Need help with 90 Gallon tank set up.

[coryaquarium101]

I have a 90 gallon Oceanic tank that is drilled with an all glass brand acrylic model 4 sump. It holds about 20 gallons or so. I modified the sump and made the center section taller by adding a piece of acrylic to allow for more water and to act as a fuge. There is about 4 or 5 inches of oolite sand with a bucket of reef mud about a 1/2 under the top layer of sand. The tank has a plenum and about a 4 to 4 1/2 inch oollite sand bed with about 30lbs of crushed coral mix. I have about 100 lbs of eco rock from Bulk reef supply. The rock is dead rock that use to be live rock. I rinsed the rock twice in brute trash cans with RO salt mix. The water was really brown and nasty. A lot of dead decay on the rock. I have had water in the tank for 2 weeks now. I have a maxi jet 1200 with an upgrade and one without upgrade running so far. The water was really cloudy and brown coler. I put a emperor HOB filter with 2 white filter pads that have carbon in them, they got brown and I changed them out twice, the water has clear now and have removed the filter. I have only put 6 hermit crabs in the tank. I have a few small pieces of rubble live rock in the sump from a fellow reefer from his sump. I have only tested for nitrite and that is about 2 or 3 ppm. The house kinda has an odor in it, but not bad. I keep the tank at 78-79 degrees. I have a aqua C EV-120 with a mag 7 pump, but I don't have it skimming because I was told to wait with the skimming. I am going to get about 30 lbs or live rock to seed the dead rock. I will try and post pics soon.

What should I do next?

1. Turn skimmer on?
2. I don't have the lights on yet. I have a nice Hamilton light with 2 1400K MH 175 watters and 2 actinic VHO lights. When should I run them and for how long?
3. Get more reef janitors like more hermits and snails and how many?

[matt880305]

i would say get the 30lbs of live rock , then turn your skimmer on. with the lights i would just be running the actinics for about 8 hours a day . janitors i dont really know much about the hermits never waanted to take a chance with them but i would just get 4 or 5 turbo's and 20 to 30 margarita snails

[potterjon]

It sounds like you still have a cycle going on. I wouldn't add any livestock at all. I would buy a test kit and test for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. When you don't show any ammonia or nitrites, and all you show are nitrates, then do a small water change and add some livestock.

[sheac12]

Get the tests going for Ammonia, nitrates, and nitrites. It is a good idea to seed with the live rock, you can expect another smaller die off and thus another spike of nitrates.

I wouldn't skip on using the skimmer. There is nothing wrong with skimmer during the cycling process.

If you want to get rid of the smell I would suggest running carbon for a short time, and keeping up with water changes(the most important thing you can do during cycling).

[longdangler]

Originally Posted by sheac12

get the tests going for ammonia, nitrates, and nitrites. It is a good idea to seed with the live rock, you can expect another smaller die off and thus another spike of nitrates.

I wouldn't skip on using the skimmer. There is nothing wrong with skimmer during the cycling process.

If you want to get rid of the smell i would suggest running carbon for a short time, and keeping up with water changes(the most important thing you can do during cycling).

+1

[coryaquarium101]

I have been running a light on my sump. There is a lot of brown diatom showing up on the sand and on top of the water pretty much above the light there is brown looking crap like slime on the top. What should I do to help clear up the brown ness. The main tank looks great with no brown colors on the sand and the water is clear now. The light is a 6700K 90 watt flourscent floodlamp. The amonia and nitrates are 0 and the nitrites is .50 to 1 PPM. Thanks.

[carpas]

I also believe in skimming and doing water changes during they cycle, especially if you bought live rock. I'd wait to see how the tank responds to the second addition of rock before adding a clean up crew.

[coryaquarium101]

I am getting the brown diatioms on the sand and on the rock in the tank. I know this is what happens. How long does the brown last and what can I do to make it go away? water change? I did a 5 gallon water change and tried to clean the the brown crap off the water in the sump, but the next day it all kinda came back. The light is a 6700K, is this too much light to have in the sump? I read awhile ago that a 5100 bulb is better.

[Yuckmouth]

With my 90g I went through the same phase of brown crap.
It goes away. In my case took about a month for everything to be clean. Just takes time.

My 50/50's are on almost all day from sunup to sundown now with the halides coming on around noon for 3 hours.

I still don't have an algea problem. Tons of purple and nothing else. Tank has only been up for 3 months though. I seeded with established live rock and a pound of established live sand. Have tons of pods in my tank now too.

Bad thing is I never did tests on my water and still don't. Just got lucky. I'm not testing because I didn't have one. One is being shipped now.

Best of luck to you...It's all I used.

[coryaquarium101]

any more advice would be appreciated. Thank You.

[gtaylor67]

I think you should be running your skimmer 24/7 ... JMO.. This will help keep your tank clean and skimmers do help remove nutrients that create algae you don't want.. Not to say it will clear it up but will help. I would do bigger water changes like 10 -15 gallons till your cycle is complete.. Then do weekly or as you see the need to keep your parameters in check.. I would also use your lights like you would after you are finished with cycle. Best of luck..

[coryaquarium101]

Well I haven't done much else to the tank. I have put in a Koralia 3. and I have a MJ 1200, and a MJ1200 with eco mod. The 2 MJ's are on a wavemaker. I just put in a small blue green chromis from one of my other tanks because the clowns were picking on him. He seems to be doing well. The Eco rock that I got from Bulk Reef Supply is getting a lot of brown algae on it. What should I do about that or just leave it be? Also what would be good starter fish and starter corals?

[coryaquarium101]

anyone?