Filling up a large tank

jeffreylam1132

jeffreylam1132

New member
I am curious on how people filled up their large tank when starting out. I am in the process of getting a 240g and need some ideas to filled this monster. What's the most easiest and correct way of doing this?

Do I put in the sand and rocks first? If so, then I have to mixed the water with salt first before I put it in the tank, right?

Or do I go ahead and put water in the tank first and mixed it with salt and let it run a few days before putting sand and rocks.

Do you go ahead and run your ro/di line straight to the tank when filling up or do you run it to a 55g barrel first?

One last question, I am having quite a debate on what brand of salt to used. What's the most popular/reliable salt out there.

Can anybody here give me some good ideas and advice. Thanks.
 
I do this...............I fill the tank with water and salt, get it just right as far as SG goes.

I have wet sand (sand thats been stood in old tank watre for 3 weeks to get a bacterial growth established in it).

I have sufficient trash cans to drain tank.

I then drain the tank back down, wash the insides, add the wet sand.....but draining as much water from it as possible. Once thats added I add the base rocks. I then very slowly SPRAY a really fine mist of saltwater over the sand. This helps move sand dust to the tank bottom. (i use a simple garden hose attachemnt for that, on a garden hose with a mag 7 on the other end). The water will rise up through the sand, but most dust will be trapped. I then point the water flow onto the rocks to disperse the flow. that helps keep the dust storm down. As the water rises I add the rock.

the sand storm should be minimal, the saltwater is 24hrs old and the sand is cured......you are off to a good start.

Also, you can get all the filters running almost immediately.

Paul.
 
When setting up my 400, this is what I did.

1. fill tank with regular water to cycle pumps and filters and check for leaks. Fix what needs to be fixed before draining and filling w/ SW.

2. Drain tank and system, including vaccuming out any debri in the system. Shop vac works wonders.

3. Fill system w/ SW. For me it was easy as I use NSW. For those who use ASW, mix salt and water in tank to the S.G. desired.

4. Run system to age water and again one last check for leaks/problems. yea I still found a few.

5. Since my sand had been sitting for a bit, like 6 months, I started pouring my sand in with a full tank. This helpped wash out the sand as it settled on the bottom. Big sand storm and it stunk but at least the sand was clean.

6. Run tank for a day or two and then drain out all water, discarding it.

7. I had to climb into my tank to set up my rock work.3' tall tank. Put everything in like I wanted it trying to make sure it would not fall down.

8. Refilled tank with new NSW. I used a large powerhead and garden hoes. Let the water spray on the rocks as this will cause little to no stiring of the sand.

9. Run system once full for a few days til it clears up.

10. Slowly add fish and corals and enjoy. The longer you let it run with no fish/inverts, the more of a pod and micro biology you will have in the tank. I let mine run for about a month before adding anything. I'd see pods all over the sand during the day as there were no preaditors for them.
 
Thanks for the info Paul and blown63chevy. I am going to be mixing salt water, so my understanding is that we should filled the tank with water and then mixed with salt. Let it sit for a few days, drain it and then do the same thing again? Why do we need to do that? Wouldn't that waste a lot of water and salt?
 
you keep the water....in rubbermaid trash cans.

You do it this way cos you can find the leaks. It allows the saltwater to mix well and condition itself, plus you will have all the water you need.

I connected my RoDi to tmy tank and ran that for 8 days or so. Also, if you have a sump etc, its a good idea to have it all circulating before hand so you know its all ok.

paul.
 
Man, this is going to be a more difficult task then I have imagine it to be.

Hey blown63chevy, is using NSW better then mixing your own saltwater? What's the pro and con of using NSW and mixing your own? What are the majority of people using?

Back then, I used to only go with NSW but had some bad experience. I have read here on RC that mixing your own water is a better route to take. Therefore, I will go that route and see what happen. Please chime in if you think using NSW is better. Thanks all.
 
I have someone in my area that works with large restaurant and hotel aquariums that can deliver large quantities of premixed salt water for a very low price, approximately $1 a gallon. This way you can get all the water in your tank at one time (usually under a half hour for your volume with a decent trailer pump), mixed properly, aerated, and ready to go. I don't have the patience to wait for 9 or 10 days to get enough r/o water to fill the tank and after salt, city water, and the 6 trash cans its going to take you will probably be saving money doing it this way.
 
btw I have been using Tropic Marin PRO-SALT for a year know and am very happy with the quality of the salt and especially the speed that the salt breaks down in r/o water. This salt is a little low in magnesium for my SPS needs but is easily compensated for by my supplement top of system.
 
yes thats would be nice so that no extra trash can will be in your garage. one less things added to the garage will save alot of space. also with display will any additional sump and etc item needed to be fill to. you can always check my thread out to see how i did it step by step. sand was added first, then rock work was done and once satisfied with the work and check over with the wife water was then added slowly onto the rock making the least amount os splash. will you be having any type of reservoir for backup just in case of emergency use or water change.
 
When I set up my 375, I put the sand in first and then covered it with plastic garbage bags. Let the water run in slow and mixed the salt as I went. I used southdown sand so that is why I used the bags. It cut the "milk" down to a minimum. I wanted the benifit of the calcium content so I did not want to rinse the sand. Still took 5 days to settle in the LR.
 
I've been using NSW for about 4 years now with no problems. I filled my 400G tank with it from the start. I get it from UCSB and usually haul about 250 G at a time in 55G trashcans in the back of the truck. Since switching to NSW on my 45G reef 4 years ago, I noticed that both my corals and fish look a lot better. I know of a ton of people who use it and also have great sucess. A lot of aquariums near the ocean also use it. Why would something man made, ie ASW, be better than what nature has provided and our fish and corals live in, ie NSW? ;)

On a side note, when I got my 400G system, it came with a pair of Naso tangs that the guy had for about 4 years. The male never had a streamer while he had them. After about 2 months of being in the tank at my place with NSW, he grew streamers that are about 4" long. Nothing else changed in the system or food other than the switch to NSW. Coincidence? I don't know for sure but I do beleive that their is something in NSW that can not be replicated in ASW. I've seen my corals and fish react too positivly to NSW from ASW to think otherwise. ;)

I fist filled my tank with regular old tap water just to run the system and check for leaks. No big deal. But you need to fill and run the system w/ ALL equipment on line to make sure everything works the way you want it to. Once it's filled and set up, it's way to hard to tear down and redo something that could have been changed BEFORE you filled it with sand, rocks, fish and corals. ;)

The reason I dumped my first fill of SW was because I basically washed out my sand in it by the way I put the sand in. If you don't do that, then there's no real reason to discard the water. I've heard of people using the bag trick before over the sand and it seems to work. Good luck.
 
Same stuff, same price. ;) FREE!

The UCSB water I beleive is filtered a bit more than the Scripps water but it's still all good water. There's a guy from LA who drives up here all the time to get water. He gets about 600 G at a time. Check the sticky in the top of the So Cal Forum. ;)

There are also pictures in the MASVC club forum of the UCSB setup as we did a tour of the place last year. Very intersting.
 
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