New here and to saltwater - Seattle

[Tecnomage]

Hey everyone, my wife and I just started our saltwater adventure. We found a 90 gallon tank and sump on Craigslist that needed more attention than the owner could give it. So 2 weeks ago we picked it up mixed some new water, added a cleaning crew and now we're trying to pace ourselves so we don't add too much too quickly. We've got a yellow eyed kole tang, 2 lps frags and a rose bubble anemone (we were going to wait a few weeks on this guy but my wife really really wanted him/her/it)

I think that's the hardest part of this hobby, slowing down, we've already picked out our next 4-5 fish.

-Jim

 

[Krish]

Welcome to RF Jim!! :welcome:. Also congrats on the new tank!! Taking it slow is so hard sometimes in this hobby but it pays off in the end. Do you have any pictures of the tank?? If so, we'd love to see!!

 

[user 26995]

Yeah, what he said. We LOVE pictures....Welcome to RF.

 

[Tecnomage]

Thanks guys! I don't seem to have enough posts under my belt to attach pics. It only gives me 20k of space for attachments.

 

[Tureefik87]

Welcome to RF there are a lot of helpful people on this site and hope to see some pictures of your system soon.

 

[returnofsid]

Welcome to Reef Frontiers!!

I think there is a default that you need 2 or 3 posts, before being able to add photos. Sorry. It's an automatic setting, meant to help cut down on spam.

You should be able to post photos very soon. If you have a photo hosting account, like Flickr, Photobucket, etc, that's a great way to post photos, along with creating an album, here on Reef Frontiers, and posting photos from it!

You've heard it already and you'll hear it a lot more. One of the most important aspects of our hobby, is Patients!! It's very difficult, but also very important!

 

[Tecnomage]

Ok, I'll take a new picture so you can see the progress and get a photo hosting account.

 

[Tecnomage]

Ok, here they are.

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb412/Tecnomage/P1020420.jpg (Day 1, new R/O water, old rock and sand, no aquascaping)

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb412/Tecnomage/P1020423.jpg (Day 2, my wife made us arrange everything before putting in a cleaning crew. For some reason she didn't want to dodge crab claws)

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb412/Tecnomage/P1020428.jpg (Day 5, the cleaning crew on day 3 was very happy, water tests looked good, no sign of the tank recycling, so we added our first fish the yellow eyed kole tang)

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb412/Tecnomage/P1020436.jpg (Day 12, we added 2 frags and a rose bubble anemone, the tang doesn't like to show off, in fact if there's movement near the tank she'll hide)

 

[Tecnomage]

Tank stats:
90 gallon reef ready with 2 standpipes
120ish lbs of live rock, a few pieces in the sump most is in the tank
8 T5 HO 4 10k 4 blue
28 gallon sump made of a plastic container
Kent Marine Nautilus Turbo Eductor Protein Skimmer (any help or manuals for this would be appreciated, it's skimming but very wet not a sludge)
2 Hydor Koralia 4 powerheads

Total life in the tank:
2 hermit crabs
1 snail
4 emerald crabs
1 yellow eyed kole tang
2 money cowries
2 frags (one of which split in the bag)
1 rose bubble anemone

Future plans:
1 purple fire fish goby (2ish weeks out)
1 cleaner shrimp (maybe with the goby)
1 Acropora Formosa (who knows, when I find a good deal)
(new sump seeded with cheato and lots of [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]copepods[/FONT] when I find a cheap plastics place, TAP quoted me 280 for the pieces I want)
1 green mandarin dragonet (after the sump)
1 mated pair black and white ocellaris clownfish (last planned fish addition, 3-6 months out)

Obviously this is only a guide of where we're going, and will probably change when we do more research or find something really cool.

 

[Krish]

Nice tank!! By the looks of it, it seems you are battling an algae issue as I see some of your rocks are covered in it. This is a sign that there is a nutrient problem in the tank (ie excess nutrients). The fact that test results may yield un-detectable nitrates and/or phosphates is probably due to the fact that it is bound up in the algae that is using it for its growth. I saw you mentioned you used ro water. Is it just ro water or ro/di water? Let us know...Not sure how concerned you are with the algae growth, but if it does bother you, we may have to exime things a bit closer to see what is fueling it to grow as it can be a number of things all the way dow to tank maintenance.

 

[Tecnomage]

Thanks for the heads up. I inherited the algae with the tank, the cleanup crew and RO/DI water is making a huge improvement already. There might be 10 gallons of non RO/DI water in there because I didn't read a label closely enough. I knew I was going to get into a battle with algae when I bought the tank, but it was either that or boil and scrub everything down and recycle the tank. I figured this way we'll learn more from fixing a broken tank than by starting with a clean tank making a mistake or two and watching it crash and having to battle algae anyway . If I notice more algae growth my plan was to start limiting the light cycle and maybe add 1-2 more cleanup crew to the mix. I also have a Fluval I can hook up with carbon and nitrate remover to help scrub some out.

Now that we have the tank filled I'm going to start doing a 10-15 gallon water change every 2 weeks, I just did my first on Friday and it went pretty smoothly. I have a test kit for most things but I still need to get 2-3 more. So far things are looking good, If you compare the first picture and the last you can see how much algae is already gone off the rocks, we have more on the glass obviously but a lot of the rock algae died off or was eaten.

 

[Krish]

Cool!! A few things to keep in mind is for one, a cleanup crew, although they may eat some of the waste etc. they poop as well adding waste back into the tank so I wouldn't rely 100% solely on them to clean up the tank. Alot of the clean-up will come from your tank maintenance (ie water changes, vacuuming the substrate depending on why type you are running, keeping sponges, filter pads, filter floss, filter socks etc cleaned or changed every 3 days or so because if it is allowed to sit much longer, the trapped waste will rott and degrade water quality etc). I personally like the idea of doing atleast a 10-15% water change every week. Less chance of waste sitting long in the tank, rotting once again and degrading water etc.

Just a few thoughts...

 

[Tecnomage]

Thanks for the thoughts! Like I said I'm new to all this and doing a lot of reading online. I'll start doing water changes more frequently and checking all those things you suggested more often.

 

[Krish]

No problem and keep in mind, there is more than one way to go about things in this hobby and be successful so go with what works best for you. What works for one person may not work for another so the best piece of advice would be to gather all the info you can on everything and use what suits you best.

 

[SFEERO]

Tecnomage & Krish,

I am also new to the hobby, well I shouldn't say completely new, I have done freshwater aquariums for years, and I currently have a 28 gallon saltwater that I will be converting quite soon to the 90 gallon that I purchased (still waiting on all of the equipment to arrive). Its almost like an addiction, seeing how well you can keep a tank and its inhabitants. I look forward to finding out the great information this forum and its members provide, as I know I will have many questions!

I currently am fighting a diatom issue, however this is due to the newly cycled 28 gallon. My cleanup crew and water changes are assisting in getting rid of this issue. I have a Fluval canister filter (yes, I know this is not good), but it is only being used until I get the sump/refugium set up on the 90 gallon. The question I pose is this: when I get the 90 gallon set up, water quality is good etc, how long should I wait before introducing the inhabitants from the 28 gallon to the 90 gallon? I have 2 perc Clowns, a watchman goby, a green chromy, and a green bubble tip anenome. Not to mention all of the snails and hermit crabs along with those darn bristle worms that live in the rock. I do not plan on keeping the 28 gallon, the 90 is my replacement. Also, if I plan on keeping corals sometime in the future, would it be a better idea to have a 4 inch sandbed? Do you have any suggestions on substrate for the refugium (sand, mud, none?) and how deep the substrate should be in the refugium?

So many questions..........

Shaun
Auburn, WA

 

[Tureefik87]

Shaun,

Like you stated be sure all your perams are good and I would add like 2 fish a week. And your BTA one week and then continue the process, IMO. As you know take it slow you don't want to lose any tank mates.

For me the sand bed is your preference, me I have a 3"-3.5" sand bed and I have a variety of LPS, softies, SPS. Wish you the best of luck.

 

[SFEERO]

Any suggestions on type of sand? And what about the refugium?

 

[Tecnomage]

Do you have any suggestions on substrate for the refugium (sand, mud, none?) and how deep the substrate should be in the refugium?

Any suggestions on type of sand? And what about the refugium?

From what I've read it's kind of up to personal preference. Most of the posts I read said no mud. It depends what you're doing in your refugium I guess. I'm going for about 1.5-2" of sand with some live rock rubble on top and some Cheato growing. I made a 7.5"x18x13 refugium and I'm going to use it for mostly raising copepods. Some people like a deeper sand bed and others like no sand bed so they can just vacuum the stuff that settles there out.

How large will your refugium be?

 

[jrgilles]

Welcome to RF guys!

 

[freetareef]

well hello and welcome!!!