Reef of Saint Louis

Emmanuel75

Emmanuel75

Member
Hello All,

I am brand new to the reef scene. I have had my tank running for 13 days. Its funny my wife and I have spent more time in front of our tank than anything else these last two weeks. I have a 75 show tank, a 40 gallon Eshopps ADV-300 sump/refugium, Refugium filled with miracle mud. I finally got my Lifereef overflow box running today. I am still running a Marineland canister filter temporarily until, I feel comfortable with my sump taking over the full filtration responsibilities. I am not happy with my current protein skimmer, I'm shopping for one now. I would like to add on a chiller to keep a consistent temperature. I have MH lights running two 150watt bulbs. Not sure what kind of bulbs yet. I have the lights running 8 hrs per day, but I am seeing too wide a temp swing (about 5 degrees) with the lights. I have 105 lbs of live sand, and 40 lbs of live rock, and 10 lbs of base rock.

Both my tank and sump cycled separately, but now that I have linked the two, I plan on about another week to cycle. I am currently seeing 0 for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. Calcium is at 500 ppm, and pH at 8.4. I plan on CUC after verifying consistent numbers.

I was planning on a few LPS eventually going with a starting with soft corals, then moving on to a few LPS.

I have said all that to say I have done a lot of reading, but still not sure if I'm heading in the right path. I don't really know much about aquascaping, so I just organized the rocks the best I knew. I have always appreciated having someone close by that I could rely on for tips and help locally.
 

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Welcome to the hobby! I guess you would need to take a better picture of your tank for me to comment on your aquascaping. But from the looks of your side shot, i would be careful placing large rocks on smaller rocks for fear of them falling later.
 
It looks pretty good to me, but I would be careful about the 2 long rocks up top. If they can wobble, they may end up falling.

What happens is snails like to get under the edge and push their way as deep into the crevices as they can go, looking for food. Unfortunately, if the rocks aren't completely solid, the snail's shell acts like a wedge and off it goes. If you can get the rock to sit on at least 3 points it won't wobble, so if you got that you should be ok.

The flat rocks up top are good for setting corals on, so I would keep them there if I could.

FYI, SEASL is having a meeting/lunch/frag swap tomorrow if you're free. I would definitely recommend getting to know some local reefers, and this would be a great start IMO.
 
Try adding a fan to blow across your water while the halides are on. I am new to this as well but it made a world of difference for me. My swing is only about 1.5 degrees now. Gateway Electronics has them for about $15. You do have to add a power cord though. I have 3 250watt metal halides for reference.
 
@bradleym thanks for the feedback, I knew the smaller of the long rocks was probably pushing it for stability. I'll move that one for sure, but what do you think about using some kind of epoxy on the longer one? I put the longer one there with the intent to put coral on it eventually once the base rock turns live. Any suggestions on where else to move it to where it would make sense?

@mkart I will have to do something, I left for work this morning with the tank at 80.1 degrees and came back home at 9pm with it at 86.4. I did not have the AC on yet, the house was at a steaming 82 degrees, so I think that had a part to play in that. But I'll probably see if I can't pick up a fan or two. One thing I was going to do was find a Y adapter instead of the T that I have on my mag 9.5 return pump. The pump was filling my tank too fast for the overflow, so instead of using the ball valve to dial it down, I decided to T it off and have the extra flow go back into my sump. I'm shopping for a new (used) skimmer so I'm thinking I'll run the extra flow into the skimmer or phosband reactor. Either way a 4-5 degree swing is too much, at least from what I understand. I might have a source for a chiller, but that along with my AC and MH, might run my light bill a little too high :thumbdown

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You can epoxy it into place, that would work. Our meeting last month was all about aquascaping, too bad you missed it lol. There are very cheap and easy to use putty epoxies that would work well for you I think, but IMO it would work best if you took the rocks out, reassembled the stack on the floor, then dried the spots where you want the epoxy with paper towels right before you apply it. The epoxy will set in about 15 minutes and the rest of the rock should still be wet so it won't kill anything growing. Then you just need a helper (if it's heavy or akward) to help you set it carefully back in place.

Option 2 is to drain the tank below the rock's height and do the same thing inside the tank then refill it after 20 minutes. Either way, I've always had better success when the epoxy is touching dry surfaces. Once it starts to set you're good to go.
 
Thanks again for the advice. I wanted to come to the meeting, but I'm working this weekend. Lol, the topic for last meeting would have been perfect for me. I'll work with my rock a little more later on this week. For now, I've got to get a couple fans. Will leaving the tank dark for a day or two hurt anything? I probably won't be able to get to that store till Monday.

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
 
Ok, so I'm in panic mode! I came back home from work, and my AC didn't work at all today. My home was a 92 Degrees! My tank was 90.4 DEGREES! Before I left this morning I reduced my MH lights to just 4 hours thinking that would be enough just in case my place heats up. I normally keep my place at about 73 degrees year round. Will this kill the little bit of good bacteria and live rock and sand I have? Good thing I was being patient and not putting anything in for a while, but I hope this didn't wipe out my system, before I could put anything in. HELP PLEASE!!!??????
 
Agreed, it should be fine. But it will definitely kill most fish and corals, so I would make sure your AC is fixed before you start populating the tank.

P.S. Sorry I didn't reply yesterday. For some reason I never got an email from RC about your post... How's it going today?
 
I had to work again today, but had my brother check in on it. AC won't be fixed till Monday, so I put a couple fans in to help. I'm back down to 86 degrees. I am keeping every thing dark till ac is fixed. Thanks for the response. I really thought I was about to lose everything. I am seriously shopping for a chiller for a peace of mind.

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
 
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