Ladies And Gentlemen.. It's Time To Begin

[timmystood]

Hey hey hey!

OK, so after 2 months of questions, research, more questions, buying equipment and even more silly questions.. it's time to begin the reef tank!

What I have so far:

Hydrometer
Tank (duh!) - 30 Gallon
Heater
Internal Filter
Salt
Powerheads (enough to give 20 times tank volume per hour)
Aragonite Sand
Luminaire (powerful enough to give me a suntan! 4 T5 Bulbs at 24W each)
Salt Mixing Bin
Salt Mixing Powerhead
Salt weighing scales
Buckets
RO Unit
Extension Leads
.. plus anything else I have fogotton

So I have a few questions as tonight I will be moving/levelling the tank ready for LR

1. What do I have to do with the newly purchased LR? Put it straight into the tank?
2. Do I need to add anything to the RO water for my Ceylon Puffer and LR to be happy?

Cheers

 

[SkiFletch]

Dont forget testkits . pH, amonia, nitrite, nitrate for sure and calc/alk/phosphate when you get into corals.

If your tank is non-tempered glass, go ahead and put a foam pad of some sort under it. Most UK tanks are non-tempered bottom glass (while most US tanks are tempered) so you need the foam under there to help support rock weight. Then mix up your saltwater and get ready for LR. Buy the LR, bring it home, and aquascape with the rocks on the glass bottom directly. Add your powerheads, heater, and other internal equipment at this time (obviously dont plug them in till after there's water in ). Once you have the rocks the way you want them, fill in some sand. And then once the sand is in, pur water slowly over the rocks to fill her up. Turn on pumps, heater, and wait

 

[timmystood]

Opps - yeah, I forgot test kits I do already have Ammonia, Nitrite and pH from my tropical tanks.
The tank is already set-up with a Ceylon Puffer. I'm currently getting some RO Unit production (currently have 3 gallons after 1.5 hours) Once I have about 10 Gallons I will:
- Put Mr. Puff into a bucket
- Drain the tank
- Move the tank
- Switch the tank background around
- Remove current silver sand and replace with aragonite sand
- Refill tank with RO Water
- Add Luminaire

Everything else (heater, filter etc.) is already in there and set-up! Then, probably next saturday I will get some LR! It's a 30 Gallon tank so it 18kg of LR about right? How much should I add in one go? Also, Mr. Puff is currently in tap water will he need to be re-aclimatised to his tank when it is switched to RO?

Cheers

 

[sparklefuzz]

Opps - yeah, I forgot test kits I do already have Ammonia, Nitrite and pH from my tropical tanks.
The tank is already set-up with a Ceylon Puffer. I'm currently getting some RO Unit production (currently have 3 gallons after 1.5 hours) Once I have about 10 Gallons I will:
- Put Mr. Puff into a bucket
- Drain the tank
- Move the tank
- Switch the tank background around
- Remove current silver sand and replace with aragonite sand
- Refill tank with RO Water
- Add Luminaire

Everything else (heater, filter etc.) is already in there and set-up! Then, probably next saturday I will get some LR! It's a 30 Gallon tank so it 18kg of LR about right? How much should I add in one go? Also, Mr. Puff is currently in tap water will he need to be re-aclimatised to his tank when it is switched to RO?

Cheers

I don't think you can use your freshwater test kit with saltwater...

 

[Opcn]

You need to add salt so that the LR and ceylon puffer will be happy, I am assuming that you have already aclimated the puffer to salt water, Also keep in mind that even if that rock has been sitting down at the shop for a few months moving it could cause it to kill off any fish you have in your tank, When you rearange rock sometimes you release pockets of toxic matter, I've lost some fish to that effect sadly, very unfortunate.

 

[timmystood]

Yeah, he's already in salt water, but tap water, not RO.
When I come to introduce him back into his tank with RO water will he need re-aclimatising?

 

[callell]

Best idea would be to acclimitize him as you would any other livestock - drip method over an hour of so

 

[timmystood]

Got 10KG of LR today Looks like there could be some interesting cretins on the rocks (including some corals)! It's 3 pieces in all: 1 large piece, 1 medium piece and 1 small piece. I've currently just put them in the tank in no order (literally just plopped them into the tank) as it is tonight that I will be moving the tank and switching to RO Water etc. So I will re-arrange them afterwards.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

good luck, enjoy and get some piccies up soon!!

 

[voo]

Did you buy cured or un-cured live rock?

 

[timmystood]

It's cured rock

 

[timmystood]

Just found a small starfish on one of the rock pieces!!

 

[Opcn]

The ceylon puffer not only has kidneys, but it also spends a lot of its life in brackish water, where its not uncommon for it to lose .005 sg in a second, just toss the fish in, being in a bucket is stressful. The live rock however needs to be aclimated

 

[Mr.September15]

Liverock needs to be aclimated . Oopsiess.