new tank set up quaetions

[Griff911]

As you can see I set up my 90 corner tank. I was able to get a little over a 5 gallon bucket of 15 year live rock to add to my old indo. Its been 12 years and I forget almost everything. Bank in the day I met with Charles Delbeck and Julian Sprung when they wrote the first reef keepers bible, but that was decades ago so I'm a complete newbie.

So I filled a 45 gallon trashcan and brought the salinity up and let it run for a day before I loaded into the tank. The rest of the water was mixed and put right in. I added some Brightwell XLM starter as per the stores recommendation, and something else that I forgot. Got a KH test kit and it took 10 drops to change the color, so Is that the level then a 10?
I got some coralline gro but don't really know what the correct dose is, so I'm kinda frustrated that I feel like I should be doing more.

I'm all about the big picture, and the little that I have picked up by watching the BRS videos has helped me learn to be disciplined with wanting to rush everything.

What should I be doing next. I have not tested and level yet other than the KH which I don't understand. I'm committed to spend the right money on the right products at the right time, so I just need a gameplan to follow and execute on. I may try to get a few more live rocks to just fill out my plan white indo.

Any and all suggestions welcome please. Thx so much its fun to be getting back to something my family loved so much and I want to make it awesome with some nice fish and a few soft corals.

 

[Lavey29]

Looks like you are off to a good start maybe dose a little ammonia and see if your live rock kicks in and produces nitrates for you. I would keep the lights off for a few months as your tank develops biodiversity and then add coral. Fish can go without light once you are sure it's cycled.

 

[LiverockRocks]

As you can see I set up my 90 corner tank. I was able to get a little over a 5 gallon bucket of 15 year live rock to add to my old indo. Its been 12 years and I forget almost everything. Bank in the day I met with Charles Delbeck and Julian Sprung when they wrote the first reef keepers bible, but that was decades ago so I'm a complete newbie.

So I filled a 45 gallon trashcan and brought the salinity up and let it run for a day before I loaded into the tank. The rest of the water was mixed and put right in. I added some Brightwell XLM starter as per the stores recommendation, and something else that I forgot. Got a KH test kit and it took 10 drops to change the color, so Is that the level then a 10?
I got some coralline gro but don't really know what the correct dose is, so I'm kinda frustrated that I feel like I should be doing more.

I'm all about the big picture, and the little that I have picked up by watching the BRS videos has helped me learn to be disciplined with wanting to rush everything.

What should I be doing next. I have not tested and level yet other than the KH which I don't understand. I'm committed to spend the right money on the right products at the right time, so I just need a gameplan to follow and execute on. I may try to get a few more live rocks to just fill out my plan white indo.

Any and all suggestions welcome please. Thx so much its fun to be getting back to something my family loved so much and I want to make it awesome with some nice fish and a few soft corals.

Welcome back to the hobby!
The tank looks good for being young, nice call on using 15 yr old LR! To boost biodiversity you might consider adding some ocean aquacultured base rock to your sump if you have one. Your sand depth looks great, but you could also mix in diver harvested live sand to bring in micro organisms.

 

[Griff911]

Forgot to mention I put one bag of caribsea live sand is as well after I washed my old sand for about 30 minutes.

 

[N1tew0lf1212]

Welcome back. You will wanna test for ammonia nitrite and nitrates to start out. Salifert makes some easy testers but i thoroughly enjoy my hanna checkers makes things really easy tells you a digital reading for nitrates. I would go with the high range nitrate checker there. Like stated above add some ammonia and see if the live rock will get a good turn around to nitrates. Once you dose ammonia i believe its 2ppm and your tank can turn it to 0 in 24 hours you should be good to go. Start with hardy fish and some cuc and dont be discouraged by the ugly phase. You will get some algae growth (ugly phase) be slow about inroducing lights 2to4 hours and slowly increase over the next few weeks. This will help with algae. And ask as many questions as you can i know a lot of people here want to make sure you run a successful reef and care about your outcome. Welcome to r2r

 

[N1tew0lf1212]

Looks like you are off to a good start maybe dose a little ammonia and see if your live rock kicks in and produces nitrates for you. I would keep the lights off for a few months as your tank develops biodiversity and then add coral. Fish can go without light once you are sure it's cycled.

Agree with the lights as stated in my post slow and steady with them couldnt remember how long i waited and what my increasement scale was but i would agree with @Lavey29 take your time with them.

 

[SlugSnorter]

As you can see I set up my 90 corner tank. I was able to get a little over a 5 gallon bucket of 15 year live rock to add to my old indo. Its been 12 years and I forget almost everything. Bank in the day I met with Charles Delbeck and Julian Sprung when they wrote the first reef keepers bible, but that was decades ago so I'm a complete newbie.

So I filled a 45 gallon trashcan and brought the salinity up and let it run for a day before I loaded into the tank. The rest of the water was mixed and put right in. I added some Brightwell XLM starter as per the stores recommendation, and something else that I forgot. Got a KH test kit and it took 10 drops to change the color, so Is that the level then a 10?
I got some coralline gro but don't really know what the correct dose is, so I'm kinda frustrated that I feel like I should be doing more.

I'm all about the big picture, and the little that I have picked up by watching the BRS videos has helped me learn to be disciplined with wanting to rush everything.

What should I be doing next. I have not tested and level yet other than the KH which I don't understand. I'm committed to spend the right money on the right products at the right time, so I just need a gameplan to follow and execute on. I may try to get a few more live rocks to just fill out my plan white indo.

Any and all suggestions welcome please. Thx so much its fun to be getting back to something my family loved so much and I want to make it awesome with some nice fish and a few soft corals.

live or life rock?


a few tips:

Consider an ATO to keep salinity good

do not use tap water for anything

make sure ammonia is 0, other params will be weird while cycling so don't worry about them

API kits are notoriously inaccurate

Add one fish at a time

Make sure you heat up water to tank temp when doing WCs.

Don't mix WCs by hand

 

[Griff911]

Thanks for the heads up but some most of your acronym's are going right over my head.

What ato?
API kits?
I'm using light less than an hour a day, and will for months. I also added something called prime.
I want to order digital testers for whatever they would help me with, so what do I order and from where? I got the average kit from the store which has the basic 3 or 4 things. What else should I buy?

 

[N1tew0lf1212]

Thanks for the heads up but some most of your acronym's are going right over my head.

What ato?
API kits?
I'm using light less than an hour a day, and will for months. I also added something called prime.
I want to order digital testers for whatever they would help me with, so what do I order and from where? I got the average kit from the store which has the basic 3 or 4 things. What else should I buy?

You can buy hanna checkers on amazon they come in a kit or as individuals i bought them as individuals so i could get the nitrate hr checker and i would def. Go with that for nitrate. Alk ph and calcium and phosphates all are available as well.

 

[N1tew0lf1212]

Ato means automatic top off.
Api is just a brand of test kits if you go with the hanna checkers you wont even have to worry about those.

 

[N1tew0lf1212]

These are hanna checkers. These are also the ones i have bought

 

[SlugSnorter]

Thanks for the heads up but some most of your acronym's are going right over my head.

What ato?
API kits?
I'm using light less than an hour a day, and will for months. I also added something called prime.
I want to order digital testers for whatever they would help me with, so what do I order and from where? I got the average kit from the store which has the basic 3 or 4 things. What else should I buy?

you cannot use prime while cycling, nor to treat tapwater. tapwater cannot be used in a SW tank.

ATO = auto top off, it checks the level of you water, and once it drops below a certain amount (due to evaporation) it adds more water back in.

API is a brand of test kits, they are known to be inaccurate.

add some fish food into your tank, if there is nothing breaking down all the good bacteria will die.

 

[Griff911]

Is this a good starter kit and a fair price.

Hanna Reef Professional Checker Kit V2 - Hanna | eBay

Monitor the health of your saltwater reef aquarium with the Reef Professional Kit for Alkalinity (dKH), Calcium, Phosphorus (ULR phosphate), Salinity & Tempurature. Water quality is the most important aspect of a healthy reef aquarium.

www.ebay.com

 

[N1tew0lf1212]

Is this a good starter kit and a fair price.

Hanna Reef Professional Checker Kit V2 - Hanna | eBay

Monitor the health of your saltwater reef aquarium with the Reef Professional Kit for Alkalinity (dKH), Calcium, Phosphorus (ULR phosphate), Salinity & Tempurature. Water quality is the most important aspect of a healthy reef aquarium.

www.ebay.com

Yes it is but it does come with limited regeants and if you buy the separately you will get more as well as you are going to want the hr nitrate kit which doesnt come in that set. They equal around the same price buying them seperate but you get more tests buy the ones in this picture.

 

[N1tew0lf1212]

Plus i am sure you already have a way of testing salinity? If not a simple refractometer would be fine.

 

[N1tew0lf1212]

Hope this helps.

 

[Griff911]

So here is the update. Did first water test today. PH 8.4, Ammonia .50ppm, 0 Nitrites, Nitrates 10ppm, KH 11.

I believe we have new coralline developing on my old 12 years dead dry Indo from the live rock I put in 11 days ago. I did not even rub any coralline from the live rock to my old Indo. Is this a normal timeframe?

I know we need to wait for ammonia to go to 0, but how far away am I at .50ppm? Is it just a mater of days, or do I need to dose something? I did put a frozen shrimp in this morning. I am virtually using no light. Should I be using the blue light for coralline or only when I actually have live corals in the tank?

I also ordered all the Hana Checkers today as well.