How to set up a Reef Tank...

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Seehag

Premium Member
I am getting ready to start my 125 gallon reef tank. I just ordered the rodi unit. This is my first reef tank and I have been reading now for like 5 month's. I believe I have everything I need to get going...Tank, sump refugium, protien skimmer, closed loop with scwd for changing current. What I have been looking for is a step by step way to set up the tank.. I haven't seen one yet maybe I haven't looked hard enough. So here is what I think I need to do and anyone please add to this. I will be setting this plan in motion next month and will provide pictures as I go.


1. Setup tank and check for leaks
2. Fill tank with rodi water 1-2 days
3. Add salt to correct salinity and allow water to settle and warm up for several day's

4. Add sand and live rock
5. Allow tank to cycle could take a month (no fish or cleaner crew)
6. Add cleaner crew and some fish
7. Add fish slowly...



What I am having a hard time with is do I setup my refugium at the same time as I add the sand and live rock? Do I need to put in the benificail grass and algae in the refugium then also or do I wait.

I may have all this wrong so please let me know...

Art
 
Congrats on the new tank!!

have you read this yet: New Tank Thread

Steps 1 through 7 look good, as far as the fuge goes it wouldn't hurt to set it up now. but I wouldn't put the any macro's in yet as there won't be much in the way of nutruients (unless you fill your tank with tap water).
 
You are on the right track. I agree with reading the new tank thread.

Best advice I can give...GO SLOW. You are less likely to make mistakes and things will be better in the long run.

Good luck
 
Ok I will read that thread I think I have but you know how it goes they all start to look the same. I will also go slow, this has been going on now one piece at a time for like 6 mo's but now I am ready to make the next big step and fill up the tank. I forgot to mention I picked up a tds meter off of ebay to test the ro/di water. I have a lfs that has a good buy on live rock I believe it is the tonga. and I don't plan on putting live sand in just setting up a 2-4 inch bed and then letting the live rock propogate into it.
 
You should read ALL of Waterkeepers threads!, research ALL you can even more on RC, then when you are ready

1 Buy all materials

a RODI unit
b Test kits
c Refractometer
d pumps (sump return or circulation)
e lights
f storage container
g good job
h good other half
i good electris company
j FIND A GOOD LFS (local fish store):mixed:
 
May I add..

Before you decide to do anything..research every step.. Ask alot of questions..do more research, then ask more questions. Adding anything to the system without following this will most likely result in wasted money. 99% of the reefers on RC will tell you how they added before research and made big mistakes.

So far, you are on the right track by asking questions before making decisions. Keep up the good work and please post plenty of pics... :)
 
Well let's see Seehag, if you finished reading all my threads you should be ready to give up my now. :D

You want to go ahead with the refugium but do hold off adding macroalgae until you have the LR through the ammonia part to the cycle. Normally plants like nitrogen but, like over fertilizing a lawn, the high ammonia spikes sometimes seen in the early stages of the cycle may burn it. Nitrites and nitrates won't harm it, in fact it will help it grow, so just wait till ammonia is below 1 ppm for a couple of days.

You didn't mention lighting, it can be a major chunk of change that you spend on your set-up. If you haven't gotten eyestrain already you might also read The Lighting Thread.

Best of luck on your new hobby.
 
Lighting on this tank is a hamilton engineering retro kit. They are mounted about 6 inches from the top of the tank in the cover, they consist of 6 lamps 36" long each, there is 4 6700k and 2 blue they are 96 watt's. I am thinking about getting the 10000k to replace 2 of the 6700. I bought the tank used and the lighting came with it. If all goes well I will be building this tank into the wall and will install metal halide lamps above it, but am hoping this lighting will work for now to get my feet wet. As to the lighting on my refugium I am looking into a compact flourescent nano cube fixture with 10000k lamp.

I read for about an hour last night and will still read more. I anticipate making the final salt and test kit purchases soon and filling the tank in June, we are real busy out here in Ca with camping season coming on strong. I am an electrician by trade so I am trying to get these fancy metal halide can lights that build into your cieling to put over the tank when I install it permanently.

Art
 
Well you do , my young Padawan :D

I'm always glad to see someone that spent the time to see what they are getting into. It seems you are well along your way on that path.

Best of luck.
 
I set up the tank where I thought we were going to put it and the wife say's "I don't like it there....It take's away from the look of the fireplace"... Now this is a gas fireplace that seldom if ever get's used. So I start looking around the house for a new place to put it, the only place that work's is the den. This is atleast 20 feet further away from where the sink that I installed the water filter under, more hose I guess. This spot is in the den and the den is the only room that I did not get painted when we did the house so we could setup the tank...doh!!!! Now I have to paint the den so I can setup the tank in there, move the internet connection and add more power 2 dedicated 20 gfi circuits for the tank.

On another note, I installed the water filter I got from cleandrink on ebay, here is a link to what I got:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=20756&item=4384493663&rd=1

I installed this a week ago and have emptied the tank 4 times plus several glasses of water. without running the di filter I can only get about 74 on the tds meter, tap water runs at 94 I did get a 54 one time but when I checked the next glass it jumped back up to around 74. I haven't contacted them yet because I wanted to see if it got better, maybe I should just wait any ideas? Did I get the wrong filter or should I be testing the di filter I hve never done that.

Art
 
By now you should be seeing water with less than 5 ppm TDS. Recheck the plumbing and it is correct I'd put a call in to the distributor and ask them what goes. You are checking the RO output and not the wastewater line, right? No use in running the DI section until you get the RO right as it would just deplete the DI resin.
 
Yep waterkeeper first thing I did was check the plumbing, all hoses are color coded so pretty clear, even so I tried to follow them all out to there connections. I sent them an email today and got a quick reply they sugessted that my tap water was unusually low in tds at 90ppm. So they suggested I recalibrate the meter, the meter is brand new I have used it like 10 times around the house. They also said that the filter should lower the Tap water tds buy 90% so the way I see it the reading after the filter should be somewhere below 10ppm. I am going to give it some more time to see what happens and they also said it was under warranty and would take care of any problem's.

So far I gotta say these guy's are quick on the reply and also quick to offer a replacement so I gotta recomend them sorta as long as I get the thing working.
 
That is my take on the matter also. RO membranes do have a slight breakin period but usually it is output that suffers, not purity. After the membrane has been flushed it should produce better than 10 ppm TDS. It may be you recieved a unit with a torn membrane. That is fairly common as a major player in RO unit failure.
 
So to keep you guy's up to date, the filter seems to have broken in now my tds without the di stage is 7ppm. The painting of the den is another story and I am currently looking for a free weekend to take care of that. I am so stoked to set this tank up that when I get that weekend I will probably do everything at once. Should have time in the next couple of week's to do the painting, then set up the tank.

Water keeper I read your post's about cleaning the tank. If I used tap water to rinse everything out good do I still need to rinse it with purified water? I dumped all water out of the hoses and pumps.

Also I got some killer built in Metal halide Can can lights from work I think they will fit the 10,000k lamp bases's I need to run to my local lfs and check but these are sweet. They look like a regular recessed can light with full reflector and all, they are installed on the outside's of stores for accent lighting or entrance lighting, the manufacturere say's they are ok for indoor use. To use these though I got to build a different kind of canopy or build them in to a soffet over the tank. Any ideas I might could post a picture or 2...


Art
 
Hi Art,

Glad the RO unit is now doing its job. As far as I know those ballasts should be fine. You do want to make sure which starting method they use (probe or pulse) and buy lamps that use the same start method.
 
Ok another quick update, I got the den painted this weekend and am getting closer allthough I am going to Disneyland in Oct. So I will wait till after that to start the tank. So while I wait I was thinking maybe I should work on a new stand. I know I said earlier that the idea was to build this in to the wall, but my wife is pretty much nixed that idea, and getting to the sump under this tank is going to be a challenge. If I built a new stand I could weld up some steele and hang nice wood on the outside. The tank is 6'x18"x18" and the sump under it is 4"x14"x12" I am in the early stages of desing for this but I would probably integrate a hood into it by bringing the rear supports up to the top. I would also be thinking about one or two large acess doors on the front that allow complete access to the sump. The stand I have now has 3 little doors and no extra space. I was wondering if anyone had any expierance in this and if so any design's they would like to share for ideas. Also if I do make it out of steele should I paint it or galvinize it. I bet galv. would be expensive but last forever.

So just a quick update and my thought's I really can't wait to get going but also don't want to drain the dam thing just to change out the stand.
 
Happy New Year All,


Just to keep you up to date. Ive been avoiding this place like the plague because when I come here I get all worked up about getting the tank going. As I have about a million other thing's going on I just now this weekend got around to starting the new stand. I made drawings and will be posting them soon. I think I am going to go with the Flourescent lights for now and get some of those hanging metal halide set up's the ones that look like a space ship, gotta research that more though. I built the stand out of Unistrut and will sheet the outside with oak or birch. Hopefully this goes fast and I will be ready to fill it up. I figure it is gonna cost another 500 dollars for the stand material, but it is only money.


Seehag
 
Seem's like this is taking forever but I am moving forward slowley with a big payoff at the end....


Seehag
 
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