Diary of my Saltwater setup

[leanne]

Well I bought a new tank. Its 20 Gal with a trickle wet/dry and machanical filter (with carbon too), a heater and tropical lights (2 of - on fish one plant). I am going to try my hardest to set up a successful marine tank. People say I will struggle but hey I did 5 years at uni, worked full time and had 4 horses! Everyone said I couldn't do that either... I was told I would have to sell the horses - no chance! Anyway back to the point. Here is what I have been up to so far.

18/4/04 am

Filled up tank with dechlorinated tap water and added salt. Arranged base rock (2 big flat pieces) and added crushed coral. Arranged crushed coral to cover up most of the base rock with justa bit peeking out. Tested salinity - ok. pH bit low but hoping coral will bring it up. Tested tapwater for nitrate - 0.

18/4/04 pm

Went to LFS and bought 3 pieces of live rock (2 medium and 1 small - 3.5k) and live sand. Retested salinity - fine and dandy. Added live sand and arranged my rock into a little cave shape. The rock is nice - got red and purple tinges to it. The sand is pretty dull. Expected lots of critters but there doesn't seem to be much in it. Added 1/4 piece of tablet food.

19/4/04 (@12h)

Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - bit more than 0 but lot less than 12.5
pH - 7.8
Salinity - 30.5 (oops risen a bit) - couple of jugs out couple of jugs RO in.

(@24h)

Nitrate, nitrite, pH, salinity ok

1/4 piece of food

20/4/04 am

All parameters the same.

pm

Same again

21/4/04

Oops got drunk, hung over didn't test. Did added 1/4 piece of food.

22/4/04

All ok except nitrate - getting towards 12.5. Unfort no salt left for W/C and can't get to LFS till 24th.

Lesson #1 - Be prepared!

Didn't add food - don't want nitrates rising too much more. Hope my bacteria dont starve.

23/4/04

Still concerned about nitrates (at least them rising means my bacteria is doing ok i suppose). Took a bucket of water out and added 5l back (that was how much washing my bag of salt got me...) Salinity is ok, nitrite is 0, pH appears to be on the up at 8.

24/4/04

Went to LFS. Had a lovely browse and watched the fish. There was a big long black and white stripy one that looked pretty cool. Don't know what it was but it was way too big for my tank! They have some lovely percula clowns, nice blue and yellow damsels and an adorable scarlet hawkfish. They also have a some vivid peppermint shrimps (grr got to pick one or the other).

Anyway I didn't buy and fish but I did buy 1.5kg more live rock. Now this rock is really pretty! Also bought a magnetic algae scraper for when I need it and a mini heater as I have been given a 5gal tank that I'm going to set up as a fry tank (tropical).

Had a chat to the LFS man about my pH. He said adding a handful of dolomite to my filter should bring the pH up.

Meant to ask about whether it would be better to feed a cycle supplement or whether rottin food id ok but forgot. Oops. Must post!

Anyway I got home and Did a 10% W/C and topped up to the correct level. I rearranged all my rock (including the irst 3 that i spent so long lovingly arranging). I now have 5kg of the stuff (and about 5kg base rock) arranged into little caves and tunnels. There are little fronds of stuff growing from some of the rock. Not sure what it is yet though. Noticed when moving my older rock around it has small red discs on it - not sure what they are either but theyre new... ooo its growing stuff!!!!

My nitrate is nearer to 0 than 12.5 but still not all the way there. Will do another W/C when I get back from my mum (sunday dinner).

From now on I will post each day, or as often as I can get to a computer...

Thanks for listening.

Leanne

 

[wonder371]

nice...i wouldn't get any fish for a while. Just keep on watching that rock grow and get colored up. The sand is only "live" with small bacteria... i doubt you will see any critters running around it. Well i wouldn't add any fish for a while. It appears as if your still cycleing. After that i would just get a gobie or blennie to cruise around and make sure your water is okay. Nice start man. You should be able to maintain this tank, no problem. I barely maintained my sw tank senior year in high school and the only tank deaths i had were snails.

 

[jams.alaskan]

Leanne, this will be wonderful. I am going to "tune in" for updates. Have a great day.

ALASKA

 

[leanne]

Aw thanks guys I feel all choked. Its nice to hear you are behind me!! I'm not going to add fish yet the rock is coming along lovely. It has so much colour in it already but it is getting more colourful. There are some lovely red raised plaques coming up. They are about 3 mm in size and have a little "nipple" in the middle. Not sure what they are but they're pretty.

 

[RamJet]

Keep it up, your tank is going to be wonderful!

 

[leanne]

Hmm. Having a bit of a prob with pH. I understood that the crushed coral would bring the pH up, and it did start to come up, but slowly - not quickly enough to keep up with my w/c. As I wrote earlier I went to the LFS and they recommented dolomite. So I put a handful in my filter and hey presto 24h later the pH rises significantly. I have now done another w/c and 24h later the pH is still considerably down. Does anyone know if the dolomite stops working after time and do you need to replace it often? The LFS guy said not to put it with the gravel, put it in the filter as it needs to be changed every 12 months.

Thought I'd write this in here, if I get no responses I'll post it as a proper topic...

 

[leanne]

Well I have got my pH up to 8.2 now. Think that I didn't have enough dolomite in for the frequency of water change. Put a couple more handfuls in a new pop sock (not a washed one for those of you concerned about detergent...) at the back of the tank and within 12h the pH was up. Just need to make sure it stays that way. Also think I'm getting on top of the nitrate too. It's now below 12.5 (still not good I know) but at least its lower than the "just below" 20 that it had got to.

 

[leanne]

Bought a piece of live branch yesterday (v v colourful) and a piece of live rock with tons of coraline algae (blue, red, purple, pink orange, maroon and vivid green!) and blue mushrooms. It came with tons of critter stowaways (little clean up crew type) and 5 feather duster worms (blue and brown types).

It also had a crawly in it. Don't know what it is! It is about 1" long (2.5cm) and has lots of legs like a centipede. It's white with a black bit at its "tail". Anyone any ideas? Is it good or bad?

ANyone interested in my spendings? So far:

tank £50 (second hand)
live rock £55
live branch £26
blue mushrooms £25
Live sand £20
Salt x2 bags £35
Magnetic algae scraper £3 (don't need it yet but it looked cool)
Nitrate, nitrie, ammonia kits £30
pH kit £3.75
Salinity test thingy £10

So far that's about £260 (with a 2nd hand tank)

Gonna buy some new lights today as I have decided I may go into the coral side - gonna seek LFS advice. If not just gonna get "fresh" standard marine ones.

Still good and not bought fish...

 

[spanair]

leanne it's looking very good, why not post some pics ?

I'm in the same process but from saturday I will make a similar thread. Any hows so far you haven't spent a fortune which is really good. I'm glad all is going well for you & your tank .

I'll keep coming and watching the process.

 

[leanne]

Thanks spanair. I do have photos but my computer at home isn't on the internet yet - will get on soon! As soon as I'm on I will post. Until then they're just building up...

Not seen Mr B again yet(I know I shouldn't give a pest a name...).

Bought a new nitrate (and nitrite) kit as I thought it was perculiar I couldn't get my nittrate lower than 12.5 even though I was doing water changes every day. Used this one and it came up near enough 0. Used it on my freshwater (its a combi kit) and that came up 5 so it does work. I've been panicking for nothing. Was dreading adding fish when I couldn't even keep on top of the nitrate without them! Anyway my new kit is the ****? pharmaceuticals and is far better than the tetratest one. The tetratest measures 0, 12.5, 25, 50, 100 the new one measures 0, 5, 10, 20, etc far more easy to calculate %change needed.

Gong to take my water to LFS to get them to double check the levels and if all is ok may add 1 fish....

 

[leanne]

Ooo just bought a 20 gal freshwater tank off someone at work for £20. I can use that for freshwater and have my 10gal under my marine - increasing capacity by 50%. The 20 gallon wont fit in the cabinet unfortunately...

Things are getting better by the day. Guess I'm going to be spending all weekend rearranging stuff.

 

[spanair]

Guess I'm going to be spending all weekend rearranging stuff.

ME too !! .

Nice buy too !! keep it coming 8)

 

[leanne]

Hmm I've decided not to trust the kit saying 0-5 and believe the one with the higher reading (just to be sure...). Will use my new one for my freshwater where it isn't quite so critical.

So here's the update. I now have:

2 turbo snails (pinky and perky - pinky has pink coraline algae on his shell and perky is more lively)
2 hermit crabs (George and Mildred - George is a grumpy nosy man and Mildred is smaller and quieter)
1 dancing shrimp (looks like a peppermint shrimp to me but what do I know!?! He's called Wayne)
1 juvenile yellow percula clown!! Yay!! He's called Hurcules and is a very happy little guy. I was expecing him to hide in all the rockwork but he swims happiply around at the front saying "hi"

My bristle worm (or rather worms because there were two) are OUT! Caught the original one eating something it shouldn't have been on my nicest piece of rock! He had to go. Took them to LFS and they said they are ones that could have got rather large... Well they would do if they were eating all of my bl**dy tank!

Decided not to use my 10 gal as a sump - logistics are too complicated. If I'd have known I was going to end up with a "spare" tank when I'd have started I'd have got holes drilled as it is I don't think my tight fitting hood would accomodate any pipes or wires...

Well GTG as I am in short supply of salt. LFS becons (why didn't I get it a couple of days ago I hear you ask... Not it wasn't so I had an excuse to go back and look at the fish (and the cute guy ) ))

 

[sumer_kay]

I think its kewl you're writing it down, err should I say typing it. I'll tune in for updates, and try not to drool on my keyboard. I'm dreading spending the $$ on a new reef tank, but I can't wait to get started!

 

[leanne]

Thanks s_k.

I did buy something besides my salt. a few more small pieces of live rock. Really vivid colours on them so couldn't resist. they're small enough to fit in crevices to add colour (ie 3 pieces totalling 1kg). And guess what...? Another stowaway!! It was a little crab, about an inch across. Funny looking little guy with bristles on his legs and shell... Not sure if he's a good guy but I'm still keeping him. At least until he causes trouble. He seems quiet enough. He's gone into hiding and only seen him once since.