75 Gallon Setup/New Member

[ChicagoReef]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post on this forum....I stumbled upon it last night and I already appreciate the wealth of knowledge. I was wondering if you guys can chime in and offer advice on my setup.

I have a brand new 75 Gallon aquairum that's in the process of cycling.
I have about 75 lbs of live rock, 20 lbs of live sand sitting on top of 40 lbs of crushed coral (I don't know why I mixed substrates but I did, I hope this isn't a mistake). I have a wet/dry filter with a phosphate and amonia pad....I also have bio balls which I'm reading aren't good? Also a carbon bag and inside of my sump is a seaclone 100 gallon protein skimmer.

The tank is cycling with no animals, just the live sand and live rock right now. I don't plan on adding anything until my water is pristine and able to sustain reef life. My salinity is 1.023. I'm using 50/50 actinic lighting @ 135 watts.

My question is basicaly what you think about my setup so far. What do I need to add or take away. Is my lighting strong enough for coral? What additional supplements will I need to add to make it reef safe? Do I need additional power heads? Filtration?

Sorry for the long post and thanks for your advice.

[Parrothead]

how long has this setup been running?????

[ChicagoReef]

It's only been up a week. I don't plan on adding anything to it until It's completely cycled. Is cycling it with live rock and sand enough or do I need to add some sort of living organsim?

Thank you!

[Deathsmile]

Do you know what size return pump you have? And do you have any powerheads in the DT itself?

Also, you only need the rock and sand to cycle, nothing more but time needs to be added

[ChicagoReef]

I don't have any additional powerheads at the moment but I figured I need some more circulation so I can invest in one or two. Where do you reccomend putting them? I'm not sure what size my return pump is :/.

I have time...I don't plan on buying residents until I find a new job...god knows when that will happen with this economy

[ChicagoReef]

Attatched an image of the tank so far. Do you have a better stacking reccomendation for the live rock?

[Deathsmile]

With that you can put 1 K4 up in the top left corner, itll help a lot. Fill a 5gallon bucket with your return pump and time it. Then we can do the math to figure it out. Thats what i had to do.

[TimH07]

WELCOME TO REEFLAND.COM chicagoreef!

If it were me i would try to remove the crushed coral while you have the time and lack of live stock, CC is a bad idea from the begining due to its ability to trap detritus. even having the sand over top of it, the larger pieces will end up on top eventually as the sand works its way down through the CC. perhaps to avoid a total mess find some kind of screen sifter for the larger pieces and just work the CC out of the tank.

Your rock looks pretty nice, if you take them out to remove the CC perhaps you can zip tie some together for added support.

[Parrothead]

It's only been up a week. I don't plan on adding anything to it until It's completely cycled. Is cycling it with live rock and sand enough or do I need to add some sort of living organsim?

Thank you!

I would seriously consider going with straight sand for the substrate, that crushed coral will come back to haunt you, especially if you are leaning towards a reef tank, JMHO

Also, what size tank is your protein skimmer rated at, and please go through the following

Click here before you ask, (links to answers)

there you will find most of the answers to alot of questions you will have, if you get lost we are here

[ChicagoReef]

Thank you Deathsmile. I'm probably going to sound stupid but I'm not sure what a k4 is...enlighten me when you have a moment.

Thanks

[Parrothead]

Korilia powerheads, please forgive the spelling, they rock

[ChicagoReef]

Alright thank you. I will work on Removing the crushed coral ( I wish I never bought it in the first place ). I had a feeling that I shouldn't have put it in there but I did. I just poured my live sand in yesterday...I wish I would've held off. Oh well....you live and you learn.

[Parrothead]

"Oh well....you live and you learn."

In this hobby, that will soon become your favorite saying, but that is what we do here, is help others through our own experiences, welcome to Reeflands

[Deathsmile]

Yeah, what parrothead said is right, we're all here to learn from each other. So if you ever have a leak, check out my thread, its perfect xD

Yeah, a K4 is a Koralia Powerhead, around 1200gph. This will greatly increase your circulation and help give you better flow to open up your choices of corals.

BUT if your return pump is too small for your tank the K4 wont be enough and you may have to upgrade that as well, but its highly unlikely.

As said before, get rid of the crushed coral asap.

You still have plenty of time to get the bugs out now and get everything just right before you get in too deep with your tank to fix.

Do you have anymore info on your protein skimmer as well?

[TimH07]

i have 2 K4's a K1 and a magdrive 9.5 return... love the flow.

the company is called Hydor and they sell Korilia powerheads

[ChicagoReef]

I will definitely get rid of the crushed coral and buy 60 more lbs of live sand. What to do with the crushed coral though? Seems like it was a big waste of money .

The Protein skimmer is the following. I just bought it yesterday: Seaclone 100, has a maxi-jet 1200 pump for up to 100 gallons :/.....I hope this is enough for my 75 gallon tank?

[ChicagoReef]

One more question. I keep reading that bioballs are bad. Should I remove mine from my wet/dry now while they're still clean? If so what should I fill that cavity with? Filter floss?

[Deathsmile]

YES! Remove your bio-balls nowwww.

You can either put some Live rock in place of them, or if you have enough room make a fugium. Could you take a pic of your sump for us?

[ChicagoReef]

Darn ok, I guess the bio balls and the crushed coral coming out will be my project tomorrow. What a pain. Here's a picture...It's the best I can do with the lighting I have now. I already have my protein skimmer in it.

[zhenya]

Hi ChicagoReef,