The 75gal reef tank cycle has started!!!!!!!

I just read something that said that smoking near or in the same room is bad for the tank. Is this true or how true is it? I know it's not good for me but they are saying that second hand smoke will what give our fish cancer?
 
I guess its just the chemicals that can get in the water from it. Your not supposed to burn insense in the same room either .. you hippie! j/k ;) Move to Cali.. where you can't even think of smoking inside.. anywhere.
 
What about scented candles? We tend to burn alot of those in the house and mostly in the living room where the tank is.
 
The tank is clear finely.
 
On thing I have been told by numerous people though, if you smoke, wash your hands very good with just water if you plan on sticking your hand in the fish tank. Don't use "scented" hand soap to wash your hands before sticking them in the tank. Ideally you would buy some elbo length rubber gloves.. something I have been meaning to buy for.. ummm.. about 6 years now and still haven't. LOL.
 
I have somewhat of a newbie question.....When you do your regular water changes, do you do it on the display tank or on the sump?
 
Since it's all connected and it's one system the water could be taken out of any of the 3 tanks but it's going to be easiest to turn the pump off and let the sump fill up, syphon out the water from the sump and then fill it back up and turn the pump back on. Atleast that's our plan...:)
 
Thats what I do. I don't really know how much water I change out, somewhere around 7-8gal/week. I turn off the return pump and lit everything drain down, then siphon out of the sump into the driveway until the return pump chamber is empty. Then, I fill the sump back up full, and turn the pump back on. That way I know I don't overfill the sump.
 
Why would you turn off the sump? The sump is there to keep the tank water level constant, among other things.

I syphon water out the top of my tank until I almost drain my sump (You can syphon out from anywhere, I am just stating what is easiest for me), then pour new water into my overflow (you could just pour into your sump) until the sump is full again. That way, water level in the tank never goes down and sump/pumps stay working as long as you leave just a little water. I have even drained my sump completely for bigger water changes, let the pump run "dry" for about 30 seconds while I ran and grabbed water to throw back in. In your tank though, draining the sump would be a big water change, so you probably will never have to do that.
 
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