75 gallon Start up

[Nasabeau]

Sounds good. Good call on the dr tims

Like, the only thing I can think of that would cause this is, while I don't know much about salt water, in freshwater aquariums you typically have two different bacterial species, one turns ammonia into nitrite, one turns nitrite into nitrate. with my ammonia low and nitrite high, it seems to me like some of the bacteria from before might not have taken, or not taken as well as the other, and its not possible to overdose bacteria, so that's where my logic is. I do have some, because I do have significant nitrate, but They clearly need some help

 

[Shanel]

Your on the right track. Just give it time. Bacteria colonies take a little while to Mature. Try not to chase numbers too much just make slow adjustments. In the end it will balance itself out.

 

[Nasabeau]

Your on the right track. Just give it time. Bacteria colonies take a little while to Mature. Try not to chase numbers too much just make slow adjustments. In the end it will balance itself out.

I know. what's always terrifying to me about fish is that if I change anything to drastically, I can shock the fish, and kill them, but if I don't take action, they might die of toxicity. I decided to go with adding more bacteria because that seemed like a nice medium. its not going to instantly neutralize stuff in the water and risk shocking the fish, its going to slowly help take out the undesirable chemicals. these first few weeks are always a bit rough for me, especially when doing fish in cycling, because I want to do my best for the little guys!

 

[Shanel]

You doing a great job!

 

[Nasabeau]

You doing a great job!

Thank you, that means a lot

 

[Nasabeau]

So, an update to my build. I have added 2 astrea snails and 1 coral beauty angelfish bringing the total inhabitants of the tank to 2 trochus snails, 2 astrea snails, 3 nassarus snails, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 hermit crab, 2 clown fish, and one coral beauty angelfish. so far all my parameters are mostly stable, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 20, calcium 400, phosphate <0.25 ppm, KH 12, pH 7.9-8.1 ish, and I've been slowly raising my salinity which is now right on the line between 1.024 and 1.025. pictures of the angel to come, but since he just went in a few days ago he's been a tad shy, so I want to give him some space to adjust before sticking a camera in his face

Edit: There are actually only 3 Nassarius snails, I completely forgot that one died D:

 

[Nasabeau]

Update, I have purchased a used reef octopus classic 90

 

[Seaspirit]

So, I got my new Test kit and you all will be happy to know that it was in fact a bad batch of test solution on the calcium, I am currently at ~420. My phosphate is higher than I would like, so I will put in that pad as well (0.25ppm). however my main concern now is apparently yesterday my Nitrite spiked! I have no idea why, but will be taking corrective measures on that immediately

Edit: Tips on how to handle that beyond water changes would be helpful. I'm at about 1 ppm. I know in fresh water when they're cycling thats not ideal but not an emergency, but don't know for salt water. Are there nitrite removers that are safe to use with salt water?

Just from what I’ve read on the Prime bottle, it is more for making your water safe (eliminating chloramines, etc) than helping with nitrites. For lowering nitrites it’s all about your healthy bacterial population, which I’ve heard takes about a year to fully establish. Adding good bacteria should help - I use Microbacter Clean or Microbacter 7 or something like Stability when changing water or taking a lot of bacteria out of tank (changing filter sock or whatever). Nature should balance you out just fine.

 

[Nasabeau]

Just from what I’ve read on the Prime bottle, it is more for making your water safe (eliminating chloramines, etc) than helping with nitrites. For lowering nitrites it’s all about your healthy bacterial population, which I’ve heard takes about a year to fully establish. Adding good bacteria should help - I use Microbacter Clean or Microbacter 7 or something like Stability when changing water or taking a lot of bacteria out of tank (changing filter sock or whatever). Nature should balance you out just fine.

yeah, I ended up adding more bacteria and it levelled itself out

 

[Nasabeau]

update for those who've been following: after the last water change, my salinity has been raised to 35ppt (1.026), with my other parameters fairly stable. the only issue I have is really a non issue, phosphate and nitrate will slowly rise over two weeks then I'll change the water and they'll be fine again. getting ready for corals and anemones after Christmas (hopefully getting a better reef light for Christmas, if not just going to buy one. looking at the Current USA Orbit Marine Aquarium LED Light, 36 to 48-Inch with the IC Loop Bluetooth Controller Module) then throwing in some test corals. fish in tank right now all get along fine for the moment, I have a coral beauty angelfish, a royal gramma, a yellow tail blue damsel, and a pair of clownfish. I also have a tomini tang on order. my cleaner shrimp either died and was eaten or was killed and eaten, which was sad, but my hermit seems to be doing fine so my plan is to use more hermits as scavengers in the tank. I lost two* Nassarius snails, not sure why, but given that the 8 assorted trochus and astrea snails are happy as can be and tearing up the diatoms, I am inclined to believe the Carnivorous snails were just not getting enough food. but overall, everthing is shaping up good comming in here at the almost 2 months mark
*one confirmed dead, the other popped out of its shell, scooted around for weeks, but haven't seen him in a long time so I am assuming he died

 

[Marine Life]

So, I come from a background in freshwater, so I hope I'm not screwing anything up too badly. I have a 75 gallon tank (pictures to come) that I just picked up, using live sand, one live rock and about 40 pounds of dry live rock. no fish yet. right now I've got my water in, warmed to 79 degrees F, and salinity dialled in to 32ppt (1.023). ammonia is at 0.5 ppm with Nitrite at 0 and Nitrate at about 5ppm. calcium is about 260, pH of 8.1 (planning on putting in a buffer to bring it to 8.2) and I don't have my phosphate test kit yet (lfs doesn't have one in stock). mostly just waiting on that ammonia to come down before going out and picking up my first couple of fish! my plan is to start with a couple of clowns and work out from there. I'm using a Marineland Magniflow 360 canister filter and have two Aquatop Maxflow CPS-1 powerheads (total gph of flow around 872 gph, turnover about 11.6, filter turns over the water about 5 times per hour (plan on adding another powerhead when its time to add coral, planning on soft corals)). any advice would be super appreciated

Following

 

[Nasabeau]

Following

any thoughts on the light I am looking at?

 

[Nasabeau]

Final Update for 2020: Its been a rough start, not going to lie. I lost all but one fish to brook. my build now includes a 27gallon QT where my blue damsel lives and my DT is running fallow, but for christmas I received a Current USA Loop light and 2 controllable powerheads, one 1080 and the other 660 gph. I also plan on changing out the filter for one with a UV sterilizer.