Need Help with new saltwater tank

mvpttk

mvpttk

Member
Hello to Chicago Reef

i am new to saltwater. had cichlids for 6 years.

i want to do saltwater aquarium with fish and easy coral for beginners

i have 65 gallon Hexagon Acrylic tank and stand. my stand opening is really small.

so i build two small tank sump & refugium (one with filter sock and protein skimmer) ( one with miracle mud 5 lb with live sand on top)

everything work great (did not setup refugium yet but it is ready)

Using Caribsea Ocean Direct Original Grade 60 lb.

20 lb live rock with 40 lb dry caribbean rock.

eshopps s-150 cone skimmer, Jebao DCT 6000 DC return pump, 2 Jebao RW8 Wireless Wavemaker. aquatic life edge led

72 Watts Led ( (27) 6K White, (27) 9K White, (33) 10K White, (7) Blue, (14) Red, (6) Blue Lunar LED`s)

Now NEED HELP

i start my tank with RODI water, after 3 days when water gets clear i use dr tim's one and only live nitrifying bacteria.

its been week now. my ammonia, nitrite, nitrate test all 0 ppm

but my live rock, dry rock, live sand all get dark brown color.

so what should i do is it normal?

also

what kind of Refugium algae should i get and from where?

what kind of Clean up crew should i get (How Many of each) (From where)

what kind of fish?

what kind of coral? (really easy to keep coral that don't need food)

Please Help

Thank you so much
Tarak
 
The rock turning brown is normal. It's going to look ugly for a bit. It's a diatom bloom. I would wait it out and make sure your fully cycled before adding fish. For algae I use chaeto. I have some you can have for free. Clean up crews you can get online. Reef cleaners you can choose your size tank but there is a LOT of snails. I go smaller than what they recommend. Research the fish you like and make sure they are reef safe and compatible with others. I always started with some clowns. As for coral try some mushrooms. Palys, zoas, gsp. There's a bunch. Stick with softies and lps for now. Patients is key. Take it slow.
We live pics post some up !
 
mvpttk said:
Thank you for quick reply sk8elenex92
here are come pictures
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Very neat tank!

One comment on your aquascape.. I really like it; however, I don't see any opening in the middle at sand level. See how your water flows through the area when you feed your fish. If you see deitrus and food getting trapped in that middle section, that may cause water problems in the future. A good cleanup crew will certainly help though. Nice start!

If you make it out to the burbs, I could put together a starter pack of easy frags for you for a good price. LMK if you are interested.
 
sk8elenex92 said:
The rock turning brown is normal. It's going to look ugly for a bit. It's a diatom bloom. I would wait it out and make sure your fully cycled before adding fish. For algae I use chaeto. I have some you can have for free. Clean up crews you can get online. Reef cleaners you can choose your size tank but there is a LOT of snails. I go smaller than what they recommend. Research the fish you like and make sure they are reef safe and compatible with others. I always started with some clowns. As for coral try some mushrooms. Palys, zoas, gsp. There's a bunch. Stick with softies and lps for now. Patients is key. Take it slow.
We live pics post some up !
Click to expand...
I agree with sk8elenex92.
You need to go slow When you try to go fast something will happen and force you to slow down. You may want to add a piece of fresh shrimp to help cycle the dry rock.
 
Hello tarak.

You mention its been up for about a week.Usually,you want to let it cycle all the way to build up your beneficial bacteria before adding fish /coral.If you stock up your tank right off the gate, you will likely encounter problems with your water parameters making it very unstable for fish/coral.Its not the best idea ,because youre at risk of investing $$ in livestock and then losing it shortly after.

Ive personally used the live bacteria supplents with success in new tanks.
you can get away with adding a very hardy fish like Damsels and they do just fine in less then favorable conditions.The thing is, they can be very territorrial and wont like most other fish you add later on.

It would be Ideal to start adding coral/inverts (easy ones) around the 3 month mark provided your tank has stable salinity,temp, good filtration and decent lighting.
Most begginer coral like Shrooms,leathers,softies and frogspawn will do just fine in begginer tanks.

You could also make 2 islands from all that rock. One on the left , open swimming space in the middle and one pile on the right.That way you can have one side for non aggressive coral and the other side you can space out your stinging coral like Favias,Galaxea ,torches ect.. and will clean up the look on the tank.

Your tank will have that brown stuff all over , until your tank is stable .High phosphates , too much lighting contribute to that brown algea but its easy to wipe off.

So if you really have to, like they mentioned above , add a nice cheap clownfish or 2.Monitor the nitrates/ammonia because likely they will spike up when you start feeding and the fish start pooping because you wont have built up the bio filter in the first weeks.

Or you could just throw a small piece of table shrimp in the tank and let it fully cycle for a couple more weeks then you can be less cautious about adding fish.

Hope this made sense, and keep us updated.
 
Thank you so much for all your members help.

i will remove rock from right front side and left front side. i just put lots of rock so i can use them in my refugium

also i use dr tim's one and only live nitrifying bacteria so that way my dry rock become live rock.

should i use filter sock and protein skimmer when i am cycling my tank. because i am not using them right now.

also diatom bloom have small hair like green algae?

check my new pictures
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Looks like a good start! One thing I would add to everybody else is 2 RW-8s is going to be a LOT of flow for the "easy" corals you will likely start with. Might want to use just 1 at first -- in wave mode they move a lot of water

My recommendations for starter coral are green star polyps and pulsing xenia. They require no special care and live and thrive in a variety of conditions and light. They are also really pretty (I think). Look them up, and if you like them hit me up when your tank is ready and I'll give you some for free
 
Wow lots of haters on Xenia out there. Well everyone has their view and that is fine.

But just to give the OP the other view: they will not "take over" your tank unless you attach them to the main rock structure. And even then, it would take years. Most people that aren't already reefkeeping experts think they look really cool.
 
mvpttk said:
Thank you so much for all your members help.

i will remove rock from right front side and left front side. i just put lots of rock so i can use them in my refugium

also i use dr tim's one and only live nitrifying bacteria so that way my dry rock become live rock.

should i use filter sock and protein skimmer when i am cycling my tank. because i am not using them right now.

also diatom bloom have small hair like green algae?

check my new pictures
View attachment 13988
View attachment 13989
View attachment 13990
View attachment 13991
View attachment 13992
View attachment 13993
View attachment 13994
Click to expand...
U will get all types of crazy alage tank is new it will do its thing and just dont over stock it right away . The tank will stabilize and alage will go away as will the diatoms
 
If you isolate GSP and Xenia to a rock, it can make a really nice display, especially Red Sea Pom Pom. Heck, I've even used it for nutrient export before

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk
 
Thank you for your reply

should i use filter sock and protein skimmer when i am cycling my tank. because i am not using them right now.

so how long should i wait.
 
You don't really need the skimmer while you are cycling, unless you want to just go ahead and break it in. I've never used filter sock, but some people like it to keep their sump clean. I just use powerbeads in my sump so nothing settles. If you forget to change out the filter sock, they tend to become nitrate factories.
If you can, buy bottled ammonia to cycle your tank. saves you having to do a big water change to get ride of built up phosphate and nutrients from putting in organic ammonia source. Ammonia just turns into nitrate which can easily be taken out by fishes when they eat the growing algae, or pull out algae, or carbon dosing.
 
i use dr tim's one and only live nitrifying bacteria also using dr tim's Ammonium Chloride Solution for Fishless Cycling.

i start using filter sock (i will change filter sock once a week) also start using activated carbon in reactor.

i will wait for protein skimmer.

Thank you
Tarak
 
mvpttk said:
i use dr tim's one and only live nitrifying bacteria also using dr tim's Ammonium Chloride Solution for Fishless Cycling.

i start using filter sock (i will change filter sock once a week) also start using activated carbon in reactor.

i will wait for protein skimmer.

Thank you
Tarak
Click to expand...

I change my filter sock every 3 days. Any longer than that it clogs
 
Tank set up looks great! Once you get everything Stable I can donate a couple of frags of sps and some zoas :) I think you should start a build thread to show the progress of your tank.
 
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