Carlos 60 gallon new tank

[carlos_fb]

After almost 6 months planning and getting ready I finally put water in my tank yesterday night. Unfortunately I found out tonight that I have a couple of really small leaks that didn't show up when I tested everything last week that are going to be a pain to fix but other than that, it looks like it's going well. I’ll be adding 90 lbs of live rock this weekend. I will keep you guys posted.

By the way, thanks a lot to all guys who responded to ALL of my questions these past few months, especially Krish. Now please wish me luck on this journey.

My current setup:

- 60 gallon glass tank custom made (48"x15"x20") with internal overflow, predrilled (1) 1" drain and (2) 1/2" returns.
- 22 gallon glass sump custom made (26"x11"x18")
- 10 gallon glass top off tank custom made
- TEK T5 lights retrofit kit 4 x 54 with SLR IceCap reflectors
- RO/DI 5 Stage Unit Filter guys Ocean Reef + 1
- Digital Aquatics Reefkeeper 2 Controller with pH probe
- Tunze Osmolator
- DAS EX-1 Skimmer
- Eheim 1260 Pump
- American DJ Power Centers
- Jager 200 W Heater
- Fishbowl Innovations Moon Computer
- Salifert test kits (pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Alk, Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphate)
- Phosban Reactors + Mini-Jet 606
- Live Rock Lift custom made
- Hydor Koralias #3 Powerheads
- Current Usa Gamma 15w UV Sterilizer
- SCWD Wavemaker
- Refractometer
- Vantec Stealth 92mm canopy fans
- Clip on fan

Live stock

- Maited pair of True Perculas
- Roylal Gramma
- Purple Firefish

- Cleaning crew
- Cleaner Shrimp
- Fire Shrimp
- Pom Pom Crab
- Pink Birdsnest
- Orange Montipora
- Green Montipora


Here's a picture that I took tonight, not the greatest but you get the idea.
:badgrin:

====> Most recent picture 06/16/07 <====

 

[Krish]

Looks great Carlos!! I see you have your acrylic rods buried in the sand to support the rock! That should work well for flow and to prevent any dead spots. Good luck on getting it all tweaked and running! I'll be tagging along

 

[balogh03]

Looks like a good setup to me cant wait to see the live stock in it!

-augustus

 

[robbie_boy]

Could you tell me what kind of setup you went with (closed loop etc?) iam not 100% on what i want to do i have a 20 gal right now and iam upgrading to a 150 gal and iam not sure on what system to go with i haven't found to much info on how to build a system if you could give me some websites or info that would be great

 

[Meche]

Lookin' good Carlos. Where did you get your line-loc?

Hey robbie boy, welcome to RF.

Check out our library section on tank setups.

 

[Scooterman]

Congrats Carlos, Is this going to be your set-up showcase? I can relocate the thread to keep our member tanks located in a place for everyone to see. One last thing If this is, then maybe you could compile the start of your planning, the tank at the beginning etc. We use the showcase forum to allow everyone to see what you have in details & keep up with your progress, helps users see the entire package. I know we have your start-up on the tank setups and I wouldn't duplicate all of it just maybe reference it & summarize maybe. This isn't a must but a thought if you wish! Again congrats, your tank is looking good!

 

[carlos_fb]

Thanks for your compliments guys. Go ahead and move it to the forum you think is more appropiate.

I just updated the post to add my current setup. I will keep in touch.

 

[carlos_fb]

Lookin' good Carlos. Where did you get your line-loc?

Hey robbie boy, welcome to RF.

Check out our library section on tank setups.

I got it from http://www.modularhose.com/

 

[carlos_fb]

Dumb question: I'm going to get the live rock this afternoon and I was wondering if I need to wash it with just RO/DI water or I need to add salt to it?

 

[Krish]

You don't want to really expose it to pure freshwater as you may kill off some stuff. A salt mix is all you need, and if you want to just shake the rock off to get off any loose particles/detritus etc. then you can swish the rocks in a bucket of premixed saltwater. Just a thought

 

[carlos_fb]

I will add some salt mix, thanks krish. Another question, what's the ideal temperature and salinity?

 

[Krish]

Well, they say to typically try and keep your tank between 78-83F (83 being the highest) but I think most people tend to shoot for about 78-79F which is what I do. As for salinity/specific gravity, natural sea water is about 1.026 however some people will keep their tanks as low as 1.023 when having FO tanks (which is what mixing a batch of instant ocean according to the directions will mix it at if I rememebr correctly). In any event, I think people keeping corals shoot for 1.025-6 which is where I keep mine as well seeing we are trying for the most part to mimic the ocean as best we can

 

[carlos_fb]

Today I added 90 lbs of Fiji Premium Live Rock. I still have to work on my aquascaping.

 

[carlos_fb]

I have a few more simple questions about cycling.

1. Do I have to do water changes during the cycle?
2. How often do Ihave to test the water?
3. How long do I need to keep the lights on every day?
4. The live rock brought a lot of dirt even though I washed every piece, I am suppose to vacuum the sand or the skimmer will take care of it?

One more thing, every time I turn off the return pump, water starts coming back to the sump from my loc-lines, how can I avoid that?

 

[Krish]

1. Do I have to do water changes during the cycle?

For the most part no. Just let the rock do it's thing. You will probably have some die-off which will jump start the nitrogen cycle for you which is great. By doing water changes this early, you may prolong the cycle so just let it run it's course for right now so that the necessary bacterial colonies can form which will take care of the bilogical filtration resposibilities for you.

2. How often do Ihave to test the water?

Once a week is good enough IMO. Atleast that's what I did. You will see spikes in ammonia first until the bacteria responsible for breaking it down is formed. Once that bacteria converts the ammonia, it will start to drop off on your test kit and you will start reading nitrites (which is what the ammonia is converted to). Usually once ammonia has dropped off, typically you don't ever see them again so you usually don't have to test for them anymore. Once the necessary bacteria is formed to convert the nitrite, then the nitrites will drop off and you will start reading nitrates. Once all traces of ammonia and nitrites have dropped off to zero, then you tank is said to be cycled and live stock can be introduced slowly with least sensitive species first. The whole process (the nitrogen cycle where ammonia is converted to nitrite then to nitrate) usually takes about 6-8 weeks so you have around that general time frame to keep testing. It all depends on the condition of your rock though as to how long the process will take

3. How long do I need to keep the lights on every day?

Well, I guess everyones opinion will vary here. I never ran any lights for the first 3 weeks or so and then started running a small photoperiod of about 4-5 hours a day with low wattage. Some people run their photoperiod from day one. Typically, you don't want everything in the rock to die as you do have some photosynthetic life in there so a bit of light is good. I guess the others will chime in on that one

The live rock brought a lot of dirt even though I washed every piece, I am suppose to vacuum the sand or the skimmer will take care of it?

When you start doing your regular tank maintenance, whatever your skimmer doesn't remove and your critters don't consume, you will have to vaccum up. That's one of the reasons why good flow is always stressed...To keep detritus/waste from settling anywhere and given a chance to rott and degrade water quality. With great flow, the waste is lifted into the water column to be mechanically removed, used up by the corals or skimmed off. Seeing you just threw the rock in there, if you wanted to just suck up what's resting on the sand bed, I'd go ahead.

One more thing, every time I turn off the return pump, water starts coming back to the sump from my loc-lines, how can I avoid that?

LOL! If you don't have a hole drilled into your return nozzle to break the siphon when the return pump is cut, then water will continue to back siphon into the sump until the return nozzle is above the water line and exposed to air. All you need to do is drill a small hole either right below the water level as most people do or like I do, right at the water level (or slightly above) so that when the pump is turned off and that hole is exposed to air, it will break the siphon for you. Some people use check valves, but you have to be careful as they can fail in not cleaned periodically. Attachment 1 shows what I mean about a hole. This will break the siphon for you. Attachement 2 shows where I had my hole drilled (the red arrow is pointing to it) and you can see the little stream of water coming out of the hole while the pump is running. I actually wanted the siphon the break really quick so I put one hole just above the water line but not to where it would splash everything and put 2 more small holes right under the water line. I could break the siphon in about 5 seconds after the pump shutting off HTH.

 

[carlos_fb]

Krish you're the man! thanks a lot your response.

I'm glad the siphon problem can be fixed with just drilling a little hole. Do you think I should make the hole in the loc-line or the pipes behind the overflow box?

 

[Krish]

Either place will work fine IMO, once the water level will be able to drop below the hole before your sump fills to break the siphon

 

[carlos_fb]

Last night I worked on the aquascaping. Check it out...

 

[Krish]

Very nice Carlos!!! I really like it!

 

[Scooterman]

Looking Nice Carlos, really nice! keep up the good work!