Setting Up My Tank

[ANIM4L]

Ok so i have a 60 gallon tank I have been working on turning into a sw tank. So far this is what i have

60 Gallon Tank
Rena XP3 350 gph (currently holding bio media and filter floss, but may be making just biomedia)
Rena XP2 300gph (currently holding carbon and filter floss, may be mkaing it into holding nothing)
Aquaclear 700 powerhead (400gph)
Zoo Med Proscraper Rotating Powerhead (270gph)
Seaclone 100gallon Protein Skimmer
Rena 100 gallon heater
3 x 40watt flourescent tubes
40lbs live rock
30lbs base rock
20lbs live sand
60 pounds aragonite

120 watts lighting
1320gph flow (about 22-23 turnover)

I have had the tank up and running for a few days, but I wanna make sure i am doing eveyrthing right, i am planning on doing a FOWLR for now and then later on moving to reef tank. I will be purchasing a 265 watta compact flourescent hood soon too. I dont know what fish i will be keeping or anything, but is it ok if i dont set up a sump? I want to but my tank sint drilled for it and my dad doesnt think i should make one. How my power heads are set up are the aquaclear on on corner pointing towards the middle front, rotating on on opposite end pointing to middle front, and the two rena are on spray bars pointing straight forward, so the whole tank is getting water flow. any other suggestions on what to do, what to buy, anything! Help me make a really good tank, i really want to make my tank work out, this is my first saltwater tank. any ideas or critisism or anything would be greatly appreciated! Also ideas on what colorful fish to keep woudl be appreciated too!

 

[SkiFletch]

Well, the best thing I can suggest is make sure everything cures before you start adding life forms. Set yourself up with some good test kits and go to town. Have you taken any methods aside from liverock to try and counter nitrates in your water? If not, you have to make sure you increase your bioload VERY slowly and make sure you have plenty of cleanup critters. Be careful when selecting them to try and avoid selecting those that munch on coralline algae.

 

[Aquascaper]

If you're not drilling the tank for a sump then use the externals as mini-sumps and fill them with live rock (as and when you afford it if needs be). This will majorly benefit your tank and help reduce nitrates, thus improving water quality

 

[ANIM4L]

wait can i fill my rena xp2 and xp3 with live rock??? that would be awesome! but can i, or should i keep them with bio stuff?

also my water temp is around 83 and the heater is set at 76, so i was thiking the pump are heating up too much, but they arent warm to the touch, so i turned on my fan and uncovered the tank, and it dropped to 80.5, any other way to lower it? i got a new heater the marineland stealth to try that out and see if that helps, may be the rena is broken?! also, i am switching out the aquaclear for 2 supersweep powerheads

 

[SkiFletch]

well, when the water is up to 83, does the heater run? by that I mean, is the little heat light on? I've never seen an affordable aquarium heater yet whose setpoint didn't drift off-scale during my lifetime. This JUST happened to me yesterday in my freshwater. Came home, poor fish were all sluggish and hangin out at the surface. Freaked me out a bit. Didnt see any signs of disease, and then I opened the hood and felt the heat coming off it. Was 88 degrees in there with the heater still running. So I unplugged it, dropped the temp, turned it back on, and lowered the setpoint to where I wanted.

 

[ANIM4L]

well i switched out my heater, ran it, and no the rena heater's light wasnt on, i took off the top, so its an open tank since nothing is in it, ran my fan in the room, and set the heater for around 76, the temp fo the water with the fan on is 77 degrees i guess i fixed it, so it was either the heater or the aquaclear, but i do know the the heater, after it was layting on my florr, unplugged for 1 hour, was really hot to the touch... may be the light wasnt on but it was still running ! yikes!

But ya, can i fill my rena cannisters with live rock

 

[SkiFletch]

not only can you, but you should

 

[Aquascaper]

Using Media in externals creates huge amounts of Nitrates both in freshwater and saltwater setups alike. The Bio Media needs occasionaly cleaning and partial water changes need to be done to remove the build up of Nitrates in the tank. If you remove all the Bio Media (I'm not going through this in detail again so just search around and you'll find it all somewhere) and replace it with live rock you effectively remove Nitrates and thus increase water quality and reduce the need for partial water changes (notice I said reduce - not remove). You also don't need to keep shutting off the externals and clean them as the live rock is self sustaining.

 

[ANIM4L]

ok so i should go ahead and put some live rock in the cannisters of a rena xp3? sounds good to me if that is h3wat you are suggesting! what should i do with the xp2? should i keep it with it as carbon and filter pads to get debris? or should i do LR in that too? If i did LR in both, what gets the debris?

also, if i do LR in the cannisters, how often should i clean them out? and how do i do that so i dont kill the rock (how long can it live with no water? or do i put it in the tank or a bucket or something?)

sorry about all the questions!

 

[SkiFletch]

Scavengers get rid of debris. Shrimps, snails, worms, etc. The LR shouldnt need much cleaning, but if you have to, rinse it in tank water. I'm not planning on using sponge filtration in my setup with its propensity to house excessive nitrate producing bacteria. I'll have a few large-screen mechanical filters where I can setup carbon if I need to, but I wont be using carbon on a day-to day basis, only as chemical filtration requires (meds, etc)

 

[ANIM4L]

ok so if i can somehow get LR in the cannister filter, then that would be the way to go... i will make both of them have LR in them then, and since they have compartments, i will leave a compartment open in each incase i ever need to do carbon, but i will set them up with LR today (so glad i have hook ups at a local fish store! Huge discounts lol) and then i rinse them may be once every two months in a bucket of TANK water right? sound good to everyone?

 

[SkiFletch]

Sounds like a plan to me. The hookup's nice isnt it?

 

[ANIM4L]

ya i wanted to do saltwater cuz i had a lot fo stuff for it anyways laying around, and cuz of this hook up i have there i got 80lbs of live rock for around 200 bucks, 80lbs of sand (half aragonite and live) for like 50, and then things here and there, im going down there now to get small peices of live rock to fit in the filter, i dont want to cram it right, i want water to freely flow through it, correct?

also, kinda off topic, but i want to get this 260 watt compact lighting system for my tank, will that be enough light for hard corals? 2 actinic and 2 10k daylights, plus 6 leds for nighttime. also does anyone use chemicals? i didnt know if i should or not and what brands are good and reliable

 

[SkiFletch]

should be more than enough lighting and yeah, dont cram the filters to overflowing, but keep a decent amount of rock in there. as for the chemicals, stay away from pH adjusters, etc. something like purple up is good for corals and most corraline algae. the general rule of thumb with chemicals is: dont use anything to alter pH, dont use anything that you cant easily and reliably test for, and dont use anything that various organisms in your tank dont need/consume

 

[ANIM4L]

ok thanks, so how much rock shoudl i sue for the cannisters? what owuld happen if i put live rock at the bottom compartment and have the rest be lava rock ro something, so they eventualyl become live rock? or would that not work?

what do you think i should do?