My Saltwater Journey

jwd911

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I swore I'd never do saltwater again!

I'm a freshwater guy and have been in the hobby for about 10 years off and on. About a year ago I setup a 20g saltwater tank and spent the bare minimum on everything. I used tap water! It was a disaster and I shut it down after a month or two.

Fast forward to today and I'm back at it again but I'm doing everything the right way. I sold everything that had to do with freshwater and now I'm doing saltwater. I'm going from a 125g and 75g freshwater setup to a 32g Coralife Biocube. My fish hobby resides in my office at work so maintenance is going to be so much easier now.

I'm going to update this thread as time goes on and also give you guys a link to everything I've bought and plan to buy. I've done a lot of research and plan to do much much more. Feel free to critique and tell me what I"m doing wrong at any time. I'm totally new to saltwater and need your help.

Here is what I have bought so far.

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/fiji-pink-arag-alive-live-reef-sand.html Sand

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/project-reef-rock-2-1-walt-smith.html Rock

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/koralia-nano-425.html Powerhead

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/4-stage-75gpd-plus-ro-di-system-bulk-reef-supply.htmlRO/DI

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/finnex-hmo-heater-w-digital-led-controller.html Heater w/controller

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/red-sea-coral-pro-salt.html Salt

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06X958X7Z/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Tank

https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/instant-ocean-holdfast-epoxy-stick-bonding-solution Rock glue

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/instant-ocean-bio-spira.html Bacteria

I plan to buy:

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/tunze-osmolator-nano-3152-auto-top-off.html Auto top off

More to come. I want to buy a skimmer but I haven't found one that everyone is sold on, I don't want to make mods to my tank, and honestly with good husbandry you don't have to have one on such a small tank. With that said, I DO want one and WILL buy one when I find the right one.


Here is where I'm at in the process. I've put together the stand that goes with the tank. I bought another 32g brute trash can and I'm making RO/DI water now to keep on hand. My other brute can has about 15 gallons of mixed salt water and I have my dry reef rock curing. I have a powerhead and heater in there as well. This will allow all of the phosphates and other stuff to leach off into the water. Most people do this for weeks or months depending on what type of rock they have. I'm still trying to find out how long I need to do this for. This rock is dry but dry means more than one thing. You can have a dry rock that was once live and has dead organsisms on it that will leach nitrates and other unwanted stuff in your water. Then there is dry rock that is man made and hasn't been in a reef environment. My rock is man made and doesn't have any dead organisms in it. Also, it has been painted. Mine is different from most peoples rock and I really don't know how long I need to cure it for. A good rule of thumb is to test the water it's curing in and if the water is free of phosphates and other materials then you should be good to go.

That's where I'm at now. Once my rock cures I'll use a bonding paste to bond them all together and add them to the tank. I'll mix up my water and fill the tank. I'm going to kick start it with a bottle of Bio-spira and go the fishless cycle route and add ammonia.

I'm planning on doing an LPS coral tank with a few fish. My favorite coral has to be frogspawn and hammer corals. I also like zoas.

Here are a few questions I'm trying to figure out so if you would like to chime in please do so.

I don't know how I'm going to stack my rock. This is an issue because I'm going to bond them together.
Here is a par graph for this tank
61jopgxmhgl-_sl1057_-jpg.1254632


I've read that this tank's light is decent and will grow LPS and softies well but suffers when it comes to SPS. I'm not really that interested in SPS anyway so that isn't that big of an issue. My guess is to stack the rocks to where most of the real estate is in the middle of the tank where the LPS will thrive (according to par levels). Basically, if I stack the rocks like a tower from top to bottom the top and bottom won't get used a lot. The light is about 19-20" above the sand bed.

Another thing I'm trying to decide on is what media to add. I have bought Seachem's Purigen and Phosguard but I might return the Phosguard because of people saying it can add unwanted material to the water once it's used up. I believe it was some sort of metal that I read. I need to know what media to add. I'm thinking I'll just add the purigen.

Also, I've read that you should do your cycle without any media in the filter so you cycle your rocks and make them live and THEN add media. Is that correct?

Lastly, I've been told that since this is man made rock rather than cure the rock I should start the cycle in the tank with the rock. I've been curing the rock for about 24 hours now and I just tested the water using API's master saltwater kit. My pH is 8, nitrate is 0, and ammonia is 0.25 ppm. I'll go buy a phosphate test kit and see if the rocks are leaching PO4. If they're not then I should just add the rock and start my cycle?

I'll keep adding to this thread. Please feel free to critique or fill me in on things. I'm totally new to the saltwater side of the hobby.

Thanks!
 
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jwd911

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Also, my 3 light channels are setup as follows:

1. 8am-8pm Daylight LEDs
2. 7:30am-8am Color Enhancing LEDs (automatic sunrise/sunset)
3.6:30am-10pm Blue LEDs (automatic moonrise/moonset)

Am I on the right track to grow LPS with that schedule?
 

Tahoe61

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Hi and welcome to R2R. :)

Great detail to your post.

As for the ATO, now I have had 2 Tunze and both failed on me, you've got to really clean the sensor often. Just recently got the Smart ATO, and wow such a better product.
Lighting schedule looks good. I have to google the stock LED's this tank comes with.
I use Phosguard in a 45 and I like the product.
If you when you get a skimmer, the Aquamax HOB is probably pretty popular but you have to remove the lid. Personally I like the Tunze 9001 doc, I do not know the foot print but it might work.

Again welcome.
 
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jwd911

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Hi and welcome to R2R. :)

Great detail to your post.

As for the ATO, now I have had 2 Tunze and both failed on me, you've got to really clean the sensor often. Just recently got the Smart ATO, and wow such a better product.
Lighting schedule looks good. I have to google the stock LED's this tank comes with.
I use Phosguard in a 45 and I like the product.
If you when you get a skimmer, the Aquamax HOB is probably pretty popular but you have to remove the lid. Personally I like the Tunze 9001 doc, I do not know the foot print but it might work.

Again welcome.


Thank you!

I'll check out that ATO and skimmer.
 

Mike N

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Welcome! I have a 32 biocube at my office as well.

I can't speak to the stock LED ability to grow coral since I have none yet. I was planning on upgrading down the road anyway.
There's no harm in running media during the cycle. You'd definitely want to run floss or sponge of some kind, but the carbon and/or GFO is not really necessary since you're curing the rock. Like I said though, it won't hurt to run.
I use 1" thick filter floss + chemipure elite + phosguard (I had some phosphate leeching issues)
As far as skimmers, check out hydor nano slim skim. Fits nicely, no modifications.
I'd recommend the Hanna phosphate and alkalinity checkers from BRS. Salifert for nitrate.
Also, you might want to consider another 425 powerhead or a single more powerful one. I started with a koralia 425 and had all kinds of flow issues. 1150 evo in there now.
 
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jwd911

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Welcome! I have a 32 biocube at my office as well.

I can't speak to the stock LED ability to grow coral since I have none yet. I was planning on upgrading down the road anyway.
There's no harm in running media during the cycle. You'd definitely want to run floss or sponge of some kind, but the carbon and/or GFO is not really necessary since you're curing the rock. Like I said though, it won't hurt to run.
I use 1" thick filter floss + chemipure elite + phosguard (I had some phosphate leeching issues)
As far as skimmers, check out hydor nano slim skim. Fits nicely, no modifications.
I'd recommend the Hanna phosphate and alkalinity checkers from BRS. Salifert for nitrate.
Also, you might want to consider another 425 powerhead or a single more powerful one. I started with a koralia 425 and had all kinds of flow issues. 1150 evo in there now.


Thank you for the info. I see that you're in Katy, TX. I'm in the Beaumont area about 2 hours from there. I'll have to travel to Houston to get my cleanup crew, fish, and corals. What is the best place?
 

Mike N

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Thank you for the info. I see that you're in Katy, TX. I'm in the Beaumont area about 2 hours from there. I'll have to travel to Houston to get my cleanup crew, fish, and corals. What is the best place?
I'd be happy to share my scouting info.
First off, you're going to get a better price buying your CUC online, even with the shipping charge. There are many sources, reefcleaners.org is one I use.
As far as prices go, City Pets on Beechnut has the lowest markup in town. So if you need equipment or supplies, try to get it there.
For livestock, Fish Gallery on Fountainview has probably the best selection. Also cleaner than most other stores in town.
 
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jwd911

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I'd be happy to share my scouting info.
First off, you're going to get a better price buying your CUC online, even with the shipping charge. There are many sources, reefcleaners.org is one I use.
As far as prices go, City Pets on Beechnut has the lowest markup in town. So if you need equipment or supplies, try to get it there.
For livestock, Fish Gallery on Fountainview has probably the best selection. Also cleaner than most other stores in town.


Awesome, thanks for the info. I planned on the Fish Gallery and Oceanlife Aquariums.
 
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jwd911

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Here is the tank so far. I put the water in an hour ago so it's still cloudy. I had a rough time with the bonding putty for the rocks. There wasn't enough solid spots between two rocks to putty them and make a firm hold. So in the end I just stacked them to where they are really solid without putty. They're leaning up against the back wall which is some sort of firm plastic. I tried moving the rocks and they're really solid so I won't have any problems with a little clown fish pushing them over. It would take a dovii to move them.

dfgh.jpg
 
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