Begginer confusion and lotsa fun!

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Hi All

I'm Shyam and quite the beginner to reef aquariums. However I have learnt a lot, esp on the patience bit :)

Bought my 540 lt tank last year September (2nd hand) and 1st thing I noticed was that, when filled with water (tap), there appeared dark and light areas at the joins. Decided that the best was to get the tank apart and properly re-sealed before setting up, despite my eagerness and impatience.

Reasearch on filtration then revealed general consensus that the sump-tank filtration was about the best system for marine tanks, esp if you want a lot of activity... another hurdle, as the tank did not have an overflow... sent my tank for mods and added an overflow on the rear corner, hole at the bottom, and built 2 nice sump tanks...

Took all the necessary precautions... ran the system for a week on tap water to test system for leaks etc... worked well... then added RO water and a good quality salt, heated to 24 degrees, and connected lighting... added 10kg cured live rock.. always careful to avoid any contamination....

Thats where I am now! I tested the water after a week at a leading store who found the salinity fine and the ammonium, nitrates and nitrite levels close to zero... advised me to run like tjis for another week before I add any fish...

My live rock already has some life forms... was worried this morning when I saw worm-like creatures on them, but now know that they are bristle worms that are actually useful to marine aquatics...

Quite excited to move on, and happy to be part of this forum!

Wish me luck...lol
 
Welcome!

You probably need to run it for longer without fish in. Been running my system for close to a month now with a mix of cured rock and boiled rock , probably going to wait at least another month before adding fish.

Ammonia and Nitrite should test 0, not near zero. Do you have a DSB in your sump?
 
txs neil... I'm not gonna hurry.. it is an expensive hobby! No DSB yet... been told that I will get away without it in the beginning... but would like to enquire about it... where can I get some?
 
Local Reggies if you want to go the cheap route, 20kg bag of playsand is ~R35. Then a willing reefer to donate a cup of their mature DSB to seed your DSB
 
Welcome

Hi Shyam, sounds good. I like the fact that you realise that its about researching and being patient. You gonna enjoy it more if you keep it that way.
Please post pics so we can analyse how your system works. Its a MASA rule that pics must be posted to keep the thread open. Also it helps us to understand when words just cant explain so lekker :)
 
Welcome to MASA. glad you joined. Seeing that you're fairly new to marines, have a read through the link in my signature on starting a marine tank - some great info on tank cycling, lights, etc ,etc ;)
 
welcome to masa and great to hear about that tank:) sounds like youve made a good solid start so far and i am really looking forward to seeing some pics.

just a small note, i would estimate youd need around 55-60kg of good LR for that tank so while its great to have that first 10kg in and cycling away, id recommend trying to add as much as you can now so that it can join the cycle, rather than waiting too long and adding a fair amount later as that will lead you into mini cycles again.

you could add small amounts and wait a while and then add slowly like that, but man that will stretch your patcients to the max, rather go with all you can to start with I recon :)

also, have a look at getting that dsb in as early as you can, that way the bacteria will have some time to collonise and multiply in there, so when you start adding clean up crew and later fish, the dsb will be matured already.
good luck with the tank :)
 
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