Oh no! I got bit by the saltwater bug!

[mynameis]

So I started a 55 gallon saltwater tank in late March of this year.... I spent countless hours reading over posts on this forum (many others too) and decided what the hell, I know I will want bigger and before I start buying things that I will outgrow (it will happen no matter what) I let my tank cycle with nothing but lr and a combo of cc and ls

(this before I read about evil cc)...I have just come home from lfs with a brand new rr 125 gal :cheer: ....Thanks to the internet and months of researching prices I actually walked out of the store with a decent deal on the tank, powerheads, pump, 180lbs of sand (free), bucket of IO salt (free), mag float (free), and a big ass smile on my face!
:thinking: Now heres where the ?'s start.....I know for a fact that I wanna do a reef tank and I am looking around for some lights (lfs just wouldn't budge on lighting that I know I can get cheaper via internet)....will 250w HQI bulbs be good for this or will I eventually need to get better?
Another ? I have is on the consesus of using Calp and Miracle Mud - a protein skimmer? I haven't seen much on this type of system but from all that I have seen written on the subject it sounds like something that will benefit my corals in the long run.....Oh yeah, I don't plan on keeping many fish in this tank...mainly looking at getting a spotted Mandarin, some firefish and some tangs(possibly a wrasse or 2)
Any and all feedback on this would be greatly appreciated ***)

....oh yeah anyone know of a place with good meetings in case my addiction takes over my life

 

[ice4ice]

You definitely want to get a skimmer.
If you are thinking of getting a spotted mandarin, you might want to invest in setting up a refugium. This will provide the mandarin a constant supply of corepods for him. They are difficult to care for, especially in a new tank. It's best to get him when your tank is matured at least 6 - 8 months.
Tang should be your last fish added to the tank.
I do envy you that you got some goodies for free with your purchases. I'd be walking out of there with a big-assed smile too !! Way to go !! Looks like you got a great rapport with your lfs owners.

 

[shogun323]

Welcome to the boards and to the addiction..... I mean hobby!!!!
You'll definately want a protein skimmer and for lights, I would go with metal halides. The reason is, that way you arent limiting yourself to what you can keep. You will be good to go with all SPS, LPS, Anemones clams, the works!!!

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by Ice4Ice
You definitely want to get a skimmer.
If you are thinking of getting a spotted mandarin, you might want to invest in setting up a refugium. This will provide the mandarin a constant supply of corepods for him. They are difficult to care for, especially in a new tank. It's best to get him when your tank is matured at least 6 - 8 months.
Tang should be your last fish added to the tank.
I do envy you that you got some goodies for free with your purchases. I'd be walking out of there with a big-assed smile too !! Way to go !! Looks like you got a great rapport with your lfs owners.

A refuge is a great idea, but please note that mandarines need at least 100+lbs of very mature live rock. I would wait on him. Everything else sounds good and yes you must have a skimmer and a qt tank for these fish. Keep researching and reading posts. BTW you did get a great deal!!

Any questions you may have, please feel free to ask!

 

[mynameis]

Thanks for responses and yes I plan on using the 55 gallon as a sump/refugium. Today I am going to Home Depot to pick up the lumber to build the stand and while I am there I will be getting some acrylic to section off the 55. I will be using a similar design to the one on Melev's site.
As far as lighting I was considering buying Coralife 72 Inch Aqualight Pro Retrofit Kit 3x150W HQI Lamp + 4x96W CF Lamps Sq. Pin + 4x1W LED (seen this online for about 300$ less than best price lfs was saying 'It's a steal at that price') was wondering if I should look for something that had 250w halides or is the 150w good enough?

 

[fishgeek01]

i would go with the 250's and i have used 10k on my tanks, but i like the way that the 14k bulbs look, you may want to ask around for some pics of the different kelvin ratings and see which you might like the best. I would recommend the coralife super skimmer, the 225 will work wonders on your tank, i have the 125 on my 75 and it pulls out the worst smelling skimate in the world, best bang for the buck if you ask me, aspecially when set up in a fuge. I would also shy away from the calurpa in your refugium as it has the ability to crash an entire system if it goes "sexual" it releases spores and toxins into the water when it doesnt have enough nutrient to spread. The best macro algae for a refugium would probably be cheato (cheatomaphora)(sp) as for the miracle mud i was advised to use it as well when i finish my refugium but i dont know very much about it, i would ask specifically about it in a new thread, matter of fact i will go ahead and do that for the both of us in the reef forum. Get as much live rock as you can if you want the mandarin. But i would stil wait 6-8 months after your cycle is complete before adding this jewel to your tank. Also make sure you have a QT because of the tangs, they are notorius for ich and other diseases that must be treated prior to being put in your dt.

 

[mynameis]

The first day I spent most of my time running around gathering up supplies like lumber, plumbing, stains, paint, and shopping for lighting (lights have to be ordered, decided to go with Coralife 72 Inch Aqualight Pro Retrofit Kit 3x250W HQI Lamp 20k's + 4x96W CF Lamps Sq. Pin + 4x1W LED)

Day 2 consisted of building the frame for the stand, putting clean-up crew into a 10 gal, draining the rest of the water from the 55 gal into large Rubbermaid totes (my livingroom is full of these...one holding old tank water/LR and others mixing up new saltwater), removing 80lbs of sand from 55 and adding to to 120 lbs in 125gal tank, cleaning up the inside of the 55 gal and getting it ready to be turned into a sump/fuge.
Now for todays list: Install plumbing for overflows and returns, cut acrylic piece for sump, mount the 2 1500gph powerheads, arrange LR in tank and add the water that has been mixing. If I have time/energy I will be cutting oak waynescoatting to mount around the frame of the stand and making the doors for it.
Holy hell! Upgrading tanks would almost be like work if I didn't enjoy working with wood and playing in water so much!

I have been taking pictures of my progress and will post them once I have finished setting up ***)

 

[scubaguy]

Yeah, I was going to say give us some pictures :joy:

 

[cymbal67]

great choice on lights! you wont be sorry. i really want a manderin too, but my tank isnt ready for it yet, well at least i think its not ready for it. most people would say my tank isnt ready for half the stuff in there already, i wonder why i have been waiting on the manderin.... :notsure: a lfs close to my house had one that was eating frozen bryne (sp) shrimp but by the time i went back to get him,...he was gone.

 

[clintjj]

If your worried about culerpa just leave the light on over you fuge. 6 years I had mine on just change the bulb about once evry 6-8 mon. 15 watt strip light worked very well for me. Just starting again or I'd show pics (rita) killed my tank. Thats why I'm restarting

 

[mynameis]

I just ordered more LR (Fiji and Tonga branch) to start filling up the tank, I'd like to put in around 200lbs total and only had approximately 40 lbs in the 55gal to begin my cycle with. After this new LR is here and I have it in the tank I will be able to tell what kind of LR I want to add in addition to what I have (probably hand pick the rest at lfs so I can get exactly what I want). I am hoping that after I have ordered up all my LR I will get enough rubble to put in my sump (most likely I'll have to buy some). I got the sump/fuge all put together and just got done going back over all the seals for the acrylic. Tomorrow I get to check to make sure all my pvc fittings sealed up good and tight and then I can attach the stained waynes coatting to the frame.

Good thing I will be waiting for the tank to re-cycle again so that I have time think about the lighting some more.....I was pretty much set on the Coralife 72 Inch Aqualight Pro Retrofit Kit but after looking around I found one that has 4 x 250w HQI bulbs so I wouldn't have to worry about the center brace on my aquarium (only downfall is = more $$$$

). Looks like some people are getting smaller gifts for Christmas this year.

. Looks like it's time to go make the canopy for the tank and stain the doors.

 

[jmcnaz]

I would have skipped the MH's(and any other lights you would have put in) and got the new PFO Solaris lighting system, its awsome.
Good luck, jmcnaz

 

[jmcnaz]

also I wouldnt use the miricle mud, I had a big algae bloom when using.
GL-jmcnaz

 

[mynameis]

The LR came a few days ago and after opening the box I was very pleased with the shapes, sizes, and coraline coverage so I ordered 2 more boxes (120 lbs of uncured Fiji w/ 5 show size pieces and very little rubble). I was pretty impressed that it took less than 24 hours from the time I placed my order to the time it arrived at my door! :cheer: I took some more pics and will try to post them tomorrow, I have been holding off because there is really nothing spectacular about my tank as of yet (boring old setting up blah blah) but it is finally starting to not look so ghetto lol.
I decided to give the mud a try after reading what I could find in the forum here and elsewhere (can change it out easy enough if I am unhappy with later). From what I have researched, it basically comes down to one's personal approach to how they filter their tanks. I can see pro's and con's to both methods (protein skimmer vs. mud) and I can see why there is different approaches. I'll keep a little notebook on my experience with using the mud and how thing go then I will do a different post in about 6-9months. Hopefully I can pass on enough info so that others who have questions about it or are maybe considering using it do not have search so hard to find out if miracle mud will be something they want to try.

 

[mynameis]

pic 1 is of the stand I built.. it is 36'' tall so that I have room to fit the 55gal underneath (2 of the braces have been left out of the back so that the 55gal can be put in)
pic 2 shows the 55gal sump under the tank and the 1st box (45lbs) of uncured LR added to the tank
pic 3 shows the tank after 2 more boxes of uncured LR was added
I had to remove the panels and doors to redo the plumbing underneath the tank... I changed return pump sizes from a 700gph to a 950 gph pump because the flow through the sump was good but I wanted a little bit more. I will be getting another Seio M1500 powerhead for inside the tank which will give me 4500gph turnover and with the return pump I should be pretty close to a total of 5200gph flowing through the tank!

I have also changed my mind about the lights I will be using...I have opted to get the AquaMedic light for the simple fact that it has 4x250w MH's and I will not have a MH right over the center support brace on the the tank!
I will continue to update the pics as I get the film developed (yeah, yeah, I hear ya! i'll invest in a digital cam soon

)

 

[mynameis]

Well I have finished putting the rest of the stand together (have to wait to get film developed to post them)

After seeing how those 1st set of pics looked I had to get it completed! Can you say 'Ghetto tank'?
The lights have been ordered (cheapest I found was $1,100) I went with Aqua Medic Ocean Light T5/MH HQI Combo Series, 72in 4 x 250MH + 4 x 39W T5 – Black . I plan to use 2 20k MH's and keep 2 of them 10k so it gives a different look.
The tank cycle is coming along really quick, Amm is dropping below 1ppm and No2 is also dropping

No3 really hasn't risen that high (to my surprise) but that could be due to the Calup that is growing like wildfire!
I must say I can not wait to get in the tank and do some aquascaping but having all of the uncured LR placed on top of the already cured LR and leaving lots of spacing really does help allow the die off that I wasn't able to completely scrub off break free.
Looking for a few suggestions as to what would be the best salt mix to use for my tank. I plan on having a wide variety of corals mainly....some fish but mostly looking to keep corals. Any input would be great. oh yeah...I am currently using IO salt but I don't like the low Calc reading I get. :thinking:

 

[scubaguy]

looks like it is coming along great. Thanks for the pictures.

 

[mynameis]

lol how quickly the last two weeks have passed. I just know that once I get this tank running smoothly I will be dreaming of the next tank. :hilarious
So here is progress: Tested water yesterday and Amm=0 Trites= <.25 Trates=20ppm SG = 35ppt Calc= 420 Phos= 0 (but then again having slight algae bloom so it is getting used up) Temp= 76.....so I pulled out the trashcan and filled it with RO water, tossed in a powerhead and airstone, gave it a good stir and then yelled at it to hurry up and mix!

Today will be a 25% water change along with removing all the rock to give it one last quick scrub down and then finally arrange it in the tank.
:cheer: Aquascaping!

Hopefully after all this is done my water will test good and I can put my fighting hermits in (not much room in the 10gal for them). I am surprised that the baby snails that were starting to hatch in the 55gal before I upgraded survived the cycle. :thinking: I have a feeling I am going to get overrun with Astraea's in the near future....10gal has snail eggs everywhere. :scared:
I told everyone that I want a digi camera for Christmas (hint, hint) so hopefully, very soon, I don't have to wait for the roll of film to get used up

before posting pics. Hopefully after today I can finish up this roll of film and post some updated pics soon after. ***)

 

[specialreef]

Wish i could be upgrading and getting some changes done.lol. but first i gotta restart my tank that i let failed. I now have the addiction again and its even worse now i cant wait to start im just doing more research.
But my question is you said you ordered good LR. if you dont mind me asking what website did you order. (you said you was impressed)
MY email is specialreef@aol just in case.

 

[shogun323]

I can tell you where I got my good and impressive LR from. The site is called.. saltwaterfish.com . The pricing is great as well as the quality and shapes!!