My first marine tank

A week later

hi guys,

I have just added some live rock to my tank after a week and really excited to see if there will be anything happening. what should be my next steps?
 
PICs

Ok here it is.
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Marinenoob i will go for sea sand it will look much better and natural don't you think?.
 
Crushed coral...:nono:...rather use reggis play sand if you on a tight budget...if not then use aragonite...
 
Hey Marinenoob,

Nice setup sofar !

Just a couple of comments , if I may:

1. Your substrate needs to be a lot finer. Crushed coral is not a great option as it will end up trapping detritus and lead to nitrate build up later on. Riyaad & Ben have already given you a good suggestion to replace the substrate.

2. You need to get more live rock. Even though your budget may be a bit tight, it is better to get the liverock now , than to add it in bits and pieces. Your cycle will take longer if you slowly add the rock , since you will get a mini cycle every time you add LR. ( Unless of course you are getting LR from a well established system)

3. Pay careful attention to the amount of flow you have in the tank. You need to aim for at least 30 times water turnover ( Water turnover = System volume divided by the flow of the return pump in the sump (if relevant ) + flow rate of pumps in the DT). Not super crucial at present, but you will need to pay attention to this aspect before introducing any livestock.

4. Last point on the flow : Make sure that your powerheads/pumps in the DT are positioned in such a way as to give a really chaotic flow. This will also help that you don't get any "deadspots" in the tank where detritus can settle and cause problems.

That's it for now. Enjoy your cycle , read a lot , ask lots of questions and most importantly ...... have fun watching the critters appear in and on your LR. ;)
 
Marinenoob,

i would like to give you just a little bit of advice that i have picked up on Masa over the time i have been here......

Your tank has the potential to be stunning !! I do however feel you are going down a slippery road, with some of the things you have done, rectifying these things now will only make your hobby more enjoyable in the long run.

I encourage you to read some of the threads in the beginners section which go through the advice i am about to give in great detail....

Why do you need a sump? As an analagy let us use diving ...... YES you can take a breath and go down to the reef for a minute ... maybe even two.... but to really enjoy the reef you need scuba gear ....... Same with a sump..... can you keep marines without one ... YES, can you enjoy it long term .... in my opinion NO ....



What does a sump do ????
  • It increases our water volume, which makes the system more stable.... eg temp doesnt increase or decrease as fast same with oxygen levels etc etc.
  • it allows you space to put in all the filtration devices you need to clean the water without making your display tank (DT) look ***
  • a skimmer does 2 things .... it oxygenates the water and it skimms of waste particles. without the skimmer in the first compartment of the sump, you will not remove these particles, they will decay in the system and cause toxic levels of nutrients for you corals and fish and they will feed undesirable algae.
  • the second compartment should hold the deep sand bed and macro algae.... Unavoidably there will be some nutrient build up in the system.... this will feed the macro algae... which you simply harvest when it grows too big, also in the sand bed bacteria will convert waste material into gas (its a lot more complicated than that but you can read up on the nitrogen cycle in other threads)
  • the last compartment should hold the return pump and the chemical filtration... things like the carbon reactor.... phos remover and all sorts of other fancy stuff not worth worrying about right now....
the crushed coral in your DT will become a nutrient factory and i urge you to conver this to reggies play sand, or natural sea sand or aragonite as soon as possible.... you will live to regret the crushed coral, i promise.
 
Hi,

just purchased the CCoral. Does it not break down after a while and what am I going to do with it now? wish i asked this question sooner. I have plans for a sump later on but not now and will purchase a skimmer next month before putting in fish. Should i add the sand with the coral now to minimise problems? and what is the approx cost.

Thanks for the gr8 advice
 
Hi,

just purchased the CCoral. Does it not break down after a while and what am I going to do with it now? wish i asked this question sooner. I have plans for a sump later on but not now and will purchase a skimmer next month before putting in fish. Should i add the sand with the coral now to minimise problems? and what is the approx cost.

Thanks for the gr8 advice

Marinenoob,

The crushed coral will not break down in your tank. At least not in the sense that the particles will get smaller.
Remove the crushed coral and replace all of it with playsand.
Reggies or most toyshops will sell playsand. Approx cost is R 20-30 for a 20kg bag.

If you can afford Aragonite base , this would be great. Not too sure though on the cost , but it is certainly much more expensive than playsand.
 
Hi MarineNoob - that tank is EXACTLY what I have now for my cold water tank. It's a 300 litre Jewel (the model: Jewel Rio 300).

I would remove ALL the media from the corner filter box, and get 2 hang-on skimmers, and a filter-canister.

This would / should be quite sufficient to give you the filtration that you require.

Else, you will have to do a LOT of water changes to remove nutrients.

This is now given as a suggestion, because you would not have any issues RIGHT NOW. Only once you start adding life-stock. Especially fish.

My Jewel 300 is the black cabinet.... You have the Oak.
 
Hi marinenoob, those are very nice tanks ! I see the guys have given you excellent advice already and i agree with what everyone said regarding skimmers, CC etc.

A sump doesnt have to be an expensive item, buy a normal cheap (Daro) tank from the LFS, have 3 pieces of glass cut , silicone them inside at the right spots & bob's your uncle. IMHO i would rather get the sump, DSB etc set up before a skimmer as the DSB needs time to become alive and start working. A skimmer works basically as soon as you set it up.

Rather get the biological stuff correct from the start...it will save you a lot of tears / frustration / swearing and money later on !
 
To give you an idea. A 3 foot tank will cost about R200 with glass cut for divisions in the sump. I promise you that you wont regret adding on a sump. You said that the tank cannot be drilled. Why not replace one of the side panes and have it drilled. Long term a sump is the best option when it comes to marines. Trust me I ran a tank without a sump and saw major differences once adding a sump.
 
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