30 Gallon Newbie

drewby13 · Mar 23, 2014

Hello everyone...I purchased what i believe is around a 30 gallon square tank that has been sitting for awhile. It came with a reef octopus skimmer and a live rock and sand that has been sitting in a tote with saltwater in a basement for about a year. I now have the sand and rock in the tank, but im trying to figure out how to assemble the skimmer. if theirs anything i should do first please let me know im new to all of this.

gemini9 · Mar 23, 2014

Hey drewby! I too am a new 30 gallon tank owner. I had a 30 gallon tank sitting around in storage as well as a filter, heater and a hood. I went out and bought a stand and started setting it up. I have no idea what I'm doing, but it'll be fun. Where are you located? I'm in western maryland.

EW_Fish · Mar 23, 2014

I'm also a 30g tank owner woot woot.Do you know what skimmer it is? pictures or anything that I can help you

gemini9 · Mar 23, 2014

Skimmer... yeah what is a skimmer? Drewby says he has one with his tankm I dont have one. What's it for?

EW_Fish · Mar 23, 2014

Protein skimmer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

gemini9 · Mar 23, 2014

Sorry drew... I dont mean to hijack your thread lol but maybe youlll learn something to. So it looks to me like a protein skimmer does about the same thing as a filter. I ha e a marineland 350 power filrerw with a biowheel thing. So having that and no reefs, do need a protein skimmer too?

vlangel · Mar 23, 2014

Protein skimmers are very helpful, (not absolutely necessary) if you plan to have coral, especially the coral that want cleaner, lower nutrient water. If you have only fish you don't need one and if you do regimented water changes you can get by without one even if you have corals. It does remove nutrients from the water that a power filter can not remove, even if you run carbon.

gemini9 · Mar 23, 2014

Gotcha. For me, just fish for now. After I'm more comfortable with taking care of the fish, I'll start throwing in some other things, but for now, just fish and live rock.

EW_Fish · Mar 23, 2014

gemini9 said:
Gotcha. For me, just fish for now. After I'm more comfortable with taking care of the fish, I'll start throwing in some other things, but for now, just fish and live rock.

Just let the tank cycle once its done then throw in a clean up crew 2 weeks later add some fish

KillerKlownFish · Mar 23, 2014

Welcome aboard!
I have a 34 gal sea max. Started Dec 2013.
I'll try and help from what I learned on my own and other people.
The biggest part at the beginning is the cycle. Everyone has different answers on starting a cycle.

drewby13 · Mar 24, 2014

It looks to be the reef octopus bh100 from what I can tell...I am missing the the little plastic piece that gos on top of the hose that comes out of the pump, will that make a difference?

EW_Fish · Mar 24, 2014

That's fine its just to reduce the noise of the air intake. You might be able to find one on ebay for a few bucks or a local reefer that has a spare

drewby13 · Mar 25, 2014

ok well everything is up and running now and salt level is correct. Now what do I do? Will I still have a cycle since my rocks and sand had been soaking in salt water for over a year?

vlangel · Mar 25, 2014

Were they aerated? If so you you shouldn't have more than a mini cycle. If they were in stagnant salt water there could be a fair amount of die off on them. Either way I guess you arrange them in your tank, run your pumps and begin testing. There are a lot of threads on this forum to walk you through the cycling ( nitrification) process. Once ammonia is zero and nitrite is zero, then you are ready to do a partial water change and add a clean up crew. You are getting to some of the fun stuff. Aquascaping is lots of fun IMO. There are threads to give you ideas and inspiration plus helpful tips on that like being able to reach all the glass for cleaning. Anyway, have fun.