Newbie

[mikrobkirk]

Greetings - I live over in Maryville IL. Just put up my first SW tank. Been doing FW for years, and finally "took the plunge" so to speak. The tank is a 90G reef ready, with what I think is about a 20G Schplitter sump. 110 lbs. of LR. 1 inch of live sand that was used in another tank for a couple years. The rock was also several years old and I kept it circulation in plastic drums for a month while I set this thing up. Octopus reef skimmer, in sump, brand new T-5 light fixture. Tank has been running for a week. I must have missed the nitrogen cycle somewhat because I never did see an ammonia spike. I have had a damel fish, 6 LARGE snails, 6 crabs, while cycling. I went to Gateway aquatics to get some chaeto for the small refugium. While there I thought I would try a couple of there small clown's to help with the cycling, since he said that they are pretty hardy, and since all the sand and LR was from an established tank, and I used a bottle of the Start Right bacteria after the second day, I should be fine. I use the API test kits, and the amonia is zero, and the nitites O, but the nitrates went from 40 yesterday, to about 70 today (added the clown's yesterday afternoon), also added a cleaner shrimp, and 6 mushroom frags my wife wanted. I did a 15 Gallon water change today and will check again tomorrow. I do have a situation I could use some guideance on. The system came with a Mag 7 pump, previous owner said he used it for a couple years and it worked fine for him and he even kept corals. He was from St. Louis and a member on here. I bought this off craigslist a month ago and someone may know of him on here. Any way, when I hooked up the pump in sump it would not start up. In the mean time I had a LifeTech aquarium pump 5600 that puts out 2200 Liters per hour which equates to 1450 GPH. It barely fit in the sump section, and has alot of flow. I got the Mag 7 apart cleaned and got it working, and put it back in, but it seems to not have the flow I was expecting. So I put the 1450 back in while cycling. My question is, "Do you think I should leave the big pump in for now or put the mag 7 back in"? I have 2 new style maxi-jet pro's circulating at each end, and have decided to turn the T-5's on for the last 2 days. I am thinking a mag 9.5 would be about the correct flow with about 4' of head pressure. (1 inch supply line to sump / 3/4 inch return). Any help or ideas greatly appreciated - looking forward to metting some of you all someday.:wave:

 

[mkart]

Welcome, I am too new to give you advice on the pump but I am sure someone on here can help. You may try posting the question on the main Reef Central forum. You will no doubt get an answer there.
From the sound of it you are moving right along and just as anxious to fill your tank as I was. I never saw the cycle either but have since added quite a few things with out to many issues. My first tank has been up about 3 months.

 

[Lorenz725]

Welcome and good luck. There is a ton of good info on this sight!

 

[JT3069]

more flow the better

 

[NaCL H2O StL]

Newbie

Welcome to SEASL. hope to see you soon at our last meeting for this year (i think it is going to be a home visit at Nick's, one of the Executive Committee members. We will resume monthly meetings again in September.

 

[chadscamaro]

Most people shoot for 8-10 times turn over in that size range tank and I would replace that big pump as the drains are not normally designed for that much flow nor do sumps really need or want that much flow. Typically your sump/return pump is slower than the water movement your powerheads would provide of say 20-30 times the tank size. You will get all kinds of opinions but normally that size return pump would be considered to big for sure and we would use a mag 7 on a similar install.