Hello, Newbie here.

[ozone]

Hello Everyone,

I am setting up my first marine aquarium and want to share what I have done so far and take any advise offered.

I had a 55 gallon fresh water setup and plan on using as much of this equipment as possible and overtime upgrade as needed. The tank is a standard 55gal w/ a hang on the back cartridge filter, submersible heater, and a single tube florescent light. So far I've added a Seaclone protein skimmer.

All equipment was setup about 2 weeks ago. I mixed a batch of saltwater in the tank and let it sit for a week before adding 90lbs of pre-cured Fiji liverock. The rock has gone through it's first week of cure (boy it reeks).

I also purchase a 10 gallon kit to use as a quarentine tank. For the time being I am using it to mix and heat saltwater for water changes.

After the rock cure I am planning on adding crushed coral w/argonite substrate. I'm not sure if I one or two 40lb bags will be enough.

At this point I plan on adding a clean up crew some snails, hermit crabs, and a serpent star. Do I need to quarentine these guys? If not I will setup the quarentine tank with 2 true percula clowns. Once the clowns are aclimated I want to add a sailfin blenny and a blue tang. I may change my mind about the blue tang because I read it needs a 70 gallon tank.

I know at some point I need to upgrade the lighting so I can add a blub-tip anemone for the clowns. I am still researching light so any advise would help.

Thank you,
Ozone

 

[jhale]

hey Ozone,
Welcome to Manhattan Reefs

It sounds like you did some research already that's good.
Some quick advise is to not use the crushed coral as a substrate.
It will trap detritus and create high nitrates, that's okay for fish, but not
for coral. Stick to using a fine grained sand if you want, a 2" depth is good enough for looks. you'll need more critters to work the sand bed though.
the QT is a great thing to have. I have not heard of people QT'ing inverts before so I would acclimate them to the tank and set them free.
some questions for you, what brand of test kits do you have, do you own a refractometer, and would you be willing to upgrade the new skimmer you just got? the seaclones are not very efficient.

 

[meschaefer]

Hi, welcome to MR.

Skip the crushed coral, as JHALE said it will lead to increased nitrates. In freshwater tanks, amonia is converted to nitrite, and the nitrite is then converted to nitrate. In an marine aquarium, the nitrate is posionous to inverterbrates and needs to be broken down further. This is one of the main signficant adavantages of live rock, as it will lead to the break down of Nitrate into nitrogen and oxygen. With curshed coral, fish poop and uneaten food, ends up getting stuck in the substrate and breaks down leading to nitrate levels that the live rock can not convert to nitrogen and oxygen quickly enough. The trick is to remove the waste before it breaks down and that is where a good protein skimmer comes in. As long as the waste is suspended in the water column, ti will eventually get skimmed out by the protein skimmer. Since you just bought the seaclone, you are probably not too hot on the idea of upgrading it already, so it will need to suffice for the time being, but you will need to be carefull not to over feed and will need to keep a lighter fish load if you plan on keeping any inverts.

 

[ozone]

Thanks for guys for the warm welcome and advice.

I'm convinced I will leave crushed coral alone and opt for reef sand instead. Would the serpent star or a sand sifting star prevent detritus from collecting in the substrate?

As far as the test kit goes I bought 5 in 1 test strips that test nitrate, nitrite, hardness, ph, and alkalinity. I test ammonia using the test from the Freshwater Master test kit I previously had. What would you guys recommend for testing?

 

[m'akoyPINOY]

hello ozone !WELCOME TO MR:teeth:

 

[jhale]

the starfish you named are good for maintaining the sand. more important will be a collection of sand sifting snails.

test kits I recommend are from salifert, and seachem.
http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_test_kits_salifert.asp?CartId=
http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_test_kits_seachem.asp?CartId=

 

[ozone]

Thanks again

Here is one from the first set of pics I've taken.

I will pick up one of the test kits you recommended. With the test strips I'm using it is difficult to match the color of the strip with the color chart provided, leaving me with inaccurate readings.

Can you guys recommend or point me to a thread that discusses the best arrangement for a 55gal to start off with for a cleanup crew.

 

[sarahandkevin]

welcome to MR!!!

 

[crox99]

Welcome to MR!!

 

[crox99]

Ozone

I'm reading that the 55g was a fw setup. I hope you never used any copper medication in there.

 

[ozone]

Ozone

I'm reading that the 55g was a fw setup. I hope you never used any copper medication in there.

Hello Crox99,
I did have to use copper meds to cure an ick outbreak. I did a though cleaning of the tank with vinegar and the treatment, "Tetra Aquasafe water conditioner", for tap water is suppose to remove heavy metals.

 

[jhale]

ozone,

copper will become embedded in the silicone, the cleaning you gave the tank might not have been enough to remove it.
I'd wait for some other opionions before buying and snails or hermits.

 

[crox99]

Yes. The copper might be trapped in the silicone. You should test your water before you add any inverts.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Welcome to MR


FYI: Salt water may cause that copper to leach out into the aquarium from the seals and kill your inverts and corals.

 

[nanoreefer22]

I wouldn't use the tank either, that sounds harsh but you're better off safe than sorry. Even with a test kit you might come up with no reading because the test kit just might not be that sensitive, but the inverts you add to the tank could be.

It would suck too buy snail and coral to only watch their health decline .

 

[ozone]

Isn't it too late, the live rock are already curing in the tank? Will the water conditioner make a difference?

I'm thinking to buy one snail and see how it does in the tank before continuing with more inverts.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Isn't it too late, the live rock are already curing in the tank? Will the water conditioner make a difference?

It may not be too late the copper may not have had a chance to leach out yet, water conditioner will do nothing.

 

[SuRFeR BoY]

my 55 gallon setup was once a freshwater and i used copper based medications.. everythgin went fine for me.. i never did any crazy cleaning either. i dont think you have to worry unless you used bottles and bottles. get a copper testing kit and check it out.

i see everyone over looked your lighting question... as for lighting.. mh get expensive to keep.. i would custom make a canopy( im guessing you want to keep some hard corals if not you really dont need so much lighting) and get some vhos or pc... pc i feel tend to be brighter then vhos.. my opinion. get 4 x 130 watt pc over your tank it will glow... i know people that have acros under just vhos and i know people that had acros under just pc and never bleaches... you are safer with mh but its possible with vho and pc... you just have to place them extremely high in your tank and they cnat touch.. hope this helps

 

[digitalreefer]

As far as the copper... sure it might be safe, but if copper leetches out in 6 months after you've spent hundreds on fish and corals is it really worth it? There's been a bunch of times I said well it should be ok and most of the time it was, but I'm now tearing down my tank because of the one time it wasn't.

A lot of things in this hobby are a calculated risk... overfeeding increases nutrient levels in the tank, but keeps fish healthier and happier. You can spend a bit more on phosphate remover and a better skimmer to counter this or risk serious algae problems.

My advice would be (if you're set on keeping the tank) to get a good copper test kit and stock very lightly for a few months to avoid losses.

As far as lights... don't do PC lighting if you want to keep an anemone. Go T5 or Metal Halide (MH).

 

[Henrye]

One other thought as far as the possibility of copper leaching over time is to run a polyfilter on your system. It will do two things for you. One, remove copper from the water, and two, change color (blue for copper) to let you know what it's removing. I think testing for copper is a good idea, but pro actively filtering for its removal (and identification if it is in fact present) might be a good approach to consider.

Henry