vikinglord13
New member
First, I'd like to say to the mods, if there's another thread like this I apologize. I did a few searches and couldn't find anything.
Second, I'm technically a beginner since I started my first reef a few months ago. That said, I intend for this thread to be for general tips for people with no experience. I'll try to post by category.
Planning:
For those of you interested in joining this hobby, the first and foremost important thing for you to do is plan. There is a plethora of different categories that apply to our tanks. The first decisions I think are important are how big you want your tank, what kind (live rock vs. artificial), how much money you are willing to put into the tank, and what kind of bottom.
Tank Size:
Theoretically, beginners can start with any size they want. However, unless you have the money to insure a potential tank crash, I highly suggest you start small. I have learned so much these past few months, I am thankful I started small rather than going large (I have a 29g Coralife Biocube – 29G CBC). If you want to go large, I highly suggest you do more in-depth research (especially by going to the Large Reefs forum here... there is loads of information there. Again, I can't emphasize how advantageous it is to start small. First, you won't spend a lot of money, you won't potentially lose a lot of money, they are great to learn with, and they are fun! :fun4:
Live Rock vs. Artificial:
Hands down, I recommend you choose live rock. It's one of the easiest ways to ensure you have good filtration. What better way than going natural? Both of these articles help explain why the bacteria living in live rock is so important.
$$ Money $$:
Unless you plan really well, you are going to spend much more money than you think. Repetition is good: You are going to spend more money than you think. Staying small is a simple way of doing this. I've spent approximately $900 to set up my system in total. It can be done cheaper if you buy a used tank or get better deals; however, I would say that's a good estimate for a basic 29G CBC set up. You can get great deals by getting ship-free packages for pre-made clean up crews on various sites. Some website also usually tend to do deals for selling coral and fish (personally I'm a fan of Reefs2go's buy all coral half off sale).
Bottom:
There's a lot of debate as to whether sand, crushed shell substrate, or bare bottom are beneficial. I will leave this one up to you. It all depends on what you want. I have crushed substrate (only because I thought it was sand) and it seems to help with my Calcium levels. I've seen tanks work in all aspects, make sure you do good research to know how best to care for your bottom. I have a deep bed, so I make sure I siphon it every two weeks before I do my water change. That has been helping me with keeping my nitrates down, and I'm sure it is helping keep the harmful gas levels down as well.
Tank Set Up:
This can also be part of your planning stage. Essentially, you want to make sure you will have good water flow for your whole tank. I've read a good changeover rate for your water would be five times per hour. It would be good to have good waterflow around all of your live rock (with it not being up against walls); however, I have seen people have success with their liverock against the back wall (usually because of good filtration). That said how much live rock to get, how many fish (how big really), how many snails, and tank cycling are important topics for this category.
LR amount:
From what I understand, you can never have too much LR! But, what's the point of having so much if your fish can't swim around. An equation I plan on sticking with is about two thirds of your tank's rated volume in pounds of rock. So, my tank is 29G, I have about 20 pounds of LR. I have a friend with a 29G and he has about 10-15 lbs. Essentially, you want to make sure you have enough live rock for the bacteria to grow on.
How Many :fish1:
From the research I've conducted, a good rule of thumb to follow in this category is to judge how many, or big, based off the size of your tank. Generally, your largest fish should drive the tank size: a 5 inch fish would work in a 50 gallon tank. This, of course, depends. Tangs and Wrasse like to swim a lot so they generally need much more than the 1 inch/10 gallon rule. Another general rule of thumb I've seen is your total inches of fish should be less than or equal to your tank size (I like to use water volume for conservation). So, a 100 gallon tank would have a total of 100 inches of fish (I use the mature length of the fish). I go off of water volume in the display tank (DT). So, I have approximately 17 gallons of water in the display, so I am going for a total inches of fish of 17 inches. Note: This can change depending on your filtration methods (which I will get to later). I recommend you start with a couple fish and gradually go up to see what your tank can handle.
How many snails or CUC:
I honestly have no idea if there is a rule for this. It just seems to be a bunch of guessing. I suppose one snail per gallon in the display would do, maybe a similar amount for crabs as well. Just... know that you may have to replace them. Also, a good CUC is a good way of helping keep your tank looking and being clean! They can eat algae and excess food before it dissolves into harmful compounds that your LR bacteria have to work at.
Tank Cycling & Tank Setup
Before I even get to tank cycling I need to talk about how to put things in your tank. First, put in the rock, then the sand, then the water. This will ensure your rock is resting on the tank bottom and it won't shift as your critters sift through your sand. Make sure your rock is supported well! It can be devastating to see tank collapses (thankfully mine only kind of has - easy fix).
Cycling
I couldn't find an actual cycling how-to on here so I'll do my best. Essentially, what you want to do is "grow" your bacteria so it can handle livestock. You put in food, test for ammonia, when it gets to a high level, take the food out... test for nitrite/nitrate... water change... put food in again, continue, continue, continue. Basically, you want your bacteria system to go through the nitrogen cycle well enough that your Ammonia and Nitrite reads zero and your Nitrate ideally stays as close to zero as possible (I aim to keep mine below 20 (I have a liberal view on tank parameters).
Disclaimer: I never actually cycled my tank... I didn't know that was a thing when I started. I just put my rock in the tank, let it sit for two weeks before I put my CUC in there. Then I fed them for two weeks before putting a couple fish/corals in there. That's probably why some of my snails died early on. Although, I still think it was more because I didn't have larger shells available for my hermit crabs. :mad2:
Stocking the Tank
Stocking the tank is pretty simple. As I said earlier, I don't recommend you put everything in there at once as that could overload your bacteria. First, you put your CUC in there, and let them do there thing for awhile. (I went for two weeks, I've seen people go for a week... or they just added everything all at once). Oh, by the way, I was running my lights during the day when I had just live rock. I wanted to get some algae growth and help induce the cycle a bit. ... It also gave my CUC something to munch on when they arrived.
After the CUC I recommend doing only fish. Fish are generally harder than corals so they can tolerate parameter swings much better. If you're the impatient type and insist on getting corals, I suggest adding only soft corals. In general soft corals are hardier than the other types. Some argue they actually absorb nitrates from the water.
After this, place your coral. You can either keep them on their plugs, or glue them onto your rock. Most people place them in one area to see how the coral looks and if it opens up well (we call this being happy). After that they glue it down. Be careful with putting plugs in substrate as some hermit crabs will actually flip them over in search of food. If you end up getting a pistol shrimp... it will do wonders to your sand bed so I don't recommend putting anything in it unless you have it anchored to a good-sized rock below the sand bed.
Parameters:
If you're lazy like I am parameters are going to be annoying for you the first month or so. However, they are rewarding. One can actually get away with not checking them for awhile if they get down a good water change and dosing regimen (I don't recommend that, check your parameters at a minimum once per week).
I recommend you read this article as well as the other related articles for water chemistry. I've learned a lot from this blog and you will too.
One thing you will want to make sure you do is test for calcium and magnesium. These are elements we want to add to our systems. Calcium is used to make Calcium Carbonate (snail shells, crab carapaces, coral skeletons). Magnesium helps prevent calcium carbonate bonding together and forming a precipitate. Both are important to check.
Activated carbon is something to use. I use chemipure for this purpose. From what I understand, activated carbon helps remove a lot of harmful elements from the water.
Filtration:
This is a highly contested topic among reefers. Some say go full out mechanical as much as possible. Some say go fully natural. I prefer a mostly natural method. People have gotten away with no filtration at all (I personally think they're insane... but if it works, it works). There are three different types of filtration: wet-dry sump, refugium/algae scrubber, and skimming.
Wet Dry
I used this one for about three months before I switched to a refugium. Wet-dry sumps are a type of filtration where you water trickles down over bioballs, live rock rubble, or clay. Here aerobic bacteria flourishes which helps with the early stages of the Nitrogen Cycle... but not the final stage of converting Nitrate to Nitrogen gas which then floats out of the system. Some people usually combine this with a lot of live rock in their DT, or they have some in their sump which promotes the growth of anaerobic bacteria.
My biocube came with bioballs so I just decided to go with them. After awhile, I noticed my Nitrates started skyrocketing (up to 80!!!). I'm not sure if it is because of overfeeding or the bioballs, but, I wasn't satisfied. So, I switched to a refugium AND started feeding less.
Refugium
Disclaimer: the primary benefit aquarists get out of having refugiums is a place to grow creatures that would get eaten in the DT, primarily copepods and amphipods.
According to Mrsaltwatertank on youtube you would need a huge refugium and a lot of macroalgae to effectively combat nitrate. I pretty much agree with his philosophy. Unfortunately, the Biocube doesn't have much room, so I don't recommend a refugium unless you want to grow pods (which I do recommend as it increases food source and your biodiversity).
I have some chaetomorpha algae in my refugium and it does help with nitrates a bit... and it provides a nice nest for all the pods. Some people combine a refugium (for pods) with a skimming system.
Algae Scrubber:
The easiest way I can explain this is a net that water flows over and algae grows on. About once a week you scrape the algae off and start over. It is a great way to cheaply, and naturally, get rid of phosphates and nitrates from your water. I plan on adding one of these to my system eventually.
Skimming:
There are two types of skimming that I know of: surface skimming and using a protein skimmer. Surface skimming primarily helps keep a film from forming on the surface. It helps with getting rid of gunk, but not as well as a protein skimmer.
Protein skimmers use bubbles to bring proteins out of their water. Many people have reported not using one for quite some time, then they decide to add one. After seeing all the gunk it removes they decide to never remove it. I think the greatest benefit it has is removing the gunk before it decomposes more, and it helps reduce the need for water changes.
The cons of a protein skimmer is it is expensive and it another piece of equipment you have to maintain and stay on top of. This is primarily why I want to stay with the mostly natural route.
My system
To explain, my "mostly natural" system goes like this, in order by water flow: 1) filter pad 2) chemipure 3) chaeto refugium 4) live rock rubble. I use the filter pad to catch a lot of the floating food in the tank as well as all the random small food particle that are in the water column. I'm considering getting rid of this stage when I upgrade to a much larger system in many many years. I'll probably test it now on this smaller tank to see what the effect is.
Water Changes
This is the last thing I can think of. Water changes are a means to take bad things out of your system, and to replace good things (calcium, magnesium, various other elements). Many people use different techniques. I've seen anywhere from 10% every week to 10% once a couple months. What you can do depends primarily on your filtration system. If you don't have a skimmer or a massive refugium, and nice dosing capabilities you will need to do more water changes. If you have all of those things, you can get away with minimal water changes.
My technique is about 10% every two weeks. I always, always siphon my gravel. I also do it after a lights-off period. Light-off is a short-term solution to control algae growth and cyanobacteria growth in your aquarium. Once a month I turn the lights off in my DT for three days (I have the blue LEDs on at night). Also once a month (two weeks apart) I turn off my refugium light for two nights (I have it going at night to help keep the pH in balance).
Why do I siphon the gravel? Because a lot of detritus can build up there. It doesn't matter how many sand sifters you have, they only go so deep (about an inch, maybe a little more). Again, I have a DSB for more nitrate-reducing bacteria for the nitrogen cycle.
Top Off
By top off I mean replacing your evaporated water with RO/DI water. The philosophy here is when your water evaporates the salt doesn't go with it. This is true to a certain extent. I'm always wiping salt from my lid and the lip of my lid from the evaporated saltwater. However, if you don't replace your evaporated water with RO/DI water AT ALL your salinity will go up. It took me a few months to figure this out, thankfully I noticed before anything bad happened. The water I purchase is at about 1.024, I noticed it went up to 1.027 over the course of a few months. The only explanation was because I didn't top off. Now I do. Yet, because some salt does evaporate, it is important to keep checking your salinity when you do water changes.
RC Mods, again, I apologize if a similar post is elsewhere... I could not find one like this. :hammer: I also apologize for the length, I imagine this is a pretty large post.
To everyone who read the whole thing, I hope it helps! If you have any questions, just post below and I'll answer to the best of my knowledge. I joined the RC community because of how helpful everyone on here is. I'm glad to be a part of this group :bounce3:
Happy reefing!
-vl
*Edit*
I recommend you read some of the blogs on this forum. They can be extremely helpful and insightful.
Second, I'm technically a beginner since I started my first reef a few months ago. That said, I intend for this thread to be for general tips for people with no experience. I'll try to post by category.
Planning:
For those of you interested in joining this hobby, the first and foremost important thing for you to do is plan. There is a plethora of different categories that apply to our tanks. The first decisions I think are important are how big you want your tank, what kind (live rock vs. artificial), how much money you are willing to put into the tank, and what kind of bottom.
Tank Size:
Theoretically, beginners can start with any size they want. However, unless you have the money to insure a potential tank crash, I highly suggest you start small. I have learned so much these past few months, I am thankful I started small rather than going large (I have a 29g Coralife Biocube – 29G CBC). If you want to go large, I highly suggest you do more in-depth research (especially by going to the Large Reefs forum here... there is loads of information there. Again, I can't emphasize how advantageous it is to start small. First, you won't spend a lot of money, you won't potentially lose a lot of money, they are great to learn with, and they are fun! :fun4:
Live Rock vs. Artificial:
Hands down, I recommend you choose live rock. It's one of the easiest ways to ensure you have good filtration. What better way than going natural? Both of these articles help explain why the bacteria living in live rock is so important.
$$ Money $$:
Unless you plan really well, you are going to spend much more money than you think. Repetition is good: You are going to spend more money than you think. Staying small is a simple way of doing this. I've spent approximately $900 to set up my system in total. It can be done cheaper if you buy a used tank or get better deals; however, I would say that's a good estimate for a basic 29G CBC set up. You can get great deals by getting ship-free packages for pre-made clean up crews on various sites. Some website also usually tend to do deals for selling coral and fish (personally I'm a fan of Reefs2go's buy all coral half off sale).
Bottom:
There's a lot of debate as to whether sand, crushed shell substrate, or bare bottom are beneficial. I will leave this one up to you. It all depends on what you want. I have crushed substrate (only because I thought it was sand) and it seems to help with my Calcium levels. I've seen tanks work in all aspects, make sure you do good research to know how best to care for your bottom. I have a deep bed, so I make sure I siphon it every two weeks before I do my water change. That has been helping me with keeping my nitrates down, and I'm sure it is helping keep the harmful gas levels down as well.
Tank Set Up:
This can also be part of your planning stage. Essentially, you want to make sure you will have good water flow for your whole tank. I've read a good changeover rate for your water would be five times per hour. It would be good to have good waterflow around all of your live rock (with it not being up against walls); however, I have seen people have success with their liverock against the back wall (usually because of good filtration). That said how much live rock to get, how many fish (how big really), how many snails, and tank cycling are important topics for this category.
LR amount:
From what I understand, you can never have too much LR! But, what's the point of having so much if your fish can't swim around. An equation I plan on sticking with is about two thirds of your tank's rated volume in pounds of rock. So, my tank is 29G, I have about 20 pounds of LR. I have a friend with a 29G and he has about 10-15 lbs. Essentially, you want to make sure you have enough live rock for the bacteria to grow on.
How Many :fish1:
From the research I've conducted, a good rule of thumb to follow in this category is to judge how many, or big, based off the size of your tank. Generally, your largest fish should drive the tank size: a 5 inch fish would work in a 50 gallon tank. This, of course, depends. Tangs and Wrasse like to swim a lot so they generally need much more than the 1 inch/10 gallon rule. Another general rule of thumb I've seen is your total inches of fish should be less than or equal to your tank size (I like to use water volume for conservation). So, a 100 gallon tank would have a total of 100 inches of fish (I use the mature length of the fish). I go off of water volume in the display tank (DT). So, I have approximately 17 gallons of water in the display, so I am going for a total inches of fish of 17 inches. Note: This can change depending on your filtration methods (which I will get to later). I recommend you start with a couple fish and gradually go up to see what your tank can handle.
How many snails or CUC:
I honestly have no idea if there is a rule for this. It just seems to be a bunch of guessing. I suppose one snail per gallon in the display would do, maybe a similar amount for crabs as well. Just... know that you may have to replace them. Also, a good CUC is a good way of helping keep your tank looking and being clean! They can eat algae and excess food before it dissolves into harmful compounds that your LR bacteria have to work at.
Tank Cycling & Tank Setup
Before I even get to tank cycling I need to talk about how to put things in your tank. First, put in the rock, then the sand, then the water. This will ensure your rock is resting on the tank bottom and it won't shift as your critters sift through your sand. Make sure your rock is supported well! It can be devastating to see tank collapses (thankfully mine only kind of has - easy fix).
Cycling
I couldn't find an actual cycling how-to on here so I'll do my best. Essentially, what you want to do is "grow" your bacteria so it can handle livestock. You put in food, test for ammonia, when it gets to a high level, take the food out... test for nitrite/nitrate... water change... put food in again, continue, continue, continue. Basically, you want your bacteria system to go through the nitrogen cycle well enough that your Ammonia and Nitrite reads zero and your Nitrate ideally stays as close to zero as possible (I aim to keep mine below 20 (I have a liberal view on tank parameters).
Disclaimer: I never actually cycled my tank... I didn't know that was a thing when I started. I just put my rock in the tank, let it sit for two weeks before I put my CUC in there. Then I fed them for two weeks before putting a couple fish/corals in there. That's probably why some of my snails died early on. Although, I still think it was more because I didn't have larger shells available for my hermit crabs. :mad2:
Stocking the Tank
Stocking the tank is pretty simple. As I said earlier, I don't recommend you put everything in there at once as that could overload your bacteria. First, you put your CUC in there, and let them do there thing for awhile. (I went for two weeks, I've seen people go for a week... or they just added everything all at once). Oh, by the way, I was running my lights during the day when I had just live rock. I wanted to get some algae growth and help induce the cycle a bit. ... It also gave my CUC something to munch on when they arrived.
After the CUC I recommend doing only fish. Fish are generally harder than corals so they can tolerate parameter swings much better. If you're the impatient type and insist on getting corals, I suggest adding only soft corals. In general soft corals are hardier than the other types. Some argue they actually absorb nitrates from the water.
After this, place your coral. You can either keep them on their plugs, or glue them onto your rock. Most people place them in one area to see how the coral looks and if it opens up well (we call this being happy). After that they glue it down. Be careful with putting plugs in substrate as some hermit crabs will actually flip them over in search of food. If you end up getting a pistol shrimp... it will do wonders to your sand bed so I don't recommend putting anything in it unless you have it anchored to a good-sized rock below the sand bed.
Parameters:
If you're lazy like I am parameters are going to be annoying for you the first month or so. However, they are rewarding. One can actually get away with not checking them for awhile if they get down a good water change and dosing regimen (I don't recommend that, check your parameters at a minimum once per week).
I recommend you read this article as well as the other related articles for water chemistry. I've learned a lot from this blog and you will too.
One thing you will want to make sure you do is test for calcium and magnesium. These are elements we want to add to our systems. Calcium is used to make Calcium Carbonate (snail shells, crab carapaces, coral skeletons). Magnesium helps prevent calcium carbonate bonding together and forming a precipitate. Both are important to check.
Activated carbon is something to use. I use chemipure for this purpose. From what I understand, activated carbon helps remove a lot of harmful elements from the water.
Filtration:
This is a highly contested topic among reefers. Some say go full out mechanical as much as possible. Some say go fully natural. I prefer a mostly natural method. People have gotten away with no filtration at all (I personally think they're insane... but if it works, it works). There are three different types of filtration: wet-dry sump, refugium/algae scrubber, and skimming.
Wet Dry
I used this one for about three months before I switched to a refugium. Wet-dry sumps are a type of filtration where you water trickles down over bioballs, live rock rubble, or clay. Here aerobic bacteria flourishes which helps with the early stages of the Nitrogen Cycle... but not the final stage of converting Nitrate to Nitrogen gas which then floats out of the system. Some people usually combine this with a lot of live rock in their DT, or they have some in their sump which promotes the growth of anaerobic bacteria.
My biocube came with bioballs so I just decided to go with them. After awhile, I noticed my Nitrates started skyrocketing (up to 80!!!). I'm not sure if it is because of overfeeding or the bioballs, but, I wasn't satisfied. So, I switched to a refugium AND started feeding less.
Refugium
Disclaimer: the primary benefit aquarists get out of having refugiums is a place to grow creatures that would get eaten in the DT, primarily copepods and amphipods.
According to Mrsaltwatertank on youtube you would need a huge refugium and a lot of macroalgae to effectively combat nitrate. I pretty much agree with his philosophy. Unfortunately, the Biocube doesn't have much room, so I don't recommend a refugium unless you want to grow pods (which I do recommend as it increases food source and your biodiversity).
I have some chaetomorpha algae in my refugium and it does help with nitrates a bit... and it provides a nice nest for all the pods. Some people combine a refugium (for pods) with a skimming system.
Algae Scrubber:
The easiest way I can explain this is a net that water flows over and algae grows on. About once a week you scrape the algae off and start over. It is a great way to cheaply, and naturally, get rid of phosphates and nitrates from your water. I plan on adding one of these to my system eventually.
Skimming:
There are two types of skimming that I know of: surface skimming and using a protein skimmer. Surface skimming primarily helps keep a film from forming on the surface. It helps with getting rid of gunk, but not as well as a protein skimmer.
Protein skimmers use bubbles to bring proteins out of their water. Many people have reported not using one for quite some time, then they decide to add one. After seeing all the gunk it removes they decide to never remove it. I think the greatest benefit it has is removing the gunk before it decomposes more, and it helps reduce the need for water changes.
The cons of a protein skimmer is it is expensive and it another piece of equipment you have to maintain and stay on top of. This is primarily why I want to stay with the mostly natural route.
My system
To explain, my "mostly natural" system goes like this, in order by water flow: 1) filter pad 2) chemipure 3) chaeto refugium 4) live rock rubble. I use the filter pad to catch a lot of the floating food in the tank as well as all the random small food particle that are in the water column. I'm considering getting rid of this stage when I upgrade to a much larger system in many many years. I'll probably test it now on this smaller tank to see what the effect is.
Water Changes
This is the last thing I can think of. Water changes are a means to take bad things out of your system, and to replace good things (calcium, magnesium, various other elements). Many people use different techniques. I've seen anywhere from 10% every week to 10% once a couple months. What you can do depends primarily on your filtration system. If you don't have a skimmer or a massive refugium, and nice dosing capabilities you will need to do more water changes. If you have all of those things, you can get away with minimal water changes.
My technique is about 10% every two weeks. I always, always siphon my gravel. I also do it after a lights-off period. Light-off is a short-term solution to control algae growth and cyanobacteria growth in your aquarium. Once a month I turn the lights off in my DT for three days (I have the blue LEDs on at night). Also once a month (two weeks apart) I turn off my refugium light for two nights (I have it going at night to help keep the pH in balance).
Why do I siphon the gravel? Because a lot of detritus can build up there. It doesn't matter how many sand sifters you have, they only go so deep (about an inch, maybe a little more). Again, I have a DSB for more nitrate-reducing bacteria for the nitrogen cycle.
Top Off
By top off I mean replacing your evaporated water with RO/DI water. The philosophy here is when your water evaporates the salt doesn't go with it. This is true to a certain extent. I'm always wiping salt from my lid and the lip of my lid from the evaporated saltwater. However, if you don't replace your evaporated water with RO/DI water AT ALL your salinity will go up. It took me a few months to figure this out, thankfully I noticed before anything bad happened. The water I purchase is at about 1.024, I noticed it went up to 1.027 over the course of a few months. The only explanation was because I didn't top off. Now I do. Yet, because some salt does evaporate, it is important to keep checking your salinity when you do water changes.
RC Mods, again, I apologize if a similar post is elsewhere... I could not find one like this. :hammer: I also apologize for the length, I imagine this is a pretty large post.
To everyone who read the whole thing, I hope it helps! If you have any questions, just post below and I'll answer to the best of my knowledge. I joined the RC community because of how helpful everyone on here is. I'm glad to be a part of this group :bounce3:
Happy reefing!
-vl
*Edit*
I recommend you read some of the blogs on this forum. They can be extremely helpful and insightful.
Last edited:
