New to me

[corinateut]

Hello everyone, thank you for having me here! My name is Corina and I’m a 100% beginner Let me tell you little about my journey.


As a little child I had a freshwater tank, and that was back in my county (Romania). So 0 information about saltwater! Now living in UK London.

After Christmas me and my partner went to get some fish for our 5 years old nephew. (he got freshwater tank from Santa)

As a big surprise at shop I fall in love with clownfish and Royal Blue Tang (Nemo & Dory).. we went home and i couldn’t help myself from thinking about them. !!!I’ve tried to do some research but internet is so big and you’ll find so many different opinions.. so I went back to the same shop to get my “research” and information directly from what was going to be my “fish dealer”
He was pretty good and helpful!
I decided I don’t wanna have only Nemo and Dory! Corals are amazing so we need a marine tank suitable for corals.

After 2 days and almost 0 knowledge I got my Red Sea max nano peninsula tank (100L)

it was a bit tricky for me to install the tank (sump) and understand the function of each component. But in the end everything was in place and apparently working.

let me give you a little idea of what I have inside:
10 kg of Live Rock
10kg Live sand

after 6 days. Ammonia, Nitite and Nitrate were on normal parameters (0 i think, don’t judge me. My partner is taking care of “checking the tank”)
We added 2 snails , 2 hermit crabs and one blood shrimp. of course with approval from the shop.
After a day of adding them my tank, was full with floating sand and I noticed that my pump is blowing the sand from inside of the Chamber (if that make sense)

When I added the live sand I didn’t rinse it.
I panicked thinking we done something wrong so I start looking around in chambers and moving things around.
I noticed that my micron filter bag was full with sand so I washed.
I noticed that my skimmer pump is making that foam but not reaching the top container (to be collected)
In the chamber of Circulation pump i have that Bubble trap sponge and when I tried to remove it the water was filthy ( full with white stuff and sand.

1. Should i wash the filter bag with tap water or saltwater?
2. Should I add more water in skimmer so that organic waste can be collected?
3. I have a carbon bag. That needs to be changed after a while?
4. The primary Chamber where is the pump. What is wrong? Is this normal? Is not much movement there but the water is “dirty”.
do I need to wash that bubble sponge? (Tap water?)
5. Apart of Ammonia, No2& no3 what else do I need to check. Keeping in mind we are planning to add corals
6. My live rock is growing little plants ( some of them are cute) do I need to do something about them?
7. Any recommendations for live stock shop online?

!Planning to get a refractometer- any recommendations?

so sorry for the long post. And I hope, you guys won’t struggle to understand what I am saying. (2nd language and new in saltwater hobby)

Have a nice evening!

 

[ShepherdReefer]

Hello there, and welcome to the channel. What kind of skimmer are you using? You can wash the bag in freshwater or salt water, but just I use tap water. Adding sand after the setup will take some time for the sand to settle. What kind of sand did you use?

 

[corinateut]

Hi ShepherdReefer
The skimmer is the stock one from red sea max nano peninsula. I will attach a photo. The sand was added at the beginning along with live rock. First day the water was cloudy but after 2 day everything was settled. For 5/6days water was clear but this morning I noticed so many particles of sand floating around and being in the pump chamber. (Can be because of critters?)

thank you

 

[phildoingthings]

Hi ShepherdReefer
The skimmer is the stock one from red sea max nano peninsula. I will attach a photo. The sand was added at the beginning along with live rock. First day the water was cloudy but after 2 day everything was settled. For 5/6days water was clear but this morning I noticed so many particles of sand floating around and being in the pump chamber. (Can be because of critters?)

thank you

Have patience... and continue to test your parameters. Your tank will cycle by first having a spike in ammonia, then ammonia will go away and turn into Nitrite, and then nitrite into nitrate. When your test reads 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite your cycle is done. (typically) What type of salt water did you use to start the tank? Usually i would say avoid shrimp in the beginning stages as they are prone to getting sick and dying during the cycle.