BrunoL
Community Member
Hey All,
It's time to start a little tank log. I'm a long time tropical freshwater fish keeper, but recently pulled the gun on a 2nd, salt water tank.
----- update 10/04/2024 -----
In terms of hardware, I run:
----- Log starts below -----
I got a decent deal on a Waterbox 20. I got some extra goodies with it to make it a full project.
I also picked up some other essentials, as well as a bucket of Red Sea Coral Pro salt and 9kg of CaribSea Special Grade sand.
Finally, I had a load of Seachem Matrix left over from my fresh water, as well as a little bag of Purigen.
I put some RO/DI water in the tank last night, without salt, just to let it run in and check for leaks. No leaks, so all good.
After reading some reviews, I decided to not add the bioballs and I replaced them with the Matrix instead, I droppped that in the back with the Purigen and put the sponges on top of it. I'm still using the filter sock but I'm pretty sure I'll be replacing that.t. The filtersock seems like it'll be a drag to clean and for some reason, it keeps popping up ... Maybe because it's still new. I dropped the heater in the 3rd section with the pump.
Once the hardware installed, I salted it up and oh boy. I respected the quantities indicated on the bucket and ended up with my salinity at 1029. I figured no problem. I took out some water and topped up with RO/DI, let it run for about an hour and checked again ... This time I came in at 1021. I guess it'll take some getting used to understand just how much salt it can take and what the effects will be. I've been adding 25gr of salt every hour and at the time I'm writing this, salinity sits at 1025. I'll try and get another point out of it before going to bed.
After adding the salt this morning and while waiting for it to mix in, I headed to my LFS to pick up some rock. They propose some rock stocked in the back of the shop but after a lot of talking and sheepishly asking, she let me fish about 7.5kg or 16.5lbs of Indonesian live rock out of the store's display tank's sump. It's hard to tell from the pictures but it's one big chunky rock, one small one and two flat ones. The idea being that I'll use the hammer on the flat ones to make the lot in to something nice. I also got a little bag of copepods, on the side there. I dumped those in the middle back area with the filter media. I figure they'll make their way through the tank anyway and there's probably loads of other stuff on the rock. Lastly, I picked up a little bit of reef epoxy to do the scaping, and a bottle of Aquaforest Bio S, nitrifying bacteria to further kick start the cycling process.
As it was getting a little late and I didn't want to keep the rock in the box for too long, I chucked them in the water without scaping. I guess I know what I'll be doing tomorrow ...
I did notice that there's a lot of movement on these rocks. After about 10-15 minutes in the water I've spotted at least 4-5 little bristle stars and I'm pretty sure I saw some type of a worm, judging by some other posts on there, a small bristle worm. By the time I got my phone out to take a picture, it had crawled back in to the rock. This actually brings me to a question, I had my powerhead running on 100% as I wanted the flow to help mix the salt in. I saw one bristle star get sucked in and get chopped. They are tiny though, like a 1 cent piece arms (do they have arms, legs or tentacles??) included so I don't think it matters but I was just wondering if I should shrug that off, or worry about it. I've turned the pump down to 30% now that the salinity is practically sorted.
As of right now, the tank looks like this. There's still some air bubbles on the glass, I'll be giving that a rub down tomorrow. I'll be sure to add some pictures in the following days when I get the scape down.
I'm not sure if the tank will stay there, or if I'm picking up the Waterbox stand.
Now that all that is out of the way, I do have some questions!
Anyway, that's it for tonight, thanks for reading and stay tuned for more updates!
It's time to start a little tank log. I'm a long time tropical freshwater fish keeper, but recently pulled the gun on a 2nd, salt water tank.
----- update 10/04/2024 -----
In terms of hardware, I run:
- Waterbox 20 with inTank chamber 1 media basket
- AI Prime 16HD with flex arm
- AI Nero 3 powerhead
- AI Axis 40 return pump
- Aquael UItra 100W heater
- Tunze 9001 Skimmer
- 2x Amphiprion Ocellaris (regular old clownfish)
- 1x Acreichthys Tomentosus (filefish)
- 5x Nassarius snails
- 4x Astraea snails
- Rasta Zoanthids
- Goblin's Fire Zoanthids
- Rhodactis Forest Fire
- Rhodactis Indosinesis Neon Green
- Caulastrea Ultra Green
- Euphyllia glabrescens Toxic Green
- Entacmaea Quadricolor Sunburst
- Seriatopora caliendrum Bird of Paradise
- Montipora mean streak JF (plate montipora)
- Montipora Setosa (branching montipora)
- Acropora formosa blue
----- Log starts below -----
I got a decent deal on a Waterbox 20. I got some extra goodies with it to make it a full project.
I also picked up some other essentials, as well as a bucket of Red Sea Coral Pro salt and 9kg of CaribSea Special Grade sand.
Finally, I had a load of Seachem Matrix left over from my fresh water, as well as a little bag of Purigen.
I put some RO/DI water in the tank last night, without salt, just to let it run in and check for leaks. No leaks, so all good.
After reading some reviews, I decided to not add the bioballs and I replaced them with the Matrix instead, I droppped that in the back with the Purigen and put the sponges on top of it. I'm still using the filter sock but I'm pretty sure I'll be replacing that.t. The filtersock seems like it'll be a drag to clean and for some reason, it keeps popping up ... Maybe because it's still new. I dropped the heater in the 3rd section with the pump.
Once the hardware installed, I salted it up and oh boy. I respected the quantities indicated on the bucket and ended up with my salinity at 1029. I figured no problem. I took out some water and topped up with RO/DI, let it run for about an hour and checked again ... This time I came in at 1021. I guess it'll take some getting used to understand just how much salt it can take and what the effects will be. I've been adding 25gr of salt every hour and at the time I'm writing this, salinity sits at 1025. I'll try and get another point out of it before going to bed.
After adding the salt this morning and while waiting for it to mix in, I headed to my LFS to pick up some rock. They propose some rock stocked in the back of the shop but after a lot of talking and sheepishly asking, she let me fish about 7.5kg or 16.5lbs of Indonesian live rock out of the store's display tank's sump. It's hard to tell from the pictures but it's one big chunky rock, one small one and two flat ones. The idea being that I'll use the hammer on the flat ones to make the lot in to something nice. I also got a little bag of copepods, on the side there. I dumped those in the middle back area with the filter media. I figure they'll make their way through the tank anyway and there's probably loads of other stuff on the rock. Lastly, I picked up a little bit of reef epoxy to do the scaping, and a bottle of Aquaforest Bio S, nitrifying bacteria to further kick start the cycling process.
As it was getting a little late and I didn't want to keep the rock in the box for too long, I chucked them in the water without scaping. I guess I know what I'll be doing tomorrow ...
I did notice that there's a lot of movement on these rocks. After about 10-15 minutes in the water I've spotted at least 4-5 little bristle stars and I'm pretty sure I saw some type of a worm, judging by some other posts on there, a small bristle worm. By the time I got my phone out to take a picture, it had crawled back in to the rock. This actually brings me to a question, I had my powerhead running on 100% as I wanted the flow to help mix the salt in. I saw one bristle star get sucked in and get chopped. They are tiny though, like a 1 cent piece arms (do they have arms, legs or tentacles??) included so I don't think it matters but I was just wondering if I should shrug that off, or worry about it. I've turned the pump down to 30% now that the salinity is practically sorted.
As of right now, the tank looks like this. There's still some air bubbles on the glass, I'll be giving that a rub down tomorrow. I'll be sure to add some pictures in the following days when I get the scape down.
I'm not sure if the tank will stay there, or if I'm picking up the Waterbox stand.
Now that all that is out of the way, I do have some questions!
- Considering the live sand and the rocks taken out of an established tank, what should I expect in terms of cycling? Will it even need to cycle, considering the live copepods and the live rock from an established sump?
- I didn't get an ATO (yet?), the idea being that I'll be placing a lit to reduce evaporation and that the tank is in my work-from-home office, so I'm basically checking it every day. That said, considering I have the heater in the 3rd chamber, should I be worried about the water level dropping that fast overnight, that the 3rd filter section runs dry? Aside the heater issues, a drop like that would probably have an impact on my salinity levels no? The room the tank is it generally sits at about 18C-19C overnight.
- I also didn't get a skimmer, but I've been eyeing the Tunze 9001. I plan on stocking 2 clowns, and a goby / shrimp combo. Do I need a skimmer?
- How should I organize the back filter? This is how I've set it up for now. Ideally I upgrade to the InTank basket, but they're such a pain to find / get in Europe.
Anyway, that's it for tonight, thanks for reading and stay tuned for more updates!
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