Don't let me sink...

[BKT]

Hello,

Brian Turner is my name, from Austin, Texas. I just wanted to say hi and tell you all this site is really nice.

I am new to the salt water, but not to fresh water. I have just started a 75 gal tank in my garage and need the basic information on how to get it started.

I have two emperor filters, two rotating power heads, heater and two 40 watt lights overhead. I know the lights are not adequate enough for live rock, but for now it will have to do to get it started.

Would anyone please like to add information to this to help me get started so huge mistakes will be squashed.

thanks..

-Brian and K-9 "Falco"

[pilot_bell777]

WELCOME TO MAAST Brian.......!!!!!!

I just setup my corner tank and you are welcome to come take a look if you want and we can talk salt water all day if you like as well! LOL

[::pete::]

Welcome to MAAST !!

[Reef69]

Welcome to MAAST!..I can name a few people who you should take advice from, since they have bada$$ setups, but, dont want to discredit anybody..so, you are on your own man!..JK..everybody here can answer any questions you may have, enjoy the site!

[Ram_Puppy]

welcome!

Have you done any reading (online counts!) hammer us with questions.

Can you tell us more about your setup?

Lighting?

have you started thinking about a skimmer?

[mathias]

also is the garage cooled and heated?



O yea welcome

[scuba_steveo]

Welcome to maast. I used the emperor in the past and I liked it. I did not use it as my only filtration. Do not do that. But I ran one, as Josh stated, to run carbon through. It also acted as a mini refugium for pods.

[robby]

Hey Brian, glad you found the site. After doing cichlids for so long, you really get the "We're not in Kansas anymore" feeling doing this stuff. This site helps sort some of it out.

[BKT]

Thanks all of you for the welcome. I was pointed here by Robby, who helped me through my fresh water struggles.

So a couple of you say don't use the emperor? What should I use if I don't use the two I have in the tank? I've got two 40 watt tubes over the tank, nothing fancy, just work lights for now.

I just added salt to the tank tonight and am hoping for the best...

anything else just let me know...I have plenty of questions to post..

-Brian

[cbianco]

Welcome Brian!

Live rock and circulation will act as your filter for the time being. Emperor type filter have biowheels if I am not mistaking. Biowheel have many folds which act as an extended surface area. Biowheels are mainly for turning ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate. In a marine aquarium your live rock has PLENTY of surface area to properly cycle nutrients so dump the filter.

I would say that you should get the tank out of your garage and into its final resting place now. The more you stock it the harder it will be to move. Also, if your tank has cycled and you move it, you will stir everything up (unintentionally) and cause a second cycle. Since the weather is so cold it will be difficult to keep the temperature stable.

These are just a few suggestions from what you have told us so far! Show us some pictures :) !

Good luck!

Christopher

[falcondob]

Welcome! Welcome! My advice is to ask questions and read, read, read. If you have a question start a thread. Someone will answer. Good luck, it is a GREAT! hobby.
John

[brewercm]

Welcom to MAAST. Best advice at the moment is to decide direction you are going to take with the tank. This will lead to answers to most any other questions. Lighting, filtration, waterflow etc. can all be different depending on the answer to the first question.

Also if you are thinking corals but may not want to do SPS or clams right away but are curious about them basically plan for them, you will spend a bundle in lights by having to upgrade later. Experience talking here on this part. :roll

[Thunderkat]

Welcome to MAAST!!! One thing I would recommend is getting a good skimmer for your system, they really help ^_^

[LoneStar]

Don't let me sink...


http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/395499/2/cartoonish_life_preserver_vector.jpg

Hope that helps!!

JK but welcome to MAAST. Be prepared to read tons of stuff on here and other forums like ReefCentral.com

[MikeP]

Brian, the emperors are fine just take the biowheel out. They still produce a goodly amount of flow. I would reccomend getting some small pieces of live rock to place in one emperor and keep the other empty except for occasionally running carbon or filter floss. The lights are not going to work for any photosynthetic animals except maybe some mushrooms or hardy polyps but are fine for fish only tank.

Best advice I can give you is be patient - nothing happens fast in this hobby except disaster! And in my experience a properly set up reef tank is not much more maintenance than a freshwater planted tank once you get the hang of it.

Decide what animals you want to keep and plan accordingly - post a list of what fish, corals , inverts etcetera you want to keep and we will offer whatever advice we can!

I have been keeping saltwater aquariums over 20 years now and I am amazed at how much information there is now compared to when I started in the 80s.

[BKT]

Thanks for the bueoy, lol.

First, I just wanted to say its nice of you all to reply. I am curious about what filtration to use if I don't use the emperor? If I'm correct some of the advice is saying to just let the live rock do its thing? I believe this is of course with the use of a good skimmer?


Also, I'm in a predicament, I have to keep the tank in my garage. You see my wife is not as interested in my hobby as I am. She has her freakin 5 cats, I have my fish, lol.

My temp currently is at 75 or 76 and has been steady today, though I'm sure it will probably stay that way since I sealed the garage vents. I do plan to get good lights and more live rock, I plan to slip it in our budget as a cat accessorie...lol

also I have two rotating power heads and a stationary one flowing over the live rock.
I have got the salinity to about 1.022 and the ph is above 8. I put three damsels in to start the cycle of the tank...did I screw up?

Another question..some folks use R/O and some use regular water...I have R/O that I can store in a 55 gal barrel, would this be good? pros and cons on the water issue?


PS... I attempted to attache a photo but it appears nothing came through..any tricks I should know?

Brian

[cbianco]

Brian

Your temperature is not horrible but raise it up to 78 if possible. Salinity and pH seem decent.

Never ever use tap water unless it is a life or death situation. The phosphates in tap water will cause unwanted algae to quickly take over your tank.

You should do your best to get the tank out of the garage. The garage is not an appropriate place due to the wildly flucuating temperature.

Get the damsels out of the tank (bring them back to the store!!!). Fish are not necessary to cycle a tank. Your live rock will provide plenty of bacteria.

AND

Read (www.maast.org), :)

Read (www.wetwebmedia.com), :)

Read (www.garf.org)! :)

Good luck!

Christopher

[Ram_Puppy]

first, the notion of using a damsel to cycle a tank is a bit old fashioned, live rock is allready bioactive, if it's cured your ready to start stocking slowly after it goes through a 'mini-cycle' (die off from the trip to yuor tank), if not, then the curing process is enough of a cycle on it's own.

Your temp will probably hold just fine during the winter, but texas summers in a garage may be a bit tough.

Rotating powerheads will almost always gunk up and stop rotating, not a big deal, just clean it OFTEN.

RO water is awesome, only thing better is RODI. the general theory behind RODI is your removing contaminates that may cause problems w/ your tank, case in point, many water supplies have nitrate in them. use the RO, store it, love it.

Cats and fish are compatible as long as they have a mediator known as a canopy. :) you will most likely have heat issues this summer, if you have to stay in the garage, a chiller might be on your list of things to purchase.

[brewercm]

Your tank will be fine in the garage with a good heater for right now and should be in the 78 to 82 range, I keep mine at 80 with a +/- 2 degrees from my controller.

If the tank stays in the garage you are definately going to need a chiller come the summer time unless the garage is air conditioned. That's going to cost you around $300 to $400 for a decent one for that tank. Explain that to the wife and maybe she'll change her mind about keeping it in the house. ;)

Then again she may make you get rid of it also if she finds out the cost of keeping it up. :(

Best of luck and ask any questions you may have, this is a great group with a lot of good answers, and sometimes some so so answers. Don't take everything you hear as gospel but ask and research and you will get it right.

[mathias]

yea I agree with everyone that your biggest battle is keeping it in the garage....


the bill from lighting and a chiller is going to be scary :)

[BKT]

Well gang, a Large battle won against the wife! (i still love her) I bargained with her and I will give up my 55 planted tank for the 75 gal saltwater to go in my office. (whewwww, a close one, lol).

This will leave me with a 150 (vieja argentia) and my small 40 breeder of Tetracanthus Nandapsis. I picked up 10 more pounds of live rock, found the price cheaper at another store, 5.00 a lb. I also put in about a 30 lb holey rock as well.

right now the tank is still in the garage and stays at a constant 80 degrees. I will move it soon though after I rearrange a few things in my office.

My next move is to begin researching a decent light for a 75 gal reef tank...

[MikeP]

In my experience it is easier to warm up a cool tank than cool down one that is running hot. The garage thing might be iffy in the summer - I generally never have to use a heater here in texas - it turns on once or twice a year maybe.

You will hear a lot of debate about temperatures but from personal experience I will say higher temps = faster growth on corals, increased metabolism on fish but also less room for error . cooler temps = much nicer colors especially on SPS and a little more room for error and a bit more dissolved oxygen capacity for fishies. A lot of people reccomend 80 - I would say 77 - 78 is about right but opinions will differ - some corals will thrive in cooler water, some in warmer. Below 75 you are getting into subtropical territory. I'd check the temperature at several times during the day and night over a few weeks to see how it's faring - also use more than one thermometer or get an accurate digital one so you can get a mean of the results . I've had the stick on thermal sensitive ones read 2-4 degrees off a standard mercury thermometer - probably due to thick glass , ambient room temp etc.

[BKT]

Thanks Mike, I've been checking the temp just out of curiosity. It seems to stay at or around 80, I'm just about to stick in a digital one now...which sends back to a remote.

Thanks for the head up..I see your in Austin, lots of Texas people in this site, thats GREAT! I live in South Austin. Currently I work K9 for the Travis County Sheriff's Dept, so I have alot of time on my hands during the day when my wifes at work.

Maybe we could chat sometime to give me some pointers...let me know...
Thanks

-Brian

[mathias]

if your going to use your holey rock wait at least 2 weeks before you put any life in the tank so you can watch if your pH spikes...

[BKT]

good point on the rock mathias, I'll check the water levels in a couple of days..

I can't seem to get any of my photos to post? not sure why?

[mathias]

best thing to do is host them somerwhere else like imageshack.com or so then put url here

[Ram_Puppy]

who wants to tell BKT that a 75 gallon is like marijuana... it's a gateway drug... wait till you have to battle your wife over a 280 gallon! :) fun fun!

[robby]

Brian knows all about it... he's a cichlidiot like me. Total fish addict. Just don't bring up the gateway drug thing around him... don't wanna get internal affairs on his *****.

[Ram_Puppy]

lol... I guess he is one 'reefer' that won't be getting a visit to his home about his halide lights...