• Folks, if you've recently upgraded or renewed your annual club membership but it's still not active, please reach out to the BOD or a moderator. The PayPal system has a slight bug which it doesn't allow it to activate the account on it's own.

New member

P

pita1028

Hi all I just registered so I thought I'd make a quick post to say hello and tell you guys a little about me. My wife and I got into aquariums as a lot of people do (I'm guessing) because of Disney and fricking Nemo. I'm sure that you can guess that I have a three year old. We naively thought its a fish in saltwater how hard can it be. So we went to our local Petco, where they informed us that while its more difficult than fresh water its still easy. So in January we bought our thirty gallon tank and set everything up under their direction, and three days later bought a couple clowns and a anemone and then it began. Dead anemone, diatoms, buying chemicals (at petco's instruction), more fish (also at petco's instruction), more dead fish, crushed coral full of nitrite, removed crushed coral full of nitrite & nitrate wish fish and clean up crew in the tank (also petco's instruction), more dead fish and clean up crew. Then February started and we decided that the folks at our local Petco have no right to tell anyone about saltwater aquariums and set ups. We began to look some online and had some trail and error, but now everything seems ok. We have two long tentacle anemone, two black tip clowns, a cinnamon clown, a mandarin goby, two damsel, and another but I forget what he is. We are hooked and are planning to buy a 75 gallon tank this week, because 30 is to small. We've learned a lot of hard lessons along the way that we didn't need to, but we refuse to make more errors with the next tank. That's where you all come in. I'm aware that I may ask some questions that are very silly to most of you, but please be patient we're newbies. Here are my two current questions.

1. We live in Hope and have well water. We know that our water contains sulfur and manganese. To this point we've been using Poland spring. Does anyone know if we could use our well water or should we use Poland spring or something different.

2.We like the look of sand, but in the our new tank we plan to have coral and fish. Stating that is sand still the best thing to use or should we use something different and how much for a 75 gallon tank?
 
dirtycontour

dirtycontour

Welcome to NJRC!
Sounds like Petco took you for a ride. Same thing happened to me when I jumped in the hobby(different store). First, I would invest in a RO/DI unit for making your own water. It may seem pricey, but it will pay itself off in no time. I recommend Spectapure. In the meantime, I'd use distilled instead of Poland Spring.

You can have sand or go bare bottom. Your choice. I also like the look of sand. I used about 40 lbs. in my 75, which gave me a 1.5"-2" sandbed.

You may also want to get rid of the cinnamon clown. There is a good possibility there will be aggression. IME, it's best to keep only one or a pair in one tank. The damsels will give you trouble as well.

I'm assuming Petco didn't tell you about taking it slow or cycling your tank? Patience is a must in this hobby. This is a great club with lots of helpful people. Hope I helped a bit.
 
P

pita1028

They did tell me about cycling so I plan to leave the 75 alone for a month to allow it to cycle. I know it will take longer but I will only add the damsels.

What is an RO/DI unit?
 
J

jeppley84

Welcome to the club we will try to help out as much as we can . First thing to get is a ro/di filtration some makers of them are specpure , aqua fx , bulk reef supply to name a few. Research what setup works best for well water if you can't find anything call the manufacturers and they will tell exactly what you need. A TDS meter is a must when you use ro water you can find them at bed bath and beyond, Walmart and online fish retailers. Another thing when going to a bigger tank is filtration what are you planning on using?
 
J

jeppley84

A rodi filter is to filter out all dissolved solids that is in your water. Such as copper zinc lead and other metallic metals which can cause harm. Poland spring is ok to use for a temporary resource only bc there still is minerals inside bottled water which can harm your fish
 
jose7878

jose7878

Welcome aboard Pita a lot of great ladies and guys here.
A reverse Osmosis System also called a RO/DI system, is not only sensible, it is a primary step toward keeping your saltwater aquarium healthy. By removing more than 99% of all dissolved solids with reverse osmosis membranes and color changing DI resins, Reverse Osmosis systems ensure that your reef's habitat enjoy the healthiest, cleanest water possible. Say good-bye to algae, phosphates and other harmful minerals and deposits that damage your fragile marine life environment. Your reef and saltwater fish will show high quality growth and vitality!
 
P

pita1028

Thanks for the tips everyone. I'll look into to getting a RO/DI before filling the new tank. Hopefully I can find one cheap somewhere.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
 
M

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
First off welcome.
Second, there is some very good advice already being give in the above posts.

When we had our first tank, before we discovered a good local store, we did buy distilled water from the shop rite because we were only changing out a few gallons at a time. This works, but is actually much more expensive in the long run and logistically very challening. Carrying around the containers in and out of the grocery store can be annoying. We then started buying pre mixed saltwater and RODI water from our local fish store (LFS) when we started upgrading and needed more water. I would 100% absolutely wait to fill your tank until you have located some RODI water or bought your own unit. Looking at a map, the closest fish store to you might be Steve at Ultra Corals (look down in the sponsor section). He knows a lot and will help you get things setup correctly as well.

Check out bulkreefsupply.com to pick out an RODI unit. You can customize one which can help you keep the price down. In the long run, they are cheaper and better for your fish tank. With a fish only tank you can get away with not using RODI water, but if you want to start getting into LPS and SPS, they are pretty crucial. Also, your nems will love the fact you have upgraded.

Setting up a new tank is an oppurtunity to get it all started correctly as once you get the ball rolling, it is very hard to stop it in this hobby. Start slow, ask questions and do it right. This includes stocking as the others have mentioned above, I would pull the damsels and the lone clown fish. Once you get a pair of clowns that start breeding, they can become very aggressive. We only keep one pair of clowns in our 205g and we love clowns. Damsels are the little spawn of satan and can be very annoying to own in a fish tank. As somone pointed out above, cycling tanks with damsels is not really common practice anymore as there are much quicker and humane ways to get your tank ready to go.

Now some questions for you:
Are you using a sump?
What is your mechanical filtration going to be? (Skimmer, HOB, in sump, etc. etc.)
What sort of lights are you looking to use?
 
P

pita1028

I saw a ad on craigslist and here is what I'm getting.

I ran my system with the Berlin method so I have an AquaMedic Turbofloater 1000 skimmer (good for 125 gal) with pump and needle wheel pump that works great.* I have some MagDrive pumps that fed water to the skimmer (MD5) and a larger 1200 GPH* (MD12) that circulated water for the system.* I have a 150 watt Titanium heater and a pair of Hydor Koralia 1050 Evolution Pumps and a wave maker that provide excellent circulation around the rock and throughout the tank.* All the pumps are in good condition and clean, just some coralline encrustation.* If you are interested I can toss the whole lot of pumps and controllers in for $50 more (for comparison the Hydor pumps are 40/ea this is a pretty good deal). So an even $300 for the whole lot of tank, stand, skimmer, pumps, heater and wavemaker. Then all you need to do is add water and some plumbing.

That's a paste from the email.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
 
TanksNStuff

TanksNStuff

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Hello and welcome to the club pita!

First off, if you haven't purchased all of that yet, I'd recommend not buying it unless you're mainly getting it for the tank/stand. The turbofloater, while it was good when it first came out, is basically the first generation of skimmers. There are much better designs that have come out over the past few years that work much better. Also, while Koralias are a good "bargain" powerhead, they have limitations compared to some other brands out there such as EcoTech (VorTech) or Tunze's... and even the Jaebo "WP" pumps which are a cheaper knockoff of the Tunze's. I've heard good things about the Jaebo's, but I believe they're being sued by Tunze for patent violations.

Anyway, my point is that IMO, most of the equipment listed in that ad are things you'll be soon replacing once you get some more experience in the hobby and see what else is out there. Save yourself some money and time and skip that purchase (again, unless the tank/stand is the major factor of your purchase.)

Everyone else has given solid advice so far, so I won't rehash all of that. I would however like to suggest a few more things you should buy when starting the new tank:

1. Test kits - If you intend to keep corals at some point, you'll want to have at least test kits for Calcium, Alkalinity, Magnesium, Ammonia, Nitrates, Nitrites, Phosphates, pH. I'd also recommend getting a refractometer to measure your salinity. Hydrometers are not as accurate as you will need to measure salinity when keeping a reef. There are many manufacturers of test kits, but I recommend either the Red Sea multi kits or Salifert kits. Save yourself some aggravation and avoid the API kits. :mad:

2. Auto Top Off (ATO) - As mentioned above, salinity levels are important to maintain. With a reef tank, you will have evaporation which will not only lower the water level in your sump (being a potential issue for pumps running dry) but the "salt" does not get removed by evaporation. So, as you have evaporation, you get a rising salinity level... which is harmful to your inhabitants. So, the way to counter this is to either manually add fresh RO/DI water daily to keep everything balanced... or, get an ATO which adds fresh water as needed automatically (based on a level detection method such as a float switch, pressure sensor, etc.) As the water level in the sump drops (due to evaporation) the ATO will instantly add a little bit of fresh water at a time to keep the balance.

3. Lighting - This hobby has progressed from Metal Halides (MH) to T5's to LED's in terms of providing adequate lighting for keeping corals. IMO, the newer LED's are the way to go. Sure, they seem expensive at first, but in the long run they save you money. They draw less power and also have a much longer lifespan on their bulbs when compared to MH's or T5's. Not having to replace bulbs every year alone makes LED's the obvious better buy. However, not only are they more cost effective, but they also have much more features such as dimming and programmability or controllability (automated start/stop times as well as intensity levels), color choices (the newer trend is to add greens/reds/purples to make coral colors "pop"), and other features such as lighting storms or cloud cover. The last two are more of a "toy" than a benefit, but some people like to play with them. In addition, LED's give off comparatively lower heat (expecially compared to MH's) which is another benefit for keeping a reef tank. All in all, LED's are the best choice.

There are other things I'd recommend once you get more advanced and begin to keep more corals. For now though, those would be the "essentials" that I would say you need.

Hope that helps you get started on the right foot. Oh, and sorry to hear about all the losses you had to deal with. It's sad that stores like that have employees that really aren't experienced enough to offer the correct advice. Even sadder that the livestock had to suffer due to their suggestions. This is not a hobby where winging it will get you by. Research and learning from people with actual experience is the only way to succeed. Luckily for you, you found NJRC because we have a lot of helpful, experienced people that will keep you on the right track.
 
P

pita1028

While I understand that there is better technology now I can't afford to buy the newest version. Unless you guys have things used to sell me. That are better than what I've been offered.

I just bought a 7 stage ro/di.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
 
jose7878

jose7878

IMO save you money and get quality stuff. Research your equipment before making spontaneous purchases. This hobby is expensive enough you dont want to buy things twice.
 
dirtycontour

dirtycontour

jose7878 said:
IMO save you money and get quality stuff. Research your equipment before making spontaneous purchases. This hobby is expensive enough you dont want to buy things twice.
Click to expand...
Agree 100%
I bought all cheap equipment when I first started. I ended up replacing everything...
 
P

pita1028

Ok I'm with you guys on that. Is $300 a good price for a cherry wood stand and 75 gallon tank that doesn't leak?

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
 
jose7878

jose7878

It's a fair price. Now you have to make sure that the stand is solid and has no water damaged or else your buying a new stand. Second make sure the tank has no scratches all over the glass if so skip it purchasing the tank.
 
Raffle King

Raffle King

The overflow and return is already setup for the tank all you have to do is the plumbing with a return pump and a sump for the overflow. I f you need a hand setting the tank up I am your man.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top