jamiehill
Utini
This thread is to chronicle my first foray into saltwater. I have had a few freshwater tanks years ago, but have always had the itch to have a reef setup. I finally got my chance when I found a used 75 gallon reef ready acrylic tank with rock, VHO lighting, a skimmer and a few pumps / powerheads.
75g acrylic aquarium drilled with corner overflow. Included a stand and the hood with lighting.
4 light VHO setup with 2daylight and 2 actinic bulbs and Icecap ballast.
100 pounds of formerly live rock.
Red Sea Berlin skimmer
Rio 1700 pump
2 smaller powerheads
3 heaters (Jaeger and Tronic?) 100-250W
The previous owner had let the tank die while on vacation and had drained all but about 3 inches of water. There was coralline algae all over the aquarium. This looked like it could be a good project, but I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into. Here is a picture of the tank when I first got it.
And the inside of the tank, before cleaning.
I got everything home and into the garage and started to clean and test the equipment. My first task was to fill the tank with freshwater to make sure there were no leaks. At the same time, I decided it would be a good time to clean up the algae from the sides and front. I started off with an acrylic scrubbing pad. This did not work very well, so I decided to use an old credit card. While this worked much better, the card could not hold up to the job. I went to my LFS and bought a Kent-Marine acrylic scraper and that plowed right through the buildup.
The sump that the previous owner had had been cracked, so I decided not to take it. I went out and got a 20g aquarium that is now being used as a sump. I am going to add baffles in order to get the flow correct and avoid microbubbles.
After getting the tank cleaned up and letting the water sit for a couple days, it was time to move everything upstairs into the house. This went off without a hitch, but once I got everything upstairs, I noticed that the scraper had scratched up the acrylic pretty bad. After some searching on ReefFrontiers and ReefCentral, I settled on using Novus polishing compounds and some 1200 and 2500 grit wet/dry paper. It took a few hours, but the acrylic looks almost new again. I decided not to bother with scraping the algae from the back of the tank, as I like the fact that it serves to break up the black back a little.
Next up was to get the plumbing hooked up and get some water in the tank. I filled to about 2/3 capacity and adjusted the SG to 1.024. From there I added in the rock and topped off the tank and added about 8 gallons in the sump.
Since the rock I had was effectively dead, I decided to purchase about 30 pounds of live rock to use as seed to bring my other rock back to life. This rock was added to the tank and is really starting to color up well.
I am starting to see a little Ammonia and Nitrates in my testing of the water. Here are the levels of my first testing on 4/18.
Ammonia: 0.35
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: about 30
Ph: 8.2
Once things settled down a little, I added some live sand that I got from Tangee. This sand has all kinds of worms and pods in it that I can watch crawl around inside the tank.
It took a couple days for the sand to settle. I decided to take this time to work on the baffles in my sump. I added 4 baffles into the sump that divided it into 3 chambers. The drain from the tank, what will later become a refugium, and a chamber for the return pump. The skimmer will not fit in the sump, so I will be running it outside the sump in the cabinet.
Here is a picture of the sump tank after adding the baffles.
As of last night, my water tests are:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: .1
Nitrates: 20
Ph: 8.2
This morning before hooking up the sump, I decided to do a water change. I changed out 30 gallons, so about 33%.
I added water to the tank until it reached the level of the overflow. I then filled the sump a little higher than the baffle line so that the water would flow through correctly. After the water change, it was time to turn on the pump and make sure that the new baffles in the sump worked correctly. I had to add about a gallon of extra water to get the level in the sump correct. The new baffles work great and I no longer get bubbles in my return flow.
Here is a picture of the tank as it looks now.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
JH
75g acrylic aquarium drilled with corner overflow. Included a stand and the hood with lighting.
4 light VHO setup with 2daylight and 2 actinic bulbs and Icecap ballast.
100 pounds of formerly live rock.
Red Sea Berlin skimmer
Rio 1700 pump
2 smaller powerheads
3 heaters (Jaeger and Tronic?) 100-250W
The previous owner had let the tank die while on vacation and had drained all but about 3 inches of water. There was coralline algae all over the aquarium. This looked like it could be a good project, but I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into. Here is a picture of the tank when I first got it.
And the inside of the tank, before cleaning.
I got everything home and into the garage and started to clean and test the equipment. My first task was to fill the tank with freshwater to make sure there were no leaks. At the same time, I decided it would be a good time to clean up the algae from the sides and front. I started off with an acrylic scrubbing pad. This did not work very well, so I decided to use an old credit card. While this worked much better, the card could not hold up to the job. I went to my LFS and bought a Kent-Marine acrylic scraper and that plowed right through the buildup.
The sump that the previous owner had had been cracked, so I decided not to take it. I went out and got a 20g aquarium that is now being used as a sump. I am going to add baffles in order to get the flow correct and avoid microbubbles.
After getting the tank cleaned up and letting the water sit for a couple days, it was time to move everything upstairs into the house. This went off without a hitch, but once I got everything upstairs, I noticed that the scraper had scratched up the acrylic pretty bad. After some searching on ReefFrontiers and ReefCentral, I settled on using Novus polishing compounds and some 1200 and 2500 grit wet/dry paper. It took a few hours, but the acrylic looks almost new again. I decided not to bother with scraping the algae from the back of the tank, as I like the fact that it serves to break up the black back a little.
Next up was to get the plumbing hooked up and get some water in the tank. I filled to about 2/3 capacity and adjusted the SG to 1.024. From there I added in the rock and topped off the tank and added about 8 gallons in the sump.
Since the rock I had was effectively dead, I decided to purchase about 30 pounds of live rock to use as seed to bring my other rock back to life. This rock was added to the tank and is really starting to color up well.
I am starting to see a little Ammonia and Nitrates in my testing of the water. Here are the levels of my first testing on 4/18.
Ammonia: 0.35
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: about 30
Ph: 8.2
Once things settled down a little, I added some live sand that I got from Tangee. This sand has all kinds of worms and pods in it that I can watch crawl around inside the tank.
It took a couple days for the sand to settle. I decided to take this time to work on the baffles in my sump. I added 4 baffles into the sump that divided it into 3 chambers. The drain from the tank, what will later become a refugium, and a chamber for the return pump. The skimmer will not fit in the sump, so I will be running it outside the sump in the cabinet.
Here is a picture of the sump tank after adding the baffles.
As of last night, my water tests are:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: .1
Nitrates: 20
Ph: 8.2
This morning before hooking up the sump, I decided to do a water change. I changed out 30 gallons, so about 33%.
I added water to the tank until it reached the level of the overflow. I then filled the sump a little higher than the baffle line so that the water would flow through correctly. After the water change, it was time to turn on the pump and make sure that the new baffles in the sump worked correctly. I had to add about a gallon of extra water to get the level in the sump correct. The new baffles work great and I no longer get bubbles in my return flow.
Here is a picture of the tank as it looks now.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
JH
