First saltwater tank, 40 breeder

[ngoodermuth]

This is what my chaeto refugium looks like... keep in mind this is in my sump but yours will be the same idea:

I have a couple pieces of live rock in the bottom for my copepod population, but it’s almost entirely chaeto. I don’t harvest it as often as I should...

 

[KleineVampir]

Will regular cheetos work or do I need to upgrade to the flaming hot kind? xD

As to whether or not algae spontaneously appears, well...it's an interesting philosophical discussion! Kind of! I mean does it literally appear out of nowhere, from nothing? Ok no. I didn't really mean it in that sense. But it does reproduce spontaneously to the point of it becoming a problem, from the point of not being able to see it. Also without having introduced it on purpose.

The old coral quarantine, huh? Man that just adds yet another thing you could do in this hobby. I just want a normal saltwater aquarium to start out with. After that my main goal is to reduce the amount of maintenance required on it by as much as possible, also while trying out different corals and animals to see what I like and what I don't like.

 

[Jacob Fawley]

This a good video to watch for beginners:

 

[KleineVampir]

This a good video to watch for beginners:

Honestly for all that he didn't make it that clear what to do. Maybe some things not to do... Still a decent video.

 

[KleineVampir]

This is what my chaeto refugium looks like... keep in mind this is in my sump but yours will be the same idea:

I have a couple pieces of live rock in the bottom for my copepod population, but it’s almost entirely chaeto. I don’t harvest it as often as I should...

Wait a minute...at first I wasn't even gonna ask, but...how is the copepod thing working? They live and reproduce in your refugium, and then do they sometimes go into the water? It almost sounds like a scheme to never have to feed your fish! If they're eating copepods, and the copepods are eating algae, and the algae just need light...

 

[ngoodermuth]

Wait a minute...at first I wasn't even gonna ask, but...how is the copepod thing working? They live and reproduce in your refugium, and then do they sometimes go into the water? It almost sounds like a scheme to never have to feed your fish! If they're eating copepods, and the copepods are eating algae, and the algae just need light...

You’ve got the idea! Copepods and amphipods are quite valuable to have, they are part of your natural clean up crew and help keep your fish healthy and fat .... some fish like dragonets only eat copepods, so you need a good deal of live rock (aka a pretty big tank/fuge) and a thriving pod population to keep one.

You can’t quit feeding your fish altogether though... we just don’t have large and diverse enough tanks to simulate the grazing/ hunting they would do in the wild... but it does help!

 

[KleineVampir]

Do you guys have any other recommendations for what should be in the refugium? Keep in mind this is going to be a low bioload tank with only 2 clownfish, and some frags on the other half.

 

[KleineVampir]

I think after that I gotta figure out auto-top off and skimmer technology. Is pouring in a bit of RO from a bucket bad for the stability of the water since the salinity is going up and down?

 

[KleineVampir]

Woah could this conceivably be a 2 in 1 for me? https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/sumpless-ato-auto-top-off-system-xp-aqua.html

 

[Jacob Fawley]

I think after that I gotta figure out auto-top off and skimmer technology. Is pouring in a bit of RO from a bucket bad for the stability of the water since the salinity is going up and down?

It's perfectly fine to do that as long as you do it often enough (we often don't). It's also easier to make it consistent if you mark a fill line. There is more than one reason to have an ATO. An ATO provides consistency by automatically topping off the water as soon as the water level decreases to a certain point. An ATO also saves the hassle of pouring buckets.

Woah could this conceivably be a 2 in 1 for me? https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/sumpless-ato-auto-top-off-system-xp-aqua.html

It looks pretty interesting, but I have no experience with it or the company.

 

[KleineVampir]

But could it be somewhat of a skimmer as well as an auto top off?

 

[KleineVampir]

btw guys I'm about to pick up some rock at the lfs and also my light should come today. Though I should have started curing my rock a long time ago.

 

[KleineVampir]

Alright I did the legwork and got the rocks. They're now soaking in a big plastic tub full of cold tap water, with a lid on it. If there's anything wrong with that, let me know!

 

[KleineVampir]

Also this just in: I got the light set up. But with the way the timer that I got works, it'll take a while for its time to come around for it to turn on. I also picked up some ceramic cylinder things for filter media. Tomorrow the refugium should arrive! At least I have the ceramic bits but I'll need more stuff for that. Namely macroalgae. Yeah, I asked, they don't have it. Could be a craigslister.

 

[KleineVampir]

That said I did test the light anyways...it seems fine, plenty bright, but perhaps a bit overly blue. Looks like it's just 1 blue bulb and 1 white bulb. Probably a bit of a brute force lighting solution, but oh well. It'll certainly do for now and possibly for a long time if the corals are doing well with it.

They say you should cure your dry rock in saltwater....really??? Really now. You want me to spend an hour drawing the RO water, spend money on the salt that goes into it, then change it 100 percent... Or I can just shoot some tap water in there and call it good. Of course I'll change the tap water but that is infinitely easier and cheaper. I probably should bleach the rock but I dunno. I feel that a few days in tap water should be fine. More than likely I'll get impatient and put the rock into the tank. I might not be doing everything in the 100% ideal way, but...hey at least I'm soaking the rock and not just putting it in my tank straight away. Besides, it's dry rock that's been sitting in the open air for quite a while.

 

[KleineVampir]

Ok I decided to put some of the rocks into the tank already since they looked very clean. It didn't look like they were even really a part of any kind of ecosystem before. They seem like totally clean and pure rocks to me. That said, 2 of the bigger rocks look very much alive despite being dry rocks. Heck one even looked like some coral was coming back alive! The plan now is to bleach those 'live' looking rocks. Some bleach, mostly water of course.

Although I generally lack the creativity and artistic vision required to make a rock-scape look good, I was able to consult my dad on the matter and he helped make the arrangement look nice. I made somewhat of a cave for the clownfish, as much of one as I could make while making the rocks look good as well. Yeah, my dad is a landscaper so he is good at this sort of thing.

Tonight the naughty rocks will still soak in a tub of tap water, tomorrow they will be treated with bleach. I think I'll wait until my light turns on and the tank clears up tomorrow to finally get you guys some pictures of the tank. So stay tuned for that!

 

[KleineVampir]

Ok I'm bleaching them tonight along with tap water, in a closed plastic tub. All I had to do was pour some bleach in, so I'm not gonna wait until tomorrow just for that. It sucks that I have to wait until tomorrow to see if my light is gonna turn on. The timer was overly complicated but I programmed it as best I could. The light will turn on at noon and turn off at 8 pm. I'd be interested to hear another amount of time if you guys have some ideas about that. 8 hours is what I settled on for freshwater, otherwise I'd grow too much algae. But maybe saltwater is totally different, idk.

 

[KleineVampir]

Here are some pictures. 2 big rocks still not in but you get an idea of what the tank is looking like now.

 

[KleineVampir]

Though the cheap HOB will come off later today and the refugium will go on.

 

[KleineVampir]

Here are some more pictures even still! There's one of the tank with the heater removed (and put into the refugium) and there's a picture of the refugium from each angle, despite nothing being in it except some biorings and the aforementioned heater.