setting up 3ft tank

[enseng]

Hi all,

I will be setting up my 3ft tank soon...there are a few things which need all the seniors' advice:

1. As my 3ft tank will only be ready next weeks, i am curing the liverocks (purchased from fellow reefer here) now, using plastic container with pump on. Do I still need cure the liverocks when I placed them inside the tank?

2. Read from the website that using a pcs of prawn can speed up the curing process, do I need to put in all the filter materials (bio rings and etc) at this time?

Need your advice please. Thank you.

Rgrds,

enseng

[Gouldian]

Hi Enseng,

1) Curing liverocks = letting whatever hitch hikers die-off and letting beneficial bacteria re-colonize the LRs. Thus if your LRs are cured at your own premise, technically, you need not cure it any further. However, that does not means that you need not go through the cycling process.

2) Adding prawn is to trigger the nitrogen cycle that is to kick start the cycling process. You can lick start the cycling process by just adding some pellet food. During this period, you still need all filtration mechanism although some will advise against lighting up your tank.

HTH

Hi all,

I will be setting up my 3ft tank soon...there are a few things which need all the seniors' advice:

1. As my 3ft tank will only be ready next weeks, i am curing the liverocks (purchased from fellow reefer here) now, using plastic container with pump on. Do I still need cure the liverocks when I placed them inside the tank?

2. Read from the website that using a pcs of prawn can speed up the curing process, do I need to put in all the filter materials (bio rings and etc) at this time?

Need your advice please. Thank you.

Rgrds,

enseng

[enseng]

Thanks for the advice!

Will receive my tank on this saturday, more questions follow:

1. Sand. heard that there are two type of sands available, grade 0 and 1. Which type is more suitable?

2. Rocks. most of my rocks are small pcs, do i need to get a bigger one as base?

3. Water. natural sea water can speed up the cycling process, thinking of get it from LFS. If not, will do the salt mixing with tap water.

My biggest enemy for my existing nano tank (1 1/2 ft) is white spot. How do I prevent this when I add fish to my new tank next time?

[Gouldian]

Hi Enseng,

1) Grade 0 is good if you do not intend have high random flows within your tank. I prefer those that are coarser.

2) I prefer a few large rocks than many small pieces because they are easier to scape.

3) Tap water is find if you intend to keep softies and fish only tank where lights are low. However, if you intend to keep stony corals with high-lights, you may need to invest on DI or distilled water.

My personal experience in keeping ick at bay is to only introduce ick-prone fishes when the tank have fully matures i.e. more than 3 months after the end of the cycling process. The more matured your tank, I feel, the lesser your chances of getting ick. Just my 2 cents....

HTH

Thanks for the advice!

Will receive my tank on this saturday, more questions follow:

1. Sand. heard that there are two type of sands available, grade 0 and 1. Which type is more suitable?

2. Rocks. most of my rocks are small pcs, do i need to get a bigger one as base?

3. Water. natural sea water can speed up the cycling process, thinking of get it from LFS. If not, will do the salt mixing with tap water.

My biggest enemy for my existing nano tank (1 1/2 ft) is white spot. How do I prevent this when I add fish to my new tank next time?

[enseng]

Hi,

Have setup my tank with sand and cyling now, going to add liverock tomorrow....however, i find that the water still very cloudy a few hours after i pour in all the sand. Normally how long does it take to get the clear water?

last time my water of my 1 1/2 ft tank clear within 1 hr...is it because the flowrate of my return pump not strong enough?

My tank has a overflow and sump at cabinet below, it is quite noisy....anyway to reduce its noise? I am thinking to add more filter wool to reduce the gap between pipe and filter wool...must I leave a bigger gap for oxygen exchange?

[comycus]

i just setup my tank about 1 month ago, still newbie...

but in my experience, the cloudiness takes ard 12-24hrs to settle. prob when u wake up tmr, it will be gone

more filter wool to reduce the gaps sounds ok to me, normally the sumps i see have v. min space between the pipe n the wool. just my 2 cents.

Hi,

Have setup my tank with sand and cyling now, going to add liverock tomorrow....however, i find that the water still very cloudy a few hours after i pour in all the sand. Normally how long does it take to get the clear water?

last time my water of my 1 1/2 ft tank clear within 1 hr...is it because the flowrate of my return pump not strong enough?

My tank has a overflow and sump at cabinet below, it is quite noisy....anyway to reduce its noise? I am thinking to add more filter wool to reduce the gap between pipe and filter wool...must I leave a bigger gap for oxygen exchange?

[enseng]

Help!...have problem fixing the resun chiller!.....

Can't fully tighten the cap...think it is obstructed by the rubber..try force it in but still cannot..water is leaking out from the gap.

anybody experience this before?

Tried to change the cap but cannot still cannot solve the problem..any recommendation on this?

[enseng]

Hi, my tank is cycling now....Placed a market prawn on day 3 and remove on day 5...

Day 5 Ammonia reading was around 1ppm..

Today is day 8! Below are the readings:

PH: 8 to 8.3 (Using Tetra PH test kit)

NH4: 0PPM (Using API NH4 test kit)

NO2: <0.3PPM (Using Tetra test kit)

NO3: 20PPM (Using API NO3 test kit)

PO4: 0~0.25PPM (Using Aquarium Phamaceutical PO4 test kit)

Wondering how accurate/realiable are the above test kits?....as the readings were taken by comparing the test tube to the color chart, it bounds to have some reading error....

Guys, do u all have any recommendation on the reliable test kit?

Another question is what is this fellow as shown in the attached picture? I guess it came out from the liverocks....does it harmful? do i need to remove it?

Thankz.....

[Ketchup]

Help!...have problem fixing the resun chiller!.....

Can't fully tighten the cap...think it is obstructed by the rubber..try force it in but still cannot..water is leaking out from the gap.

anybody experience this before?

Tried to change the cap but cannot still cannot solve the problem..any recommendation on this?

It looks like a sea slug if i am not wrong.

[RockyBoy]

Nice seaslug. Would die soon if it cannot find it's only food which is normally sponges.

[RockyBoy]

Hi, my tank is cycling now....Placed a market prawn on day 3 and remove on day 5...

Day 5 Ammonia reading was around 1ppm..

Today is day 8! Below are the readings:

PH: 8 to 8.3 (Using Tetra PH test kit)

NH4: 0PPM (Using API NH4 test kit)

NO2: <0.3PPM (Using Tetra test kit)

NO3: 20PPM (Using API NO3 test kit)

PO4: 0~0.25PPM (Using Aquarium Phamaceutical PO4 test kit)

Wondering how accurate/realiable are the above test kits?....as the readings were taken by comparing the test tube to the color chart, it bounds to have some reading error....

Guys, do u all have any recommendation on the reliable test kit?

Should not remove the prawns. Let if be comsumed by the bacteria and let the process complete its cycle.

Would be good if you could dose some bacteria which can be bought from the LFS, to ensure that you have the correct strains.

Make sure NO2 is zero before putting any lifestock, etc. Put 1 or 2 hardy fish first.

Test kit you can use salifert.

[enseng]

Hi, yup tested the NO2 and NH4 zero and transfer 2 prawn and 1 true clown from my nano tank....added 2 blue tang and one true clown one week later...

looks like there is white spot on the blue tang...but it is still eating...should i dose any medicine?

Btw, how do i know how many fishes i can keep in my 3x2x2 tank?

any guidelines?