Need Advice

[Chago09]

Ok as of now my tank is 10 days old and is a 65 gallon tall with the following set up.

-50lbs of live fiji rock
-65 watt CF Coralife fixture with a 50/50 bulb
-Crushed Coral substrate(I know everyone hates this but its late)
-Aqua Clear 110 with only a sponge inside. It's used just for mechanical and will be rinsed weekly to avoid nitrates.
-Along with 500 gph from the AC 110 I also have a AC powerhead pumping 400gph and another powerhead pumping 200 gph. Total of 1100gph.

Ok now I have a few issues.

1.) I know a protein skimmer is key to a reef tank although I am going to be stocking very very lightly for the first 6 months. Probably just a pair of clowns. I am still struggling to realize that only the live rock is my bio filter.... I'm soooo not used to that because I am used to all my brown dirty sponge and biomax being my gold in Freshwater and never wanting to rinse it and kill my bio. So because I have no bio except whats growing on my rocks, should I add more???? like would buying another 20lbs of live rock be more beneficial to me then buying a protein skimmer immediatly???

2.) I have been doing water tests for the last few days and I notice during the day my PH seems to be between 7.8 and 8.0.... this is too low isn't it??? I should use buffers to raise the ph???

3.) When doing top ups I know to age water and to dechlorinate it, but should I add buffer as well??? like my tap water is 7.0, but top ups are only like 1 or 2 gallons once a week, can't the subtstrate and salt in tank buffer the 7.0 water????

Thanks for everyones help I hope you can't help me with this as well

[billr]

It is suggested to use a minimum of 1 to 1 1/2 lbs of liverock per gallon. So yes, another 20 lbs would be your minimum.

[ken6217]

Get a protein skimmer. The most important piece of equipment IMHO.
Ken

[Chago09]

ok well I was just reading in another thread about nitrate killing off feather dusters. He said his nitrate was 10ppm and the person who responded told him that his nitrate was way to high. I think my tap water may be 10ppm if not a little more. How do i avoid this???? let me guess RO???

[Sk8r]

Ro/di, or you'll be battling nitrate and algae, neither of which will be good. You'll need a skimmer. Do you have a sump? You might get by with an Urchin Pro skimmer.

Here's the deal: saltwater CAN be run off a Penguin biowheel and ro/di topoff, but you'll be up to your eyeballs in sheets of algae, and your fishload has to be minimal.

If you want to have a good sw tank you need at least a 10g sump, at least an Urchin Pro, running on ro/di [you can get that at Walmart if you know to go to the machine, not the shelves, and you just cross your fingers and hope their filters are up to date]. You need 1 to 1 1/2 lbs of live rock per gallon [agreed upon by all], 3-4 inch sandbed [mildly controversial--some go bare bottom], your skimmer---[I use something more potent than the Urchin Pro now in my 54, and wish I'd gotten it earlier].

Re topoff: should be done practically hourly to avoid spikes, and the way to accomplish that is with an auto topoff unit: costs 75.00 or up. I got mine from autotopoff.com, on the cheap end; uses an old salt bucket full of ro/di [no salt!], and tops off as it evaporates.

You want NO lids in the system: they restrict your live rock and sand from their work, and overheat the tank [stay 80 degrees or slightly under].

What else is different than freshwater? Ah, the ph problem. You can add buffer to your topoff water, IF you're dead certain of your evaporation rate. You need to have your tank up and going before you can predict that. About a week or so observing can tell you and get that temp steady. Until then, you just topoff once a day: you'll have some salinity swings, but nothing too serious until you get a household emergency and forget.

If you end up keeping corals [I think you'll need to upgrade the lights] you'll also need to supplement calcium.

Your ammonia, nitrate, nitrite test should read 0,0,0. The test strips are adequate, actually: there just should be no color at all.

Saltwater is actually no harder than fresh...if you have the right equipment.

Let me explain why that live rock works. The outer skin of the rock is alive with bacteria that eats wastes and turns them into nitrogen gas. Your filter can't do that: it just gets them as far as nitrate. You'll see bubbles floating up from your rock and sand: that is nitrogen. You never want to medicate the tank, because it will kill off the live bacteria and turn your tank lethally nitrated overnight.

If I were doing this from startup, priority would be: tank, pump, sump, lights, live rock, sand [aragonite fine grade], skimmer, topoff unit, and a heater---mostly you have to worry about too MUCH heat in these tanks, if you have a submerged pump.

You can make a sump out of an old 10g tank, with some baffles and glue. Consult the diy threads for that. Life is SO much easier with a sump.

After a year, I'm tripling the size of my sump and adding a refugium, sort of like a small weed farm in the flow, that increases healthy life that needs protection from predatory fishes. It helps sop up wastes like phosphate and keeps the tank walls from algae, among other benefits.

It's a lot of expense all at once when you've had a whole different setup, but the bennies of a sump are: you can put all your equipment into it out of sight, and you never have a U tube lose suction and fail on you. You can add buffers and other things down there without worry that unmixed chemical will land on your specimens.

With your lights, though I don't personally know how bright they are or in what spectrum, I'm sure you can grow some mushrooms, zoas, and leathers, and has anybody mentioned you can reproduce them and trade them around for other types? Same with all corals, but softies are particularly easy to do this with.

Whole new world, but a lot of fun. I came in from freshwater back in the 70's-80's, and am thoroughly hooked.

Ow, yes! Buy some of your equipment used for starters---that'll save you megabucks. I just sold off my old skimmer and am going to sell my old sump---via my lfs, so this isn't a commercial; but you can find lots of equipment that's been used only for saltwater, and that's perfectly good, just that the user has outgrown it, or his fish have.

Good luck to you!

[Chago09]

Thank you soooooooooo much.... finally got a indepth answer to my questions. I appreciate your time... Thank You again

[Shagsbeard]

A skimmer saves you money in the long term. You'll be replacing water much more frequently without one.

[Sk8r]

Shagsbeard mentions another essential: water changes, either 20% once a month or 10% a week [better], which replenishes the trace elements your fish and corals sop up. Don't start them until your cycle is complete.

Re skimmers:
You know that brown froth that accumulates on lake or ocean shore when the wind blows hard? That's protein waste, whipped up to a froth. That's what a skimmer does for your tank---gets it out of your water into a collection cup where you can toss it. Keeps the water quality up.

[iggyman1971]

I agree with Sk8r, RO water is the key to a healthy system, and as far as rock goes the more porous the rock the less you need and if you have crushed substrate that has more biological surface area than most of the live rock on this site. keep that in mind.