New to Marine. Few questions

spamn

spamn

SW Newbie
Sep 7, 2008
72
0
0
38
VA
Hello all. I have had freshwater tanks for years. I recently moved from coast to coast and decided when to do saltwater for the first time.

It's a brand new Uniquarium 55g (not the tank previously used for freshwater). Being a Uniquarium it has everything built in. I also have the matching venturi protein skimmer.

For lighting I have a T5HOx2. I guess it's only 78 total watts. One 39w 460nm T5HO and one 39w 10,000k T5HO. Not really sure what that means. I've been told it will be good enough for some soft corals and that's about it. I will probably have to upgrade/add since I plan on doing a reef.

I also have a Hydor Koralia powerhead, heater, digital thermometer, etc.

Now the fun part. I've done reading online and even bought the book "Saltwater Aquariums for Dummies".

I finally got the time, money, and guts to try to set it up. I added 40 pounds of crushed coral (I've been told that I should replace it with sand ASAP. I assumed sand would be difficult to clean) I only wanted the 2" or so of substrate.

I added my water and Instant Ocean mix. After about 24 hours I got my specific gravity to 1.022 and did my first water test. It said everything was good.

I went to my LFS and got about 25 pounds of live rock. (All I can afford at the moment). Knowing not much about it, I chose some pieces that were very colorful (purple, yellow, green) and very lightweight and porous. I got a few heavy/solid pieces to be my base.

At this point, I am excited. I finally have a tank setup and seem to be on my way to a reef (very slowly). Now my questions are; where did I mess up already? Can you please tell me what all hitch hikers I have visible and which are bad? Should I keep the rock alone in there and slowly add more as I can afford it or should I get something to help the cycle occur?

This is the point where I am very hesitant to continue. This is an expensive yet worthwhile hobby and I want to make sure I go about it correctly.

Any words/wisdom/criticism would be highly appreciated. I will continue to search this site and hopefully learn as much as I can so that I don't have to ask stupid questions all of the time.

Thanks in advance
Sam
 
I can't really offer much in the way of advice being a SW noob (just started adding corals) myself, but I did want to say that it sounds as if you're off to a good start so far. The forums here and at reefcentral have been extremely valuable for me. So much so that my head is spinning. I look forward to following along with your thread as you progress. :)
 
Congrats Sam! :D

I agree that you should replace the crushed coral with sand. And don't worry too much about cleaning the sand- it's pretty easy, I promise. :) Detritus will collect on top of the sand, and you can just wave your gravel vac around over the sand to stir up detritus, then suck it out.

Do you know if your rock is cured or uncured? If it is uncured, the die-off will get your cycle started. You can always add more rock later, but I'd recommend doing so before you add any animals, as this can sometimes cause a mini-cycle. If you don't have one already, go ahead and buy a test kit. I use the API SW master kit (comes with ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH).

Can you tell us more about your equipment? I'm totally unfamiliar with the Uniquarium and would love to see a pic. What size Koralia did you buy? Just asking because you may need more than one. I agree that you are limited to easy soft corals like mushrooms and leathers for now, but you can always add more light later. A couple more T5 bulbs would definitely increase your options for corals. Or, you could add a couple halides (I've never used them so can't recommend a specific wattage) and use the T5s for your actinic supplements, and then you'd have a ton of options. :)

As for hitchhiker ID, can you post some pics of anything you have questions about? It's pretty difficult to ID stuff otherwise. ;) Also, I'd shoot for 1.024-1.025 for your salinity. Are you using a hydrometer or a refractometer? My experience with hydrometers is that they are very inaccurate, so I would recommend buying a refractometer if you can afford it. They cost quite a bit more, but IMO are well worth it.

Good luck with the new tank, I promise it's not as difficult as it seems and you will get the hang of it. Just take everything really slow and ask any questions you might have!
 
I apologize about the pictures... not being there. I am having problems with my card reader on my computer right now and will have them up in a few.

The rock is cured (and very expensive that way) but I only have one LFS other than a Petco/Petsmart which I refuse to buy any livestock from.

The Uniquarium simply has a partition making the back part of the tank an overflow. Water trickles through the grate into a chamber where the heater and skimmer pump are. It then goes down and up to a second chamber where the skimmer is. From there is goes over and onto a plastic grate that drains onto bio balls (The wet/dry filtration). After that it goes down into the last chamber where the pump is and back into the other side of the tank.

Other than the wet/dry filtration I plan on the skimmer and rock being my filters. From what I've read this is a "Berlin" system". I know I need a lot of rock for this to be possible. I've also been told that once I have enough live rock to remove the bioballs since the rock will take the place of them. Simply being a surface for beneficial bacteria to grow.

I cannot remember as to which Hydor I have. I have long lost the box. I am pretty sure it's a 2 or 3.

Thanks again for the quick responses and I hope to get the pictures up shortly.

-Sam (SW noobie)
 
the only thing i see that will be a problem down the road is the bioballs. I dont know exactly how but they cause excess nitrate in your system. What ive heard of most people doing is taking them out and putting live rock rubble in its place. Good start!
 
Here are the pictures. I hope this site uses thumbnails and/or automatically resizes pictures or else they will be huge. There are a few "species" of who knows what that hitch hiked into my system. If you can ID any of these please let me know what they are and if they are harmful or beneficial please.

Thanks again and happy holidays! :dance:

DSC00760.JPG DSC00761.JPG DSC00765.JPG DSC00770.JPG DSC00778.JPG DSC00771.JPG
 
As far as the Bio-balls, I do plan on removing them once I get more live rock and before adding any fish or corals.

Here are a few more pictures and a better understanding of my setup.

I forgot to mention that before the water goes over the plastic grate and trickles onto the bio balls that it runs over the foam filter to collect any big pieces.

The store I purchased my tank from had the exact same setup but with a 100g Uniquarium. Live rock, venturi skimmer, and foam strip and they had a beautiful reef system.

DSC00762.JPG DSC00766.JPG DSC00782.JPG DSC00784.JPG DSC00785.JPG DSC00786.JPG
 
Nice tank!

I do see an aiptasia, but not sure of anything else. Time for some Joe's Juice. ;)
 
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