Opinions Wanted

[airic]

Well First off i'm new to the marine hobby i've done freshwater for years, figured i would give saltwater a shot. i've had my tank for about a month now i bought 20 lbs of LR and had it sit in the tank for 2 weeks my ammonia spiked and went back to 0. i have a brown rust colored algae growing on my rocks and sand some of it is bright green on one of my rocks anyway. i bought 13 more lbs 2 days ago and put them in my tank and my ammonia spiked again and its now on its way down my PH is 8.2 Ammonia is about 2.5 - 3.0 and nitrates are 10ppm. i've been reading these forums for several months now and have gotten most of my info from these forums before setting up this tank. i plan on waiting about a week before adding a clean up crew to the tank once my ammonia drops and i do a water change to help reduce the nitrate. Anyway i figured iw ould post some pictures and maybe get some pointers before i do or add anything to my tank any advice will be greatly appreciated thank you
equipment.
46 gal Euro
Seaclone 100 Skimmer
Penguin 1140 Powerheads x2 with under grav filter
Emporer 400 filter
Eric

 

[scubaguy]

Looks good. You will want to lose the underground filter, your clean-up crew will do that. Are you using Crushed Coral or Live Sand or just Sand?

 

[airic]

Live Sand

 

[scubaguy]

IMO the underground is not doing anything. I used to live in Oklahoma City LOOOOOOOONG time ago. Oh, and you want a 20 to 25x water turn over rate. Like on my 125 I have 3000 GPH turn over.

 

[airic]

at first i wasn't sure if i needed the under grav filter, the lady at the LFS prefered i use one and a guy in the store told me he's never used one and had saltwater for 5 years and never had problems i guess i went and bought it to be on the safe side. i may consider removing it, should i just remove the tubes from the filter and leave the under grav filter plate at the bottom or should i just take everything out and remove the plate??? lol i'll just remove it sometime tomorrow i suppose, shouldn't be a big problem. and i'm unfamiliar with the water turn over rate, mind giving me a quick run thorough on what that is?? lol

 

[scubaguy]

Ok, just leave the grates because some people put egg crates from lowes on the bottom of their tanks. That way if a rock falls it displaces the pressure, I heard. The water turn over is simple, I think. You want your water to be in constant motion. It helps with the gas exchange and keeps things from settling on the bottom(Food and waste) Why 20 to 25x that i do no know or pretend to know, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn last night

 

[b bauer]

to figure out turn over take your power head gph +filter gph skimmer(if you have one) add them up and divide by your tank size your 46g

 

[imurnamine]

Hey, the tank looks GREAT!
I'd rid myself of the undergravel filter, though. Asides from that, great job! : )

 

[donald]

The undergravel has to go, if for some reason it was not set up right it could be a ticking time bomb and crash your tank. As already stated a good clean up crew will keep it clean.

 

[airic]

ok so... i just removed my under grav filter, i tried removing the tubes and just leaving the grate in the sand but they wouldn't come out so i had to take my Rocks out to take it out. now my sand is stirred and algae also. Now that i've gotten everything stirred up my tank should still be fine. just gonna have to let it settle i suppose??

 

[renogaw]

yup. just in case not thought of, make sure your rock is on your glass and not ontop of your sand or you could have an avalanche.

 

[thirty5]

Just a recommendation, I would add all the LR at once, cause each time you put stuff in you might have a re-cycle. So if you are planning on putting in more, i would do it before you add any fish or other livestock....

 

[airic]

okay great. i put my rocks on the glass, it has cleared up and everything looks great i have 33lbs in there now and i think thats all i'm gonna put in there for now. off to the LFS to get a clean up crew once i do a water change.