I'm in the waiting phase of cycling my new tank so I've had plenty of time to read through this great forum. Its apparent to me now I've made some early mistakes mostly due to old FW habbits and the fact that my years of aquarium experience lead me into a false sense of security on some things. So here are the mistakes I believe have occured and I'm hoping maybe this community can help me nip some things in the bud before the become a problem down the road.
First the tap water issue. I have no idea why I went this route. My original plan was boxed sea water or at the very least distilled or de-ionized water. All I remember thinking was hell I've set up a ton of tanks including a 55 gal saltwater (non-reef) and they were all just fine. So I went for it. Oops. So from what I can tell so far the biggest threat will be an algae bloom at some point durring my cycle due to phosphates in the tap water. So should I do anything to premptively strike on this and what else might I expect from this mistake. Also will doing water changes with ro/di water eventualy work this out.
Second was the decision to use dry rock. I did a lot of research before setting this tank up and I'll be honest most of the horor stories I read about live rock regarding hitch hikers, aiptasia etc. made me not want to deal with it. So how bad a decision was this and is it only going to slow things down for me or might there be other issues arise from this?
Third is filtration. We looked at so many options before buying the set up we have. It all started with a Coralife Biocube 29 and came down finally to a reef ready rimless 60 gal cube and the 37 gal standard column tank we ended up purchasing. We wanted to start small and the 60 gal while beautiful seemed more than what we wanted right now. So we decided to stay with a nano reef. Originaly we looked at a fluval HOB filter and then the Aquatop canister. We were told both would accomplish the same objective with regard to mechanical filtration. The canister was larger and fitered more water faster and it wasn't much more than the HOB so we went the canister route. So besides the risk of this thing beeoming a nitrate factory if not cleaned often enough what else might I expect with this method of filtration?
Lastly no skimmer right now but I can always add one later. Wouldnt call this a mistake just wondering how I will know if I need one and how it will help my smaller system. Well there it is. We really just wanted to start with a small manageable nano reef for our bedroom. Thats kind of what started this whole thing.
First the tap water issue. I have no idea why I went this route. My original plan was boxed sea water or at the very least distilled or de-ionized water. All I remember thinking was hell I've set up a ton of tanks including a 55 gal saltwater (non-reef) and they were all just fine. So I went for it. Oops. So from what I can tell so far the biggest threat will be an algae bloom at some point durring my cycle due to phosphates in the tap water. So should I do anything to premptively strike on this and what else might I expect from this mistake. Also will doing water changes with ro/di water eventualy work this out.
Second was the decision to use dry rock. I did a lot of research before setting this tank up and I'll be honest most of the horor stories I read about live rock regarding hitch hikers, aiptasia etc. made me not want to deal with it. So how bad a decision was this and is it only going to slow things down for me or might there be other issues arise from this?
Third is filtration. We looked at so many options before buying the set up we have. It all started with a Coralife Biocube 29 and came down finally to a reef ready rimless 60 gal cube and the 37 gal standard column tank we ended up purchasing. We wanted to start small and the 60 gal while beautiful seemed more than what we wanted right now. So we decided to stay with a nano reef. Originaly we looked at a fluval HOB filter and then the Aquatop canister. We were told both would accomplish the same objective with regard to mechanical filtration. The canister was larger and fitered more water faster and it wasn't much more than the HOB so we went the canister route. So besides the risk of this thing beeoming a nitrate factory if not cleaned often enough what else might I expect with this method of filtration?
Lastly no skimmer right now but I can always add one later. Wouldnt call this a mistake just wondering how I will know if I need one and how it will help my smaller system. Well there it is. We really just wanted to start with a small manageable nano reef for our bedroom. Thats kind of what started this whole thing.
What are you using for lighting?
