Newbie Advice

[packman9111]

Bought a 29 gal bowfront with the intention of going FO with a couple clown fish and other small fish w/o much success, I decided to go reef. So, put 1 clown, 1 damsel, a few hermits and snalis in quarantine tank and bought 50# LR. I was told that with more light, LR and a PS would be all the equipment I would need for the setup.

So far I've put retrofit 65w ho smart bulb in the standard hood, ditched the tetra tec HO filter & put on the quarantine tank and bought a visajet PS which isn't doing the job. I have ordered a seaclone (I know a lot of people hate this one too) to replace. Also have added power head. The LR is two weeks into cycle.

I've done two 5 gal WC - my question is do I WC once per week, onlywhen levels get high (how high)?

Do I in fact need other means of filteration? I put about 3/4 - 1 inch of live sand in the tank when it was intended to be FO and left it in when I put the LR in - would the critters in the sand survive the LR cycle?

I have been using aged tap water w/conditioner - when I check w/local water supplier, what do I need to make sure is absent. Otherwise, I'll need to invest in RO?

I know I'll need to watch what corals I put in with only 65 watts of light.

My plan is once the levels drop to 0, I'll introduce the livestock I have in the QT and maybe some additional cleaning crew, wait a couple of weeks and add bullseye mushroom coral, button polyp and yellow colony. Later on would like some colorful corals (green mushroom and candy cane) and a few more fish (suggestions appreciated).

any other suggestions appreciated.

Rick

 

[hdtran]

A good protein skimmer, vigorous circulation, and live rock provide sufficient biological filtration, yes.

Regular small water changes are good, as they export some non-tested crud, and replenish non-tested minerals (such as iodine or magnesium).

Do regular testing anyway, and if a number begins to cause concern, you can do a big water change (50%, for example).

If you age tapwater, there's no need to add water condtioners. In fact, some conditioners may cause your skimmer to go bonkers.

Check your water utility report for nitrates, phosphates, and silicates. I can't remember what else, but those seem to be common culprits. Check the archives of the "Advanced Aquarist Online" e-magazine (see the button near the top). Randy Holmes-Farley wrote an article fairly recently about tap water in various cities.

Watch the water chemistry in your QT tank, and make sure not to stress out your critters while waiting for your rock to get happy.

Buy a copy of either (and/or) John Tullock's "Natural Reef Aquariums" or "Your First Saltwater Aquarium" or Bob Fenner's "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist."

Think seriously about returning the Seaclone before it arrives, and spend the extra $$ for either a CPR or AquaC skimmer.

Then, think about buying Fenner/Calfo's "Reef Invertebrates" and Borneman's "Aquarium Corals."

Then, think about ditching the 29g, and getting a 240g

And would a moderator give you the fancy "Welcome to Reefs.Org" message?

 

[hdtran]

Oh, and when cycling, there are different philosophies. Mine is to do a water change if ammonia reaches 1ppm; this prolongs the duration of your nitrogen cycle, but preserves more critters. Others say, let the cycle go as fast as possible (maybe accelerate by throwing ammonia or decaying organic matter in). Some folks differentiate between "curing" live rock and "cycling" live rock (or a tank). "Curing" live rock means deliberately killing off the non-hardy critters before they can slowly die in your tank; "cycling" means establishing equilibrium populations of the nitrifying bacteria.

Confused yet?

 

[packman9111]

Thanks - good stuff!

A white film has started to develop on the rock - think it's dead stuff. Should I pull it off? Remove the rock and get as much as possible off or in the tank?

 

[hdtran]

Try a turkey baster...

 

[krullulon]

i just finished going through this with my 90g... the "white stuff" was indeed decaying tissue on the rock, it lasted for about 5 days and then dissolved on its own. i didn't mechanically remove anything during this time, and didn't blow anything off with a turkey baster. i was skimming heavily from day 1, though.

it's now 6 weeks since i first put the live rock in the tank, and for the last week i've been dealing with an algae bloom. happily it's already on the way out due to an effective cleanup crew, extremely pure water for changes and topoffs and a few hours of hand-picking it off the rock and glass. i'm fairly certain that part of the reason for the bloom is from the excessive debris left-over from the cycling -- after my rock finished curing, i didn't rinse it much and a lot of the dead stuff stayed on the rock and fed the algae.

i don't think it's going to make much difference if you turkey-baster the white stuff now or siphon it out after it's turned-into a more benign fine debris (the white stuff is actually helping your beneficial bacterial populations develop critical mass right now) -- but do make sure that you eliminate as much debris from the rocks and sand as you can before you put any critters in there to minimize post-cycling algae issues.

also, now is probably the time to stop using tap water -- most tap water contains enough nutrients to feed an algae bloom even after it's been conditioned. if you need to continue using tap water for now, at least get it tested so you know what you're dealing with.

good luck with the rest of the cycling!

 

[packman9111]

Again, thanks! Here's the link to my water analysis

http://www.wsscwater.com/info/wsscreport2002.pdf

If I don't use tap water, what do I use.

 

[WannaBeReefer]

for a 29 you could use distilled water or you can buy an RO/DI system.

 

[krullulon]

water changes for a 29 aren't so bad -- you can grab 3 gallons of ro/di water from the grocery store each week and be good to go -- 2 for water changes and one for your fresh water topoff. make sure that there aren't any additional additives (e.g., generally stay away from "drinking water" that has added minerals for taste), you should be able to get all the info from the label.

for your water quality, there's a pretty big difference between those two sources in the .pdf. just from scanning the report, metals look to me to be a bit on the high side (lots of critters are very sensitive to copper) and i'd be cautious of the turbidity from soil runoff -- that could contain silicates and phosphates to feed an algae bloom. i don't know enough about water toxicology to make a solid call though so i'll defer the specifics to someone who knows what they're talkin' about.

tap water in general isn't the way to go for a reef... and with your size tank, buying bottled water is fairly practical and cost-effective, and much easier to manage if you live in an apartment than setting up a big bucket and RO/DI unit. if you live in a house or have a ton of space, though, it might be worth looking into getting one of these -- that way you could make a batch of 40 gallons or so and always have it handy, but for now you should be fine with a couple of gallon jugs a week from the store.

 

[fishfanatic2]

I agree. I too have a 29 gallon, not a bowfront tho. Either distilled or RO is a good way to go, and i suggest you start now since it is much easier preventing algae blooms than getting rid of them. i know from experience. 8O

If you can, I suggest that you add another 65 watt or greater bulb to the tank. You willbe very limited coral-wise with that light, and mos things will need to go near the top. Im not sure how 'reef' you want to go, but that's my opinion.

For WC, I personally do about 5.5 gallons every otehr week. Works well for me since i have 2 tanks/do water changes alternating, and it saves money in salt. Dont get me wrong, tho-more frequent would cerrtainly not hurt. That's what i do. Also, top up with freshwater regualrly to keep the salinity stable.

HTH!

 

[packman9111]

Let's see, new PS, RO and more light cha-ching ....

Serously, I apreciate the advice. May pick up a bak-pak 2 (the most I can aford ATT. I will start with the distilled at next WC and plan for RO in the future. The tank isn't the only one who'd benifit from RO system. I knew the lighting was a problem. I only had 24x4 to work with in the light strip that came with the hood. I will probably at some point replace the hood w/clear cover (only just realized you can get them for bowfront) and get a wider strip.

The good news - amonia tests at pretty much zero.