Saltwater Tank set up

[altayeh]

Excited to get started with the hobby. Appreciate some guidance.....
Setting up a Reef 100.3-gallon tank, waterbox, with a sump below. Questions that need some assistance with-

- Getting confused with the cycling process, everyone on youtube has their own method, getting confusing. Just want to do this properly, suggestions, please.

- The process of cycling: do I keep the skimmer and media reactor on during the process. If they are turned off, when do you turn them back on?

- What media should I place in the Media reactor- I have the Nyos Torq.

- How often do you need to check ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium. Which kit is worth getting. In my mind, it would be more cost-effective if you have a kit that checks all the above rather than separate kits that keep adding up the cost of things.

- Do you monitor the ammonia and nitrogen products at the beginning of the tank cycle and later in the life of the tank do you need to focus on other electrolytes?

Thank you

 

[Azedenkae]

Excited to get started with the hobby. Appreciate some guidance.....
Setting up a Reef 100.3-gallon tank, waterbox, with a sump below. Questions that need some assistance with-

- Getting confused with the cycling process, everyone on youtube has their own method, getting confusing. Just want to do this properly, suggestions, please.

- The process of cycling: do I keep the skimmer and media reactor on during the process. If they are turned off, when do you turn them back on?

- What media should I place in the Media reactor- I have the Nyos Torq.

- How often do you need to check ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium. Which kit is worth getting. In my mind, it would be more cost-effective if you have a kit that checks all the above rather than separate kits that keep adding up the cost of things.

- Do you monitor the ammonia and nitrogen products at the beginning of the tank cycle and later in the life of the tank do you need to focus on other electrolytes?

Thank you

You are right that everyone has their own method, which is quite normal for this hobby. Everyone has different goals and different things worked for different people.

I am gonna provide my own version, but before that I just wanna suggest, whether mine, someone else's here, or elsewhere, just select one you like and think makes sense for you, and stick with it, don't change half way through.

For me, cycling is to achieve the goal of establishing enough nitrifiers in the system to ozidize at least all the amount of ammonia produced a day to nitrate. This is generally accepted to be 2ppm ammonia/day, which I find reasonable.

So just gotta culture enough ammonia and nitrite oxidizers for that. That means first introducing them into the tank. They can come from a multitude of sources, including live rock and live sand and so on. Technically you probably have some floating in water and stuff too, but it is faster to introduce them some other way. So yeah, live rock, live sand, etc. Or bottled microbe products. I'd suggest FritzZyme Turbo Start 900.

Now, next is growing them. What do they need to grow? Nitrifiers are autotrophs, and so can make their own organic compounds. So they don't need to 'eat' anything. They still need sulfur, nitrogen, etc. But anyways that should be obtained without having to 'feed' the microbes per se. They use ammonia and nitrite as energy sources, and that is where they come in handy. They don't actually incorporate either into their body, so can process a lot each day.

Simply put, all you need to do then is introduce ammonia. Shrimp, fish food, etc. can work. But I prefer ammonium chloride. It is more controlled, and you are not introducing organic compounds that allow heterotrophs to grow and compete against the nitrifiers you actually want.

So when are you cycled? When you can add 2ppm ammonia and both ammonia and nitrite reads 0 within 24 hours. To be clear, nitrite needs to be super high to be toxic to marine fish. Nonetheless, I just prefer to be sure the nitrifiers can handle all the ammonia and nitrite produced daily.

The best way to do it is, add 2ppm ammonia, let that all be consumed, which will produce nitrite and wait for that to be consumed. Every time both ammonia and nitrite drops to 0, add ammonia again. And yeah, once you measure 0 ammonia and nitrite after dosing 2ppm ammonia, your cycle is done.

That is my take.

[EDIT]

Imo, equipments off. Mechanical and chemical filter also removed. Just biomedia.

 

[P-Dub]

- Getting confused with the cycling process, everyone on youtube has their own method, getting confusing. Just want to do this properly, suggestions, please.
YouTube... a blessing and a curse. So, try this link below...
Cycling an Aquarium
And, this one as well...
The Supreme Guide To Setting Up A Saltwater Reef Aquarium
Personally, I'm old-fashioned and prefer the long and slow method over 3-4 months for cycling.

- The process of cycling: do I keep the skimmer and media reactor on during the process. If they are turned off, when do you turn them back on?
Skimmer off till the cycle completes, IMHO. No need for a media reactor going unless it is set up as a bio-pellet reactor.
- What media should I place in the Media reactor- I have the Nyos Torq.
This depends on what you are trying to accomplish with the reactor... You'll figure that out once the cycle is complete, again, unless you are setting up as a bio-pellet reactor.

- How often do you need to check ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium. Which kit is worth getting. In my mind, it would be more cost-effective if you have a kit that checks all the above rather than separate kits that keep adding up the cost of things.
Read the links provided. Don't cheap out on testing and get the very best you can afford.

- Do you monitor the ammonia and nitrogen products at the beginning of the tank cycle and later in the life of the tank do you need to focus on other electrolytes?
Yes, and generally, only Nitrates and/or Nitrites once the tank is established. These are just my opinions and, yes, there are many ways to skin the reefing cat, but, it's worked for me...

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Welcome to the hobby and good luck. Everyone does it their own way and will give you different advise. My best advise is get as much knowledge as possible and make the decision that works for you and your tank. Don’t follow any one person or any one way. And be patient above all. Cheers

 

[BaysEndReef]

 

[mdb_talon]

How often do you need to check ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium. Which kit is worth getting. In my mind, it would be more cost-effective if you have a kit that checks all the above rather than separate kits that keep adding up the cost of things.

Welcome! I think the others provided good links/info on the other questions.

As far as this question....in the early stages of tank(before coral but after cycle) i would only test nitrate and phosphate. Once you start adding stony coral or get coralline algae growing then i would start testing alk occassionally.

Once you start seeing noticeable changes in alk then it is time to start considering dosing snd then i would be checking alk/calc frequently and mag every once in awhile. Depending on what is in your tank you may never need to dose though so you got time to worry about that.

As for PH if you care to monitor it i suggest a probe for constant measurement.

Everyone has their favorite test kits. I choose based off accuracy level i want and how easy for me to read it.

For alk and phosphate i use hanna checker because of the precision and digital measurement...so much easier than reading colors!

For nitrate i use both API and salifert. API is a bad word among most here but i find the nitrate test to be very consistent and i only care that my nitrates are above 0 and less than 10...i find it easiest to get that answer based off their color scale. I occassionally check with salifert if API showing very low(my eyes cant tell difference between 5 and 25 using salifert but when using low range it is more useful for me). Hanna has digital nitrate tester i hear is a reall hassle to use so never tried(again cause i dont need or care for that precision).

For magnesium and calcium i use red sea pro tests.

 

[altayeh]

Thank you all, this has been very helpful !!! Will keep you posted on how things work out