So several weeks ago I went through the pains of setting up my 125 Gallon NOW FOWLR but one day to be a full on reef tank. Tank is a 6' All-Glass, with about 110 Lbs Live Rock, and a 1.5 inch live sand/crushed coral base. The tank was used, and had some coraline algae build-up so I left it. The tank is pre-drilled bottom, with 1.25 inch drain lines. The tank drains into a acrylic sump into a tray with several hundred pencil diameter holes which drain into 2 chambers, and the wet/dry configuration, although built for Bio-balls, have been lefty COMPLETELY EMPTY down to the lower portion where it runs to two pumps...One is a Coralife 220 Skimmer (finally got this one running as it should, what a debockle) and the other is the return pump. Back inside the tank, I have 2 x #4 Koralia heads for more water flow.
When I first got the tank, I was given a 5 gallon bucket full of live sand, which I freshwater rinsed thoroughly, killing I am sure any "Liveness" that was in the sand. I also purchased a bag of live sand, and another of crushed coral, and put them inside the tank in that order...I am sure eventually my sand living critters will mix it all up for me. FIRST NOOB MISTAKE!!! I then got tired of waiting for my newly purchased RO/DI unit to fill up 5 gallon buckets so I could pour them into the aquarium, so I inserted the clean water line directly into the tank and let it run all long weekend. In doing so I probably killed everything in my live sand... I got to about 4/5ths of the way full, and couldnt take it any longer so I topped the tanks last 1/5th with tap, and salinated the tank by pouring Instant Ocean in, and stirring it up a bit. I got it to about 1.01 and let it run a few days...hoping to let the sand that fell out and settled to dissolve. Worked! I was now sitting at 1.025. My noobishness filling the tank with fresh water however turned all the beautiful coraline algae in the tank from the purpleish color it was...to gray. OOPS! ;-p
I then added the LR and did my best at a probably awful attempt at some landscaping. 2 of the pieces of LR were about bowling ball sized, ant they were each unique and attractive so they went into the center/right of the tank, and some smaller pieces went around the ends. I then put a 100 micron filter into the tray with the hundreds of holes on the sump, and let it run a few days. The 100 micron filter pad got clogged pretty quick...but it sure did the job at clearing the water in the tank. I had to take it out and rinse it a few times to remove the sediment that it had trapped, and I have since gone to a much more "pourous" filter floss. the drain water flows through the filter floss, and down into the 2 empty chambers where the water runs to the 2 pumps I mentioned earlier.
Checking salinity every day for the next 4 weeks revealed that although I salinated the "wrong way" it worked out for me this time. Next time it will be done outside the aquarium, in 5 gallon pails. I will grab one of the #4 power-heads, and stick it in the bucket overnight to dissolve all the salt, and then take a measurement before it gets poured into the aquarium during water changes. It is probably important to note that I have not done ANY water changes to date.
Last Saturday I purchased a saltwater testing kit and tested my pH, Alkalinity, Ammonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates...and everything seemed great. I never even got any algae during the cycle. My LFS said that the numbers were good, and I was ready to add some CUC and a few fish. I went down to the store, and he set me up with (please excuse my ignorance of what I have) 10 white shelled snails for the glass, 10 smaller snails that kind of half bury themselves in the sand, and 10 hermit crabs.
As for fish, I grabbed 2 Blue Tangs, each about 2" long, 5 4-striped Damsels, and a cleaner shrimp. I got them acclimated to temperature, and in they went. Today is Tuesday, everyone seems happy and healthy. They are eating a small pinch of Omega One which I have ground up a bit from flakes, to more of a black ground pepper sized grind. I do a small pinch, insert my hand into the water a bit so the food does not float immediately down one of the drains, and let the food out into the streams of one of the power-heads. the fish go crazy for about 1-2 mins, and the food is gone. I do this 3 times per day. My shrimp has located himself on the sand, at the front of the tank, and I guess he has determined that's where his cleaning station is going to be, but I havn't seen him get a visitor yet.
My skimmer has seemed to come to life a bit too and is starting to manufacture a nice head of foam at the top of the tube, and is now slowly spilling over into the collection cup. I have it running somewhere between wet and dry...and it seems to be pulling stuff out...its just not dark like some have said theirs is...more tan colored and stinky. Maybe I just don't have enough of a bio-load yet to start pulling out the dark skimmate I keep reading about.
So Tuesday, 3-17-2009 I ran another round of water tests:
Temp 77.4
pH - 8.1
Alkalinity - 1.5
Ammonia - .0136 ( it is probably less than this, but I decided to err on the side of caution when comparing my test tube to the color chart.
Nitrite - .05
Nitrate - 5.0 on the test card...but when charted with my Nitrite reading....its 0
So how do things look? I was planning on doing a 10% water change this weekend, even if the test wasn't showing high levels of anything...Anything else I should be considering at this point? like the low Alkalinity?
Thanks for reading my rediculously long thread, and hope to hear some comments and advice!
CJ
When I first got the tank, I was given a 5 gallon bucket full of live sand, which I freshwater rinsed thoroughly, killing I am sure any "Liveness" that was in the sand. I also purchased a bag of live sand, and another of crushed coral, and put them inside the tank in that order...I am sure eventually my sand living critters will mix it all up for me. FIRST NOOB MISTAKE!!! I then got tired of waiting for my newly purchased RO/DI unit to fill up 5 gallon buckets so I could pour them into the aquarium, so I inserted the clean water line directly into the tank and let it run all long weekend. In doing so I probably killed everything in my live sand... I got to about 4/5ths of the way full, and couldnt take it any longer so I topped the tanks last 1/5th with tap, and salinated the tank by pouring Instant Ocean in, and stirring it up a bit. I got it to about 1.01 and let it run a few days...hoping to let the sand that fell out and settled to dissolve. Worked! I was now sitting at 1.025. My noobishness filling the tank with fresh water however turned all the beautiful coraline algae in the tank from the purpleish color it was...to gray. OOPS! ;-p
I then added the LR and did my best at a probably awful attempt at some landscaping. 2 of the pieces of LR were about bowling ball sized, ant they were each unique and attractive so they went into the center/right of the tank, and some smaller pieces went around the ends. I then put a 100 micron filter into the tray with the hundreds of holes on the sump, and let it run a few days. The 100 micron filter pad got clogged pretty quick...but it sure did the job at clearing the water in the tank. I had to take it out and rinse it a few times to remove the sediment that it had trapped, and I have since gone to a much more "pourous" filter floss. the drain water flows through the filter floss, and down into the 2 empty chambers where the water runs to the 2 pumps I mentioned earlier.
Checking salinity every day for the next 4 weeks revealed that although I salinated the "wrong way" it worked out for me this time. Next time it will be done outside the aquarium, in 5 gallon pails. I will grab one of the #4 power-heads, and stick it in the bucket overnight to dissolve all the salt, and then take a measurement before it gets poured into the aquarium during water changes. It is probably important to note that I have not done ANY water changes to date.
Last Saturday I purchased a saltwater testing kit and tested my pH, Alkalinity, Ammonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates...and everything seemed great. I never even got any algae during the cycle. My LFS said that the numbers were good, and I was ready to add some CUC and a few fish. I went down to the store, and he set me up with (please excuse my ignorance of what I have) 10 white shelled snails for the glass, 10 smaller snails that kind of half bury themselves in the sand, and 10 hermit crabs.
As for fish, I grabbed 2 Blue Tangs, each about 2" long, 5 4-striped Damsels, and a cleaner shrimp. I got them acclimated to temperature, and in they went. Today is Tuesday, everyone seems happy and healthy. They are eating a small pinch of Omega One which I have ground up a bit from flakes, to more of a black ground pepper sized grind. I do a small pinch, insert my hand into the water a bit so the food does not float immediately down one of the drains, and let the food out into the streams of one of the power-heads. the fish go crazy for about 1-2 mins, and the food is gone. I do this 3 times per day. My shrimp has located himself on the sand, at the front of the tank, and I guess he has determined that's where his cleaning station is going to be, but I havn't seen him get a visitor yet.
My skimmer has seemed to come to life a bit too and is starting to manufacture a nice head of foam at the top of the tube, and is now slowly spilling over into the collection cup. I have it running somewhere between wet and dry...and it seems to be pulling stuff out...its just not dark like some have said theirs is...more tan colored and stinky. Maybe I just don't have enough of a bio-load yet to start pulling out the dark skimmate I keep reading about.
So Tuesday, 3-17-2009 I ran another round of water tests:
Temp 77.4
pH - 8.1
Alkalinity - 1.5
Ammonia - .0136 ( it is probably less than this, but I decided to err on the side of caution when comparing my test tube to the color chart.
Nitrite - .05
Nitrate - 5.0 on the test card...but when charted with my Nitrite reading....its 0
So how do things look? I was planning on doing a 10% water change this weekend, even if the test wasn't showing high levels of anything...Anything else I should be considering at this point? like the low Alkalinity?
Thanks for reading my rediculously long thread, and hope to hear some comments and advice!
CJ
