New to marine keeping, what do you think so far?

[atnixon]

Am new here and new to keeping marine fish tanks. Kept Freshwater for a good few years, but in reflection to that, i am complete novice.

Just thought i would share my new tank with you all. Of course, all comments and constructive critisism on my equiptment and setup are very welcome indeed.

Tank 46 Gal
Red Sea Prism Skimmer
Maxi-Jet 1200 power heads x 2
Penn-Plax Cascade 1000 Ext Filter
300w Heater ( will be swapping this for two seperate heaters soon )
24w UV Serilizer
50 GPD Kent Marine RO Unit
20 Kg Live Rock
10 Kg Live Sand and CC
2 x 40w Marine Glow Day Tubes
1 x 15x Interpret Night Light
...Think Thats it....

The tank has been up and running for 13 days and my results are thus...

PH - 8.2
Ammonia - 0.3
Nitrite - 0.0
Nitrate 0.0
SG - 1.022

I would like to know after my first week of cycling if my tank is heading in the right direction?

So, what do you all think so far.


Have a butchers at the above two pictures to give you more of an idea of what it looks like..

Thanks in advance people

Niko

 

[mr_X]

looks good! you are not going to need those reef suppliments for quite a while.

 

[atnixon]

Hiya Mr X...thanks for the reply, they are suppliments that i have "Aquired"...The reef suppliments i wont be using as its only going to be a FOWLR, but, at least i have them for furture if i start another tank up for a reef..

Niko

 

[SnowManSnow]

Hey man!
WELCOME.

Looks like you have a great start. THere are a few things that come to mind right off the bat... just cookie cutter answers really.

First is the skimmer. If you plan on long term reefing sucess you may seriously consider upgrading skimmers. I know they are expensive, but coralife makes a pretty nice skimmer for the price. Also, if you are needing a HOT skimmer you should probably consider an AquaC Remora or even the Deltec if you can afford it.

Secondly, The cascade 1000 filter. If this thing has a biowheel you may consider removing it. You can keep the filter for surface water agitation, but the wheel will likely become a nitrate factory over time. Most reefers agree that a good stand of live rock and a decent skimmer are most adequate for filtration.

The only other thing that comes to mind is your lighting setup. You didn't mention what you were interested in keeping. If you are going fish only you'll be fine, but if you are wanting to keep corals, anemonies, and that sort of thing you'll have to step it up. Right now you're looking at around 2w / g. To keep softies and things I would personally go with at least 5w/g. If you want to go with sps corals and clams one day you'll probably find yourself between 7-9w/g.

I'm not trying to be discrouaging, just some words of advice from a blind, def, and mute idiot.

oh.. one more thing. you mentioned about adding rock slowly to reduce fish stress. Keep in mind that when you add rock you may experiance some die off and thus spike your ammonia and other nasty things. At least CONSIDER adding all your rock right from the beginning. You CAN add rock gradually, just make SURE it is fully cycled. Still the risk though.

Take care.

b

 

[atnixon]

Hiya SMS..

Really liked your constructive critisism...good comments..

First off, the Cascade is not a bio-wheel filter. It is 3 layers, 2 woolen and a 3rd that has a bag of carbon in it..

Secondly, I agree about the skimmer, but i think it will do for this tank as its only ever gonna be a FOWLR..When i am happy with marine keeping, in a year or so, i shall start a new large reef tank from scratch..

Suppose my last comment really answers your bit about my tank lighting being good enough...

On the live rock bit...what i have done, is brought a large grabage bin, couple of power heads, heater, filter etc and setting up a curing bin...So, i can go out and buy rock in small ammounts, leave it in the bin for a while, few weeks min to clear away any die off and hopefully should have some nice algae growth on it before it gets introduced to the tank. this way i can do water changes on the rock bin aswell....

What do you think?

Niko

 

[SnowManSnow]

thats how you do it

Keep an eye on your filter media "the woolish" part. You'll need to keep it clean.

B

 

[atnixon]

Thanks mate, while we are on about filter media, i was advised not to clean through the cycling process? is this true? i can understand it being correct but would like another opinion on this..If you dissagree, Why?

Thanks mate

Niko

 

[ChrisRD]

It's fine to clean the filter media provided you rinse it in tank water. You don't want to kill the bacteria on it.