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Post by freshtosaltwater on Apr 11, 2017 7:18:48 GMT -5
Today marks day 3 of my new salt water tank. I have been pretty excited the last two weeks while building my stand to buying equipment and supplies. I can say that I did my research, watched YouTube videos on new reef tanks, read countless forums, including Reef Central, The Frag Tank and CanReef. I started a 20 Gallon Long with the hopes that it'll be a reef tank with a couple display fish, TBD and a modest clean up crew. Listed are the components of my tank: 20L tank (30"x13"x13") (Pet Valu) AquaClear 50 (Petsmart) Eheim Jager 75W heater (Amazon) Hydor Koralia 425 (Amazon) Viparspectra 165W LED (Amazon) 24lb dry rock (Sam's Pampered Pets & Aqua Animania) 15lb CaribSea Aragonite (Big Al's Online) I have started a new Instagram page if you are interested as well. www.instagram.com/mynewreef/   |
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Post by seggsy on Apr 11, 2017 20:03:18 GMT -5
Great start. Those lights will be killer in that small of a tank. Keep them dialed way down when you start on coral. Good luck!
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Post by freshtosaltwater on Apr 12, 2017 13:17:37 GMT -5
Great start. Those lights will be killer in that small of a tank. Keep them dialed way down when you start on coral. Good luck! Thank you - I have blues on 30 and whites on 15, should I scale them back when introducing the first corals? |
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Post by gabor129 on Apr 12, 2017 18:05:33 GMT -5
I love the 20 long tanks! Hope you have great success with it! The only thing I would suggest is ones you are ready for corals make sure the species you get will tolerate each other in a small space! I also had a 20 long and overnight I lost $2000 worth of corals from the Great Barrier Reef! I will try to find a picture to show how it looked before the crash!
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Post by gabor129 on Apr 12, 2017 18:21:46 GMT -5
Your lights should be okay, however I would lift it up higher. Here is a picture of how mine looked!  |
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Post by freshtosaltwater on Apr 12, 2017 21:33:56 GMT -5
Your lights should be okay, however I would lift it up higher. Here is a picture of how mine looked! I was thinking of raising it another 5 inches or so! I've been looking into corals that will interact best with eachother. Thanks for the help and heads up! |
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Post by stellarflare on Apr 15, 2017 16:16:57 GMT -5
Today marks day 3 of my new salt water tank. I have been pretty excited the last two weeks while building my stand to buying equipment and supplies. I can say that I did my research, watched YouTube videos on new reef tanks, read countless forums, including Reef Central, The Frag Tank and CanReef. I started a 20 Gallon Long with the hopes that it'll be a reef tank with a couple display fish, TBD and a modest clean up crew. Listed are the components of my tank: 20L tank (30"x13"x13") (Pet Valu) AquaClear 50 (Petsmart) Eheim Jager 75W heater (Amazon) Hydor Koralia 425 (Amazon) Viparspectra 165W LED (Amazon) 24lb dry rock (Sam's Pampered Pets & Aqua Animania) 15lb CaribSea Aragonite (Big Al's Online) I have started a new Instagram page if you are interested as well. www.instagram.com/mynewreef/Hi freshtosaltwater, just to touch on your post that you used 15lb CaribSea Aragonite from Big Al's Online. Big Al's told me on the phone that it comes in 40lb bags. Did you buy 40 pounds or did they have smaller bags? Thanks for your time! |
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Post by freshtosaltwater on Apr 15, 2017 23:02:09 GMT -5
Hi freshtosaltwater, just to touch on your post that you used 15lb CaribSea Aragonite from Big Al's Online. Big Al's told me on the phone that it comes in 40lb bags. Did you buy 40 pounds or did they have smaller bags? Thanks for your time! Hey Stellarflare: I bought it online and it was a 15lb bag for $35: www.bigalspets.com/ca/carib-sea-seaflor-special-grade-reef-sand.htmlI saw the 40lb bag but I knew it would be too much for what I wanted it for. |
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Post by stellarflare on Apr 16, 2017 4:00:47 GMT -5
Hi freshtosaltwater, thanks for letting me know that. I thought something was fishy when they told me that. I am setting up my own tank and I am using your post for guidance. Thanks again!
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Post by freshtosaltwater on Apr 18, 2017 12:49:16 GMT -5
I'm on Day 9 and I just started getting some diatom bloom happening. I'm not mad about it, I've read that it usually happens around the 1-2 week time period and will go away naturally as the beneficial bacteria begin to culture on the live rock and sand. I also just raised my LEDs up to 14" off the surface of the water and I'm so much happier with the light dispersion. I've been doing regular water tests and yesterday's results were: PH: 8.3 Amm: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 0 Phos: 0.25 Iron: 0 Kh: 130 Calcium: 400 I've been dosing Stability since day 1, so I was told I may not see the large spikes in the Nitrites/ Nitrates...so wondering when would the cycle will be finished. Also on a related note should my fish fish be added before the clean up crew or vis versa, everyone has their opinions.  |
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Post by seggsy on Apr 18, 2017 20:58:23 GMT -5
I am not an expert on cycling. Is there anything live in there to be generating waste? Or is that Stability stuff specifically to generate cycling?
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Post by stellarflare on Apr 18, 2017 21:12:48 GMT -5
Your setup looks great! How is your light cycle working? On for 8 hours & then you dim them?
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Post by freshtosaltwater on Apr 18, 2017 23:41:20 GMT -5
I am not an expert on cycling. Is there anything live in there to be generating waste? Or is that Stability stuff specifically to generate cycling? Running a fish less cycle - Seachem Stability introduces micro organisms to begin a healthy bacteria load. For a 7 day period you dose daily and over time the bacteria will begin to cultivate on LR and sandbed. |
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Post by freshtosaltwater on Apr 18, 2017 23:43:29 GMT -5
Your setup looks great! How is your light cycle working? On for 8 hours & then you dim them? I have the lights set to: 11am blues turn on 1pm whites, red and green turn on 530pm whites, red and green turn off 8pm blues turn on I took the advice from another Chinese Black Box user for the light cycle, anyone with other experiences would be interested in hearing how they do it |
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