My first saltwater aquarium 75gal

[xavi_west]

Hi my name is Xavier I live in the island of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Sea. I've been working with planted aquariums about 3 years ago.

Here are samples of what I used to do....

I thought why not try something new and on the first of january as a new years resolution I started my first saltwater aquarium.

I've read a couple of books, searching through forums and asking people for information. Right now this is what I got.

Equipment:

75gal main tank
20gal rubermaid LR sort of refugium
Pro Clear Aquatic Systems Sump
2 1 1/4" exits overflow
Resun king 4 main pump
Resun 1200gph powerhead
SWC 150 BMK skimmer
About 120 pounds of dead fiji rock
40 pounds of sand
6 T5HO; 4 6500k, 1 10000k, and one pink

I ordered 2 Koralia evolution 1050gph and still they haven't arrived.

What have I been doing;

Currently I'm running lights 12 hours a day from 11:00am to 11:00pm. Main pump (at slowest speed possible) and powerhead runs 24 hours a day. The skimmer arrived today and I just turned it on submerged in 8.5" of water, kept it full open for now until it breaks (not to sure how that works).

My plans are to add some chaeto in one of the cambers of the sump, and keep cycling the aquarium for two weeks. Currently it's been day 9 and I've allready seen coraline growth on the rocks and some brown nuisance algae I suspect is due to high phosphates...

Rock was dead... only had one piece of live rock in there that wasn't so alive. I did add about 1/2 galon of water from a cycled tank on the 3rd day and one true percula which i know must have been a big mistake but still hes doing fine.

Current salinity is at 1.021 and started measuring temperature yesterday at night 80F and today, at 11:00am at 76F to 77F right now at the time I wrote this.

Well here are some pictures of what I have right now, any recomendations are welcome...


Here you can see the main tank, coraline and the brown algae that took over since yesterday...

This is my filter

Chamber with rock

Some sand and rock, here I'm thinking of adding the Chaetomorpha in the futures and removing the rock

The skimmer

The pump

Water inlet to the tank

 

[xavi_west]

Brown algae and coraline

Still not so brown, showing some coraline

And finally another view

Any suggestions, comments or critics are appreciated. Thanks!

 

[rogermccray]

Looks like a great start, your first tanks look great.

 

[ReeferEric]

Don't worry about coraline growth so much now, it times a bit of time for growth. It's hard to sit back and watch for the cycle to start and finish. Seems like that tank is on the right track, initial growth of brown algae is the start. Add some turbo snails and they will take care of that by the next day. Maybe a chromis or something along that line would help as well.

 

[xavi_west]

Hey guys thanks for the comments.

About the snails, shouldn't I wait until the complete cycle is over, or where exactly do I know things have gotten stable?

 

[Thisseemsfishy]

You can add a CUC much earlier than fish and coral. I would add some snails, maybe some crabs and let it finish the cycle.

 

[rogermccray]

You definitely want to wait until your ammonia and nitrites are down before you add a CUC

 

[xavi_west]

I'll give it a couple of more days and then check parameters and add them.

Here some pics of the Koralias and how the skimmer is doing...

I moved a little the inlet in the skimmer to see if it gets better. Theres kind of like to much brown stuff in the bottom...

 

[nanito]

It is on the right track but I would paint the back of the tank.

 

[rogermccray]

Painting the back black is a good idea, but also consider removing the crushed coral and replacing it with sand. Crushed coral will trap a lot of deitrous which is not a good situation....

 

[xavi_west]

I might think of painting it someday... for now clear it is... for that I have to empty the tank =/

Of the crush coral I didn't know... I'm gonna read some more about it.

Today the aquarium woke up a little cloudy don't know why and this is a picture of my skimming

That stuff is black!

 

[tony53176]

wow that looks nasty

 

[Jandree22]

Your planted tanks were beautiful, especially the last shot.

I'd raise the salinity more in the neighborhood of 1.025, not worry about the brown algae for now (it's just a phase), and paint the back glass Not pressuring, just fyi... if you can reach the back of the tank with a brush in hand, you can get to it with a quart of canned paint even while the tank is filled... preferably low VOC variety. Krylon Fusion you may read about is for plastic, and is no better than anything else on glass.

I personally think this sand looks as suitable as the next, though all sand acts like a detritus trap. Just the nature of the beast. The sights and smells of removing an aged sandbed make skimmate sound down right appetizing. But I digress, you're off to a great start!

 

[1carpenter]

Your planted tanks look awesome and as far as the brown algae it is normal but you might want to ease up on your lights being on so long maybe cut them back to at most 10 hours a day. And i would get some crabs and snails to help with the cleanup, you will probably lose a few of them but a small price to pay for what they do!

 

[psusocr]

Thats not coraline, that looks like cyano( red slime algae) do you have enough flow? you dont want any deadspots whch will help witht he cyano, also cutting the light perod down.

Other than that your on the right track!!

 

[1carpenter]

Maybe add a bag of phosban to the sump that will help clear out the phosphates which are the key ingredient to algae blooms along with long photoperiod(lights).

 

[twelvejewelz]

If you dont want to or cant paint the back atleast put a blue or black backing on, it will make a Huge difference! Yea as psusocr said that isnt coraline it is cyano and it is just a normal part of the cycle. Not sure if you said it but i would add a piece of Live rock just so you get the beneficial critters that will come in it such as pods and what not. Off to a good start though!

 

[xavi_west]

Hey!, thanks for the replies hope this one gets to be like the planted ones...

Well I'm gonna try and see what I can find to cover the background besides looking for a clean up crew (road trip to the petshops!)

here's some pics of the rockscape, it looks much better than before... it's a little bit cloudy after scrubing algae from the rocks

Also added some egg crate to this chamber in the sump to add the chaeto

and thought about adding my old spray bar, what do you think about this? it adds a nice slow current along the back of the tank

 

[xavi_west]

...

 

[greech]

Never ran a spray bar but I think the issue with them is marine tanks is salt creep building up and blacking the hole or partially blocking them and salt spray everywhere.

Nice tank!