Newbie looking for answers...

MarineDream

MarineDream

AC Members
Mar 25, 2007
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Tampa, Florida
Hello all,

I am very new to this SW tank stuff and I just wanted to start of slow. I just bought a BioCube: Oceanic 29gal. a week ago and put in water with Instant Ocean and two days later my water was fine to put live rock in it. Two days after i put the live rock in the center one started to turn reddish-brown (still is) and a day after that my other two rocks started to get white on the top.

I asked my LFS what the problem could be and he didn't have much to say other than "clean it off".

That and I feel im still lacking in supplies of what i need to start off on the right track.

SO if anyone could tell me what my live rock is doing? Wether good or bad and what can i do it help it/fix it. Also if anyone could list some supplies i need currently or in the near future to help me tank work right. I would be in great thanks!

-Terry
 
If you could, would you be able to post your water Parameters (I.E. Nitrates, Nitrites, Salinity, PH and Ammonia)? This would be of more help.
 
Other than a Salinity meter, which says it's at 30-34 which is good right?

I don't own any Nitrates, Nitrites, PH and Ammonia testing kits or anything. Im not sure what to get or what im looking for! :(
 
Get a better hydrometer or get a refractometer to check the salinity. You will have to have test kits for Ph, Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate. DO NOT BUY THE CHEAP STRIP TESTS!

Beyond that it depends on what you want in your tank to determine what you need to test for.
 
If your rock was more pink / purple when you got it and is now turning white, that's just the coralline algae dieing off. That's not all that bad, considering you're just starting and cycling. The brown color may be diatoms, which is a normal occurance during cycling, also.

If you're buying stuff locally, the selection on test kits will probably be minimal (in terms of brand variety) and you'll have to buy what you can. Essentially, you just want to make sure you get liquid kits (not test strips) that are designed for saltwater use, as there is a difference between many freshwater and saltwater test kits (some companies make kits that are good for either fw or sw). If your LFS sells them, most of the Aquarium Pharm. Inc. kits are good and reasonably priced, while the gold standard brand of Salifert will cost you an arm and a leg.
 
ok, the basic kits you need to buy are Ammonia, nitrITE, nitrATE and pH..

The white on your rock is more than likely just die off and brown could be just diatom algae..You can, if you want, take the rock out and scrub it with some RO (reverse osmosis ) water. Only use a nylon brush or something like a new tooth brush then get it back in the tank....

You will need some basics like a hydrometer, thermometer ( not the stick on type, they is pathetic ), will need a reverse osmosis to generate clean water else if you use tap water you will end up with bad alage...cant really say much more on equipment as i dont know what you currently have...

Please post more info like how much rock you have brought, filters, skimmers, tank size etc etc..

Once we have more info we can then best advise more on your situation and get a netter picture in our heads of your system..

Just want to give you a nice warm welcome to the reef. There is a wealth of infomation here and some very knowledgable people...we will all help you out in any way we can to get you running properly....asl loads of questions and listen to the many answers that you will get...

Dont forget, were here to help

Niko
 
The specs on my tank as far as I know are:

Oceanic BioCube 29 Gallon:

Dimensions: 20"L x 20.75"W x 19.25"H

Lighting:
1 - 36 watt True Actinic 03 Blue Straight Pin.
1 - 36 watt 10,000K Daylight Straight Pin.
3- .75 watt Lunar Blue-Moon-Glow LED

Pump Flow Rate: 243 gph (920 L/H)

The store I bought it from said it came with everything i needed to start:

Filter, Bioballs, Pump, and Sponge Filter

I assume one of my problems was that there are two different Marine Fish stores in my area and they both gave me different stories on how to care/start my tank. So now i don't know who to believe.

I bought 17.5 lbs of Live rock and a bag of live sand. As far as I know i've just been letting it run so it can "Do it's thing" according to the guy at the store, but now tht I look around it appears I need to do more?
 
Well, on the live rock side, you want to be aiming for about 1 - 1.5lbs per gallon of water...

This is just my personal opinion now, i know some people dont always agree with it, but here it is..

Loose the bioballs, sponge filter media and the other filters media if you up the level of live rock to what i said above ( 1 - 1.5lbs per gallon ). They are not needed as the live rock will provide all the mechanical filtration you need. Plus, it will also ease the burden of the maintenance on you.

You could do with buying a protien skimmer, rated in this case for about 60 gals ( always aim for twice the tank volume )..

Tank flow - Marine system really do need good flow around the tank. How much flow you have will depend on what your looking at keeping in the tank. If its fish only with some invertibrates you will be ok as you are. If your looking at getting some good corals in there, you want to be looking at doubling that ammount. To work out how much flow is needed in the tank, a good guide is..

1) Fish/inverts only with live rock - 10 x tank volume flow per hour ( 29gal x 10= 290 gallons per hour water flow ) - so your just under that really..

2) Reef ( fish and coral in community ) - minimum 20 x tank volume flow per hour ( 29gal x 20=580 gallons per hour water flow ) - so you would need to up the water flow by adding a good powerhead rated at about 290 gals per hour..

Currently, your tank will now be starting the nitrogen cycle and what you need to do is add a little ammonia source, something like a shrimp or prawn wrapped up in something like womans tights/pantyhoes ( this stops the meat from dissintegratingwhen it decomposes ). Plonk that in the tank and leave it for. Eventually you will see the ammonia rise up to anwhere from 20ppm upwards and eventually stop at a peak. When this happens, the nitrITE will then start to grow as it converts the ammnonia and the ammonia will start to go down to zero. The nitrITE will then rise again to a peak and now you can remove the prawn in the tights, its done its job. When then happens is you will see the nitrATE start to rise as it converts the nitrITE. Again, the nitrATE will now start to rise and the nitrITE will start to fall. As the nitrATE gets to a peak, the nitITE should be down to zero. The nitrATE will then start to fall to about 10ppm or less ( lower the better ).When the water test results are Ammonia and nitrITE at Zero and nitrATE about 10 for a week constant, you can concider the nitrogen cycle finished and you can then slowly start to stock the tank...

hope this help towards explaining it a little..

Any questions, just shout up..

Niko
 
atnixon said:
Well, on the live rock side, you want to be aiming for about 1 - 1.5lbs per gallon of water...

This is just my personal opinion now, i know some people dont always agree with it, but here it is..

Loose the bioballs, sponge filter media and the other filters media if you up the level of live rock to what i said above ( 1 - 1.5lbs per gallon ). They are not needed as the live rock will provide all the mechanical filtration you need. Plus, it will also ease the burden of the maintenance on you.

You could do with buying a protien skimmer, rated in this case for about 60 gals ( always aim for twice the tank volume )..

Tank flow - Marine system really do need good flow around the tank. How much flow you have will depend on what your looking at keeping in the tank. If its fish only with some invertibrates you will be ok as you are. If your looking at getting some good corals in there, you want to be looking at doubling that ammount. To work out how much flow is needed in the tank, a good guide is..

1) Fish/inverts only with live rock - 10 x tank volume flow per hour ( 29gal x 10= 290 gallons per hour water flow ) - so your just under that really..

2) Reef ( fish and coral in community ) - minimum 20 x tank volume flow per hour ( 29gal x 20=580 gallons per hour water flow ) - so you would need to up the water flow by adding a good powerhead rated at about 290 gals per hour..

Currently, your tank will now be starting the nitrogen cycle and what you need to do is add a little ammonia source, something like a shrimp or prawn wrapped up in something like womans tights/pantyhoes ( this stops the meat from dissintegratingwhen it decomposes ). Plonk that in the tank and leave it for. Eventually you will see the ammonia rise up to anwhere from 20ppm upwards and eventually stop at a peak. When this happens, the nitrITE will then start to grow as it converts the ammnonia and the ammonia will start to go down to zero. The nitrITE will then rise again to a peak and now you can remove the prawn in the tights, its done its job. When then happens is you will see the nitrATE start to rise as it converts the nitrITE. Again, the nitrATE will now start to rise and the nitrITE will start to fall. As the nitrATE gets to a peak, the nitITE should be down to zero. The nitrATE will then start to fall to about 10ppm or less ( lower the better ).When the water test results are Ammonia and nitrITE at Zero and nitrATE about 10 for a week constant, you can concider the nitrogen cycle finished and you can then slowly start to stock the tank...

hope this help towards explaining it a little..

Any questions, just shout up..

Niko
Click to expand...
couldn't have said it better...how u beat me to all these threads Andy?
just cause ur a mod now u can still leave me things to say...lol j/k
best luck MarineDream and welcome to the amazing world of saltwater!:)
 
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