Log: 75g FOWLR tank

strangerdejavu

strangerdejavu

AC Members
Sep 22, 2007
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Grand Forks, ND
Hi everyone!

I don't know if you all are tired of reading tank logs, but I thought I'd give one a go in hopes of getting some good input along the way! Plus I find the logs to be some of the most educational reads on this forum!

Here's my story- I have a successful freshwater 55g tank and recently started setting up a 75g marine tank. Last week I filled the tank with salt water and started up the skimmer, powerheads, filter, and heater to start breaking in everything and as a final check that everything worked as it should!

Three days ago I put in 80lbs of fully cured Figi live rock from www.premiumaquatics.com in my tank and have been letting it cycle since. The plan is to wait until water parameters are good, then add substrate, then eventually inverts and fish. Last measurement (10/5/07) showed: Salinity- 1.022, PH- 8.24, Alk- 6.5, Nitrite- 0.1, Nitrate- 0.6, Ammonia (free/total)- .02/.1

And that's where it all stands right now. Some pictures of the tank below. The 4th picture shows a purple growth of some sort in the middle of the photo. Can anyone identify it, and should it be removed?

Any comments or suggestions for my tank would be appreciated! I entrust you all to keep me on track and keep me from making any huge mistakes :D. Thanks!

DSCN2957.JPG DSCN2962.JPG DSCN2963.JPG DSCN2961.JPG
 
Hi and welcome. You're off to a good start, I like your aquascaping. The purple you're referring to looks to me like coraline algae (good stuff) but it does look like you may have Aiptasia (nasty, bad stuff) growing in the middle of it. Any chance of a close up photo?

With regards to your substrate, is there any reason why you're not adding it now. I'd add it now and cycle it altogether.
 
I've been using Mike Paletta's book "The New Marine Aquarium" as my guide up to this point, as well as stuff that I find on the forum. The way he directs setting up the tank, you wait 'till it is cycled, then add the substrate. If you can convince me that it's better to add it now, I'm all ears! While on this topic, I do have a question regarding substrate. Paletta places very high esteem on aragonite coral sand - so I went and bought
Florida Crushed Coral (http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+10741+7322&pcatid=7322). Should I not use this? Any other suggestions?

As for a closeup of the aiptasia, here's a shot. Kinda hard to get a clear picture of it. Why are they so undesireable? It's kinda pretty!

Thanks for the help, and so quickly too!

DSCN2968.jpg
 
From that last shot I'd say it's not Aiptasia. It looks similar to something I have growing on one of my rocks. My lights are off now otherwise I'd take a piccie for comparison.

There's a lot of people who would say don't use crushed coral - I had it in my first tank and always had nitrAte problems but it also had a trickle filter system. In my current tank I've used Aragonite sand and I've never had to use PH buffer once (I used it all the time before).
 
Aragonite coral sand and Florida crushed coral are two different things. I wouldn't use the crushed coral, myself.
 
i would not use CC either unless it was super fine. as for adding your substrate now or later i think it is up to you.
 
Is there a specific brand of substrate you guys would recommend? Any specific grain size?
 
I don't get tired of reading logs either...so keep up with the updates. You're right...it is a very good way to learn.
I used the larger dead aragonite in my tank, and then covered it with a thinner layer of the sugar sized live aragonite...but when I started my tank I had no live rock. I still do not have much, but the hope is that the strategically placed 30 lbs or so of LR I added will seed the rest. The only drawback I have found personally to the sugar sized substrate is that when I tried (once) to vacuum some red cyano off of it it sucked a ton of the sand up with it. I don't know if the larger stuff would do better, but that was my experience.
Your tank looks very nice, I can't wait for updates:)
Robbie
 
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