My first reef (90g)

[Rikotek]

Hello to anyone who might read this.

I am excited to be starting my first reef aquarium after getting bored with freshwater.

Nothing much to report yet except that basic setup is complete :)
I have been lurking on these forums for a few months picking up very helpful information now and then, but this is a first post!

Equipment:

90g All Glass Aquarium without Sump (for now)

1X Seio M620 Powerhead for general circulation

Ehiem Canister Filter

2X Identical heaters of unknown wattage (but they do the trick)

54 watt (6 bulb) T5 Sun Systems TEK Light (Love it, was going to go Metal Halide but cost and heat were factors)

Unknown brand 6X1watt LED moonlight.
-----


That's it so far. Currently cycling the tank with a 12lbs piece of liverock to get the process started.

I am planning on buying a protien skimmer as soon as I finish buying more liverock (I hear you need roughly 1lb per gallon of saltwater, so its going to be a little while, stuff's expensive :)


Anyway, I don't expect too much in terms of comments, just wanted to say hi, get myself introduced to the forums and have somewhere to point in case someone asks about my tank situation.

Hello, cheers and wish me luck :)

Eric

[Murminator]

Good luck and welcome to the board :mrgreen:

[robzilla]

welcome to canreef :)
keep us posted with progress

[woodcarver]

I find the details and progress of new set ups very informative and interesting ! Keep, the info. coming and if you can post some photo's even better ...............Thanks :)
...................Dave

[muck]

Welcome to the board Eric!!
Sounds like you are off to a good start. The Tek T5 setups are great lights.

[Rikotek]

Wow, thanks for the welcome :)

I have my first (albiet low quality) picture of my tank.
Still clearing out some of the murkiness and just letting the one piece of liverock start the cycle process. Will be buying more rock next month!

http://www.rikotek.com/media/fishtank/tank3.jpg

-Eric

[Rikotek]

Well, the tank has been cycling for about a week now, I decided to take my first batch of measurements to see how things are progressing.

Temperature: 76

Salinity: 1.025 (added some water just now, trying to get it back to 1.023)

pH: 7.5 - I am told that my pH should always be above 8.1 I don't know yet if this is something remedied by the cycling process or if there is some sort of pH adjustment chemical/proceedure I need to use. If anyone knows that would be great!

Ammonia - 0.04 - Looks safe to me. I figured there would be more Ammonia this early in the cycle process but I guess it's going along better than I thought.

Nitrite - 0.0

All in all it looks like the cycling is going well but it is going to take a while longer before I begin to introduce any livestock or anything like that. Picking up some more rock from a coworker who got out of the hobby a while back. I will work on adding that and aquascaping until all of my levels read safe.

-Eric

[BCOrchidGuy]

Wouldn't be a bad idea to measure your Calcium and your Alk, you'd have a better idea of what to do to adjust your pH. Read the chemicals sticky in the Reef section it will explain how to adjust each of your parameters safely. The staff put a lot of work into that stuff to make it easier for us so don't be afraid to use it.

Doug

[Rikotek]

Thanks for the advice BCOrchidGuy!
I didnt know about the chemicals sticky, it IS really useful.
I haven't gotten any test kits for alk or calcium, but the pH did manage to hit 8.5 which is nice.

Now for the bad news. I now have a small outbreak of Green Hair Algae in the tank. I caught it early enough so I am working with it now. Because I have no fish or snails or anything in the tank, I am simply performing regular water changes with store bought R.O water (to keep the phosphates down) and I have disabled my lights. I figure if there is no light for about a week, the GHA can't spread much more and if there are no phosphates to feed on then all the better.

All of my tests for pH, Amonia, Nitrate/Nitrite and Salinity are in the safe areas. I am going to introduce some herbivorous snails in a couple days. They should be able to eat at whatever GHA is left and I will slowly increase my photoperiod over the next week or so. If anyone can recommend a type of snail for this purpose I would really appreciate it.
I hear Turbo snails are good for this but I am not certain.

[mark]

Welcome fellow Edm reefer.

Not to push any one vendor but for inverts (and now more) Neals the guy.

http://216.187.96.54/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=57

[PoonTang]

Well, the tank has been cycling for about a week now, I decided to take my first batch of measurements to see how things are progressing.

Temperature: 76

Salinity: 1.025 (added some water just now, trying to get it back to 1.023)

pH: 7.5 - I am told that my pH should always be above 8.1 I don't know yet if this is something remedied by the cycling process or if there is some sort of pH adjustment chemical/proceedure I need to use. If anyone knows that would be great!

Ammonia - 0.04 - Looks safe to me. I figured there would be more Ammonia this early in the cycle process but I guess it's going along better than I thought.

Nitrite - 0.0

All in all it looks like the cycling is going well but it is going to take a while longer before I begin to introduce any livestock or anything like that. Picking up some more rock from a coworker who got out of the hobby a while back. I will work on adding that and aquascaping until all of my levels read safe.

-Eric
Your ammonia reading will of course read really low because you have nothing that ads ammonia to your tank. You need to add ammonia to your tank to get your cycle started. Also your going to need atleast 1.5 pounds/Gal of LR for your tank. Tank will not be anywhere cycled after 1 week, this is going to take about 2 months. Dont worry about your algea outbreaks, they will come and go naturally as your tank progesses through the cycle.

[Rikotek]

I dodged a bullet yesterday with regards to a protein skimmer purchase.
I don't really need it yet but I have the budget for a cheap one so I figured I would get it out of the way.

I didn't do too much research as this was sort of an impulse buy online while at work but I put in an order for a Seaclone 100. I deciding, after I had placed my order *dumb*, to see what others thought of this model and the results were frightening. Luckily I was able to cancel the order before it shipped.

Does anyone know of a good, preferrably cheap, protien skimmer that I can 'set and forget' somewhat? I was looking at a couple of the AquaC Remora's that everyone seems to like but they are a fair amount more expensive. I will go with it if I have to but that may mean putting it off for a while.

[Dragonsteeth]

When i set up i used a Lee's in tank protein skimmer (needs air pump) for cheapness. It worked fine and did the job. I only upgraded it after 3 years to take my tank to the next level.
If you lived nearer you could have mine.
I only have a 33G tank so i dont know if you can find one for bigger but it might get you going.
Also, better to bite the bullet and get all your uncured live rock in there now so that when the cycle is done you are ready to go. Otherwise you will have to add cured rock at more expense each time unless you add one small piece of uncured each time.
This is the limit of my experience. More experienced auarists could give you better advice.

[Rikotek]

You know, I never even thought about an in tank model skimmer. When I mentioned it to some people over at Big Al's they said that they frequently get a lot of returns on those. I always take their advice with a grain of salt however as some of it has proven to be good but a lot seems to be just very strong personal preference.

I will look and see if I can find an in-tank unit that would work for 90g. That would be preferable as I do not have a sump (yet), and, when I set up my tank, I don't believe I left enough clearance for a HOB model (I only have about 3" from the wall :( live and learn I suppose)

[woodcarver]

keep the log going! Very interesting for us newbies :) :)

[Rikotek]

So last night was a big day, I bought a Remora HOB protien skimmer (it just barely fits behind my tank, damn me and my poor planning). I rinsed it with hot water to reduce the break in period and already it is generating a bit of foam and a tad bit of tea colored water.

Figured this called for a photo update. I swear that one day I will buy a camera to replace my broken one, but for now, its cell phone pictures :|

http://www.rikotek.com/media/fishtank/moonlightsmall.jpg

Haven't done a livestock update post yet, so here is whats in the tank. I don't plan on adding much else for a little while. I am going to let the tank age (and my wallet replenish) for a bit.

4 Clowns
10 Turbo Snails
10 Hermit Crabs
1 Zoo Frag

I put a sofa near the tank and it has become my favorite reading area in the house. I find the sound of the water to be very relaxing and I can just stare into the tank for hours. I can only imagine the effect it will have when it is fully matured with lots of healthy fish and corals :D

[michika]

Looking good!

[BCOrchidGuy]

Not trying to be critical just offering an opinion but you may want to add at least one more power head or a couple of small ones to move water around your rock etc... Any dead spots meaning low or no water flow and you'll see red algae show up. As for your skimmer I had one before and liked it but I added a wooden airstone and a small air pump and I liked it a lot better. If you keep your feedings down, and do water changes you should be fine with the skimmer as is.

Keep us posted as to how things are going.

Doug

[jslaney]

Thanks for posting your setup,

I am one step behind you in setting up my first Salt tank as well. I was thinking about the cycling process too, as I will soon be starting it.

Is it possible to cycle your tank with the lights off? I mean not indefinitely but once your live rock has been in there for three weeks you could then switch them on. It would probably reduce your chances of getting nuisance algae.

Its just rough to have all those nutrients floating around without being able to put in anything to eat the inevitable algae. Lights off mean no algae can grow right? Unfortunately neither can anything else. Might be worth it in the beginning though.

[Rikotek]

Not trying to be critical just offering an opinion but you may want to add at least one more power head or a couple of small ones to move water around your rock etc... Any dead spots meaning low or no water flow and you'll see red algae show up. As for your skimmer I had one before and liked it but I added a wooden airstone and a small air pump and I liked it a lot better. If you keep your feedings down, and do water changes you should be fine with the skimmer as is.


Ah, that explains a lot! I have been noticing a bit of red algae showing up on the far end of the tank. It seems to be spreading a bit but I did not know if it was a bad thing or not (as it has yet to get out of control). Incidentally, that area of the tank is the area that has the least water circulation. I have an additional powerhead that I have been using for mixing new batches of saltwater, I will mount that on the other side of the tank. Perhaps if the currents from both sides of the tank collide somewhere in the middle I can reduce the likleyhood of this algae appearing futher?

As for the skimmer, it seems to be doing just fine so far, but if I run into troubles, I might just have to give your method a try ;)

-Eric

[Rikotek]

Thanks for posting your setup,

Is it possible to cycle your tank with the lights off? I mean not indefinitely but once your live rock has been in there for three weeks you could then switch them on. It would probably reduce your chances of getting nuisance algae.


When I had a breakout of green hair algae, I turned the lights off for 2 weeks (I only had some snails in the tank and whatever was living in the live rock at the time). Over the course of the 3 weeks I hand plucked as much of the algae as I could. Having the lights off greatly reduced the rate of growth and I was able to get it under control :)

-Eric

[Rikotek]

The tank is doing very well now so I figured a quick status update and some photos are in order.

I added another 20 Turbo Snails and I am planning on getting some more corals (maybe some mushrooms too) next month.

All test readings are within safe ranges.

Added a second small powerhead so there is good circulation in the water now. I will replace it with a proper Seio when budget allows.

Trying to control the Red Algae on the rock on the right hand side of the tank. Just plucking some out before every water change.

http://www.rikotek.com/media/fishtank/April1.jpg

http://www.rikotek.com/media/fishtank/April2.jpg