Just set up!

[ecoman]

:help: Ok, I got rid of my 3 and a half foot alligator and am now setting his 75 gallon tank up as SALTWATER! woohoo! I have the decor in place and the water circulating through a Magnum 350 with ammocarb. See it here! Anyways, assuming you have clicked on that and seen the setup, you see I have the filter output coming a little more then halfway down and pointed towards the bell. It seems to be getting a decent current. Coming in the mail soon is a SeaClone 100 protein skimmer, as I soon hope to have invertabrates n such. Also coming is a saltwater biozyme to help assist in the cycling process. Also ordered was seachem prime and I already have a test kit for pH, NO2, NO3, NH3, NH4, and ALK. Will I need a calcium test? Any other tests?? What I plan on having in the tank: Maybe a few small pieces of LR, probably 2 clownfish (for my daughter), one or 2 invertabrates, maybe a small lobstertype looking creature, and one or 2 other medium sized fish. I originally wanted to get a Lionfish, but this will probably kill poor Nemo, wont he? So I admit. I am bored of looking at a decorated tank with water flowing! The water is not crystal clear but you can see thru both sides and make out objects easily. I couldnt clean 100% of the water stains and fish/animal chunks left over from the alligator and I imagine this will dissolve in time and maybe increase my ammonia level. The filter can handle it! Or so I think. I used my regular tap water to fill the tank, then simply dumped the salt in with the filter running. Most of it mixed itself, very little settled to the bottom and when I stirred it, it immediately dissolved. Its been running for about 2 days since. This morning, I test the salinity/gravity which was just a hair on the high side at 1.0235 or in between 1.023 and 1.024. I understand this is acceptable but I want to start all levels where I want to keep them, so I removed 600oz or almost 5 gallons and replaced just 300oz of water or 2.34 gallons of regular tap. I let that filter for a few hours and did some tests. The ALK is as blue as its gonna get showing 3.6. Is this acceptable? The pH is on target at 8.2 and has been there since I bought the test a few days ago. The NO2 was at 0.05 and is now 0.10, the NO3 was at 0.25ppm and is now 0.125ppm. The only other change that I made was added buffer. What is the desireable ALK reading? Can I put anything other then live rock in the tank now to help it cycle? I dont necessarily want it to cycle faster, just better! Fully establish the bacterias that is. Can you think of any other chemicals, tests, or anything else I WILL DEFINATELY need to make my dreams come true?

 

[lion_crazz]

Well first off, that link did not work so I cannot see what you wanted to show us.
Secondly, I would recommend more than just a few pieces of live rock. They are good for your tank, as well as the fish. Even if you are not going to have a heavy bioload, it would be of great benefit to get more than just a few pieces. Usually, it is recommended you have close to at least 1 lb. per gallon of water in your tank.
What other "medium" sized fish did you have in mind?
The test kits you have are fine. You do not need a calcium test just yet. Do you have a refractometer? I know you obviously have something to measure salinity, but I was wondering whether you had a hydrometer or refractometer. The reason I ask is because hydrometers are inaccurate but cheap, refractometers are a little more expensive but always accurate. I would always recommend the refractometer to measure your salinity.
You are correct about the lionfish eating the clownfish. You could go with a small fuzzy dwarf lionfish though, as long as the clowns cannot fit in the lion's mouth.
Also, do not get anything (inverts included) until the tank is fully cycled. I do not know how you are reading your tests, as you gave us nitrate readings in percentages. Are you possibly confusing one of them with ammonia? Nitrates is usually read in whole numbers (i.e. 5 ppm, 10ppm, 100ppml not decimal places). When you see a spike in both the ammonia and nitrite, and then they both read 0, you will know your tank is cycled and you will have to do your firsy water change to get your nitrates down. I would recommend getting more live rock so that you avoid having to cure it in separate buckets, and it would also help cycle your tank better, establishing more biological bacteria. It would respike the ammonia by adding more rock, but it would be much better for your tank in the longrun to have much more rock.
Many people will have issues with you using tap water. The reason for this is because most areas tap water can be high in nitrates, phosphates, and heavy metals. None of these things are good for saltwater animals. I would suggest testing your tap with your test kits, ammonia, nitrite, nitrates, and phosphates, as well as getting a TDS rating. Did you at least use a dechlorinator such as Ammonia Detox for the tap water?
Your alk is fine where you have it. You do not want it going much higher than that though. Anything higher than 4.25 meq/l can be problematic.
If I missed anything, let me know. I did not comment on you having the alligator in there because I was not sure whether this was to be taken serious. I cannot imagine you were serious in saying you had a 3 foot alligator in a 75 gallon tank. :notsure: Then again, I do not have any experience with them, so I could be wrong on anything I say in that regards.
What kind of substrate do you have? You did not leave the same substrate in there that you had before, right?

 

[ecoman]

the NO readings i gave were in ppm.. i just idiodically forgot to write ppm after the numbers

the sustrate i used is 2 - 10lb bags of the live coral sand and about some regular aquarium rocks mixed in. and i used a hydrometer to measure the salinity.
There really was an alligator in the tank previously. He had his own little eco system going, including the breakdown of his waste into dirt... I siphoned about 1/16" of "dirt like substance" off the bottom after throwing all the other rocks away which probably held at least another 1/16 to 1/8" of that dirt stuff. I then scraped the glass with a razor blade, but could not get the corners or I wouldve had to reseal it. There were a few tiny chunks of prey stuck to the glass near the corners as well as white water marks that did not scrape off, and hopefully will remove itself with the constant flow of water. The leftover debris is the only concern I have as I pray it cannot lead to disease. I kind of think it might actually help introduce to rotted dried pieces into the system as fish waste and may even be beneficial.. I hope anyways. Any thoughts on that?
Is it suggestable to have 2 air stones running in the tank? or can air bubbles be a problem for salt water fish? Anyone ever hear of such a problem? I dont know too many people with a salt water tank, and I dont remember if I have ever seen anyone else running an air pump in theirs...
Well, I am off to the store to get some live rock, wish me luck. I intend getting at least a couple lbs to start with.. I cannot afford the 75lbs of min. suggested right now as the store sells it at $8.00 per pound. Maybe I will start with 5 pounds, I will figure that out at the store.. I'm not too sure what 5 lbs looks like haha

so I shall see!

 

[lion_crazz]

Well if that is how much they charge you at the store, you will be much better off ordering it online. It will be much cheaper for you.
As for the airstones, I would not recommend running any airstones. You will need powerheads though. Do you have a few powerheads? If not, you will need at least 2, possibly 3 if you do not get enough flow from the skimmer/filter.
Like I said, I still cannot comment on the alligator. I don't have experience with this so I do not want to steer you wrong in any way. I still cannot imagine a 3.5 foot animal in a 4 foot tank though. That is ridiculous, unless I am missing something here.
You will soon find out that the hydrometer is not very reliable at all. That is your choice if you want to stick to it, but I would definitely say that a refractometer is much better in terms of accuracy.
What kind of test kit are you using that gave you NO3 (nitrATES) in decimal points. This has to be a mistake/typo... Only NH4 and NO2 (ammonia and nitrite) are read in decimal places.

 

[ecoman]

oh yea.. i did screw up typing in the NO3 reading.. it is 10ppm.. the NO2 is 0.10ppm, it was the amonia NH3/NH+4 that is 0.125. I got 6.2lbs of some beautiful live rock. Nice red color to it and was in a well established tank, better then the fresh rock they had just got and are trying to sell people.
I do not have powerheads, but the magnum 350 is one hell of a pump filter. It is used for ponds alot of times, can be used for salt water as well, saving me alot of $. There is a decent flow of water now, and when the skimmer gets here, it should be increased, but I will see how it goes - I know I need at least one more movement of water besides the filter. Its a convertible canister filter, draws the water out of tank, down to floor, filters it, and pumps it right back up over and into the tank.
Once I get the protein skimmer installed, I will take short video and post it on a site so I can get different oppinions as to the direction of the flow of water.

 

[ecoman]

The link for the first pic is fixed. i didnt capitolize the JPG part in the filename

I also added this pic With the live rock in the tank.. I didnt resize the pics, they are the full 4mb, so might take a minute to load, but u can zoom in on anything u want.

 

[lion_crazz]

That is good that you got more live rock.
My one main problem with your tank is the substrate. That is freshwater substrate, is it not?
And I know what filter you are referring to. That filter only puts out 350 gph of flow, so you will definitely need at least one powerhead, but probably two to give you enough flow.

 

[ecoman]

it is freshwater sustrate mixed with live coral sand. 20lbs of live coral sand, and about the same amount of regular aquarium rocks.. a rock is a rock right? why should that matter if its not jagged or not? I hope there aint something important there that I dont know about...

 

[ecoman]

oh yea.. i mixed rock with the sustrate to not only try to save $, but I hear alot of people complaining about the sand moving around too much in the tank. The rocks help to keep it in its place, but still allow water to flow thru. An idea that I also hope does not come back to haunt me.

 

[lion_crazz]

Saltwater substrate helps to maintain calcium, pH, and buffering capacity (alkalinity). With freshwater substrate, you are not getting any of that. I am not saying it is not possible to use freshwater substrate, but you will have to pay extra close attention to your pH and alkalinity because you do not have the entire substrate to help you in this process.
The four main reasons why saltwater substrate is recommended for saltwater tanks are: buffering, psychological, appeal, and biomineral.
This is a great link to read in regards to this matter: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marsubstr.htm

 

[ecoman]

well, it turns out that my old tank is BAD! As I was looking inside at the water flowing past the LR, i know..fun.., I noticed something.. The side piece of glass is starting to make too much contact with the front piece of glass and causing it to chip away, just like when a rock puts a divot in glass. So it looks like I need to buy a new 75 gallon tank! Right after I noticed, I immediately put a 26 gallon tote next to the tank, and am using 2 rubber tubes as siphons and have the inlet of the filter inside of that, so alot of weight is out of the tank, but is still cycling...
Also since I am going to need to switch everything into the new tank, I plan on buying some more bags of live coral sand to mix in with the existing sustrate.
The hardest part.. finding out who is going to help me carry the new aquarium upstairs when I get it home.

 

[lion_crazz]

Originally Posted by ecoman
Also since I am going to need to switch everything into the new tank, I plan on buying some more bags of live coral sand to mix in with the existing sustrate.
The hardest part.. finding out who is going to help me carry the new aquarium upstairs when I get it home.
I am sorry to hear about your unfortunate situation, but like they say, everything happens for a reason. You never know if anything from the alligator or the substrate could have been detrimental to you in the future. Better to find out now than much later when you have over $1000 or $2000 invested in this tank.
I would check the classified ads in your paper and ask around at your LFS to see if anyone is trying to sell their 75 or 90. Most times, you can get great deals this way. Plus, it is reliable. You can always go to the person's house to see if there are any imperfections, scratches, or cracks. This way, you get a good deal and you can give it a test run before you buy it. I know many people in my area who are looking to get rid of thier tanks sell them very cheaply, some of which are no more than $100 or $200 for tank and stand.