I'm new!

C

Carl

New member
Hi everyone! I'm starting a new reef tank, and I'm doing it in an interesting way, so I'm very curious for advice. But first, some background. I've been keeping freshwater tanks as long as I can remember, mostly simple 10g guppy tanks. Most recently, though, I had a 29g low-tech, dirted tank. It was a really interesting and fun experiment, but I dismantled after a year or two when I moved apartments.

My new tank is a 36g bowfront. I got it from a guy who was getting out of the hobby. It had been sitting in his living room just cycling without any fish in it for 6-9 months, just looking dirty and accumulating "slime algae," as he called it, on the substrate and the live rock. Well, I picked up his entire operation: HOB sump system in a 10g tank down below, a Jebo "Quadplex Spraying" protein skimmer, and a couple of powerheads (none of which seem to fit the skimmer...). Oh, I also got his rocks, the substrate, heck, even the water!

He attributed the algae to his aging flourescent lights, though I suspect phosphate buildup. I'm afraid the rocks and substrate have accumulated as much phosphate as they can hold and are gonna keep letting it as long as the water can handle more of it! Now, I bet a lot of you are shaking your heads and saying, "this sounds like so much trouble. If you don't have fish yet to worry about, just start fresh!" Part of me is with you, but I'd like to play a little bit in the mean time and learn a lot about water along the way.

I've gotten a bunch of really cool suggestions for how to proceed. Everything from pitch the substrate and bleach the rock, to scrub down the rocks and sift the substrate by hand and then buy a PhosBan Reactor. Personally, I could go either way on the substrate but I'd rather not kill the live rock. I'm very, very curious if anyone has tried anything like this before, and what successes you had, as well as what you'd have done differently.

Here's a picture of my tank today (really, just for before & after documentation). It's murky (the new Hydor powerhead really kicked up a lot of stuff) and I'm sure the lights aren't right for picture taking. Any suggestions welcome :)

View attachment 19024

Thanks!!
 
Welcome to Chicago Reefs. Thanks for sharing the picture. One suggestion, raise the light higher and patient till the tank recycle completely...:)
 
Welcome to CR. I am extremely lazy so I would run biopellets and drop a bottle of MicroBacter 7 in the tank. You should be in business in few weeks.
 
Kevin Says said:
Welcome to CR. I am extremely lazy so I would run biopellets and drop a bottle of MicroBacter 7 in the tank. You should be in business in few weeks.
Click to expand...

I'd recommend against biopellets for a new person and a new tank. I think everyone would agree biopellets are a complex risk, they just add too much of a learning curve and chance for failure.

[MENTION=3832]Carl[/MENTION] Welcome aboard! Many of us started out purchasing other peoples tanks. You'll be aquiring any hitchikers (good or bad) from the previous LR. Keeping up with water testing and keeping po4/no3 undercontrol will go a long way to getting the slime under control. I'd highly suggest moving the lights up some, salt spray and creep will get into them, being that close.
 
Id let it run the way it is and see how it cycles if u bleach the rock its just gonna make u have to start from beginning . Also u gonna have to hang those leds for two reasons first u dont want them to get wet second u will bleach the corals leds r strong . Also if they r sitting on glass tops like i believe they r ditch the glass tops they r no good for gas exchange and will cause issues most of use use screen tops but on a bow front that maybe tricky post pics of equipment skimmer and what not a decent skimmer is a must have
 
If the tank had nutrient issues for 6-9 months without anything in the tank, I would take some proactive measures. If you don't want to bleach or cook the rocks, the next best thing is to use biopellets and bacteria IMO. Most biopellet failures are associated with lack of oxygen or sudden drop in nutrient levels causing stress to animals. There is no risk here. There isn't anything in the tank. Biopellets are a great way to control nutrients and I would argue it's better to start now than later.
 
By the way, I started out with an almost identical setup, glass top and all (minus LED of course). I never slept well with the HOB setup. And you can't drill the tank either as most bowfronts are tempered.
 
Welcome to CR. Looks like your off to a good start, and some good recommendations above. Let that tank settle and clear up. I would not start over, work towards a long term sustainable system, consider adding with a cleanup crew.
 
Welcome aboard. there are some great people here and will help get you going in no time. Don't forget to update your progress with sum pics.
 
Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! I'm gonna do some siphoning today and try to clean out any remaining slime that might have gotten buried in the move. Then my plan is to bring a powerhead into my water bucket and blow off any gunk I can from the live rock.

Thanks everybody for reminding me about mounting the lights! I wasn't sure what kind of a priority it was to hang them up. I'll go to the hardware store today and find something to mount them with. Here are some pics of the sump and skimmer I have. Sump has three parts: bio balls > magic mud > return (this is where the skimmer is supposed to go). I was told if I wanted corals I should get rid of the bio balls because I don't want to culture aerobic bacteria. Do I understand that right? And here's a picture of the skimmer. My new best friend at my local reef store said it was weird that doesn't seem to be designed with the thing that chops up the bubbles to make them really small (the bubble disk?). I still need to find a way to connect it to one of my powerheads and see what kind of a job it does.

View attachment 19028View attachment 19029
 
Well anything jebo brand is only good for little while any ways id start looking for a decent skimmer heck even a coralife65 will work better. Sump im sure u can make it work some people believ in bioballs some dont they work good but half should be pulled and swapped with clean ones i used to every 6 months
 
Hi and Welcome aboard just to let you know that skimmer is totally obsolete and has never worked very well As Joe said you would be much better with another skimmer
 
Yeah, just played with the skimmer some; I got a powerhead to fit. It didn't create anything like the tiny bubbles I have seen. I'll pitch it and look around for another one. Used gear welcome :)
 
Welcome! definately raise those lights. The salt can splash into the lights and cause issues


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If you have enough live rock, you don't need bioballs. You don't need miracle mud either. Chaeto or Caulerpa based refugium will work better. I like biopellets. It keeps nutrient levels low and water clear. And it is so easy. A good skimmer is a must if you decide to go that route.
 
You can meet up with [MENTION=2223]Spartanman22[/MENTION] and get his free vertex skimmer body depending on how good you are at diy.

You would need a jaebo dc3000 and an pinwheel impeller that would make a great skimmer for your system.

Read up on it if your interested in that.
Or get ryans octo. [MENTION=1658]Rcunning8[/MENTION]
 
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