Thoughts on my first reef setup

[martinresi]

Hello! I'm in the middle of setting up my first tank and just wanted to check in to see if I'm on the right track. I'm setting up a 45 gallon reef, with 52 lbs rock, 1.5" fine sand, a canister filter and LED lighting. No power head or skimmer, though I'm waiting for the power head to come in the mail. I bought all the rock live but I laid them out to dry and epoxy for about 6 hours so I'm not really sure how live they are. I tossed a raw jumbo shrimp in 2 days ago and my ammonia and nitrites have stayed at 0, but today I see nitrates at 5 or 10 ppm (both colors look the same to me in the api test kit, though I am slightly colorblind). I see a diatom bloom which I'm told is normal. Just wondering what I should do if I still see 0 ammonia and nitrites tomorrow with nitrates still increasing. Thanks for any advice!

[jimspurs]

You might end up with major problems if your live rock has died, your tank will pollute super fast and without a skimmer you will be changing water daily.

It will eventually settle down but will take a good while. You didn't say how big your canister filter was, without a sump and just using this type of filter you will need to keep on top of your water changes.

Please don't add any livestock until you have your water situation under control as I'm sure they wont survive.

If you wanted to stick the rocks together you would have been better getting dead rock to start with, the pukani rock is very porus and easy to manipulate and design, it's also quite light so shipping wont be to exspensive.

Hope all goes well mate
Jim

[martinresi]

Many thanks for your input!! My canister is a Fluval 404. I did a 10% water change today. Should I do that once a week and keep the dead shrimp in there? How often do you think I should rinse out the canister?

[jimspurs]

The 404 is a big one so should handle that size of tank, just remember that it wont work as well as a sump and your more limited to what you can add etc.

Only clean your filter maybe once a month but only clean one section, then the following month clean the second section. Only rinse in syphoned off tank water and your bio filtration should be fine.

Think about getting a skimmer though, I have an internal Tunze 9004 and it cost me £105, it sits on the glass in my sump but can just a easily fit in the tank. It's rated for a 100 gal system so is ample for the job.

When doing a water change I would do 25% per two weeks and tank out all the 25% in one go before adding your fresh R/O salt mix

[ndolf]

Keep the dead shrimp and let it deteriorate. There might be a lot of things that died on your live rock but it still have something that are alive after 6 hours. Are you seeing algae's growing on your tank? That might be the reason why your nitrates is low. If you can upload a picture of how it looks, it will be useful.

Originally Posted by martinresi

Many thanks for your input!! My canister is a Fluval 404. I did a 10% water change today. Should I do that once a week and keep the dead shrimp in there? How often do you think I should rinse out the canister?

[wildcountrykid]

If you decide to get a skimmer I recommend is the reef octopus bh-1000 or 2000. Look at some of the hang on eshoppe skimmer as well.

[sponger0]

Dump the canister. Its pointless. You already are gonan have a filter...ie live rock.

Unless you want to clean the canister every week or multiple times a week, it will gather waste and create nitrate and phosphate problems.

I know some will argue this, but I know someone with a nitrate problem constantly. Never got it solved. Told them to get rid of the canister. As soon as they did, no more nitrate problem. I had to fight tooth and nails to convince them but when they did, they were much happier.

Get a skimmer and call it a day

[thegrun]

I would skip the water changes during the cycle, you will only slow down the cycle. Wait a week and if you still do not see any ammonia, I would add enough pure ammonia to bring your levels up to 2-3ppm. Use pure ammonia without surfactants (available at most hardware stores). To be sure the ammonia does not contain surfactants shake the bottle and if it bubbles up like dish soap it has surfactants in it, pure ammonia will not have bubbles. To raise 100 gallons of water from 0 to 3 ppm ammonia you would need to add 1.2grams (12 ml) of standard 10% pure ammonia, so for your tank I suspect the true water volume is about 30 gallons so add 0.3 grams (3 ml) of 10% ammonia. Once you raise the ammonia level, wait for it and your nitrites to drop to zero, then you can add your CUC and first fish.

[rale2001]

+1 on the water changes until the end of the cycle IMO i'd say a canister is fine for now but you definitely want to swap it out for a skimmer sooner then later bc you will struggle with nitrates unless you keep it clean almost like daily. I have a bh2000 on a 90g and its a workhorse but definitely be patient and let it cycle. API test kits for ammonia are known to give a false .25 reading make sure you shake the solution bottles very well and aim to upgrade those as well. oh and I used seachem stability to help with my cycle and it went around pretty quick

[martinresi]

Thanks all for your input! I’m gathering from all this that it takes more time than I thought for organisms to decay and produce ammonia. Ammonia and Nitrites are registering today and nitrates continue to increase:

Day 3 (since putting in the shrimp) - Ammonia: 0.25, Nitrites: 0.25, Nitrates: 10 - 20

What test kit you guys recommend instead of API? No algae growing in the tank that I can see, though I do see some very small white organisms swimming around, copepods I think. I’m definitely not opposed to dumping the canister if I continue to struggle with nitrate and phosphate levels after the cycle. I would prefer to do it right and get a sump / skimmer for underneath but I’d have to research if there’s enough room as my cabinet is 1’ x 3’

I’m glad I can keep the shrimp in for now. If I do have to eventually take it out I may need to buy another bucket for vomiting lol

[sponger0]

API should be fine for cycling.

If you think the shrimp smells bad, what till you smell skimmate lol