new guy , new setup . just a few questions

[camaroboy8691]

hey everyone . after surfin this forum for a few months it was finally time to join . between me and my g/f we must have read every post about reef tanks and such . and its very over whelming at the info here . so i need some pointers .
first our tank . it is a 75gal oceanic with a sump . and a skimmer . got the bio balls in it {but removing them}. and about 55 lbs of fiji live rock, the rock is great . has worms and other stuff comming out of it . we had the tank going about a month now. and there is alot of hair algea on the rocks and along the bottom . we are using a somoa #2 pink gravel and have about 1-1/2" on the bottom .
since setting up the tank i have been measuring the water quality pretty much every 3-4 days .
these are my readings from 2 days ago .
calcium 440
kh dkh 9
phosphate 0
nitrates 5.0 ppm
ammonia .25ppm
nitrites are .2 yup still high
but the big question is the water salinity . we got our water tested yesterday and he told it was high . everytime i measure it it is constantly between 1.023-1.025 our water temp fluctuates between 80.5-81.4 this is with a digital thermo placed half way down the tank .
he said it was high . but does the salinity fluctuate ? the water we took to him yesterday was in a container for maybe 3 hours before we got to the lfs .
i should also mention . i actually hate to say this . but like most new guys getting into this we kinda rushed and put some stuff in the tank .
right now
we have
4 pepermint shrimp
3 snails
10 hermits
they are doing very well and loving it but still not getting all the algea and stuff . we actually got the ok from our lfs 2 weeks ago . gave them the water and they said it was all good . told them the rocks where doing alot and we where getting algea so they said it would be ok to put some cleaners in there but then yesterday took water in and the nitrites where higher than before so im thinking the cycle just started ?
i hope the tank soon finishes its cycle so we can get something else in there to clean up the algea .
any input or comments ? im no marine expert just a car guy that wanted to try a new hobby out and wanting to do it the right way the 1st time . after all i got alot of cash tied up into this in a short time
thanks for any help .... now back to reading

 

[d-dzel]

I've kept my water between 1.023-1.025 as well and everything is fine. If you can, I would definitely recommended investing in a refractometer, since I believe letting the water sitting in you car for a while might have had something to do with it. I bought one for $30 used and it's sooo much easier to keep things in order.
What do you have for water flow? Have you done any water changes? What water do you use for top-off. What kind of light do you have and what's the light cycle that you're using?
My gf and I also share this hobby and it's pretty fun sharing with with someone. especially when getting fish or corals as gifts from her

Oh yeah, welcome!

 

[cmaxwell39]

First off welcome to SWF.com and the addicting world of saltwater aquariums.
As far as salinity goes, it will fluctualte some based on evaporation. Did they give you a value as to what it was reading at the LFS? Also what are you or they using to test salinity. If it is a hydrometer I would really recommend looking into getting a refractometer as hydrometers can have inaccurate readings due to air bubbles caught on the arm, not being rinsed out well the last time, and many other factors. Some of them are just plain off.
To get the salinity back down you could slowly do some very small water changes (1 gal at a time) with just RO water until you get it down to the desired level. Or just make sure that your newly mixed water for water changes is at the correct salinity and the level will slowly come to that level.
One more thing you should be checking for is pH. This is a very important thing to check in a saltwater tank and should be a part of your regular testing regiment. Also if you don't have your own test kits, get some. The API are good starter kits IMO and should serve you fine as you get started. If you really get into this hobby you may end up with some of the higher end kits, but the API is what I started with and still use on some tests. Very easy to use.
If you have any other questions feel free to ask. This forum is great and there are a lot of wonderful people here.

 

[camaroboy8691]

yes a refractometer is on the list of buys . when we bought our setup i said to the guy what about a refractometer . he said o we just use the little plastic ones here . i thought um ok . ill just get a cheap one . now dont get me wrong it works . but sometimes you need to invest in serious tools for a serious hobby . and like i said i spent about 2k in the past month on this stuff so 100 bucks is kinda nothing to make sure everything is on track .
we also have all the test kits from api .... ph , calcium , nitrates , nitrites , carbinate, alkalinity , phosphate .... i think this is what was recommended
but im very particular in the up keep . and it stays very steady as far as salinity
for water flow . i have 2 koralia2 power heads they are rated for 600gph
water pump from sump to tank is a mag drive 700 water pump
the skimmer is a super skimmer needle wheel up to 150gals .
the lights are a 36" nova extreme pro t5 high output with 3-10,000K T5 HO Slimpaq bulbs and 3-T5 HO Slimpaq actinic light cycle is 12 hours on 12 hours off
it is a fun hobby and involves alot of reading and studying . which i like . i always like to learn new things .
thanks for the welcome

 

[nycbob]

ur nitrite and ammonia should both register zero. u should do water change every 4-5 days, and not add any more inverts or fish for at least another month. invest in a reef test kit.

 

[camaroboy8691]

Originally Posted by nycbob
http:///forum/post/3108145
ur nitrite and ammonia should both register zero. u should do water change every 4-5 days, and not add any more inverts or fish for at least another month. invest in a reef test kit.
i do understand they both need to be 0 , but trying to figure somethings out before it gets to far into the cycle or what have you .
but right now we have that #2 samoa gravel in there . its kinda fine and algea is growing into it already . should it be replaced with live sand or let it go ?
if we do the water changes what will this do to the nitrite ? wont it restart the cycle or change other things ?
we do have a reef test kit . well all the test kits needed

 

[deejeff442]

welcome man oooooooooo i remember my blown 73 olds 442.
sold it for a dump truck to start my business.
keep thinking i will replace it someday ,that was 15 yrs ago.
if you show any ammonia it is still in full cycle.
odd to have hair algea usually it is slime green or red for the first algea bloom
but algea is normal when a tank is new and stableizing.
te koralias you have are a bit small dont be fooled by the flow rate ,big difference from a direct flow pump to a disperced pump like a koralia.
looks like you have a pretty good start except for listening to the lfs.
double check on here before you take thier advice we get alot of peoiple on here coming up with some pretty bad advice from thier lfs.not always but more often than not.
if the hair algea get too bad before the tank stableizes fill a bucket up with salt water and take out the piece of lr and brush the algea off in the water.
alot of the time a newtank will look like hell in the first 3-4 weeks before it corrects itself.
dont count on any fish to keep algea in check.
once the tank gets zero ammonia and nitrites and around 20-30 nitrates i would add about 20 snails .maybe get a emerald crab.

 

[camaroboy8691]

ok just a quick question . the lights went off on the tank alittle bit ago . and we noticed what looks like a little silver bug running around on one of the rocks . what is this ? it seriously is a bug . about 3/8" long . the rock it is on also has alot of 1" worms that come out during the night .
but i dont think i can snap a pic of the bug but what the heck is it ?

 

[d-dzel]

Originally Posted by camaroboy8691
http:///forum/post/3108176
ok just a quick question . the lights went off on the tank alittle bit ago . and we noticed what looks like a little silver bug running around on one of the rocks . what is this ? it seriously is a bug . about 3/8" long . the rock it is on also has alot of 1" worms that come out during the night .
but i dont think i can snap a pic of the bug but what the heck is it ?

Might be an amphipod, they don't harm anything just little bugs helping with the clean up. They usually only come out when the lights go off. When mine go off, I leave my moonlights on for about 3 hours then everything goes off so the bugs can come out and do their job, then the moonlight will comeback after a couple of hours.

 

[camaroboy8691]

Originally Posted by D-Dzel
http:///forum/post/3108348
Might be an amphipod, they don't harm anything just little bugs helping with the clean up. They usually only come out when the lights go off. When mine go off, I leave my moonlights on for about 3 hours then everything goes off so the bugs can come out and do their job, then the moonlight will comeback after a couple of hours.

i did some research and i belive thats what they are . hes a decent size . then this morning i was cheacking things out and noticed alot of little white bugs on the glass . so i guess thats another good sign .
if anything this new hobbie is one heck of a science project , i never knew how much stuff would just naturally grow with just live rock . i just cant wait for my nitrites to drop down so i can add something to get rid of this hair algea on the bottom . its getting longer everyday it seems .

 

[d-dzel]

Originally Posted by camaroboy8691
http:///forum/post/3108550
i did some research and i belive thats what they are . hes a decent size . then this morning i was cheacking things out and noticed alot of little white bugs on the glass . so i guess thats another good sign .
if anything this new hobbie is one heck of a science project , i never knew how much stuff would just naturally grow with just live rock . i just cant wait for my nitrites to drop down so i can add something to get rid of this hair algea on the bottom . its getting longer everyday it seems .
If the ones on the glass are tiny like little specs that you can barely see when they move, then those are copepods, also awesome little bugs

As for the hair algae try cutting back with the light cycle, maybe at 6 hours per day, that might help a bit with the algae.
Water changes are to get rid of bad nutrients in your tank, it's not going to cause a cycle as long as you don't get rid of all the water. On my 125g I do a 20g water change every 2 weeks and on my 55g I do a 10 gallon change every 2 weeks

 

[camaroboy8691]

the bugs are kinda cool . there is alot of them .
did some water tests today for the 1st time in 3 days .
here is what i got .
calcium is 480
dkh is 8
nitrate is .5ppm
nitrites are still purple .
ammonia is 0ppm
phosphat is 0.0
my alkalinity is safe . but my ph is kinda high . its 8.5 should this be a bit lower ?
also curious from what i read the ammonia should be higher if the nitrites are high correct?
since i got some shrimp in there . i do put 1 frozen food cube in there a day is this ok ?
also . something else , i had the shrimp in there for about 15 days now and 2 of them shedded . how often does this happen ?

 

[deejeff442]

my ph is usually around 8.4 or a littler higher .
shrimp are scavengers you really dont need to feed them if you have lr.but once a week and only a 1/4 of a cube .
ammonia is converted into nitrites then into nitrates thats how the cycle goes.
ammonia usually is only around for a few days then turns into nitrites .
nitrites will stick around longer as the tank cycles.
the trick to adding fish is one or two at a time then let the tank build more good bacteria in the sand and lr .add a fish or two every 4-6 weeks and the tank should keep up with the new bioload.add too fast and you could have a crash meaning an ammonia spike out of nowhere and total the tank.