# New to Salt Water, just checking my progress.



## Invic (Sep 20, 2011)

So, my recent adventure is a Saltwater tank. My wife is wanting to run the tank, maintenance and planning on occupants of the tank. I am the hardware and double check for the planning. 

We've both been reading probably more then we should lol. She's focused on live stock, and I'm the hardware micro-biological fun guy. With research and purchasing/building going on for 2 months here is where we stand.

1) 30 Gallon Cube tank/with stand. 6500k Led for now.
2) Siphon overflow built (pre-made prices offended me)
3) Sump Refugium built (Weird space constraints required custom work) 
4) Test equipment, Instant ocean standing by.
5) Protein skimmer, heater, and mechanical flow filter standing by to be installed.
6) Running a water leak check currently with tap water(Engineering check on my built stuff)
Stuff to do....
7) Sand purchase coming. Considering 1"1.5" shallow bed. 2mm sand I think.
8) Base rock and live rock to be placed in the coming weeks, to begin cycling
9) Cycling the tank.
10) Chaelae (sp) Macro Algae in place in the refugium with live rock 
fragments. Hopefully addition of copoepods and such.
11)Monitor levels and start a slow stocking process, Looking at Skunk shrimp for cleaner, and a pair of Percula Clowns. Tank sits and "matures for a few months"
12) 3 months realm, letting tank establish itself and adding maybe a Green Mandarin or a couple of other fish requiring a well established tank. 6 months from established tank work on moving towards reef setup with a lighting upgrade prior.


My big questions fall into, should I go with full load of Live cured rock starting or build up over a few weeks?

The edition of Macro Algae when? With the live rock stage?

How the space vs bioload sound for this list (Not finalized at all yet)

Stock 
2 Percula Clowns
1-2 Skunk Shrimp
Blenny (not sure which type yet)
Green Mandarin 
Star Fish (type is still being sorted out, plus feeding plans)
Flame Angel (Wife likes them but think the size issue will be a problem)

Down the road corals very very slowly.

Thanks for any input or opinions.

Pic of the Confined space sump refugium (not final just setup for base water volume safety check)


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## grogan (Jan 23, 2011)

6500k seems like an awfully low k rating for a salt tank. Is that a 30" fixture? If you ever decide to upgrade to a different fixture let me know. I might be interested in buying your light, its perfect for plants. Pm me if you do.


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

6500k will be fine until they add corals.

You can add the rock right away, it will help with cycling the tank.

I think you are overstocking that tank a bit. The general saltwater rule of thumb is 1 small fish per 10 gallons of water. You have 5 fish of small to medium size and only 30G of water. 

Don't buy the starfish right away, and make sure you get a small one when you do. If you plan to add coral, dont ever get a starfish. They will eat it.

Make sure you do a lot of research on compatibility of your livestock, corals, and annenomes if you get them. Saltwater tanks are easy to mess up.


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## Invic (Sep 20, 2011)

grogan said:


> 6500k seems like an awfully low k rating for a salt tank. Is that a 30" fixture? If you ever decide to upgrade to a different fixture let me know. I might be interested in buying your light, its perfect for plants. Pm me if you do.


It's a 6500k led 20" Probably leave it inplace once we start corals. Have a coral light planned to be added prior to corals. Tho all of that is easily 6 months away


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## Invic (Sep 20, 2011)

bmlbytes said:


> 6500k will be fine until they add corals.
> 
> You can add the rock right away, it will help with cycling the tank.
> 
> ...


Yeah fish count will have to come down some. Getting stable a good food source. I have seen some are reef safe trick is finding them and making sure it is what it's labeled as. 

Refug is running another 12 gal so hoping it cuts back on the chemical load a good
Bit. Macro alage in with live rock during cycle ?


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

I would add the algae with the fish as there will be little ammonium and nitrates for it to grow. When you add the fish, then there will be a source of nutrition for the algae.


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## Invic (Sep 20, 2011)

bmlbytes said:


> I would add the algae with the fish as there will be little ammonium and nitrates for it to grow. When you add the fish, then there will be a source of nutrition for the algae.


Thanks, that's what I had figured but had a few people mention adding it with the live rock.

Reworked my DIY siphon overflow, and sump/refug today. Everything is running smoothly. Testing for leaks on the improved setup, and marking my min max lines for all posible issues. Siphons break/Power Outage.

Protein skimmer installation tomorrow then water and live rock in the next week or so. 

Any reason not to run just water for a week prior to live rock addition? Heard it before its a bad idea. Only figure the chance at algae but with levels low seems minor.


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

You'd be fine running it with just water. This way, the salt can properly go into solution. The more mature the SW, the less die off in the LR. Looking good so far! :fish:


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## Invic (Sep 20, 2011)

Been trying to figure out what sand I should get. I am leaning towards the shallow sand bed 1.5" to 2" But the size and type is still in debate. I think I planned originally on the 2mm sand.

I'm not sure the live sand is really worth the cost or is it for a 30g tank.?

What sand would you guys suggest, also chaelae macro algae just root it in sand to keep it from moving about in the refug?


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## kay-bee (Dec 6, 2006)

If you're acquiring live rock you probably do not need live sand (over time the live rock will convert 'ordinary' sand into live sand).

From what I've seen, chaetomorpha macro algae doesn't 'root'. It moving around in the refugium probably won't hurt. Also, chaeto grows quickly so in time it will likely completely fill the volume of the refugium compartment it's in.


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## Invic (Sep 20, 2011)

kay-bee said:


> If you're acquiring live rock you probably do not need live sand (over time the live rock will convert 'ordinary' sand into live sand).
> 
> From what I've seen, chaetomorpha macro algae doesn't 'root'. It moving around in the refugium probably won't hurt. Also, chaeto grows quickly so in time it will likely completely fill the volume of the refugium compartment it's in.



Thanks for the info. 

Well Protein skimmer installed, Heater, installed, power-head and flow filter installed.

Added my salt and letting the tank run and integrate the salt, good bit of salt not dissolved but in time I figure it will work its way in.

Checking levels tomorrow and add additional to get salinity on point. Then just monitor it for a few days, and consider live rock introduction this weekend or next week sometime. I did commit one crime using treated tap water for the live rock stage. Then doing changes with RO for awhile to cycle it out. I did test my tap water and I have nothing overly bad after treating it. (Used my test lab in my field office hehe)

Find the RO water craze interesting as it has become more accessible. Some of the good info on tap or filtered has been buried, which seems like a shame.

Sand substrate I am not sure on size type as of yet, and figure I will add it with the live rock.


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

The reason people like RO water is because the salts usually come with what you need for a saltwater tank. The RO water makes it so that only what is good for the aquarium is introduced and nothing bad. Also the water from the tap may already have some hardness to it making the water overly hard when you add the salts.


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## Invic (Sep 20, 2011)

bmlbytes said:


> The reason people like RO water is because the salts usually come with what you need for a saltwater tank. The RO water makes it so that only what is good for the aquarium is introduced and nothing bad. Also the water from the tap may already have some hardness to it making the water overly hard when you add the salts.


Aye, I think at start up it scares many folks. I find the volume of information very misleading at times between sites. Its interesting to say the least.

I gave in on the idea to start cycling with treated tap water with live rock, it goes back in forth a lot it seems online. I cheated can called a friend down south that is a marine biologist to help me decide


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## Invic (Sep 20, 2011)

Well salt is 99% integrated, very tiny amount still sitting on the glass. But a test this morning put salinity literally perfect...

Will test again tonight, seems a bit bizarre to hit it dead on. Especially since I under dosed the tank, with plans to minor adjust it up today lol.


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## Invic (Sep 20, 2011)

Well bought some Caribsea Living sand aragonite. Plan to place it tonight.

Heard people wash living prior to placement but seems almost wrong to me, to pay for living then wash some of the "goodness" out lol


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## kay-bee (Dec 6, 2006)

I got the impression you created the SW in the tank (if you didn't, then disregard this entire paragraph :chair: ) When your tank is established you will want to create the saltwater in a separate container and then transfer the pre-mixed saltwater into the tank. I use a couple of ~20gal rubbermaid type containers and a high-gph powerhead, fill with RO/DI water, turn on the powerhead, add the salt until the target salinity is obtained, then add to the tank several hours (or preferably at least a day) later when the salt mix is thoroughly and completely dissolved.

Washing the sand will remove much of the silt (and, unfortunately, eliminate all beneficial bacteria that may exist). Alternatively, particularly with a small tank, one could do a near 100% water change when the cycling is complete and prior to adding any life forms (stirring and agitating the sand as the water is removed) to get rid of the silt. Or you could just not worry about it.


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## Invic (Sep 20, 2011)

Yeah mixed it in tank since I had plenty of power heads to do the mixing. This was the only time i planned to mix in tank 

I did get what appears to be a nice Calcium carbonate precipitation going. Water is a bit cloudy, and thin film on the bottom of the tank. 

Salinity is sitting at 1.0225. PH 8.4 78 Degrees, and Calcium is running 480ppm (heh bit high)

From what I have read and been told, its not a big worry, natural C)2 exchange will clear it up in time, plus Live rock ect will create more CO2 exchange through bacterial processes. It should clear things up after a few days more then likely. I guess adding a shallow live sand bed is okay at this point, and should help speed up the water clearing. Live rock as long as the cloudyness is not to bad for light diffusing.

To add or not to add sand


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## Invic (Sep 20, 2011)

<--- Proud owner of a milkshake now lmao


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

Then you added sand? :fun:


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## Invic (Sep 20, 2011)

funlad3 said:


> Then you added sand? :fun:



Yeah, had a bit of a error in the sand placement pipe. Trick I have used on FW tanks. Works great until you screw up and bump the tank, and let the pipe slip out of your hand....

So ya I have sand its on the bottom, its in the water column, its every square inch of the tank is a milk shake with a good head of foam for cherry placement  

Plus the only sand in town was live so.... Yeah lets see how long this takes to settle, it appears to be making no headway so far lol


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

It should settle in a few hours.... hopefully.


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## Invic (Sep 20, 2011)

bmlbytes said:


> It should settle in a few hours.... hopefully.


Yeah its settled some over night. Still super cloudy with a fine dust stuck to everything. About 3/8" of super fine sand layer on the bottom now. 

Going to carefully integrate the fines back into the rest of the sand bed tonight.

Figure I will pick up some small pieces of LR from a decent store to help get the bacteria going a bit more. Then maybe this weekend buy the bulk of the LR from my good supplier in town. Figure the bio diversity from more then one store would be good. Buy some small pieces and move them into the refug once the Main LR is in place.


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## Invic (Sep 20, 2011)

Well during the sand carpet bomb adventure the fine sand ended up as a layer all its own on top, with some careful hand work, got it all worked in and mixed with minimal re-clouding. Tossed in a few small pieces of LR from one LFS to get a bit of a bacteria boost, Looks like I, will hit the good supplier warehouse this weekend for the rest of the LR.

Calcium came down and hit perfect, so that went as planned in the end. Protein skimmer kicked in and like it a lot


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

Sounds good! Any pictures?


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## Invic (Sep 20, 2011)

funlad3 said:


> Sounds good! Any pictures?


Yeah plan to take some of my freshwater tonight, and some of the saltwater.

less then a pound of rock in it now, and noticed I did not do enough inspection on the few pieces I got last night for some bio diversity. One has some green grass like bits on it, which I think is one of the bad hitchhikers. So will probably remove it tonight.

Trying to read up with pictures of good and bad stuff on LR. Its hard to tell when most suppliers color is very dim.

Will take some picture of the rock before it goes in maybe help others identify bad hitchhikers that I get as I go along.


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## Invic (Sep 20, 2011)

Well think I identified the grass stuff I missed before. Bryopsis, will just remove the rock since its small.


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

Hair Algae and Bryopsis look very similar. HA is just annoying, but Bryopsis is simply evil. Make sure that it is actually Bryopsis and not just hair algae, as rock is expensive, as I don't need to remind you!


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## Invic (Sep 20, 2011)

funlad3 said:


> Hair Algae and Bryopsis look very similar. HA is just annoying, but Bryopsis is simply evil. Make sure that it is actually Bryopsis and not just hair algae, as rock is expensive, as I don't need to remind you!


Its on a rock that is golf ball sized  Other wise I would just fight it off hehe


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

I think that laziness is justified in this case! :lol:


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## Invic (Sep 20, 2011)

funlad3 said:


> I think that laziness is justified in this case! :lol:



Well got my LR inplace, ended up working out a trade with a guy switching to just live rock no corals since he will be on the road soon for work. Swapped him a 3lbs rock for 2 3lbs rocks with some coral growth. We'll see if they survive if not I'm really out nothing. Only risk is importing a pest with his rock really.

Looks to be some brown Zoa's and some mushroom and leathers. The grey leathery ones I am not sure on what exactly they are yet. The green grows I need to identify also.

Few photos  working out macro settings to get better ones.


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

GREAT rock work! Looking good!


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## Invic (Sep 20, 2011)

funlad3 said:


> GREAT rock work! Looking good!


Thanks, tank has held stable with no issues. Added a Skunk shrimp to get some of the traded rock cleaned up. Well he approved of the condition of the rock.... Dropped him in the tank he landed and has done nothing but clean a 1" x 1" area for 6 hours. clearing the green grass looking stuff and pulling worms out of the rock. Its going to take that poor guy a month to get that one rock to his standards lol. He's cleaning off the rock and opening up the areas around the mushroom corals present. Must say hes a hard worker for sure.

Pepe Le Pew The Shrimp vs Green growth on my rocks. Bright red spot to his left is where he started


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