First SW Tank - getting excited!

[ade]

Hi guys,

Well the big day is almost here, we're picking up the new tank on Sunday (Eheim Smaragd), and I can't wait! So we'll be getting the hardware all set up (DIY Dad is coming to visit), water & live sand will be going in, then waiting a couple of weeks or so for the live rock.

You would not believe how excited/nervous I am at the thought of my first reef tank. Any tips for setting up? Eg. putting a bag over the sand before pouring the water in to stop it swirling the sand up.

Also...should I drain the live sand of the ater that comes with it? Or include that water in the tank? With my FW tank, I'm very conscious of not adding too much LFS water when adding new fish, does the same apply with live sand? Or is the water beneficial too?

Watch this space for more excitement and lots of questions!

Rgds

Ade

 

[juliehodson]

I have just added my first fish to my first SW tank so I know how excited u r!!! My LFS told me to include the live sand water because it might have some good bacteria in it. I mixed up my saltwater in the tank and then added the sand by pouring it in slowly with the filter off. It didn't create a sandstorm and settled down really quickly. I had a worm living in my live rock but it died but 2day i found something else moving so i have another worm yipee!! Have fun with ur tank. Enjoy it!!!!

 

[leanne]

I'm new to it too. I have had live rock for 2 weeks and bought a piece with blue mushrooms on yesterday. It is absolutely awesome!! It's teeming with life! I have got 5 feather duster worms, 9!!! brittle starfish, tons of crawlies, something that looks like a bristle starfish but unbristly and orange/brown (looks a bit like an octopus but I know I'm being sill there - its very tiny) oh and a stowaway bristle worm - which people say may cause problems if it gets too big. Gonna try and catch it... The new live rock I have is more mature and is soooooo colourful its unbelievable. I have started a diary thread called "diary of my saltwater setup" which I'm going to write everything in if you want to follow what I've been up to...

 

[wonder371]

i am new... but not too new. I had a tank for about 7 months and had to take it down before i went to college. Everything in the tank was saved except my cleaner shrimp. (i don't know what happened to him... he was seized by airport security). But i salavge everything else and put it into my brothers tank. Although i don't get to enjoy the beauty of the tank everyday. I am often on the phone or online helping my bro with the stuff he encounters. His tank has been going for about 6 months now. I am in this marine section a lot. So if you have any questions i can answer i will hop right on em.

I poured most of the contents in the live sand bag in my tank. Once i noticed all the sand was out and just water was left in the bag i disgaurded it though. I also saw someone mention to be sure to turn off the filter. Make sure u turn off anything that sucks water (i.e. powerheads, skimmers, etc) If you got any more questions feel free. What type of setup are you running?

 

[ade]

Hi guys (and gals!),

Went and picked it all up on Sunday - man it was exciting!!!

So it was the aforementioned tank, but decided to upgrade to T5 lights while we were there (it was my birthday so wifey was feeling generous! lol). Realised on the way to the shop that we had nothing to carry the R Owater in - doh!

So...we got there and spoke to the guys who said there was a camping shop nearby - well we couldn't find it! So we ended up buying a 100l water butt and placing it in the back of the car - thanks Dad!

Filled this with RO water from the shop, gingerly drove home (well, Dad did, the butt was in the back of his 4x4, wife and I stayed in our car! lol). Got home and Dad set to work making the cabinet. If only you guys knew how inept I am at DIY, you'd then know why I got my Dad to come and visit! Cabinet was up and made before I knew it, wife was fiddling away with the skimmer - I'd already opened it, looked at all the bits, the lack of instructions, and put it all back in the box rather quickly!

Tank came in and was soon up on the cabinet. I spent a bit of time scraping the labels off etc, and we rigged up the T5s ready to go on top. Once the skimmer was "made", powerheads were placed in approx the right place (everything will need altering as soon as we start filling with LR etc, heater & filter all in place and ready to go...

In with the live sand - didn't look very live to me! Then it was a slow process of bringing the water in from the car in a 3 gallon bucket, mixing the salt, and adding the water to the tank. Placed a bin-bag over the sand, weighed down with a coulpe of drinking glasses - which proved to be brilliant, as it filled up, we took the bag out, but left the glass in there, poured into the glass and all this prevented the sand from moving at all.

So at the end of this long post, I've got the tank up and running, sand & water only at the moment, with the skimmer & filter running. I read some places that say don't start the skimmer yet, some places said to start it, so I stuck my finger in the air and thought "I want to see it running", so everything is running now.

Have been advised to wait a couple of weeks before adding live rock, currently thinking about adding some next weekend and more the following weekend. Yes I'm impatient!

Did first tests yesterday (although the chap at the shop forgot to put an ammonia test in the box - need to get that one today on way home from work). Results as follows (I'll keep posting on here, so that 1. you gurus can help and 2. someone else might learn from it):

pH = 8.0
Nitrites = 0
Nitrates = <12.5 (lowest that the scale shows)

Obviously not reading anything into these results yet, but wanted to start from the start so to speak.

Take care folks,

Ade

 

[Fuzzy]

thats awsome ade! on ur tests u didnt have ammonia, alkilinity, and calcium. did u not do thos?

 

[ade]

"u didnt have ammonia, alkilinity, and calcium. did u not do thos?"

No, the chap at the shop put a bunch of tests in a box, but only pH, nitrites and nitrates. So I'll be popping into the LFS on the way home tonight. Have the NutraTest (sp?) kits, are these decent?

Also, need to find some info in easy english that explains the various tests and results. I took a look at the site (by someone with a double-barrelled name), about alkalinity & pH, but boy it confused the hell out of me!

Cheers

Ade

 

[ade]

Oh last night was fun!

On my way home, went to fish shop to get more in the way of test kits (ammonia etc), they don't do marine fish, so they don't sell marine equipment either, ok fair enough.

Called "Pets at Home" from the car to check that a. they had marine test kits and b. they're open. Took about 10 mins to get through, eventually got through to be told "yes we do have marine kits but it'd be better if you brought your water in for us to test for you". Assured the lad that I was capable of testing my own water and just wanted the kits and would be in later to pick it up.

Arrived there about 40 minutes later to find no marine kits on the shelf! Spoke to one of the lads, who had put their last remaining one to one side for me - thought that was pretty nice of him, said thanks etc, stood in the queue to pay...and realised it was a "Freshwater Test Kit" - you know, great big writing across all sides of the box. Took it back to the lad, to be referred to someone else (the lad I spoke to on the phone - still with me? lol)..."oh in that case, we don't have any"..."do you realise I've made a special journey having called you to check that you've got them, to come and get it?"..."we'll be getting more in tomorrow" - no apology or anything!

Just ever so slightly peed off!

Will be trying another shop today to also get more RO water - I can't believe how fast it's evaporating out of the tank! I'm losing approx 1/2" (don't ask me how many gallons that is! lol), per day. Managed to pick up a couple of camping water containers yesterday, so will be buying a small supply of RO water. Which brings me on to my next question...

How long can RO water be stored and still be good enough quality to use in the marine tank? I've got a big water butt in the garage which I intend to store RO water in. I'm planning on getting a couple of containers of RO water each time I visit the fish shop, and storing it in the big butt (no jokes about my big butt please!). The butt is covered but not airtight. I'm just a bit concerned about the plastic chemicals leaching into the water, but not sure whether this takes days, weeks, months, years etc.

Cheers

Ade

 

[leanne]

Not sure how long it is "good" for. RO water has been pushed through pores small enough to remove bacteria and fungi so don't worry about that - its about as sterile as you can get. As for the leeching of plastic chemicals - hmm. Not even going to hazard a guess. We have a RO vat at work. It continually produces RO water and holds it in a 10 gal vat. I'd say the turnover for the tank to be completely replaced - ie empty a bit, top up, empty a bit, top up - is about a week. At a week old it is still ok not to interfere with any biochemical tests (far more sensitive than our nitrate kits). If we have any set aside for use in containers we give it a "shelf life" of 1 month - but thats for a laboratory environment.

 

[ade]

Ok, I managed to pick up a "proper" test kit last night, along with more RO water. Test results as follows:

Ammonia: zero
Nitrites: just above zero (can't remember the figure - details are at home)
Nitrates: zero
pH: 8.5 (up from 8.0 2 days ago - will do a pH test on the new water to see what that is)
KH: 140, which is a little high from what I understand?
Salinity: 1.023-1.024 - same as two days ago, even with the addition of the new water - I must have guessed well! lol

Have got the water levels up to a decent level now - much quieter as the return water from the skimmer isn't splashing down along with the filter return acting as a fountain!

Question: I'm adding a bit of fish food daily to "feed" the bacteria and help the cycling - is this helping? Or am I fooling myself? If so, what should I be doing?

Cheers

Ade

 

[EddieW]

Ade,

Putting the food in will help as when it decomposes it will produce ammonia and feed the bacteria.

Personally I would have gone for live rock first and then the sand as this avoids the sand getting comapcted under the rock. It also prevents problems if something digs the sand out from under the rocks which can cause a tumble with disasterous results.

Kh is a little high but I wouldn't worry too much. As soon as you get live rock in there and coralline algae starts to spread thsi will use up the calcium.

The pH is a little high but this might settle down once you have more than just bacteria in there.

The salinity is fine - don;t forget that your top up water does not need salt added as the salt in the tank does not evaporate. I would recommend getting an auto top up device such as the Tunze Ozmolator to keep the level constant. Expensive at £100 but in my opinion well worth it.

Get some live rock in there making sure it is on the base of the tank rather than on top of the sand. Also see if your LFS will sell your some of the grunge at the bottom of the live rock tank or some sand from their invert tanks as this will give you the critters missing in the live sand (all this has is the bacteria).

Oh, and lets have some photos

Cheers, Eddie

 

[ade]

Hi Eddie (and others),

LFS recommended against putting LR in straight away, but to wait a week or two to let salinity/pH etc level off as putting the LR in right away would probably just kill off all the critters. Mentioned to them yesterday (they get pretty much daily phone calls from me right now! lol) that I'd seen elsewhere to add LR right from the start, but they insisted that I shouldn't.

Good point about ensuring the LR is on the tank base rather than the sand - I hadn't thought about that!

KH - I'm glad you wrote that, that was my theory, but glad someone else confirmed it.

New water - last nights new water was to top up the evaporation loss, but also to completely fill the tank. The water I got at the weekend 95% filled the tank, I just needed to top it completely. Now it's at a level where the skimmed water just "slides in", rather than having a half-inch fall - and hence lots of splashing & noise! Made me need a wee just sitting near it! lol

Will try and get some grunge (is this a technical name? ) from the LFS, I want those critters!

Cheers

Ade

 

[EddieW]

Ade,

Grunge is the proper technical term apparently

Sevenoaks Tropical Marine do it by mail order here - Farm Grunge per kilo £7.99

You may be able to get some from your LFS if they are nice people.

The LR issue is one where you will find people on both sides - it is not a case where one way is right and the other is wrong. Both of my nanos were water first, let the salinity, etc. settle for a week or two, then LR, then live sand & ordinary sand, then a bag of sand from the LFS tanks, then wait and wait and wait and wait before adding the clean up crew and then more waiting and then at last fish!!!

Cheers, Eddie

 

[ade]

Didn't get any LR last weekend, the LFS said they only had small bits and pieces which weren't "good enough for you", so I'm waiting until this weekend when they'll have a new batch ready. They're putting a box-worth (20kg) of good stuff to one side for me, so looking forward to getting that in there this weekend.

As for the tank, seems to be settling down quite nicely, pH is steady at 8.1, salinity steady at 1.023 and a bit, ammonia = approx 0.2, approx same for nitrites, and about 20 for nitrates (IIRC). KH steady at 130-140. Is there anything else I should be regularly testing at this early stage?

Skimmer - unsure about this at the moment. I've got it bubbling away - lots of tiny bubbles, but apart from the minutest amount of debris, nothing is coming through into the collection pot. Now I know there's not going to be a huge amount, but given that I've been adding fish food 2 times daily to "feed the bacteria", I thought there'd be more coming through, but I guess it's all going into the filter - cos it's certainly going somewhere! Any ideas whether I should be seeing much brown waste at thi stage - and if so, how much. Ie. how do I know if my skimmer is set up correctly and working correctly?

Cheers

Ade

 

[Stryker]

ade, for future reference, pets at home do the liquid ammo test kit. Its soooo much cheaper than the tablet type. The box says nothing about SW but inside there are two reference cards with the colours. One for FW and one for SW.

HTH