My first saltwater aquarium

[Urka]

Hi there,
I am new to the hobby and new to this forum and just want to introduce my self. I live in Mount Prospect, IL and started building my aquarium in October of this year. I am currently on day 32 of fishless cycle and still waiting for nitrites to come down. Here is the list of equipment I am using for my 75 gallon tank so far: OASE Indoor Aquatics Biomaster Thermo 350 canister filter, icekap 4k gyre, and Fluval Marine reef 3.0 led light. And of course a couple of pictures documenting my journey....

 

[kharmaguru]

Hi there,
I am new to the hobby and new to this forum and just want to introduce my self. I live in Mount Prospect, IL and started building my aquarium in October of this year. I am currently on day 32 of fishless cycle and still waiting for nitrites to come down. Here is the list of equipment I am using for my 75 gallon tank so far: OASE Indoor Aquatics Biomaster Thermo 350 canister filter, icekap 4k gyre, and Fluval Marine reef 3.0 led light. And of course a couple of pictures documenting my journey....View attachment 32393980View attachment 32393981

Looks great! Any thoughts on what livestock you going to add? You can absolutely add some easy corals now if you wanted. No need for a full cycle for corals, just fish.

 

[Urka]

Looks great! Any thoughts on what livestock you going to add? You can absolutely add some easy corals now if you wanted. No need for a full cycle for corals, just fish.

Thanks, I am going to start slow, will add 2 clownfish and 1 fire fish first. Eventually I plan on adding 1 banggai cardinalfish, 1 royal gramma, 1 azure damselfish, 1 watchman goby paired with shrimp, 1 chalk bass, 1 flame Hawkfish, and a centerpiece fish I have not decided on, maybe a wrasse. Not sure if this will be too much for a 75 gallon tank. Once I am done adding the fish I will start adding coral, probably soft and LPS.

 

[kfisc]

Looks great so far. I really like your aquascaping. Good luck!

 

[reefing102]

Looks really good! So far and welcome to RC!

 

[griss]

Welcome to RC. Looking great so far. I will definitely follow your progress.

 

[Urka]

I am finally seeing nitrites going down!!! Will probably buy my first fish the first week of the new year. Would someone recommend their go to LFS? I am in the North West suburb of Chicago but don't mind driving a bit.

 

[Urka]

Please meet my new family members!

 

[griss]

Nice

 

[reefing102]

Looking like some good family

 

[Urka]

We named the fire fish Fiona and the clown pair Hansel and Gretel. You will never guess the theme

 

[reefing102]

We named the fire fish Fiona and the clown pair Hansel and Gretel. You will never guess the theme

 

[Urka]

Just a quick update, I've had Fiona, Hansel and Gretel for a little over a week now. They seem pretty happy. I feed them frozen food, flakes and pellets, although the pellets are too big for Fiona. I check water parameters every day, ammonia 0.05-0.06; Nitrite between 10 and 20, Nitrate between 10 and 12, and phosphate literally off the charts . I am going to wait for the Nitrite and phosphate to come way down before adding another fish.

 

[Urka]

Some pics

 

[griss]

Nice. Are you using GFO to help lower the phosphates? That or the use of Lanthium Chloride can help.

 

[Urka]

Nice. Are you using GFO to help lower the phosphates? That or the use of Lanthium Chloride can help.

I have not researched yet what gfo can be used with my canister filter. For now I am mixing a cap full of phosphat-e with a gallon of rodi and top off the tank every day.

 

[Urka]

Nice. Are you using GFO to help lower the phosphates? That or the use of Lanthium Chloride can help.

I have not researched yet what gfo can be used with my canister filter. For now I am mixing a cap full of phosphat-e with a gallon of rodi and top off the tank every day

 

[Urka]

I have been running a UV light in my outdoor goldfish/koi pond for over 5 years now and it definitely helps with algae control. So I just installed titan 850 uv sterilizer to my setup. Hopefully this is the last piece of equipment I will be adding for a while....... Who am I kidding

 

[griss]

I'm not familiar with Phosphat-e.

If you decide to use GFO, for a canister filer, IMO you'll want to use a coarser grade of GFO than is typically available in the hobby.

This should work. That said, I've never used a canister filter with a marine/reef aquarium. So, the regular grade may work as well but, I'll defer to those who have used GFO in a canister.

 

[Urka]

I'm not familiar with Phosphat-e.

If you decide to use GFO, for a canister filer, IMO you'll want to use a coarser grade of GFO than is typically available in the hobby.

This should work. That said, I've never used a canister filter with a marine/reef aquarium. So, the regular grade may work as well but, I'll defer to those who have used GFO in a canister.

Thanks! I will definitely read up on it. Appreciate you pointing me into the right direction.