New Setup, New to SW, Feedback?

[mikedp]

Let me start by introducing myself......(If not interested in my story just read down where the line of **** is)

My name is Mike and I have been keeping/breeding freshwater fish for the last 5 years mainly African cichlids from lank tanginka. Recently finding a new job led me to relocate and rather than move my 200+ gallons of tanks I decided to take a break and sold everything off minus all the pumps, filters, etc i had accumulated and luckily a stand which i will get too. Well not 2 months into my new living arangements and the empty fish tank stand began to speak to me in weird tounges saying things like, "Put a tank on me, I'm lonely," or "You love the sea, why not start a mini one with me," or "you know you want too....." and thus a long running interest to start a salt water tank was reborn.

Well from there i started doing research. Between RC and WWM I am not sure how i manage to do anything else but spend hours if not days by now just lurking on the forums, reading as much as I can(this is my first post btw). I would say I read for a solid month before even considering the thought of maybe going out and buying a tank.

So I started with figuring out what size tank I could possibly handle. I live in a 3rd floor apartment, roughly 40 year old building. So from the get go I knew I wasnt going to go as large as I wanted. I asked my apartment management and studied the construction of the building the best I could. It seems that my load bearing walls are steal....this is from a visual inspection from the outside of my unit.....the steal I beams can be seen going into the wall via a walkway on the 2nd floor looking up. Even with this seems that my floor still has some flex from possible Wood cross beams...I didnt get to much into the details with management. But to make a long story short I have a stand I spoke of above with a 5 x 1.5 ft footprint. and I decided that I really liked the dimensions of a 40 gallon breeder as well as the weight limitations. And I guess I knew from the beginning that I wanted to do a "reef" tank despite advice that a FO would be a better start into the hobby.



OK now that my intro is over you can start reading below
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I did some research here and there and this is what I came out with

Tank:40 gallon Breeder ALL GLASS

Lights:96W Actinic , 96W 12000K, moonlighting....

Filter: EHEIM 2716
(currently running with filter pads, carbon, and ceramic rings....AFTER reading much more on canisters I will probably set it up with pads and carbon only and maybe a few small pieces of live rock as wel as other various chemical filters as needed)

Skimmer:Coralife Super Skimmer 65gal
(I wish I had done more research before purchase, it seems there is mixed opinions with some people having no problems to others having all sorts of issues, but I think I am going to stick it out and see if I can get it to work properly. )

Heater: Stealth 150W..... Havent had much need for heating here in Texas.

Curculation: 1x1200 maxi jet, and 2x900 maxi jet for water movement.

Live Rock: 100 lbs of FIJI premium purchased uncured. sitting on egg crates ...then filled in with substrate...oh btw

Substrate: argonite...just a single bag.



So first I set the tank up and did a fill and drain to check for leaks, leveling etc etc.

Then refilled with tap water, dechorinated, and ran it with just water the canister and pumps for a week. to help remove different elements. After that time tested and found no levels of ammonia or nitrite,/nitrate... I didnt test for phos at the time but currently I dont show any in the tank.

After that I made the water salty using INST. Ocean Reef crystal mix, directly in the tank(only because there wasnt anything in it) and let that water cycle through for another 2 days. After which I proceeded to purchase 50lbs of live rock, I cleaned to rock with SW prior to placing it in the tank. Two days later I added another 50lbs because I wanted to whole back wall of the tank to be covered with rock but I have a question about LR to follow. Once all the rock was in the tank I rinsed and added a bag of argonite i believe its called.

its been a week and two days since I added the live rock. The protein skimmer came in the mail a few days ago and I have it setup for hang on back right now but have yet to let it run continues as I have become a bit paranoid about it overflowing after reading a few posts here. So this weekend I will let it run non-stop with me being not to far away incase I didnt set it up right.


So thats really the basics of what I have got going so far.

I do have a few questions that maybe someone could answer.

Is 100lbs of live rock in a 40 gallon tank to much?
(with that question in mind, i do plan in the next 6 months to construct either a sump or refug, which I might fill with some of the rock from the tank)


I have been monitoring the chem parameters...Ph..etc and I have them logged but I am currently not at home writing this post) but off the top of my head I know the PH is 8.2, ALK 2.1(need to convert the scale I think still but the range says ok on the tester, and I know thats naive to trust the tester, so I will be learning more on this subject) amm:<.25 ,nitrate 30-50(Nitrates way high, I think mainly due to live rock die off and the canister, well and the fact that nothings removing nitrate right now....and its cycling so I am not going to get my panties in a knot.)


Really I am just looking for feedback, tip, and advise on this setup.

At the end of the day if the Coralife turns out to be a dud I will cut my losses and through down the $$ but for now the engineer inside me will not allow to not fiddle with things a bit or re-engineer if I have too) Also feedback on the coral life would be awesome from those that use them

[flyguy7150]

people usually go i think 1-2lbs of rock per gallon. You should be fine though, I have a coralife SS 65 as well, it runs great so far as a HOB skimmer. Will be in a sump by this weekend, once i finish my plumbing. Im also running a canister as well, fluval 304, and its doing a great job keeping my water clear and paramters stable, everything at 0, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates. Running carbon, filter sponge pads and some biomax stuff.

[theatrus]

100lbs is a lot, but if you like the look and don't go for fast swimming fish, its fine.

Nitrates are sky high - what does your tap water read?

Also knowing the alk scale would be helpful.

[papagimp]

Rock is good, can't ever have too much, as long as you have the minimum, then anything else will be purley asthetic to your liking.

I wouldn't say the nitrates are sky high, mine are 160+ppm. That's skyhigh. Your would be more along the lines of "over the limit". 30 and under is actually fine, IMO, dependant on the livestock in question.

Personally, I'd probably go with a little more lighting, but again, that's dependant on the livestock you wish to keep.

I'd also look into the Koralia pumps vs. the Maxijets. They yield much better results in my opinion.

Other than that, looks like your off to a good start, glad you came over to the salty side of the hobby, I bet you love it much more. (well, guess with those cichlids, you're probably used to salty uh?)

[rbtwo4]

"Put a tank on me, I'm lonely," or "You love the sea, why not start a mini one with me," or "you know you want too....."

that was great! welcome back!!!!!

ok 100lbs sounds like a lot for a 40 gal im just worried that it might go thru the glass or floor! dude you gotta post up some pics ill hang for the ride!

[INCEPTION7]

Ok, I would probably say that 100 LBS is a little much for a 100 gallon. I would go down to 80LBS at most. Also, with that much potential for bio filtration I would pull out everything but carbon and pads on the canister. What are you planning on keeping. Also, what does your specific gravity measure? I would say the largest thing that catches my eye is that you are using tap water. Is there any way you could get R/O Saltwater from your LFS?

[mikedp]

Ok so I got the skimmer up and running this weekend. I rearranged the rock and things got stirred up a bit and i cleaned the rocks off a bit more. bits of die off here and there. The skimmer pulled out some nasty lookin stuff, kind of a dark brown color as well as some lighter stuff, possibly some argonite sediment.

I'll get my camera up and running and snap some photos.

I haven't fully decided on what to keep as I am still researching compatibility and light requirements but corals and inverts I think are going to be my main focus.

Is 192W's of light decent for inverts with moderate light requirements? If not, what bulb would benefit me most to add?

[INCEPTION7]

192 watts, if all 10K not actinic, is a good amount of light as long as your tank is no longer then 18" tall. I would imagine most LPS would be kept very easily. If you are using 50/50's then that's not much light at all.

[ionredline0260]

I run run almost the exact same set up. If you ever need any help shoot me a PM or hit me up on AIM, user name is the same as it is here. I run a 40 breeder with 60LBS of rock, the same skimmer as you and by the way mine works great, just let it break in same lighting and close to the same power heads and heater. As far as corals go, I haven't found any thing I can't keep yet. I've got a few little bitty SPS frags, they live but don't expect insane growth from them. As far as other corals go LPS and softies seem to love my set up. I'd start with some mushrooms and zooanthids when your cycle is over if your itching to get coral.

[mikedp]

Well I am itching to get coral, thats for sure....but I am in no hurry as when I do get coral I want them to have the best conditions possible.

INCPETION7: I guess I might need a little clarity on 50/50 I have seen this on the forums and its one of those subject matters I should have looked up. Is 50 - 50 refer to half actitic / half 10k spectrum. or what ever xxK light.

The bulb I currently run is a 12K. It would seem this is started to head towards the spectrum of light seen a deeper levels. I will research lighting a bit more before I start asking questions.

[mikedp]

Update: Take has been running for almost a month. I believe the ammonia spiked once and is beginning to drop. Been doing water changes every week to help keep down nitrates.

Will post water chem soon.

[Nano Chris]