Need some advice on reef tank!

[jayde64]

Hi All

I decided to start a reef tank a couple months ago and have been buying parts for it gradually. This is what i have purchased so far:

46 gallon bowfront
Rio pump 1700
Euro Reef ES5-3
Sump 125
Custom Sealife Smartlite Retrofit Kit 65 Watt
Heater
2 Bags of live sand

(all these products were suggested by my LFS)

-So far I have 20 gallons of RO water mixing
-As for the live rock, I purchased about 50 lbs (fiji) online, which i hope will be arriving later this week. I also have a large piece (about 15 lbs) that my bf gave me from his old tank. It's sitting in a bucket w/out any water right now.

This is my first tank, and so i guess my questions are
1) am i missing anything??
2) what is the best way to cure the live rock that's sitting in the bucket
3) what should i do with the live rock once i receive it (ie put it in the tank directly? cure it?)
4) i've read several times that rio pumps are no good. any suggestions on a better pump?
5) what are the best additives to use, if any

Any comments and/or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Bleeg]

ello!
Hmmm.. I'll try to answer your questions in the same order..
1) you might need more bags of live sand. 2 bags in a 46 gallon will barely cover the bottom... You might also want to think about more circulation in the tank. perhaps some power heads. i would suggest maybe some maxijets. You also might want to invest in some testing kits - amonia, nitrate, nitrite, alk, ph

2) the best way to cure that live rock is to place it in some salt water with high circulation and minimal to no lighting.

3) you can cure the live rock you bought online in the tank itself but you have to keep in mind that you have to be patient. it may take a few weeks depending on the nature of the rock when you get it. If you don't want to cure it in the tank, you can get a large container and cure the rock in there.. just make sure you have good flow and change some of the water out every few days or so. You might want to add some "cycle" in the water to speed up the process.

3) Most likely the rock you get online will not be cured. You will have to cure it.

4) Rio pumps have a tendency to burn up. I use a couple of rios myself and have had no problems so far. I also use maxijets. Those are awesome pumps.

5) Initially, you want to add some "cycle" in the water to help the cycling process. After that, you will need to add calcium and essential elements for sure. You might also want to add magnesium, strontium, coral vite, iodine, kalk, and buffer.

hope this info helps you. I see you are in San Francisco. So am I. For further info, you can go to Nippon Gold fish over on Geary Ave.
Ask For Steve (the owner) or Marvin (sales and buyer). They can help you a great deal. Feel free to ask more questions.

Good luck!

[Geoff]

Welcome to TRT!!!



G~

[Rob_Reef_Keeper]

Welcome,

What kind of corals are you planning to keep? Even softies IMHO will not do so good under only 65Watts of light.

I had that same tank with 110W and things didn't grow as well.

2 Bags of live sand is what I used and it covered the bottom fine. I wish I did that with my new tanks instead of the DSB of southdown.

Get some maxijets like Bleeg said. maybe 2 1200's on a wavemaker.

As for addititive I wouldn't anything except for ALk/CA supplements like kalk of B-Ionic.

Oh and Best of luck and take you time.

[jayde64]

Thanks for all the advice!!! I'm receiving the live rock that i ordered online tomorrow so i'm really excited!!!

[Geoff]

keep us posted!

pics if you can.

G~

[Phishnoob]

www.premiumaquatics.com has a nice article on curing live rock. I have heard the no light opinion and on mine did 4 hours a day increasing it an hour a week. There was a lot of brown stuff and algae though so a tub hiding in a closet might work better.

Also, after a lot of studying it looks like you need to get the detritus out of there. Use your rio pump for this to blow the junk out and do some water changes.

Also, when I got my tank from another guy that threw in the towel there were six rio pumps. Two were no good and a third one quit on me as well. I bought a dolphin off a fellow TRT poster and it works great.

Great luck on your tank. Mrs. Phish has the 65w Customsealife kit on her 29g and it worked great. The only drawback is that the company is out of business now but another company is tooling up to fill the void. At 40 bucks for the whole thing I am taking the risk and can always change later.

Phishnoob

[PJ]

Jayde64,

Welcome to TRT.

I saw you're in San Francisco too. The store on Geary is good.

Also, another good LFS (local fish store) is Lucky Ocean on Balboa, two blocks west of Arguello. The owner there is Steve, and he's very helpful.

Good Luck, and keep us advised how things are going.

PJB

[jayde64]

My live rock seemed decent on arrival last week. I decided to place them in my tank for curing. I've been adding calcuim (part a and b), iodine, reef solution, and reef vital dna. I also got a cleaning crew this past weekend to help with cleaning the rocks. There seems to be a lot of waste on the sand (detritus?) so i'm trying to find a way to clean it all. I think i'm going to have to invest in some maxijets to increase the water flow, as others have suggested. Do the maxijets connect to a wavemaker? or can i just get the maxijets to hang on the side of the tank? i kinda confused on how it works.

I'm trying to get a hold of a digicam to post some pics.

Thanks!

[PJ]

You'll need to get the circulation going in the LR tank.

I got a couple MaxiJet1200's for the purpose. Worked great. I moved one into the main tank with the majority of cured LR. The other's still moving the H2O around in the tank with the remaining LR.


PJ

[Phishnoob]

Anything that gets the water going should work. I used a piece of crud rio in there to just move water around.

Also, get a turkey baster for the cleaning of the nooks and crannies and some sort of cleaning tubing to suck the junk out of there.

The other thing I did was to touch the rocks every couple weeks and scrape off any squishy or decaying material with a butter knife.

The Maxijet 1200's are only about 18 bucks from MarineDepot.com or numerous other places and they come with suction cups and a little guard for the intake. This is the best equipment bargain in the entire process. I have two in my 90g and one in Mrs. Phish's 29.

Good luck with your tank!!!

Phishnoob

[tkjeffrey]

As for the sand I agree, 2 bags should be allright and i would get 2 or 3 more 200-300 gph powerheads maybe buy a wave device also. The rock since you have a new tank I would just cure it in the tank. Thats what I did and seemed to work fine. As for additives I wouldnt add any additives until your tank is fully cycled (nitrite.nitrate, ammonia and algae cycles, because you will undoubtedly have a massive algae bloom and make you wanna quit the hobby). Hang tough though, once your tank cycles with the live rock I would buy a good clean up crew (all snails, I think crabs are the spawn of satan IMHO) too start gnawing on all the algae. Then let them take care of the tank for a couple months. I wouldnt IMHO start adding coral until about 4 months, at least thats how it worked for my 55 gal. On your lighting i would invest in more i have 4 65watt PC's on my tank and hard and soft corals are going crazy. Any more questions you can email me, good luck and hang in there the first 6 months on a reef tank are pretty trying but in the end if you persevere it will be something that you can stare at all day and amaze your friends with you own little slice of the ocean.

[PJ]

JayDe64,

Take Phishnoob's advice, pick up the MaxiJets at Marine Depot.com. Can't beat the $18. for a MJ1200,

Oh, since they'll be sending you the package with the powerhead(s), buy a marine test kit to throw into the box. You'll need it to check your Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite and PH as your LR cycles. The four/five in one test kit was recommended to me by someone here, and it's worked out just fine.

Jeffrey's advice is good. No need to add anything (calcium, iodine) at this point. Just let the LR cycle.

Good Luck

.

PJ

[jayde64]

Once again, thanks for all the great advice! I've ordered 2 of the maxi jet 1200...can't wait for them to arrive! I'm planning to do a 10% water change this weekend and get rid of all the waste on the sand bed.

BTW, i was just wondering which test kit is recommened??? I've been told that salifert and seachem are great products but i'm not sure which is better for its money.

One last question, what is the best way to remove the waste on the sand bed? I was just thinking about using a gravel cleaner that they sell at pet stores. My cleaning crew is doing a wonderful job of cleaning the rocks but they are pooping so much!!! haha...

Thanks!

[PJ]

I have the Red Sea "Marine Lab" 4 in 1 kit, and it works fine.

I got it from Marine Depot, and since I was paying for the shipping on the MaxiJets, I didn't have to pay extra shipping.

One of the more experienced people here recommended the 4 in 1 to save $. You'll need the kit when testing for Ammonia, Nitrate and Nitrites during the cycle.

PJ