The jump from fw to sw
 

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Start off by introducing myself, Im nathan, 24yrs old living in grande prairie. Just decided to start my first sw tank while i was in edmonton at big als on the weekend. So ill be converting my discus grow up tank (25 gallon tall) so far i have everything i need except my hob skimmer which will be a reef octopus classic 100. And live rock which im ordering this week sometime. For a light ill be starting off with a 24" aquasun led ho unit. Only gunna be haveing softys amd beginner type coral that my light is capable of until upgrade. And some kinda smaller fish, my wife wants a nemo haha Any advice on stocking would be greatly appreciated! Thanks :) will update with lots of pics as i get things set up and what not

Not positive on this but I don't think that light will do even for soft coral

It will lol i talked to someone that uses it, said something about no zoas or anything tho

You should try a cheap t5 light instead. It sucks when coral don't do well and you get discouraged. Or just go slow and see what happens I guess

Ill be useing this light for a few months and then upgrade to something better, dont wanna spend money i dont have to to find out sw isnt for me. And would rather not just tosd away the money i just spent on this light and switch to another lol

Good philosophy, but if you get hooked be prepared for the empty wallet addiction this hobby can cause!

I keep.looking at my 240 gallon fw tank thinking how sweet it would be to turn that to sw haha its makeing me wanna get a bigger tank for my arowana sooner

If you're going to use that hydrometer, check it against a refractometer regularly to make sure it's reasonably accurate. They're often not, and they change over time.

I wont be useing that, i actually just added a refrac to my cart on j and l this.morning lol itll be comeing with my skimmer

Will be gettin the "vertex salinity refractometer"

You know they have a big sale coming in a week or two, right? :)

Ohh?? What kinda sale we talkin here??

Summer Boxing Day type sale. Next weekend.

Oh boy. Now i might wait haha im callin them when they open to get a quote on live rock to gp ill talk to them about there sale. Thanks for the tip!!

You say you have a 240g fw tank?
Mark my word it Will become a sw tank in no time hahaha

One word of advice is take it really slow and do a lot of reading.

Best of luck

Haha it cant become sw until i upgrade to a 8-10 foot tank for my arowana :)

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Got the discus out, and the tank emtied. Will cleaning it out after work tonight and then starting setup either tonight or tommorrow

nice, I take it you will be using a canister style filter? I don't see any over flows on that tank....

One thing you will learn real fast in this hobby whether you choose to continue in it or not is SW vs FW is so much more rewarding but so much more frustrating at the same time.

Visually SW is so much more stunning and captivating and so much more demanding depending on how anal you choose to be with upkeep compared to FW.

The two biggest pieces of advice I can give is first patience is a virtue in this hobby never rush and do your homework especially when it comes to fish and inverts many species are specialized eaters and others can outgrow smaller tanks in no time www.liveaquaria.com is sort of the bible on fish and inverts

Secondly use this forum for resources and advice. There are a lot of SW forums out there but many posters will steer you with bad advice on those forums. Canreef members have had some very ribald discussions but nobody here will ever try to steer you wrong.

Will be natural type filtration, power heads on live rock in the tank and hob reef octopus skimmer

I think the biggeet thing im looking.forward to is the corals. And how its way more of an "eco system" then fw. My wife is the one thats looking forward to fish. I would have just coral if it was up to me haha

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All clean, now start to set up!

Good luck. I did FW for years and it took my 2 tanks to finally get the SW "groove" - What I learned from the 1st time is go slow. May as well go poor slowly. lol.

I looked up the light and it looks like it is at 6000K - I'd be careful as that will probably grow more algae than corals. That would be a perfect light for a refugium to grow chaeto or nuisance algae.

It can get really frustrating really fast if you don't have the right equipment to start - I also learned this.

Have a fun ride!

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A bit of progress. Any suggestions on placements?
Both power heads are in the same spot on oppsite sides pointing down in same dirrection towards where live rock will be stacked. Feels strange to have them like that compared to fw where they should be all flowing in the same dirrection createing a clockwise or counter clockwise flow

I would place the larger power head pointed towards the surface but only enough to ripple it , the small nano koralia isn't very strong that I would have pointed low to keep detritus moving.opposite sides is fine but absolute final placement will be however your rock allows you to provide flow. You need not blast the rock but provide the whole tank with gentle flow and no dead spots.

The idea is to keep the surface moving to pull in oxygen and to keep bio films and oil slicks off the surface and in motion or skimmed out , this is why it's good to get a hang on back skimmer as well:)

Also if you paint or vinyl the back panel on the outside black then you won't see your cords and coral colors will stick out more ;)

I try to point my power heads in a way that moves the water in a circular motion throughout the tank

Yeah im gunna be limo tinting the back panel. I did it on a 55gallon i built a while back and it looked awesome

A bit More progress today
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I know i know, use rodi not ro.. Haha but this is all i have to work with for now, and its not that bad, 4ppm tds. Tested infront of me while ibwas there.
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Ugh. Stupid hydrometer. Thats with no salt added lol a guy i know from local fish groups lent me his fractometer after amd its all good now lol
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Mixim salt! Found dead spots, tryed a 1000 diffrent positionings for the powerheads amd still dead spots, gunna pick up another powerhead tommorrow

What temp should i be set at? I got it sittin at 79.2 right now, googled and that seems about average for reef tanks.

Got my live rock ordered!!! Will be shipped monday and be here tuesday afternoon :D :D

You will probably wonna just get some bigger powerheads. Once you add samd and rock its going to create even more dead spots. I keep my tank at 77.5-78.0. Tanks looking good so far

This dead spot thing is getting on my nerves haha ill see what i can get for powerheads in town tommorrow, i think we only have top fin amd fluvals in town :/ big bulky things lol

Its settled at 79.8, might keep it at that till after cycle is done then ill adjust it a bit

Thanks man! Cant wait till the sand amd rock is in. I haaaaaaaaaate bare tanks

Salt water hurts cuts!! Wow does that ever sting. Didnt know i had so many cuts on my hands

If it really really hurts Jen you might have a voltage leak. Unplug absolutely everything and then try again. If you don't feel anything then you have something leaking voltage.

Jen? Haha nah its not electrical, ive felt that before haha its just the salt on.cuts

So just checked the refractometer, i was expecting salinity to rise a bit over night due to more disolving cuz i did it quick last night. Got up to 1.020 in 4 hours, was still 1.020 this morning so added another cup. Will be headed home in an hour or 2 to check again and probably add another cup. (i love working 2 blocks away from my house!) half a cup per 5 gallons like the bag says is WAY off lol

instruction says half a cup per gallon not half per 5G :biggrin:

can't wait to see this tank filled with corals.

No matter how hard you try you will always have those dead spots what you want to try to do is minimize those dead spots which is why you try to keep rocks off the glass and as soon as you add said rocks you will have more said dead spots but then that is where your CuC and bottom feeding fish come in the small dead areas will be taken care of. It's when those dead spots become big dead spots is where you have issues.

While your tank is cycling with the rock and sand this is when you want to move things around to find best placement before you place your CuC/fish. It's the small things that drives a person nuts in this hobby. Fortunately you have a small tank so it's not much of a concern per se it's when you start getting into the larger tanks that this becomes more of an issue

Good call, maybe ill wait to buy a power head until i get my rock and everything in there

Just checked salinity again, 1.024. Should be good since i was aiming for 1.025?

.24 is good. I keep mine around .25-.26