Some concerns of a new tank...

[quilty]

I am sure that most of these concerns are not of worth, but I will bring them up anyway. Hopefully some of you experienced people can give me some tips or set my mind at ease about some of these things Ive been wondering...

Tank Details: 55gal standard. Has been up for one month.. around 40lbs of live rock, and 25 lbs of base rock.. and about a 2 inch sand bed. I am running a seaclone 150 (ugh I know, I've found out this is a poor skimmer the hard way) and an aquaclear 110 (which I have recently shut off, but I'll get to those.

1) The seaclone. Yes, I know Seaclones suck. I found this out the hard way, [and have read about some customizations which I will probably resort to soon], but anyway. I have been running this skimmer since the tank was up, and have not received anything in the collection cup whatsoever (aside from condensate). Since it has been enough I have ruled out the skimmer breaking in... Surely the rocks and the one fish in the tank have produced enough waste that it should be working. I have tried this with the valve mostly open and closed, and while the seaclone sucks, surely it would produce SOME waste, unless it was due to improper use. There is no brown material whatsoever, I just see water swirl like a tornado all day. how fine should the air bubbles be? any suggestions on how to calibrate it? Everyone says adjust it and go with what gives you the most output, but I am getting zilch so this does not work.

2) Aquaclear 110.. just a standard hang on filter. I figured a little extra filtration could benefit the system.. but now I'm worried that I am stripping the tank of bacteria and over-filtering (partly due to the skimmer not producing anything) so I have shut it off (also, it seems the return is powerful as it is moving my sand underneath it..) I am thinking of replacing the standard foam/charcoal combo, with store bought filter bags and phosphate/silicate removal.. should work right?? Maybe I can find a way to tone down the intake and return velocities as well.

3)The lone inhabitant is a sailfin tang, who has been in the tank roughly a week. [yes.. three weeks may have been pushing it, but the water tests had all been coming back perfect for so long with fully cured rock, that I attempted a fish]. My father had one years ago, and I know they graze a lot (he does pick rocks however there is little algeal growth as the tank is fairly new), but I remember them being very receptive to greens like romaine lettuce.. and he does not want to eat any of it. I had been feeding him frozen food which he devours, he does not look sick at all.. just doesnt seem to be taking to greens. I'm sure he wont starve, I am just wondering if I can suppliment his diet some.. I am worried about his nutrition having a non leefy diet.

4) I noticed my PH is actually getting a little high recently (though nitrate/nitrite levels remain low). Is there an additive to lower PH somewhat? Or should I just top off the tank with water that does not have increased PH until t his problem rectifies itself.

5) Would it be possible to increase the depth of my sand bed now? I guess it would be a bad idea. I had 20lbs of live sand, and around 20 lbs of normal sand mixed. I was going to add a third 20 lb of normal sand.. but I was worried it would take too long to propogate bacteria with a live ratio of 1:2.

Thanks! Any help is appreciated.. especially with 1-2. Ive ran some fish only tanks but never messed with a lot of this before.. this site has been such a learning experience.

 

[Meloco14]

Hi quilty, and welcome to reefs.org. I know nothing about the seaclones so hopefully someone else will chime in there. For your hang on filter, replacing the carbon with a phosphate/silicate remover is a great idea. However, you mentioned that you have little to no algae growth right now, so you don't really need a phosphate/silicate remover until it becomes a problem. But a hang on filter is a great way to perform multiple maintenance duties. I do not run mine all the time, but if I see the water getting yellow, I will run some carbon to clear it up. If I have phosphate levels, I will run some phosphate remover, etc. For your tang, the first thing I will mention is that your tank is going to be too small for a fully grown sailfin tang. They can get fairly large. I am assuming yours is small though and the 4' length will give him enough swimming room...for now. Just be prepared to give him up or move to a bigger tank in the future. As far as eating, yes lots of people feed romaine lettuce but this isnt the best thing for them. I would recommend getting some dried algae sheets. A couple different companies make them and you can get them at your LFS. Cut a small piece of the sheet and put it in your tank using a plastic clip, or rubberband it to a rock. This is a great way to feed your herbivores, as most of them need to continuously graze all day, rather than having 2 or 3 daily feedings. Other options include buying some "tang heaven" macroalgae and feed that to them. You can also set up a small tank or refugium to farm this algae to use as a food source. You can get this type of macro algae at many places; one place I recommend is www.ipsf.com. Your pH will vary a little bit while your tank is young. It shouldnt be too much of a worry unless there are big swings in pH in a relatively short amount of time, i.e. within a day. Maintaining your salinity and calcium levels will help to stabilize this. Also, algae photosynthesis can affect pH, but this is normally noticable only with a large amount, such as in an algae scrubber or refugium. This is why many people use a reverse lighting period over their refugiums, to balance pH swings. You can still add sand now, but add it very very slowly, as in like a cup every few hours. If you add more than that the tank will get very cloudy. I would also be careful to submerge the cup of sand all the way to the bottom and pour it out, rather than pouring it from the top of the tank. Don't worry about your live sand to dead sand ratio, lots of people fill their tanks with dead sand and only add a couple pounds of live on top. Make sure you are using real live sand though and not the packaged type. Hope this helps.

 

[trido]

As far as the Sea clone... I have the 100 on my 15 which is about one month old. It did nothing until i did my own little makeshift mod and then got about 1/4 cup in four days. A week ago i did the posted internet mod and now get about 1/4 cup a day...Even then i have to tweak it daily.
Do the mods if you plan to keep it. .

 

[Anonymous]

First off

:welcome:

As for you questions

1. I would look at up grading the skimmer. What you have is workable, but in the long run I think you, and you tank, would be happier with a better skimmer.

2. The aquaclear is not necessary. If you have good quality live rock, a good skimmer and adaquate circulation that is all you need. My suggestion would be to dump the aquaclear.

3. That fish will get to big for your tank. Until you can find it a better home go to your local asian food market and pick up of Nori. Make sure it is the unspiced. It is the same stuff you get in the pet store, just lots cheaper.

4. Thier are two part additives that you can add to help control your PH. The ones I have used and liked are the seachem reef advantage calcium and reef builder.

5. Yes you can add sand to your sand bed if you like. Add small amounts with a couple of days in between. Only cover a portion of your say bed at a time.

 

[quilty]

Thanks for the responses...

Trido> Which specific mods did you do? Decreasing the length of the inner tube, and decreasing the length of the inner tube in the cub?

Make sure you are using real live sand though and not the packaged type. Hope this helps.

Why is that? The packed stuff is bad? I got one bag of the black/white live aragonite (I think it was that tahitian moon or whatever).. I've been adding black sand ontop and it looks nice. I understand its no substitute for live sand, obviously, but is there a problem with the bagged stuff?

Wazzel Im totally going to buy nori in chinatown. <3 new york city.

Thanks for all the info. Don't worry about the sailfin, I am running the 55 temporarially for a year or so until I move, when I am already acquiring the materials for a much larger tank. I guess I am shooting myself in the foot for not getting a bigger skimmer now, but I'll try modding my seaclone for the time being.[/quote]

 

[Meloco14]

No, the packaged live sand is not bad as in harmful. So you have not hurt anything by adding it to your tank. What I meant was the packaged stuff you get is not even close to what we call live sand. It contains living bacteria, but thats about it. This can easily be subsituted by buying a bottle of cycle or a similar product. If you like the texture and look of the sand you got, then great. But you should also get some real live sand from an LFS to seed your sand bed with. Real live sand will have worms, amphipods, copepods, and micro brittlestars if youre lucky. If you know any other reefers in your area that have an established tank, you can ask them for a cup of their sand. This would work well too. HTH

 

[quilty]

Ive come to figure as much about the sand in the past month. I didn't see any real critters in it, and I came to assume that what you said was just the case. I guess I'm sort-of screwed. I do not know any other hobbyists in the new york city area, and I do not really want to add pet store sand to my sand, because I have black sand and it won't match.

I guess I'm S.O.L. ? Does any place sell something? Any chance that if I move my live rock off of base on to the sand directly that some will migrate from one to another?

 

[trido]

Yep.... Those were the mods

 

[Anonymous]

Ive come to figure as much about the sand in the past month. I didn't see any real critters in it, and I came to assume that what you said was just the case. I guess I'm sort-of screwed. I do not know any other hobbyists in the new york city area, and I do not really want to add pet store sand to my sand, because I have black sand and it won't match.

I guess I'm S.O.L. ? Does any place sell something? Any chance that if I move my live rock off of base on to the sand directly that some will migrate from one to another?

I've used the bagged stuff and gotten plenty of animals in it. I've found sand clams in mine so don't be surprise about what shows up on the surface of your sand. The worst thing about the sand you picked up is that it has larger pieces that tend to work their way to the surface.

http://inlandaquatics.com/ has the micro fauna your looking for if you can't find any locals to help out. Check to see if there's a reef club in your area. I know several on this forum that live in NY, maybe not the city but upstate.

 

[Meloco14]

Yes, some critters will crawl into your sandbed out of your LR. And if you would like to buy amphipods or worms and such without buying sand try the link knowse gave you, and also try ipsf.com. I have ordered from ipsf and they have great stuff.