Another Newbie's Tank

[zander]

Having seen many professional tanks here, I wanna post my recent setup tank here and maybe seek for some advises.

I just join this hobby at the mid of this Mar. Not a perfect time as half month later, SG went to CB. As a newbie, I guess I came through every traps that many ppl had experienced before.

At the very first stage, I didn't know what size of the tank I want(maybe I just wanna enter this hobby as well as try best not to spend much money on it).

So I set up this tank(2ft x 1ft x 1ft):

 

Followed the LFS auntie's instruction, I cycled the water for 5 days. Then started to purchase live stock. This is what looks like now

 

I am using a canister filter and a Hailea HK-150 chiller. As a newbie, I also read massive post online. The more I read, the better I understand my setup is far from a perfect one, I don't have SUMP or IOS, No refugium either. I have to change water constantly to maintain the stability of the tank. The sand are easily covered by algae and the most important thing is I think I didn't cycle the water in a right way I believe will have more potential issue in the future. 

As many of you, I decided to upgrade to a larger tank(Red sea Reefer 350 as suggested by one of the reefer @R0B, MANY Thanks to you!) and setup it patiently. However, due to CB, I cannot have my tank delivered.

Before I get my tank, I still have some questions to figure it out, I will be really appreciated if you guys can help me here. I plan to have a MIXed tank, and use caribsea live rock&sand to start, How many of rock&sand shall I prepare? As suggested by Caribsea is 1 lbs per gallan, but i am not sure if it suits.

Another thing is cycling the water. I have read some articles and they suggest to put a piece of prawn into it, when water start to be cloudy, then take the prawn out and wait for about 2 months(can put damsel when NO2 is 0). Another example is "Bulk Reef Supply - 5-Minute Saltwater Aquarium Guide". If you have more sources of reading, please let me know, I wish I could read as much as possible before the real action.

The last thing is, Without tank, can I kickoff the cycling first? maybe put all rocks into a drum? 

In All, I am glad to have the club sharing and learning! Thank you all for reading:).

Stay Home, Stay healthy!!

 

[soggycookies]

for rocks it really depends on what you want to go for- a minimalist scape with more room for fish to swim around in, more space for coral placement, or more rockwork to create more hiding places for sensitive fish or to house bacteria. and since you plan on going with a mixed reef- extra planning goes into where to put what sort of coral, and the sort of aquascape that best facilitates that- due to differing lighting and flow considerations.

 

for sand i reckon 3inches all round from the base is good.. unless you wanna go old school with a deep sand bed with 8inches of sand which you almost never see anyone do these days(with all the marine pure and maxspect and brightwell misc media available now)

 

the more media you have in your sump, the less rock and sand you’ll need in your DT in general.

 

i wouldn’t have the exact figures how much i would put cause it’s pretty hard to accurately gauge without looking at the tank in person.

 

for cycling the water i actually chopped fresh seafood like shrimp and squid up, mashed them in a bowl with water and fed fish in an established system the solid pieces and dumped the viscous liquid remains into the water with rocks i wanted to cycle. and yes, you can cycle/cure rocks in a separate bin and not in the tank itself.

 

ideally you would want to make sure the salinity and temperature of the bin and your tank are as identical as possible when doing this.

 

hope this helps, and all the best with your new setup!

 

 

 

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[zander]

for rocks it really depends on what you want to go for- a minimalist scape with more room for fish to swim around in, more space for coral placement, or more rockwork to create more hiding places for sensitive fish or to house bacteria. and since you plan on going with a mixed reef- extra planning goes into where to put what sort of coral, and the sort of aquascape that best facilitates that- due to differing lighting and flow considerations.
 
for sand i reckon 3inches all round from the base is good.. unless you wanna go old school with a deep sand bed with 8inches of sand which you almost never see anyone do these days(with all the marine pure and maxspect and brightwell misc media available now)
 
the more media you have in your sump, the less rock and sand you’ll need in your DT in general.
 
i wouldn’t have the exact figures how much i would put cause it’s pretty hard to accurately gauge without looking at the tank in person.
 
for cycling the water i actually chopped fresh seafood like shrimp and squid up, mashed them in a bowl with water and fed fish in an established system the solid pieces and dumped the viscous liquid remains into the water with rocks i wanted to cycle. and yes, you can cycle/cure rocks in a separate bin and not in the tank itself.
 
ideally you would want to make sure the salinity and temperature of the bin and your tank are as identical as possible when doing this.
 
hope this helps, and all the best with your new setup!
 
 
 
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Hi Bro, thanks a lot. These give me more thoughts on how I am going to do in the new setup. Also convinced me with several approaches I was hesitated to implement.

All the best to you and I will keep updating in this thread(probably on Jun as estimated by supplier for new tank delivery)


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[SubzeroLT]

For the amount of sand to use, you can use online sand bed calculator resource. There are several available Here is an example : https://www.aqua-calc.com/calculate/gravel-rectangular-solid/substance/caribsea-coma-and-blank-marine-coma-and-blank-aragonite-coma-and-blank-seaflor-blank-special-blank-grade-blank-reef-blank-sand

I find the Caribsea seaflor special grade reef sand to be a good sand. Grains are a little bigger which won't fly around so easily in strong water flow. Note it is dry sand which makes it a lot cheaper than live sand. But it does not really matter since you will be cycling the tank anyway. 

As soggycookies suggested, this is a good time to start cycling your bio media. Can place in a large container (eg ikea tub or large pail) and water pump. Then transfer the cycled bio media into your new tank to speed up the cycling process.

 

Do share more pics along the way.

 

[zander]

For the amount of sand to use, you can use online sand bed calculator resource. There are several available Here is an example : https://www.aqua-calc.com/calculate/gravel-rectangular-solid/substance/caribsea-coma-and-blank-marine-coma-and-blank-aragonite-coma-and-blank-seaflor-blank-special-blank-grade-blank-reef-blank-sand

I find the Caribsea seaflor special grade reef sand to be a good sand. Grains are a little bigger which won't fly around so easily in strong water flow. Note it is dry sand which makes it a lot cheaper than live sand. But it does not really matter since you will be cycling the tank anyway. 

As soggycookies suggested, this is a good time to start cycling your bio media. Can place in a large container (eg ikea tub or large pail) and water pump. Then transfer the cycled bio media into your new tank to speed up the cycling process.

 

Do share more pics along the way.

 

Hi Bro, thanks for your professional expertise!! I will do some researches on the sand you recommend tonight. Will keep this thread updated!

 

Thanks!

 

 

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[finind]

Hi,

How do you find the Haelia HK-150A chiller? 

Is it noisy? 

May I know where did you get it?

Thank you

 

[zander]

Hi,
How do you find the Haelia HK-150A chiller? 
Is it noisy? 
May I know where did you get it?
Thank you
 

I put it in the living room so the noise is ok, if bedroom, definitely cannot. I bought from FnM.


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