My first marine reef tank - The journey to the salty side

@Afinta I plan fo add all fhe rock at once and will cycle naturally.

thats awesum buddy,dnt forget to add a piece of shrimp of fish food to kick start cycle.... then the looooong dreadfull 6 week wait :lol: ... you doing the right thing and if u do feel you going to sway from plan,remember this phrase "only bad things happen fast in marines" so patience is a virtue

Tank almost full!

wers the pics,do you have the right hose from ro running to tank :lol: ,the flow looks fast,clean ro usually runs at a fast 'drip' rate and waste is a steady flow:p
 
The RO unit does 400L per 12 hr period :1:
The red pipe is the waste thats outside- white is good water. Mayb its faster vos i have a modified filter that was recommended with the unit. Will post pics soon.

Arw you supposed to wash your sand- i didnt and it has made the water very cloudy since i turned the powerheads on. Im sure the filtration will sort that out in time!
On that note whats the best placement and angle for the powerheads? I have 2...
 
Almost time to fire up the return pump and the skimmer :)
Hold thumbs

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Aaaaah it seems the PVC piping has a leak or two at the bends :(
Any bright ideas without having to start hacking everything up??
 
Yes its definately recommended to wash sand,however its impossible to get it 100% clean so u will always have the dust storm,once runnin change fiterwool every half hour and tank will start clearing up,put powerheads on opersite end side panes and face slightly towards one anothe and slightly upwards,it will blow,distorting surface slightly and aime to opersit ends ....as for the leaks, js dry joint properly, make sure no water in pipe then silicone the joints were its leakn,make sure u seal properly,let dry and bobs ur uncle :thumbup:
 
So all piping is now leak free and the sump is churning away. All of the dust is almost gone. One issue I am having is that my return pipes are spitting out massive air bubbles - there are no bubbles flowing into the compartment where the return pump sits though? Does anybody know how to prevent this?
I do need to full up my sump a bit but will attend to that this afternoon and then get the salt levels right.
 
Give the pump a good shake under water to release any trapped air in pump while its running ... As for returns, try and get som 90deg or 45deg elbows to loosiy fit the ends of return so u can direct flow instead of pushing towards bottom

Also note the tiny bubble your skimmer spits out, that gets sucked up by return,accumulates and forms bigger bubbles ... Make some sort of bubble trap or sumthing
 
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Hi all- so i managed to sort out the bubble issue and got sg to 026- as per directions on salt bucket.
Have all equipment running and put in 25kg kenya and figi rock :)
There were fish in the tank with the LR and the LR was in my tank within 20 min.
The guy @ the LFS said i can put fish in within a week- is this correct?
Will the tank cycle due to some minor die off from the rock or should i add food to promote cycling?
Should i not go with cuc first or add both slowly?

I will post pics later today
 
So here is the long awaited almost final product.
I am building a cupboard around the frame and am going to hang the lights from the ceiling - Other than that I am ready to roll. Also putting a black out on the back of the tank to hide pipes and wires.

Can anybody comment on my post above please? @Afinta @ MistaOrange

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Looking good ther bud ... Is that your final scape? .... I wouldn't recommend adding fish so soon unless you more advanced ,and with help from bacteria dosing ... I would say add bacteria,let tank run 2 weeks without lights on, then build up a cuc 1st .... Keep dosing bacteria for 6 weeks,as per directions on bottle and then after 6 weeks,to be safe, do a good water change,maybe so 20% and test water,either yourself or take to lfs to test for you, if test determines that your cycle is complete ie,0 ammonia 0 nitrates 0 nitrates etc ...then you can add fish, gradually... Usually you add frm least aggressive species and more aggresive last .... Happy reefing
 
Get yourself a piece of black ABS plastic sheeting from Maizey. Its 0.9mm think and can be placed easily behind the tank as a background. OK, I like the black background, others like light blue. the blue allows for some really nice pictures of the fish against the blue background, but then you need to keep the back panel clean. Black background and you do not need to clean the panel. More food for your snails.
 
@RiaanP I got a black sheet from my lfs - wont be cleaning tye back because it is so close to the wall! Also some of my aquascaping touches the back wall so makes cleaning a bit of a task. Also installed brackets etc for my wooden cupboard and hung it yesterday- wl post pics later today. I have started adding bacteria and will test parameters in 2 weeks time.
 
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Looking good ther bud ... Is that your final scape? .... I wouldn't recommend adding fish so soon unless you more advanced ,and with help from bacteria dosing ... I would say add bacteria,let tank run 2 weeks without lights on, then build up a cuc 1st .... Keep dosing bacteria for 6 weeks,as per directions on bottle and then after 6 weeks,to be safe, do a good water change,maybe so 20% and test water,either yourself or take to lfs to test for you, if test determines that your cycle is complete ie,0 ammonia 0 nitrates 0 nitrates etc ...then you can add fish, gradually... Usually you add frm least aggressive species and more aggresive last .... Happy reefing

That is kinda the final scape - will add more rock though as I go - thanks for the recommendation. Cant wait to get my CUC in :)

I want to ensure ideal water parameters and have been looking t monitoring systems and stumbled upon the Mindstream system. It is still in the testing stages but looks insane!!! Just seem to think that the 10 foils that need to be replaced every 90 days will be pretty expensive.
@RiaanP Do you have any experience with systems of these sorts and is there something on the market that is recommended?
 
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Nope, do not know the Mindstream product.

There are other aquarium products available. Profilux, Reef Angel, to name 2. Not sure if they cover all the options as the Mindstream. But I know the Profilux can do a lot.
 
Is the Mindstream even commercially available yet?

If it can monitor all the parameters they are talking about it will be an awesome tool. Closest thing is Seneye but has s rather limited range of test it can do. There was speak of them adding other test but nothing has happened since then

Profilux and Reef Angel are aquarium controllers but have the ability to do some basic test with probes like ph, temp, and salinity ect
 
I found this sneaky bugger crawling along my live rock yesterday - must have hitch hiked somehow and hidden for a loooong time. Tank is still cycling and im dosing with bacteria. Im in no rush and really want to generate a good biological base before adding CUC and then fish. I have had all the lights off and do not have a spot of algae anywhere - a good sign that my RO unit is doing its job nicely :) I assume that this is a hermit crab in this pic? Can it do any damage in the tank to corals or fish?

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Hermits are cool. Except the extremely large species...
 
Hi All - Im looking for a diamond back goby and can t get at any LFS currently -
Is anybody wanting to get rid of one?
 
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