New Tank Questions

[Anonymous]

:| We have converted a former freshwater 75 gal to saltwater. All Glass aquarium, not reef ready. 210lbs of Caribbiean Aragonite sand. Sugar sized. I have two heaters (temp 80degF) and 1 Maxijet 500 moving water around for several days. Just simple. Get it up and going and add live rock and bags of substrate from my current 29gal tank to get the critters in the sand.

So anyway, I have a scum on the surface which appears to be undissolved salt or a calcium preciptate. It is also on the heaters and Maxijet. Like a frost. Never saw this in my 29gal. Salt is Instant Ocean. Will add about 25lbs of live rock tomorrow. Bags of my substrate this weekend. Anything I should be concerned about? I had thought that perhaps some aeration would be good, not just the single powerhead, so I am running my Whisper Diatomagic Filter without the powder to aerate and break up the scum. Skimmer will not be here until mid-month because I ordered it with the mid-Sept powerbuy. Not planning any fish for some time. Just live rock.

Could that scum actually been a bacteria bloom?

Thanks!

 

[kryn13]

Hi,

If I understand correctly you've got 210 lbs. of clean, unwashed, full of tiny particles, sand in your new tank.

I've set up two tanks recently using Southdown sand...similar (if not exactly) to the sand you used. Suffered the scum to the point it looked like a bubble bath. Some if it was like insulation foam given how stiff it was. The scum is just various particles from the sand. In both cases I just scraped off the biggest layers of it and gave it time to settle down. Took over a week on a 200 gal.

Once the live rock is in and some diatoms get a chance to grow everything will settle down.

 

[danmhippo]

Once you get bacteria going in your tank and it matured somewhat, the scum should fade away naturally. It takes several weeks for that to happen and if you are like me without patience in looking at the filth for several weeks, you may want to scoop them off.

At this stage, you may want to consider adding a sump to your setup. With adding a surface skimmer to the intake of the hang-on prefilter, it should take care of future surface scum buildup problem you may encounter down the road. A heavy duty skimmer will also help sucking up the organics in your water, which is also part of the composition of most surface scums.

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I figured it was just time. I was advised by the supplier not to rinse the sand. Looks good. Didn't seem to have any junk in it. Filled the tank with a couple sheets of the plastic bags opened up and under a bowl to keep the dust storm down. When I set up the 29gal I used crushed coral and never saw this. Tank is looking good this morning except for the frost look on the Maxijet and heaters.

Adding a sump. I don't know. I would have to depend on a siphon box and a pump. With as many power outages as we get, it would have to be a good overflow. I have read that lifereef is dependable. But then I would need a sump. I would also have to explain this process to the better half who would be doubting the whole project. That and it would have been easier to put the sump in the stand while I could still move it and get behind it.

Thanks

 

[ReefLion]

I'm going to give you some radical advice, which of course you can choose to accept or reject:

Break down that tank, and purchase a drilled tank with internal overflows. Set up a sump system from the start. The benefits far outweigh the negatives.

Obviously that will set you back a good deal of cash and a good deal of time, but if you are in this hobby for the long run, that cash and time will only be a tiny fraction of what you will ultimately spend anyway.

Just something to consider.

Tim

 

[Anonymous]

I can just picture the wife's reaction to that. 8O 8O

Good advice I am sure. Just wish we had been given that option when we bought the tank by the LFS. I don't think I have seen a reef ready tank for sale in a LFS in our area. Just what they are using.

But you know, I do have a basement below where this tank now is. Running an overflow could be feasible. Maybe a new, bigger tank could replace this one....hmmmm.

 

[danmhippo]

(& you can use this 75G as the sump..........)

(danmhippo imagins the face of his wife when she hears he is going for a 150G..............)

 

[SPC]

(danmhippo imagins the face of his wife when she hears he is going for a 150G..............)

-Ahhh what the heck, you might as well go with the 220, you know you will eventually :lol: .
Steve