New To Saltwater. Advice Please.

[shazane]

Hello!
So I read a book on starting up saltwater and have previous experience in freshwater tanks so I thought I had a pretty good grasp on what I am doing. Well then I came to this site and started scratching my head a lot.

So first off I already own a 90 gallon TruVu aquarium with built in over flow. Followed by a sump which I DO have the black balls in. I then have my Aquatic systems instant ocean protein skimmer Hanging on the side of sump which seems to be working to the best of my knowledge along with a 500watt heater in the sump as well.The water is then returned by a 2600 Liter(685 Gallons) pump. I am using crushed coral as my subtrate and currently already have 30 pounds of fiji live rock. The live rock has been in there for 3 weeks now. Ive also had two damsels for about 3 weeks also which I read was a mistake. The lighting system I am using is also a truvu 36"-2. One bulb is a coralife blue actinic 03 f30-t12 BP and the other is a life glow 2 T10.
SOOOOOO
Am I doing anything wrong?
Ive read that the black balls are algae catchers which turn into nitrates so what do i replace them with? Or do i just leave it empty?
Is my lighting good enough for corals?
How do I tell if my tank is cycling?
Ive also learned that there is not enough water movement in my tank. I have been looking at sun sun and koralina powerheads. How many GPH do I need tho?
Sorry for being such a newb...

PS My goal is to have a peaceful tank with some soft coral.
Thanks

[shazane]

Also has anyone ever ordered live rock from here? Live rock and live sand for saltwater reef aquariums. Reef coral for aquariums I do need another 60 pounds and at 2 dollars a pound? That seems like a steal to me... Correct me if im wrong but I believe I read somewhere that 2 pounds of Atlantic rock is equivalent to 1 pound of Pacific rock meaning I would need 180 Pounds of Atlantic to get the same biological filtration as the Pacific... Maybe that's why its 2 dollars a pound?
Thanks

[Parrothead]

The best advice I can give you right now is to immed. go to the reef aquariums forum here and read everything in the sticky "click here before you ask" there is an incredible amount of information in there regarding everything you asked about in your post.

From personal experience I would not recommend using Gulf/Atlantic rock it is way to dense to really be good at bio filtration, also it has a tendency to bring some hitchhikers in that you really don't want in your reef tank,

Go read through the sticky, and go from there, if you have any questions post them and we will all do our best to help.

BTW, welcome to reeflands.

Tanks,
Robert

[shazane]

Ok thanks ill do that.

[SpokaneReef]

shazane,

Welcome to RL. I am new to this site also but it just so happens I just upgraded from a 90 gallon to a 300 gallon.

In my 90 gallon I had two K4's, one in each back corner of the tank blowing across the entire tank. One about 6" off the bottom of the tank blowing up and across the tank, the other just below the water line so I had surface movement. I also had about a 700 GPH return pump and bio balls in the sump.

The golden rule of thumb seems to be 10 to 30 times flow rate of the size of your tank. Of course if you are growing out SPS you would need to increase that flow. Currently in my 300 gallon I am at 46 times and looking to increase it as the tank gets older. The older the sand the more it will stay on the bottom.

I used to have 3 K7's and just upgraded to 4 K8's I plan on adding 2 or 3 more of them which would push my flow up to about 68 to 78 times the volume of my tank. So that take care of flow.

Lighting, again depending on what you are growing the more intense the lighting has to be. If you are doing soft corals they require less flow and less lighting. This is the way it was explained to me a few years ago. Just about anything that is a soft coral grows deeper in the water and does not require as much light. The harder the more light. If you have strong lighting and soft corals you can shade them with rocks.

Live Rock, now a days you cannot really base on pound per gallon. You can get very light weight rock that does just as good of a job filtering the water. If you feel your tank is full and want to add more you can always add to the sump so you do not have to redo the aquascaping.

Skimmer, very important. If you want to go with less rock you can go with a bigger skimmer. This part was just pointed out to me about a month ago.

When you buy a skimmer you buy it for the size of your tank. Once you have done this you need to pick the return pump to match the skimmer. In most cases you want to have no more then 3 times GPH on your return of the rating of your skimmer. Meaning, if you have a skimmer that is rated at 100 gallons you do not want to have a return pump over 300 GPH after you subtract for head pressure. The longer a skimmer has to work with the same water the better it is going to skim.

Example: my 300 has a skimmer that is rated for 350 gallons. I got the 350 because I added for the sump and refugium. My return pump is a MAG12 (rated at 1200 GPH) but it is tee'd off to feed the CA reactor, and the refugium. Now if you take that and the 4 feet of head pressure I am getting between 900 to 1000 gallons back to my tank. My refugium is on one side of my sump so it overflows back into where the water will be skimmed again.

Water, the quality of the water is important in salt water. Coming from fresh water myself I made the mistake, many years ago, of doing a 50% to 80% water change when things started to look bad. You need to stay on top of this every week or two. I myself try to change 10% a week . If my water is not what it should be I will do a 20% but that is it. As your tank gets older the water will be more stable and I have heard you can go to 15% every two weeks.

I hope this helps

and again welcome to the board

[shazane]

Thanks for the advice. Spent a few hours reading the sticky's. Fewww. Gonna take me a little longer to finish all of them. As far as i know so far im doing the right thing. So over the next week or 2 ill be slowly removing my bio balls to let the tank acclimate and will be purchasing k 3's and installing. Any other advice will be appreciated. Thanks

[SpokaneReef]

no problem at all.

You might want to go ahead and get K4's and learn from my mistakes. I tried K2 and K3. Finally went to K4's

[twisted]

welcome to the site! you are doing right by removing the bio balls for sure. as for lighting, i had gone back and forth between mh and t-5's and after tons of reading i decided to go t-5s. as for sizing i think im right by saying watts per gallon is important...if you want hard corals you want to have 5 to 6 watts per gallon. 3 to 4 would be moderate light and 1 to 2 is low light. i think thats right but double check to be sure. flow is very important so get that in check. my best advice is to hang around the forum. there are some good people on here that really care about the quality of the members tanks and will help you with whatever you need...(except the cash to buy stuff) lol......take your time. its worth the wait to have a good healthy tank that will last for years to come

[Parrothead]

Also if you are planning a reef tank I would seriously consider getting rid of the crushed coral and replacing it with sand, the crushed coral will become a huge nitrate factory, not good.

Tanks
Parrothead

[charlie]

welcome to the site! you are doing right by removing the bio balls for sure. as for lighting, i had gone back and forth between mh and t-5's and after tons of reading i decided to go t-5s. as for sizing i think im right by saying watts per gallon is important...if you want hard corals you want to have 5 to 6 watts per gallon. 3 to 4 would be moderate light and 1 to 2 is low light. i think thats right but double check to be sure. flow is very important so get that in check. my best advice is to hang around the forum. there are some good people on here that really care about the quality of the members tanks and will help you with whatever you need...(except the cash to buy stuff) lol......take your time. its worth the wait to have a good healthy tank that will last for years to come

The watts per gallon thing is pretty outdated twisty, but I know that over a 90, you can get a really nice 4-6 bulb T5 fixture that would grow just about anything you wanted to grow.

shazane:

[twisted]

The watts per gallon thing is pretty outdated twisty, but I know that over a 90, you can get a really nice 4-6 bulb T5 fixture that would grow just about anything you wanted to grow.

shazane:

ok....i guess im an outdated guy...lol...though outdated can it still be used as a rule of thumb? i mean, i agree with a 6 bulb over a 90...but personally would use an 8 bulber but i guess thats cuz that wtpg is still stuck in my head...numbers,numbers,numbers...all these numbers in my head!

[charlie]

Dogs, cats, numbers, man................you got alot goin on friend!!!

It went from WPG to PAR for lighting twisty. The new T5 fixtures will rival MH, especially if the T5 is used with individual reflectors for each bulb. I think that is the most important thing with T5.

[twisted]

Dogs, cats, numbers, man................you got alot goin on friend!!!

It went from WPG to PAR for lighting twisty. The new T5 fixtures will rival MH, especially if the T5 is used with individual reflectors for each bulb. I think that is the most important thing with T5.

i gotcha...you're right about reflectors...i replaced my orbit light with 2 four bulbers and made my own reflectors to accompany each of them. it made a huge difference!

[Parrothead]

That is the one bad thing about the 8 Bulb, it has a contoured reflector, doesn't quite surround the bulb like the individual reflectors do.

Tanks,
Robert

[twisted]

That is the one bad thing about the 8 Bulb, it has a contoured reflector, doesn't quite surround the bulb like the individual reflectors do.

Tanks,
Robert

it was an asspain to add reflectors to my 2 4 bulbers but once i was done, i'd say the intensity increased by at least 30%

[returnofsid]

ok....i guess im an outdated guy...lol...though outdated can it still be used as a rule of thumb? i mean, i agree with a 6 bulb over a 90...but personally would use an 8 bulber but i guess thats cuz that wtpg is still stuck in my head...numbers,numbers,numbers...all these numbers in my head!

Problem with this is, to get a decent fixture, the 8 bulb unit is actually too wide for a 90 gallon tank. 2 bulbs will be wasted, by casting their light outside the tank.

[Parrothead]

Sid

I thought the nova extreme pro 8 bulb was on 14 inches wide, wouldn't that fit over the 90 with out losing the 2 bulbs? I know on my 55 I actually thought about this fixture as it would only hang over about 5/8 of an inch front and back, but didn't want to lose the 2 bulbs on my tank, so I'm gonna go with the 6 bulb

Tanks,
Robert

[twisted]

Problem with this is, to get a decent fixture, the 8 bulb unit is actually too wide for a 90 gallon tank. 2 bulbs will be wasted, by casting their light outside the tank.

i thought a 90 was wider than my 75...i have 2 4 bulb nova's on it and they fit perfect with an inch to spare. oh, well...my mistake

[charlie]

Problem with this is, to get a decent fixture, the 8 bulb unit is actually too wide for a 90 gallon tank. 2 bulbs will be wasted, by casting their light outside the tank.

Which fixture are you speaking of Sid? That might clear some things up here.

[returnofsid]

Hmmm, depending on the tank manufacturer, I suppose. Typically, a standard 90 is the same dimensions as a standard 75, only a few inches taller. Both are 48X18.

I'm referring to a Sunlight Supply Tek5. The 6 bulb unit fits, just right, over a 75 or 90. It's about 16".