45 Gallon JBJ Build

[BirdGuy21]

Hey everyone,

New to Reef2Reef and new to saltwater, excited to get started and build up my reef. As the title suggests I will be building a 45 gallon JBJ that I got a great deal on on craigslist. Will be picking up the tank this weekend but wanted to share the progress and ask some questions along the way.

I’ll attach some pics as the tank currently is. I’m getting a lot of extras with it. Here’s the list as I can remember off the top of my head:

45 gallon JBJ
Two Red Devil Protein skimmers
Built in refugium growing chaeto
JBJ LED light
Jebao Power Head
ATO
Reef Keeper controller
200 watt heater
BRS dosing pumps & containers
Red Sea test kits
Milwaukee refractometer
Six stage RO/DI
Marine Pure blocks
50 lbs dry rock
GFO Reactor
Bio pellets
45 gallon QT with equip.

Livestock:
Several damsels, one type of goby, CUC, starfish.

There’s a bunch of extras too that I can’t remember off the top of my head. The seller stated he grew both LPS & SPS corals in the tank. I still have a ton to learn, but I’ve gotten some feedback about swapping the substrate to CaribSea Arag-Alive Fiji Pink; anyone have any thoughts or recommendations on sub? The same includes the livestock so I planned on taking them, even though I’ve had people tell me that damsels ultimately are too aggressive to keep anything else with and to ditch them.

Open to any and all suggestions!

 

[James M]

Welcome to reef2reef !!
I would say the only threat I see is the blue damsel

 

[BirdGuy21]

Welcome to reef2reef !!
I would say the only threat I see is the blue damsel

Very newbie moment-are all the fish damsels, excluding the goby?

 

[BirdGuy21]

Another newbie naive question- going to swap the substrate while the tank is apart tomorrow. Do I need to rinse the CarbSea Arag Alive Fiji Pink or just add it straight in? I'm assuming this is going to potentially affect the cycle?

 

[Muttley000]

I don't buy bagged live sand, but I would rinse anyway. Love the burrow the goby made!

 

[BirdGuy21]

I don't buy bagged live sand, but I would rinse anyway. Love the burrow the goby made!

This will be my first time buying the live sand. Going to head down to LFS tonight and see what they have. On the phone they quoted me six bags of Fiji Pink so hoping they still have it.

 

[BirdGuy21]

They had the Fiji Pink! Got 40lbs fresh out of the box. Can already tell I’ll like this more than the black substrate.

 

[SPR1968]

Well the tank looks great so far and thanks for sharing it with us

You might need to rinse the sand in RODI water first to get any dust out, but just read the instructions as some sand can be ‘live sand’ and you don’t want to wash anything that’s needed away.

And welcome to R2R as well!

 

[NY_Caveman]

Since the tank is established I would rinse the live sand. Sand is not nearly as critical to the bioload as the rock and maybe more so, the MarinePure. You have probably already done it so I will just wait for pictures with the new sand. Did you keep the aquascape the same? The seller made great use of those interesting pieces.

 

[Chrisfish]

Welcome to R2R, congratulations on your new tank looking forward to seeing it with the new sand

 

[LBReefer]

Is your rock work new or was it in the tank previously? It looks a little too clean. If it is new, replacing the rock work and sand at the same time may cause your tank to re-cycle.

 

[BirdGuy21]

I actually haven't started yet, I am picking the tank up this morning. The bags say to not rinse the sand but the little bit of water that comes in the bag looks pretty cloudy. I wanted to switch out the aquascape to build a different live rock formation, but I am thinking that may be later on down the road once I get this set up. Upon further thought I realize that's not the best option since it's easier and more stable to build the rock formation on bare bottom and fill the sand in around it. The tank comes with about 50lbs of dry rock that was once used in the tank when the seller had a reef. If I am understanding things correctly I couldn't swap that out without curing the rock first, correct? Which would mean no new aquascape with the rocks today.

The rock work in the pictures is what the seller currently has in the tank and has had for a few months, according to him. I can't find the pictures that he posted of the setup when it was a reef tank but he used different rocks. According to him he de-constructed his reef when he had to travel for work or something and didn't have anyone to take care of it.

 

[Muttley000]

I personally wouldn't risk it changing the rock with livestock in the tank. If you precure some new rock your chances of success would increase greatly but I would still have a plan to move things just in case. I agree on rinsing the sand, I'm not sure how alive it really is anyway. I also agree it is better to add sand after the rockwork if possible, but to be honest I wouldn't let it change your plans. Rockwork can be settled down to the glass afterwards with a little effort.

 

[BirdGuy21]

So have a lot to share and a lot to ask, but one of the more pressing questions is how: what is the ratio of salt to water to mix?
Tank came with fauna marin salt.

 

[NY_Caveman]

So have a lot to share and a lot to ask, but one of the more pressing questions is how: what is the ratio of salt to water to mix?
Tank came with fauna marin salt.

The box of salt usually has some guideline for mixing. You still will have to test it with a hydrometer, refractometer or a device with a probe to measure the salinity. Post what you have and we can figure it out.

 

[BirdGuy21]

Box just says “use as much as required to get to your desired salinity”.

I made a bucket of RO water but according to the tds meter it’s at 77?

 

[NY_Caveman]

If it is Fauna Marine Professional Sea Salt I found this, if you have a digital or jewelers scale.

“Required amount of salt for 35 PSU salinity: 38,5 - 39,5 g Fauna Marin Professional Sea Salt per litre of water.”

https://www.faunamarin.de/en/profes...-with-thes-ame-professional-standards/a-3884/

For what it is worth, I always weigh mine out. Some use by cups or even by eye, but it must be tested. The manufacturers recommend a target, but that is rarely 1.026 in my experience.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Box just says “use as much as required to get to your desired salinity”.

I made a bucket of RO water but according to the tds meter it’s at 77?

Just RO water or RO/DI? What TDS is the tap water?

 

[BirdGuy21]

RO/DI system. Maybe I’m using it wrong? Membrane is about six months old.

TDS from tap:

TDS on batch I’m making now:

Could it be from the heaters in there? The first bucket was made earlier and left out- could that have something to do with it?

 

[NY_Caveman]

It could. There are so many variables and just sitting in a container can add 10 TDS. Getting 526 down to 10 is pretty good I bet. If the membrane and resin are old I would replace them going forward. That is a high TDS to start with so they will wear sooner. For perspective my tap is roughly 35 TDS.