK parameters? You need to know these and they need to be stable before you add them.

Welcome to the hobby!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Depends on the type of corals you want to keep. Someone correct me if I'm wrong

Low 20 to 30x

Medium 30 to 40x

High 40 to 100+x

This is total return pump and power heads
 
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Capsle said:
Definitely need to purchase an in sump skimmer. As for your GFCI it's worth the investment (20$) and extremely easy to install!! Even if you have it done, do it! Safety first.

As for flow I definitely recommend a gyre 130 or 150 but your choice. 130 is most probably enough.

20% every two weeks is good if you have a good skimmer, if not I would do 20% weekly.

As for corals, what salty are you using? What are you Cal, Mg, DK parameters? You need to know these and they need to be stable before you add them.

Welcome to the hobby!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

20% weekly definitely doesn't sound fun, so yeah for sure going to get a skimmer. Which speaking of salt I am currently using instant ocean reef crystals. As for current levels of Ca, Mg, and DK, that was another reason I held off on coral. I am currently waiting on my API reefmaster test kit to get here then I'm going to test water every day for about a week and see how the levels drop and raise. Unless you have a different recommendation for test kits. I have Seachem reef builder and Kent marine purple tech that I dose occasionally as per instructions on the bottle. But I am hesitant to dose it anymore before getting the test kit and knowing exactly where the levels are.

Thanks Capsle! Glad to be here, and happy to be learning so much!
 
Blazingreef123 said:
I didn't see that you edited this, yes it's the bean animal overflow but since I couldn't get an overflow box at the time I just purchased a few inches of pipe for the tops and drilled tons of holes in each one at the water level I wanted.
Click to expand...

That's a good over flow once you put the box on you'll be good to go.
 
Blazingreef123 said:
20% weekly definitely doesn't sound fun, so yeah for sure going to get a skimmer. Which speaking of salt I am currently using instant ocean reef crystals. As for current levels of Ca, Mg, and DK, that was another reason I held off on coral. I am currently waiting on my API reefmaster test kit to get here then I'm going to test water every day for about a week and see how the levels drop and raise. Unless you have a different recommendation for test kits. I have Seachem reef builder and Kent marine purple tech that I dose occasionally as per instructions on the bottle. But I am hesitant to dose it anymore before getting the test kit and knowing exactly where the levels are.



Thanks Capsle! Glad to be here, and happy to be learning so much!
Click to expand...



1 major suggestion that everyone here will back me on is DONT DOSE for anything you don't test. So I would hold off on the dosing.

For tests I would recommend Salifert. I think a lot would. If you want to go a bit more pricey then go with Hannah, they're digital. Extremely accurate.

I'm new to the hobby as well, learnt a lot from here. Great community.

Good Luck!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Capsle said:
1 major suggestion that everyone here will back me on is DONT DOSE for anything you don't test. So I would hold off on the dosing.

For tests I would recommend Salifert. I think a lot would. If you want to go a bit more pricey then go with Hannah, they're digital. Extremely accurate.

I'm new to the hobby as well, learnt a lot from here. Great community.

Good Luck!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

what about this one from BRS? http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/red-sea-reef-foundation-pro-multi-test-kit-ca-alk-mg.html
 
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