impatient nuub :D

RO is pretty important. tap water contains all sorts of nasties that will cause you no end of headache down the line - one of the main things being phosphate, which nuisance algaes thrive off. :nono: its definitely not a marketing gimmick - lots of guys have been down that road to their detriment!

get some good quality salt and go for it - its defnintely worth it! :)
 
Hi welcome to masa firstly

RO water is the best. I start my system on normal tap water later got hair algea got a ro unit and start to change my water now it looks like im going to win.

I'll start from the begining right
 
I just saw my tank!! Cant wait!! Tnx Erenst from Die Visdam, Gr8 service so far!!!
 
Tnx all. Another question. How much liverock should one have in a system like mine?
At this stage I only have enough money planned for 40 - 50kg. I dont think this is enough, but would it be sufficient to start my cycle once the tank is up and running, or should I rather wait another month or 2 and save?

Tnx!

Niel
 
As a rough guide i use the 1kg per ltr volume of the tank. So your tank is 700 ltr so that would mean 70kg LR. But hay, start off with what you can afford and get the tank cycling. You can always add some more cured LR later.
 
Just a quick 5c from me!

I didn't use RO water when I started up my system and had endless problems with algae and cyano outbreaks! And then sicknesses like white spot due to unhealthy water for the fish! Almost all the first fish I bought has died.

RO water does not contain any harmful materials like chlorine, bacteria, other impurities and total dissolved solids.

By starting and maintaining with RO water only you will have an extremely healthy system.

Let me try and put it like this: Some reef salt manufactures pump reef water to their facilities and then heats the waters to evaporate. All the salts, trace elements and minerals stays behind. Remember that solids in water cannot evaporate. Now, you the reefer buy the salt and in order to replicate the exact same water that is found when they first pumped it for processing, you need to add the cleanest from of water available. By adding tap water for example you are basically adding more solids like minerals, fluoride, calcium, chlorine, bacteria etc. This causes massive imbalances in the system and you can guess, the death of live stock and algae and cyano problems!

Hope this clarifies..
 
Hey there Nsteyn welcome to masa!

I just saw my tank!! Cant wait!! Tnx Erenst from Die Visdam, Gr8 service so far!!!
thats why the bugger is taking so long to get back to me with a qoute for redoing my stand and front glass lol your tank is taking too much of his time:p,but yeah he has given me good service too over the last few years.:thumbup: plus hes just round the corner no need to drive all the way to jhb which has saved my hide plenty times....

Tnx all. Another question. How much liverock should one have in a system like mine?
At this stage I only have enough money planned for 40 - 50kg. I dont think this is enough, but would it be sufficient to start my cycle once the tank is up and running, or should I rather wait another month or 2 and save?

Tnx!

Niel

buy the 40-50 kg its fine, ive seen huge tanks with less than this,personally i have much more than nemos guide but a tank can definitely still be run very well with much less live rock.

Perfect lighting choice man.crispin is right you can keep everything in there sps,nemmies(after a few months,dont be tempted too soon!) and ANY corals basically....so its good for the long run.:thumbup:


as far as tap water is concerned i HIGHLY recommend you get an R.O unit but all in all i have to say vereeniging water is far higher quality than jhb so you can fill your tank and run for a few months on tap water just remember to get some phosphate remover and always use sera aquatan to treat your tap water for any metals and chlorine

But please rather get an R.O unit as soon as funds allow as tap water can change quality at any time and its not guaranteed to be of the same quality next week as it was this week for example.
 
buy the 40-50 kg its fine, ive seen huge tanks with less than this,personally i have much more than nemos guide but a tank can definitely still be run very well with much less live rock.


as far as tap water is concerned i HIGHLY recommend you get an R.O unit but all in all i have to say vereeniging water is far higher quality than jhb so you can fill your tank and run for a few months on tap water just remember to get some phosphate remover and always use sera aquatan to treat your tap water for any metals and chlorine

But please rather get an R.O unit as soon as funds allow as tap water can change quality at any time and its not guaranteed to be of the same quality next week as it was this week for example.

personally i wouldnt trust any tap water. granted i dont know the quality of tap water from vereeniging and falcon certainly would, but its not a risk worth taking. My tap water here has a tds of 18, which is really low. But its still 18 above what i need to run a decent marine tank, RO water is a must in my view.

I would say 70kg LR is fine to start off with but i would personally look at getting a bit more over time. You can suppliment that 70kg with some bio rock for aquascaping possibilities and to lift the reef higher in the water collum, but i believe that the better quality your LR and around 120kg for your size system is what I would aim for.


brilliant to hear that your tank is almost ready to be delivered, that must be thrilling you :)
 
As a rough guide i use the 1kg per ltr volume of the tank. So your tank is 700 ltr so that would mean 70kg LR. But hay, start off with what you can afford and get the tank cycling. You can always add some more cured LR later.
i have a feeling you are missing a 0 in there NJ. 1kg/ 10l vollume. 1kg per l as you have it puts the figure at an impressive 700kg :) but perosnally i would double that ratio
 
HI Falcon, good to know there is other's close by I can bother if need arises :p
And sorry about keeping Ernst busy ... NOT :p
Well, I am trying to sort out my Finances for RO, otherwise ill get it (RO Water) from Ernst.
The LR I will Definitely add as time goes on and funds become available - its just that I cant buy 120kg now after the tanks sump skimmer etc etc ..

Crispin, Tnx man, will keep that in mind.
 
HI Falcon, good to know there is other's close by I can bother if need arises :p

Anytime boet,i've got a experimental/play system at my shop in de deur .pop around some time if you here for a chat......

pm me for the details when you coming around...
 
Me again - with another question...
I am looking at the the OctX 160 skimmer, rated for 1500L
Would this be sufficient for my system?

On a side note.. there are so many awesome tanks on this forum, and this is such an inspiration for us new guys.. a big :thumbup: for all!

Niel
 
dude you have a 720 liter tank...so the reef octx 160 is MORE than enough:thumbup: for the long run....you can keep a relatively low nutrient system by having a over rated skimmer.I think its a good choice for a start as you wont have to upgrade that thing anytime soon.

Low nutrient systems encourage sps corals to colour up and thrive,softies thrive a bit better with meduim nutrients lps can stand both generally.
 
Yip, agree. Skimmer is cool for your tank as it can handle the added sump volume as well ;)
 
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