Got Salt 125g newbie

desertdawg

desertdawg

Member
First post newbie, but since I'm a car forum veteran I already know the procedure about pictures, so after reading your great forum for a month or so to learn all the tricks I felt it was time to share with you guys.
After playing with FW tanks for a long time we wanted something different. A few weeks ago I finally decided to take the plunge into a salt water tank, I started looking for something in the 50 to 70 gallon range and ended up finding a smoking deal on CL. With tape measure in hand I had to prove to my wife that a bigger tank would fit perfectly along the wall in the living room and look good too!
What did I end up bringing home? How's 125 gallons sound?
Damn thing is heavy too!
Here's the first 15 gallons of water!

A bucket of live rock

A pale of live sand

End of day 1 and still not even half full, rocks and sand tossed in to keep them alive.

Rocks arranged before it gets to deep

Our one hitchhiker in the sand, a Nassarius Snail

All full, time to sit back and let it go through it's cycle for a few weeks
 
desertdawg

desertdawg

Member
pH: 8.2)
Temperature: (76)
Specific Gravity: (1.022)
Ammonium/Ammonia: (0)
Nitrite: (0)
Nitrate: (5)
Fast forward 3 weeks and the urge to see something besides water and rocks is to great to overcome, besides algae is starting to grow so why not order a clean up crew!
order placed:
Sally Lightfoot Crab x1
Cleaner Clam x2
Turbo/Astrea Snail x10
Peppermint Shrimp x5
Pencil Urchin x2
Fancy Nassarius Snailx2
Jade Hermit x10
False Percula Clownfish x2
Wednesday my overnight box arrived from FedEx, I opened it up and following the directions I started the acclimation process, then I remembered to grab my camera....
Drip acclimating fish, clams, and shrimp

Fast forward a couple of hours of dripping water on critters
10 Jade Hermit Crabs

Sally Light Foot Crab hitting the beach

One of the Peppermint Shrimp

The 2 Fancy Nassarius Snails

One of them immediately started to bury himself

Sally showing off her undercarriage

Then it was time to start cleaning

One of the Pencil urchins with a pile of Turbo/Astrea Snails
 
desertdawg

desertdawg

Member
One of the Cleaner Clams already digging in

A Zooanthid coral donated by a friend

The Peppermint shrimp all found holes to hide in

The Clowns, a Clam, a Snail, and one of the Urchins

blue Actinic


So there you have it, now we watch all the critters run around, and if everything survives we can start looking at other fish to add!!!
I'm trying to add a little bit of salt at a time to bring that level up, but I'm still using a hydrometer so I'm sort of guessing here.
So far I have been just skimming off the scum floating on top of the water with a glass, I have not done a water change. I did have to add about 5 gallons after all the water used during acclimation...
I have a larger powerhead coming, and I was given a Eheim proII canister filter but I haven't added it to the tank yet, Should I????
 
V

vinnyraptor

Guest
Originally Posted by Desertdawg
http:///forum/post/3133051
One of the Cleaner Clams already digging in

A Zooanthid coral donated by a friend

The Peppermint shrimp all found holes to hide in

The Clowns, a Clam, a Snail, and one of the Urchins

blue Actinic


So there you have it, now we watch all the critters run around, and if everything survives we can start looking at other fish to add!!!
I'm trying to add a little bit of salt at a time to bring that level up, but I'm still using a hydrometer so I'm sort of guessing here.
So far I have been just skimming off the scum floating on top of the water with a glass, I have not done a water change. I did have to add about 5 gallons after all the water used during acclimation...
I have a larger powerhead coming, and I was given a Eheim proII canister filter but I haven't added it to the tank yet, Should I????
great looking tank! watch those urchins though i had one and litterally watched it strip coraline algae of my LR like a belt sander.
 
G

gwhunter

Guest
What are the dimensions of the tank? Are you sure it's not a 120? A 125 should have three glass covers and three doors on the stand. If it's a 120 it will be two feet widex4 feet long. Looks good so far.
Matt
 
desertdawg

desertdawg

Member
The tank is 5 foot long 2 foot deep and around 18 inch's wide.
Any suggestions on the canister filter, do I need to hook it up? or am I fine with no external filtration for awhile?
 
G

gwhunter

Guest
With the limit amount of critters in the tank you'll be ok with out the canister for a little while. Are you going to set up a sump at all? If your not I would get the canister going. They're not super popular since they can trap waste and if not properly maintained can lean to water quality issues. They're also good if you need to add any chemical filtration like carbon etc. Is you tank custom? That's an unusual size for a AGA/Perfecto/Oceanic etc. I'd add more lr to the tank and then maybe some fish but figure out your filtration first.
Matt
 
desertdawg

desertdawg

Member
I just checked the measurments... 5 foot long, 2 foot high, 18 inches wide, I don't know if it's custom made or not I found it on CL for cheap.
I will be adding some more sand and definitly more rock soon.
My goal is to get an algae scrubber working and go from there, but I am probably a couple of weeks away on that so I may fire up the canister for now, it's my only option right now cause I have nothing to start to build a sump with...
I posted a question in the equipments section with no answer yet, with a 600 gph overflow running down to a sump and the power goes off, on average how much will it syphon off before it stops flowing? I need to know how big of a container I need so it doesn't spill over during a power outage?
 
G

gwhunter

Guest
The funny part about the siphon back to sump, it will actually come from the return pump rather than the suction line. The way to avoid this is to drill several small holes just below the water line on the return(in side the tank about an inch or so below the water line). This way only that amount will flow back. A check valve can also be used though most around here feel they don't work (my experience was been different). There maybe other ways to prevent this from happening (maybe others will chime in here).
Matt
 
E

eric b 125

Guest
Originally Posted by GWhunter
http:///forum/post/3133083
A 125 should have three glass covers and three doors on the stand.
Matt
i have a 125 with a center brace and 2 sets of doors on the stand.
i've seen the 5 foot 120's before. a buddy of mine has one and had trouble with finding lighting.
 
G

gwhunter

Guest
Originally Posted by Eric B 125
http:///forum/post/3133776
i have a 125 with a center brace and 2 sets of doors on the stand.
i've seen the 5 foot 120's before. a buddy of mine has one and had trouble with finding lighting.
Yeah, that's not a standard size. A 125 is generally 6' with three braces and three doors in the stand. A 120 is usually 4" but 2' wide.
Matt
 
naclfish

naclfish

Member
I would start looking for a skimmer either 2 cpr bakpak RR, or a big aqua c,or asm. dont go cheep on the skimmer it will come back to haunt you.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
You definitely do need to look into a protein skimmer....also IMO I would hook up your filtration now.....I also think you could use some mroe sand and some more live rock.
also are those 2 things in the corners your powerheads? you may need some movement in the center of the tank, and also make sure the top of the water is being moved
I hate to say this, but your urchins will need something to eat...I see no algae in that tank yet...either bring them back, or get algae sheets or something
those lights will be ok for fish, but not much else
but you are on your way
 
desertdawg

desertdawg

Member
For lights I have 2 65W 10Ks and 2 65W 420s running, the housing is only 4 foot wide so it's sitting behind the 5 foot housing on some glass panes for now, I looked for a 5 foot wide housing without luck so this will have to do for now.
The 4 foot long housing has one regular florescent bulb in it, I was told it wasn't good for anything but light for me...
The Urchins where bought through Saltwaterfish so I don't think I can take them back from Az. I have algae sheets, but so far the urchins are crawling just a little each day, today they are up on the rocks, there's a little algae growth with the lights on so they have something to eat.
Sally Light Foot sure likes cleaning the urchins spines, she spent an hour today picking through one of them.
The powerheads you see were free, I ordered a TAAM Rio SEIO 1000P Prop Pump from here also, should be here Tuesday, I'll see how much that moves and go from there.
The Fancy Nassarius Snails only come out with the actnics on, the rest of the time they are buried with their nose??? sticking up.
I dug up the Clams, they both reburied themselves 10 minutes later...
How long should a person spend staring at their tank per day?
I just don't want to over do it here..
 
B

brue102

Guest
Desertdawg your tank is looking good, great start. Az here too south of Queencreek. Keep us posted on your progress.
 
desertdawg

desertdawg

Member
Thanks Brue, water has been in for almost 4 weeks...
I finally got an outbreak of algae the other day, I left the lights on for about 12 hours and poof!!!
I got my algae scrubber running today, flow is decent so hopefully it works. also put in my new powerhead.
Nothing dead and the levels are:
pH: 8.2)
Temperature: (76)
Specific Gravity: (1.024)hydrometer guess
Ammonium/Ammonia: (0)
Nitrite: (0)
Nitrate: (10)
I'll get some pictures up soon!
 
desertdawg

desertdawg

Member
Things are doing ok so far except for one dead peppermint shrimp, the other 4 look and act normal so who knows? He was hanging around the spot Sally normally stays, could she have done the deed???
pH: 8.3
Temperature: 76
Specific Gravity: 1.022 hydrometer guess
Ammonium/Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 7
SOOOO!!!
Order placed today through SWF...
1 Gold Rim Tang
1 Sally Lightfoot
Emerald Crab - Group of 3
Blueleg Hermit Crab - Group of 10
50 Empty Hermit Crab Shells
Lettuce Nudibranch *** FREE ***

The scrubber has been running for a day and a half, looks like very very small spots appearing.
Running the 10K and Actnic lights seems to really get algae (both green and brown) growing, we cut back the time they are on a little so hopefully the additional CuC will help.
 
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