High Tide In Trigon 350

[rdp50734]

Hi as you all know I am starting my marine journal.

I have my tank, a trigon 350. Two 6000 lph powerheads and 1 3000 lph. I also have MH lighting. 150w and and 250W although which one I use is not decided yet! Master test kit, deltec MC500 skimmer, refractometer, ph tester, TDS meter, RO unit, salt, sand and LR on the way tomorrow.

I have had a few problems regarding the TDS of the water on the outlet of the RO unit. Inlet 187 ppm outlet 9 ppm. I have narrowed this down to the low temp of the water as it is in the outside toilet. I have ordered a DI pod to add on to my RO unit to bring the TDS down to 0.
As the reading is still at 9 ppm I am going to have to put the LR in 2 x 40L buckets with heaters and powerheads to keep it live until the DI pod arrives! SG is 1.025 and has been circulating for 5 hours so far ready for the delivery tomorrow!

Anyone who is thinking of starting marines, make sure your RO water is spot on before ordering your rock! No matter how good the deal is! Hopefully my DI pod comes very soon and I can move forward!

Will update as things progress.

 

[rdp50734]

To update the tank has been filled, salted and turning over for 3 days.

I have bought 45kgs of live rock that is currently in the tank but not aquascaped.

Turnover is shockingly 42.8x lol I'm running 2 x 6000 lph powerheads plus a 3000 lph.

Skimmer is Deltec mc 500 and is also running. There is a star polyp and a cabbage coral that came on the rock but are not looking to good. One came in on an ebay purchase of the rock and the other was from a reefer who was breaking down his tank!

I still have to put my lights up but I am still unsure which ones to use. I have the 150W arcadia, and I have the 250W arcadia with the T8 anctinics. I only plan on keeping LPS and softies. The 250W is a nicer looking unit but I dont really need all that intensity! Photos to follow soon when I get chance.

 

[simonas]

happy days looking forward to updates and pics!!

 

[rdp50734]

42.8 x turnover

Ph 7.9 taken with nutrifin liquid test

KH 160 mg/l

iron 0

ammonia 0 mg/l

nitrite 0 mg/l

nitrate 5-10 mg/l

phosphate 1 mg/l

calcium 320

salinity 1.025

temp 27.2

How is it all looking?

 

[seffieuk]

Woo hoo........... so where are the photos

I'm a little surprised not to see an ammonia and nitrite reading? Or did you transport the rock in water for a short time?

Calcium needs to be a little higher when you start adding hard corals, but dont add anything yet it will come up a bit when you bring the sg up to 1.026

Seffie x

 

[rdp50734]

Pics will come as soon as I have aquascaped. Looks a mess at the moment. Rock was in water for a 35 min drive and straight into the tank!

I only intend on keeping softies and LPS. SG up to 1.026? Everywhere I have been looking says to keep the salinity at 1.025 for fish and corals! The salinity has been creeping up with evaporation so I havr been topping up with RO to maintain the 1.025.

 

[seffieuk]

I would want the 1.026, just let it creep up slowly, it will

Seffie x

 

[rdp50734]

Would you measure in SG or PPT?

 

[rdp50734]

 

[rdp50734]

Added 3 turbo snails, 5 common snails and a very nice feather duster. Water parameters are bang on so will consider fish and some corals now. Well, in a couple of weeks.

On a side note I had set my salinity with my refractometer to 1.025. I had the LFS check out my readings just in case and how lucky was it? My refractometer was out by .005 taking me down to 1.020

That was last week so have been gradually upping the salinity.

Also the rock work has changed a bit due to an incident with ebay so updated pics to follow!

 

[seffieuk]

I really like the way that looks, so many places for coral placement, good job

What happened with ebay?

Seffie x

 

[rdp50734]

I bought 25-30kgs LR but the seller only sent 15Kgs including packaging. So after asking for a partial refund and being told No. I escalated the case, ebay ruled in my favour but said I had to send the item back for a full refund including packaging.

He must of thought I wouldn't weigh it on arrival. Ebay also paid for the return postage. So As I had already bought 30 kgs more rock to get 45 in total I took £135 to the LFS and got another 15 kgs, which had some good bits.

I will take pics later but the scape is very similar, although it took a few hours to get it looking similar.

 

[seffieuk]

Sounds like a right pain, but good one on ebay

Seffie x

 

[rdp50734]

Its been a bit of a nightmare, the seller would leave it between a week and 10 days to respond. I would never buy LR from ebay again. Not unless I can go pick it up. I got 33kgs from a guy in solihull for £6 per KG.

 

[rdp50734]

Bit of bad news for me, due to the electrics being so poor in the house (planned rewire towards the end of the year) We are now going to just have FOWLR. This is due to when the washing machine, dryer and the MH lights are on plus everything else on the downstairs loop, its taking the breaker out. (150W and 250W units both tested) Its just trying to pull too much on the loop. It would be silly to try and keep a full reef with this electrical system. Another avenue I had not thought of.

So now I have to concentrate on what fish to put in? I'm after ideas from the salties! Please?

I put a lot of my research into the softies and LPS as they were what I wanted to keep, fish were not really given a thought. Although there is a fire fin clown fish in there now! I still would like to keep shrimps too if thats going to be possible?

Of course I have the crabs still and 2 turbo snails, and the feather duster.

I'm really gutted as I really wanted to get the reef up and running. When the rewire is done then the reef will continue!