New to saltwater? Heres what NOT to do. Please help!

[SquidHC]

Ok so heres the run down. This is my first ever saltwater tank and I know I have screwed up alot. I didnt spend the time I should have researching, and I was in a rush to get things set up. The good thing is that I rushed to get it set up BUT realised that I was getting way ahead of myself before I put water in the tank. I slowed down abit and started doing research before I purchased anything else.

So I decided I wanted to set up a saltwater tank for my son, and within a week was at the closest pet store that carried any saltwater goods. I basicaly walked in and said, "Set me up with what I need to make a saltwater tank." He started pileing up all sorts of stuff and ended up going quite abit over the budget I had set for it. Man saltwater is alot more expensive then I expected. So here is what I got.

75 gallon 4ft long tank. Standard height and width. Glass.
150 gallon rated CoraLife skimmer
2 Rio 2100 powerheads (around 650gph or something I think)
CoraLife light with 2x 10,000k white and 2x 10,000k blue Power Compacts.
2 25lb bags of coral rubble
2 submersable heaters
Plenum
An assortment of test kits, chemicles, and other random "must haves".
This set me back about $1,000. yea...
also, he actualy gave me a 65 gal rated skimmer (cause skimmers arent that important he said =P) and a canister filter. I returned the canister filter and upgraded to the 125gal rated skimmer.

So I went home and dug in, putting the hardware in per the guidelines on the instruction manuals. Dumped the coral rubble in and called it a night.

The next day I went to a local saltwater specialty store and got 75 gallons of premixed saltwater and about 70 lbs of mix and match live rock. Also picked up two more bags of sand cause I wanted a deeper sand bed. He also gave me a paper about how to cycle my tank, and told me about reefcentral.com

Went home, dumped my sand in right ontop of my coral rubble (oops) that was ontop of my plenum, and stacked the rock randomly on top of all of that. Poured the water in and started reading for about 5 hours. Then pretty much wanted to rip my hair out for the next week. haha

Anyway I cycled my tank with some live sand, cured live rock, and some ammonia. Cycle took about 4 weeks and seemed to go smoothly.

Since then I have slowly added some mix and match mushroom frags, and some Xenia. Along with turbo and bumblebee snails, a pair of saddleback clowns, a royal grandma, lawnmower goby, six line wrasse, and a orange star. Everything seems to be very healthy and relatively happy aside from the two clowns picking on eachother abit. I test my water about 3 times a week and never have any sort of spikes. Things seem to be going pretty smoothly.

The problems that I need to resolve are the following.

My substrate is like 25 lbs of coral rubble, and 50 lbs of medium-fine sand. I also have a plenum. Should I tear it all apart, remove the plenum, dump all my substrate and just add fine sand?

My rock configuration looks like crap, I want to add about 50 lbs of rock to what I already have, but at $6+/lb I cant afford it right now. Is base rock ok to add at this point? LFS has some nice base rock for like $2/lb

Is my lighting is an issue? I got robbed on the unit. Guy charged me like $375 for it. I can get a nice metal halide setup for the same price. Do I just need to bite the bullet and spend the cash on the MH?

The Rio 2100 powerheads are horrible. Not only are they bulky and ugly, the little directional heads they supply make the flow rediculously low, but without them its like a freaking jet that just blows water everywhere way too fast.

The skimmer, its a CoraLife 125. I have hear alot of people say that coralife makes crap skimmers. Is this something Im going to need to replace in the near future?

Anyway need to go for now, but imput on the questions is appreciated.

[Pistonkev]

First things first Stay out of that fish store.

[Pistonkev]

Also you have a PM.

[agsansoo]

They say there's one born every minute ... And your your talking to one too ! ... LOL. Your story sounds like mine ...LOL
LFS are the worst place for a newbie to get info. One tells you to use chrushed coral, another tells you 2" of sand. Mine tried to sell me two fluval canister filter. They see a newbie and say " what junk can I unload today".
We all make mistakes ... Just keep researching everything before you buy.
PS- I have a Wet/Dry filter I'd like to sell ...LOL

[REMF]

It looks like you are from Portland? I would get with the local reef club and pick their brains for good LFS's in your area.

On the rock issue, if you have 70 lbs of true live rock now, you should be able to add some base rock that will become live with time.

On the power head issue, a lot of folks will tell you tunze which are great if you have the cash. A good alternative is the Hydor Koralia or a Seio for more dispersed flow.

[WaterKeeper]

Originally posted by SquidHC


The problems that I need to resolve are the following.

My substrate is like 25 lbs of coral rubble, and 50 lbs of medium-fine sand. I also have a plenum. Should I tear it all apart, remove the plenum, dump all my substrate and just add fine sand?

My rock configuration looks like crap, I want to add about 50 lbs of rock to what I already have, but at $6+/lb I cant afford it right now. Is base rock ok to add at this point? LFS has some nice base rock for like $2/lb

Is my lighting is an issue? I got robbed on the unit. Guy charged me like $375 for it. I can get a nice metal halide setup for the same price. Do I just need to bite the bullet and spend the cash on the MH?

The Rio 2100 powerheads are horrible. Not only are they bulky and ugly, the little directional heads they supply make the flow rediculously low, but without them its like a freaking jet that just blows water everywhere way too fast.

The skimmer, its a CoraLife 125. I have hear alot of people say that coralife makes crap skimmers. Is this something Im going to need to replace in the near future?

Anyway need to go for now, but imput on the questions is appreciated.

Well that is a lot of area to cover but here goes-

• I'm not crazy at all with that substrate but you are already adding livestock. I'd replace it with a fine sandbed before adding anything else.
  
• You might look Here for an even cheaper source of rock.
  
• True the lighting was overpriced but it will do at the moment
  
• I'd consider using a Sump rather than a powerhead.
  
• On the skimmer I'd stay with what you have but I'd also complain to the LFS why they shortchanged you and why they feel skimmers are not needed.

You also might read The New Tank Thread for a detailed account of how to set up a marine tank.

[bigjackstud]

I might be a newbie to this as well, but have learned a bunch already, Mostly from reading peoples discusions on here. There's nothing like a skimmer! It keeps your tank nice and clean. I have the coralife 125 needle wheel skimmer and it works beutifully! Gotta play with the knob for awhile to figure out what works for your tank set up... I highly recomend it!

[HBtank]

1st. We all waste some money, I knew my way around when I started and I still made many repeat buys. Forget about it unless you can return anything or they shortchanged you.

Ok, the immediate issue I see is your sand/coral bed and plenun. It's a pain but ditch it before you get any farther in. I did it in one day. Lots of containers and a mess, but if you're like me it will bug you every time you look at it. I used cheap silica sand from lowes, my only desire was it being white.


Crushed Coral


Sand and more rock, just like you want to do.

Your light will suffice for anything you should be getting to start. You can think about new lighting awhile down the line. I started with a setup very similar to that and had good success (4x65w PC)

I use a Coralife Skimmer, if there is one bright spot, it is that they you do have a skimmer that DOES WORK. It will do you fine.



As waterkeeper said, I would invest in a sump before getting any new powerheads. Fow is important, but like the light, you can upgrade later when you start getting coral that demands it.

Read about sumps, and setting up an overflow.

More rock can never hurt, but your tank will cycle again.

You are going to have to think about how youir current livestock will handle any/all of these changes/transitions and you might consider taking them back. Some such as the bumble bee snails, are not recommended anyways...

Here is my tank 8 months later:

[poweraid]

Hey there, fellow Portlander here. Not sure what LFS you went to but try this one. Seahorse Aquarium Supply. They have been the most helpful. (I'm new to this too) They only sell what works. They are over off Columbia Blvd. Phone #(503) 283-4788 Good luck.

[alexb518]

What everyone else said, but one thing to add: try taking steroids and then go back into your LFS.

[IMAGINEER]

I swear it sounds like Petsmart !!!

[Scuba_Steve]

Originally posted by WaterKeeper
[*]You might look Here for an even cheaper source of rock.

In all your 100 years on this planet I would think you would have heard the saying if it sound to good to be true, it probably is. Another piece of bogus information brought to you by our friend waterkeeper

You know Im just giving you a hard time old man.

Base rock is an excellent way to go to save a buck. It will become live in a few months, and you will never notice the difference. I would also remove the plenum, and crushed coral, and replace with a good aragonite sand. Your skimmer and light will do just fine for now, just dont go adding lps/sps till you upgrade both.

[Scuba_Steve]

Originally posted by HBtank

.................................................................................................... ...........^^^^^
What is that? GSP on a piece of tonga branch, or something else? Regardless it looks really cool

[rustybucket145]

I would say your substrate is ok. If I'm correct in saying that it's a mix of sand and Crushed coral? I would prefer less CC and More sand but I think you'll be fine with what you have for right now. Overtime the CC will make its way to the surface and you can then easily remove it.

For rocks I woud recommend that you and your son have a rock making sat/sun one weekend. It's actually alot of fun (especially for kids) and you can make the rocks look however you want.

Skimmer and lighting will do you for a while but you will probably want to upgrade to halides in the near future so you can keep a wider variety of livestock.

I second the addition of a sump/fuge combo. It will make keeping the tank much easier to run and much more stable. Here's a pic of a pretty decent design that you could start thinking on. The pump should be located inside the last chamber in most setups but on this one we had to locate it outside.

Try not to get too frustrated. Many people have made the same exact mistakes that you made. Just suck it up and trudge forward with it armed with knowledge, instead of just your wallet.

[techigirl78]

In addition to what others have already said, I believe bumblebee snails are carnivores and will eat from your live sand bed.

[Young Frankenstein]

I like it rustybucket145

[HBtank]

Originally posted by scuba_steve1
.................................................................................................... ...........^^^^^
What is that? GSP on a piece of tonga branch, or something else? Regardless it looks really cool

Yeh, GSP on a tonga branch.

Made a "nuisance coral" into my centerpiece Anyways, they seem to love it there. Probably 2 more inches down the branch currently and the polyps just keep getting longer..

Here is how it started.

[WaterKeeper]

Originally posted by WaterKeeper
[*]You might look Here for an even cheaper source of rock.

Originally posted by scuba_steve1
In all your 100 years on this planet I would think you would have heard the saying if it sound to good to be true, it probably is. Another piece of bogus information brought to you by our friend waterkeeper

You know Im just giving you a hard time old man.

I'm not responsible for other peoples typo's. In fact I'm not not responsible for my own. Sorry that the price went up by $2 a pound in just a few hours.

[tush]

make sure you actually NEED more rock... i thought i did, and when i went to add corals and such.. i had to remove some of the rock i bought to make room
BUT...it gave me a reason to tell my husband i had to go buy another tank because i couldnt live with myself if i killed the live rock....

[Nano Chris]

Slow way, way down, you are moving to fast, read as much as you can.

[dippin61]

hey there.. check out our local club for oregon at

www.pnwmas.org


personally id go to either travis at upscales in tigard, or down the street to joel at waves. Both are in tigard.

come check out the club.