Newbie from the Vaal Triangle

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Hello All,

I've joined on behalf of my 13yo daughter who has started her first marine aquarium. I must say that there's a world of information on your site, which we've been reading through. We don't understand everything yet, but I'm sure that our questions will be answered in terms we can understand. Tank size is 910x450x450 with an internal overflow and and external sump below the tank. She's got all the basics sorted out, the tank is just beginning to cycle at this stage. More live rock is on its way. The only issue she has at present is the setup of the Reeftek TS1 skimmer, we will work on this over the next few days...

She is also cycling her 2ft "hospital" tank at present. We will complete the lighting on this tank in the next few weeks.


Looking forward to a successful aquarium with the help of all the members and info from this site.

RossK

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Thanks TaahirS,

We did go through adding liquid bacteria and live rock first. The live rock and some filter material was from a running tank. Nitrites have spiked to 0.3 after adding fish. This is being checked daily and we suspect that even though the initial cycle was done without fish, adding three Chromis to the tank has some effect on making the cycle start over again. No other fish will be added until the nitrites are stable below 0.3. Also, more live rock on the way as our LFS has advised we will need more than a few more kgs to make sure we have enough bacteria in the display tank.

Currently, we are running 2 X 39 W 10000K and 2 X 39W Actinic. Are theses T5's good enough?

Any advice is always appreciated...
 
Hi @RossK , we had the same lights in our previous tank and had excellent coral growth! I personally think that it's perfect for a 450mm deep tank.
Looking forward to seeing your tank mature.
P.S If things start getting difficult (algae etc), don't give up, because we almost sold our previous tank due to algae but I talked myself into keeping it and a year later, it was a beautiful thriving reef.
So what I've learned : patience = success
Welcome to MASA
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Welcome to MASA!
Those lights will be fine. What corals are you two planning on keeping?

What issues are you having with the skimmer?
 
Thanks KSreefster,

My daughter is in no rush, especially since I'll be away at work for the next 5 weeks. All we will do is get the skimmer to work properly before I leave.
We do have a plan to add 2 more T5's later. Is there any issues with having too many lights? We have enough space for one more double 39W fitting.
 
We're getting very wet foam which eventually fills the cup with water. It's a TS1 skimmer.
 
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