Josh's Marine Adventure!

[JoshH]

Hey guys,
Well decided it's deffo time for me to start a journal now what with the tank being up and running with LR!!
First off here's how it t's transformed

to this..

All nicely cleaned out and shiny, ready for the SW coral sand and LR to go in!

And here it is today!

Unsure what that yellow thing is waving about(in above pic)?

Sorry about the reflections, it's a right pain taking pics in the day lol!

Some test results from just now:
SG 1.021 - this is low I know, I'll add more salt in a minute, is there a rought rule of how much salt is needed to raise SG by a certain amount?
PH - 8-8.5
Ammonia - 1
Nitite - Think it's 1 although 1 & 5 look very similar on the API kit
NitrAte - 20

The skimmer is pumping out microbubbles into the aquarium lol but I assume all this will calm down, not seen many signs of life so far but not had a good chance to sit and look! Although I did see what appeared to be a tentacle sorta thing poking outa the LR wiggling about a couple of either dead or shedded little shrimp on the substrate and a few snails, some tiny one with white shells with red lines and others look similar to ya average snail you get on plants in a FW setup!

I'll update daily with my tests and any other news, hope my koralias will be here tomorrow or the day after, I do have a fluval 3+ running with floss too for extra circ but took out for pics

Josh

 

[SkiFletch]

Such nice LR, great start

 

[JoshH]

Cheers dude Hope everything goes kinda smoothly for me lol! Any ideas with the salt, not sure how much to add to raise up the SG a little

 

[Straydum]

haven't got an idea on the salt but the best you could do now is add a little and test the water again till you get your correct reading

 

[JoshH]

Think that's what I'll do could I keep any sort of coral at all under the 2 x 24W T8's? I'm guessing not I have ordered an LED moonlight kit too

 

[Truck]

Think that's what I'll do could I keep any sort of coral at all under the 2 x 24W T8's? I'm guessing not I have ordered an LED moonlight kit too

yeah you could keep mushrooms, and zoanthus, and you might get away with a few other softies.

 

[JoshH]

Aw that's cool then, much better than I thought!

I will upgrade the lighting eventually tho my koralias turned up today, both in and blasting away now! I got a turnover of-
2 x 2300lph
120lph from skimmer
680lph from external
so that makes 5400lph combined which is 43.2 complete tank water turnovers per hour, I guess it'll be less than that due to the figures being slightly over rated I would imagine!

The skimmer is still pumping up incredible amounts of micro bubbles into the aquarium any ideas why? no matter where the water level knob is they still pooor on out

I'll do some tests before bed and update soon

 

[kj23502]

Well there's a rough 1cup per gallon estimate. I used Reef Crystals and it was fairly accurate for me. I would use caution and do slightly less since it's easier to add a tid bit than to have to pull water out to add R/O to decrease it.

I do like your live rock. You started out w/nice stuff.

43x is a heck of a lot of flow.

I don't have any ideas on skimmer prob. Sorry.

 

[JoshH]

When you say cups..that's the american term for measurements right? When we were over a few years back we got some muffin recipe books and some american measures, there was loads of sizes (cant remember off the top of my head) 1/2 cup 1 cup etc..is that what youre using for your 1 cup per gal?

Added 2 more cups tonight so I'll check the SG in the morning, I've been adding at intervals throughout the day, but had work etc so just put some in before bed!

Yeah the LR is really nice, I'm kinda tempted to get another 10kg..not sure if it'll be too much though, maybe see where another 5 gets me first lol

Hope I've not gone overkill on the flow I can turn the external down but not the powerheads which make up most of the flow power! I'll bare with the skimmer for now, it was brand new so I assume its just getting itself sorted, give it til the weekend

Josh

 

[kj23502]

I've read of a lot of skimmers needing a breakin period and then they are fine w/some minor tweaking. Hopefully that's all it is for you.

Yes that 1 cup in us measurements. Kinda confusing having the two different measurements...I know. People post their tanks in liters and I have to google to find the equivelent in us gallons.

 

[ben1987]

That looks like a nice first attempt. Are the rocks resting on the back glass? you wont be able to clean the back if they are. All depends on what type of look you go for.

 

[JoshH]

Nah not resting on the glass dude, didnt wanna risk putting stress on the glass! here's the clearance at the bacl -

heres the bubbles outa the skimmer lol

Not sure what this funny looking thing is either;

Cheers

BTW,
Just did some tests, Nitrite @ 1 still, ammonia looked like its a bit paler than it was, still a .5 tho!

 

[ben1987]

even room for fish to swim round the back then
Id have thought you would be able to clean down there too. Id add a nice blue or black background though if i were you

 

[Truck]

i would put a bit of floss over the skimmer outlet

 

[JoshH]

Yeah the background seriously needs sorting out, right now its not even tall enough, hence see through band at the top I will try using the baby oil n credit card trick too, though I tried it on a small tank and didn't have the greatest success as it kept moving! Glass needs a proper good clean as theres salty drip marks right down it from all the tests n faffing about Ive done!