Oxygen Pump And Water Reading

[Eversurf]

I'm posting here cause I have no idea where to post my newbie questions Since i was told not to post in the newbie questions sections.

Anyway I got a 55G tank and just put about 30lbs of live rocks in it. the amonia spiked super high and I made 2 X 25% water changes in two days. The amonia is now close to 0, but the other two reading are way up and slowly going down....I think...I should write down the values. Is this ok?

I was told I didn't need a bubbler for oxygen, but I don't understand how the water gets oxygen in it since I have two canister filters that push water under the surface.

thanx for the help.

 

[SkiFletch]

You dont want to use an airstone in a saltwater environment because if you do you'll battle salt creep forever. Bubbles breaking at the water surface spray bits of salt everywhere and when the water evaporates you get salt deposits where those bubbles landed... Not fun. How much flowrate do you have in the tank? Generally in a saltwater environment oxygenation is accomplished by 20x tank turnover per hour (1100GPH in your case). Powerheads, closed loops, canister filters, and sump pumps help contribute to this large amount of waterflow. Gotta keep diffusion going for saltwater. Flowrate is so important that when power goes out, you should be more concerned with running pumps and powerheads and forget your lights. Flowrate keeps things alive

Your ammonia/nitrite spikes sound a little higher than normal, but are nothing to worry about. When your LR arrives at your house there will be dieoff on it (since it was shipped damp) and that dieoff fuels a mini-cycle. This can last a few days up to 2 weeks typically (1week is average). Depending on how much dieoff you have you may get a rise in nitrates towards the end of the cycle. Usually if you allow a little diatom algae (brown furry stuff) to grow at this point they'll eat the nitrates. Then you drop some cleanup crew members in there (crabs/snails/etc) and you're ready for a fish or two. Stock slowly and patiently and you're off

Any idea what you plan on keeping? And make sure to check out the pinned threads in marine and reef chit chat, lots of good info there for n00bs

 

[Eversurf]

thanx for the quick info. It makes me feel better. I will keep checking the nitrate and nitrite level and hopefully by the end of this week I will be able to throw a cleaning crew in there. I'm pumping about 600GPH right now at this time. I guess I need to get something else to increase the water flow.

I have no idea what kind of fish I will be keeping. I haven't been thinking about it yet. I'm just trying to get this thing started and make sure I do it right the first time and I am trying to catch that big ass worm that came on the rocks. This is my first tank ever and I have been really patient so far. I have it setup for about 2 1/2 weeks now with only water, sand, crush coral and live rock.

Nice to see that you are in Buffalo. I am in Syracuse.

Thanx for the info.

 

[SkiFletch]

Oh well if you're in syracuse, then you must become a member of the Upstate Reef Society because the people there are awesome (and local ). All the knowledge I've learned in this hobby has been from posting around this site and especially my local club. Theres some really old salties over there that can help you get started right.

If I may reccomend, try adding a Seio M620 powerhead to bump your flow up significantly

 

[Eversurf]

Yeah it's pretty cheap too and that would bring my flow to where I want it to be.

Thanx for the info.