Greblhad
New Member
Hello everyone! I am just now getting into keeping reefs and fish tanks in general so I figured I would start a thread so everyone else who is new can see the steps that I went through in order to start up my tank. I did not know ANYTHING about fishkeeping/reefkeeping coming into this hobby, I merely had the desire to have my own reef tank and was willing to do everything I had to do to keep one. So I will basically lay out what I have done in preparation and keep this thread updated so you can all watch as I learn and get my tank going.
So why did I decide to go with a 20 gallon tank? Well, its because I inherited the tank from a friend and I thought I would take advantage of it. Granted all I inherited was the tank, heater and a small filter, so I quickly learned that I was going to need A LOT more than simply those things in order to keep a nice reef. As soon as I decided that I wanted to keep a reef I began researching and browsing different forums learning as much as possible from others who have successfully been keeping reefs for a long time. Some of you on here may have helped me and not even know it! So after about 2 weeks worth of intense studying/learning about all aspects of reef keeping, I decided to take the next step and purchase everything needed to get my tank started and start up the cycle. This point in time was actually two weeks ago on the 8th. I went out and I bought enough Live Rock to make my aquascape look good as well as provide a good biological filter. I ended up with ~26lbs of live rock and 20lbs of live sand. I also purchased two koralia 425gph power heads and an API saltwater test kit along with a refractometer to measure salinity and keep it at 1.025. I also purchased about 30 gallons of RO/DI water and Red Sea Pro salt mix. So with all of that money spent, I went home and started to set it all up. I poured in my live sand and then started messing around with the rocks to try and make them look nice. Then I poured in enough water to fill the tank and then I put in the salt. I was not really sure about which order would be best, but I figured it is all going to be in the tank eventually so it really shouldn't matter. I also put in the powerheads and the filter (without any media in it) to start mixing it all up. At this point, I have a tank with my sand, rock, powerheads and water in it, and I couldn't see 1 inch into the water because of how cloudy it was. This was the beginning of my cycle.
I started checking my ammonia and nitrate levels after about a day once the water cleared up and I got some readings. I continued to do this for the next 4-5 days and after about 5 days I was getting readings of 0 on ammonia and nitrite and a reading of about 20 with nitrite. So it was at about this time that I went out and purchased my lighting. I bought an AquaticLife 24" 4X24w T5HO. As soon as I plugged that thing in, my tank looked 10 times better than it did with just a regular T8 bulb. Of course, with these new lights, my tank was un prepared and after about a day I started to notice some algae growing on the sand and rocks. So, getting slightly excited because something is actually happening in my tank, I began researching all of the types of algae that happen in tanks and was able to determine that this was actually green hair algae. I also quickly learned that this algae can be very troublesome to people and that it is normally a sign of high nitrates/phosphates and a sudden change/increase in lighting. So the actions I took to start fighting this was to do a 10% water change and then add a clean up crew. So I picked up 12 cerith snails, 2 astrea snails, and 6 little hermit crabs. They all started to eat the algae but after a few more days the patches of algae they were not able to eat just got way to long. I then decided to go to work with my hand and pull of as much as I could. It took me about an hour to get back to seeing the shape of my rocks. I have a picture of my tank below right after I pulled off as much as I could. So at this point in time, my tank has been up for almost 2 weeks and I still have some patches of algae in it. I am going to try and leave the lights off for a few days to let it dye off and see if that fixes it.
TANK INFO
20 gallon tall
26lbs live rock
20lbs live sand
AquaticLife 24" 4x24w T5HO lights
2 x Koralia 425gph
100w heater
8/8/2013 - My tank at the beginning after putting in LR, sand and power heads.
8/20/2013 - My tank after yanking out a bunch of algae.
Keep checking back to this thread for updates!
So why did I decide to go with a 20 gallon tank? Well, its because I inherited the tank from a friend and I thought I would take advantage of it. Granted all I inherited was the tank, heater and a small filter, so I quickly learned that I was going to need A LOT more than simply those things in order to keep a nice reef. As soon as I decided that I wanted to keep a reef I began researching and browsing different forums learning as much as possible from others who have successfully been keeping reefs for a long time. Some of you on here may have helped me and not even know it! So after about 2 weeks worth of intense studying/learning about all aspects of reef keeping, I decided to take the next step and purchase everything needed to get my tank started and start up the cycle. This point in time was actually two weeks ago on the 8th. I went out and I bought enough Live Rock to make my aquascape look good as well as provide a good biological filter. I ended up with ~26lbs of live rock and 20lbs of live sand. I also purchased two koralia 425gph power heads and an API saltwater test kit along with a refractometer to measure salinity and keep it at 1.025. I also purchased about 30 gallons of RO/DI water and Red Sea Pro salt mix. So with all of that money spent, I went home and started to set it all up. I poured in my live sand and then started messing around with the rocks to try and make them look nice. Then I poured in enough water to fill the tank and then I put in the salt. I was not really sure about which order would be best, but I figured it is all going to be in the tank eventually so it really shouldn't matter. I also put in the powerheads and the filter (without any media in it) to start mixing it all up. At this point, I have a tank with my sand, rock, powerheads and water in it, and I couldn't see 1 inch into the water because of how cloudy it was. This was the beginning of my cycle.
I started checking my ammonia and nitrate levels after about a day once the water cleared up and I got some readings. I continued to do this for the next 4-5 days and after about 5 days I was getting readings of 0 on ammonia and nitrite and a reading of about 20 with nitrite. So it was at about this time that I went out and purchased my lighting. I bought an AquaticLife 24" 4X24w T5HO. As soon as I plugged that thing in, my tank looked 10 times better than it did with just a regular T8 bulb. Of course, with these new lights, my tank was un prepared and after about a day I started to notice some algae growing on the sand and rocks. So, getting slightly excited because something is actually happening in my tank, I began researching all of the types of algae that happen in tanks and was able to determine that this was actually green hair algae. I also quickly learned that this algae can be very troublesome to people and that it is normally a sign of high nitrates/phosphates and a sudden change/increase in lighting. So the actions I took to start fighting this was to do a 10% water change and then add a clean up crew. So I picked up 12 cerith snails, 2 astrea snails, and 6 little hermit crabs. They all started to eat the algae but after a few more days the patches of algae they were not able to eat just got way to long. I then decided to go to work with my hand and pull of as much as I could. It took me about an hour to get back to seeing the shape of my rocks. I have a picture of my tank below right after I pulled off as much as I could. So at this point in time, my tank has been up for almost 2 weeks and I still have some patches of algae in it. I am going to try and leave the lights off for a few days to let it dye off and see if that fixes it.
TANK INFO
20 gallon tall
26lbs live rock
20lbs live sand
AquaticLife 24" 4x24w T5HO lights
2 x Koralia 425gph
100w heater
8/8/2013 - My tank at the beginning after putting in LR, sand and power heads.
8/20/2013 - My tank after yanking out a bunch of algae.
Keep checking back to this thread for updates!
