First SW Tank In Progress

[jdack]

So this is my first saltwater tank. Like some I did some light reading into saltwater after having freshwater for a few. Just enough reading to have to delve deeper into water chemistry, and how the bacteria feed and grow in SW. I instantly became a reefer for life. I believe I have a firm grip on what is needed to efficiently take care of a marine environment.

This is a trial and error learning curve, can only read and understand so much without doing it. I expect to make mistakes. Hopefully they aren't system wide crash mistakes. But it happens.

Happened to score most of my equipment second hand for dirt cheap.

55G Acrylic tank
Small 10-15g simple sock filter sump
Diy PVC overflow
~20lb LR
~40lb Dry LR ( Was recently live, but I figure dry is dry, but just in case, its separated on the list)
~20lb Dry base rock
20lb Tahitian Black Moonsand
~40lb White Fuji/aragonite/Crushed (CRUSHED) Coral Sand mix, live.. Came from a friend's "extras" tank
Unknown skimmer -large (externally powered, IE needs both air/water pump
2 circulation/powerhead pumps, one smallish, one big. Big one came with big skimmer, took it off, ran it as my return pump. Smaller one I have running my skimmer.
Heater.

1 Beautiful Snowflake Eel I have yet to name her.


What I need ASAP

Powerheads !
Snails/crabs/shrimp (cheap, since they WILL end up as food at some point)
Patience
Better test kits - Salifert drip kits. The shake, drip. Shake, drip. Color change!





I'm sure I missed something, but we will find out!

Plan is to center the tank on the eel, yet corals as well

Enough rambling, time for pics!

Ill start at the bottom! Everything is broken down currently, did some rearranging.

For flow and filtration I have my trusty hob emperor 400 until noon when everything is cured.

Lighting is a 4 foot vho t5 2 bulb fixture (have a second one, needs a ballast) scored these for $20

As you can see I did very little aquascaping as pieces came here to there, debating on how to solve this.

I know my setup may not be very up to par yet, but my water quality has been decent, and is only getting better with some quality changes as cash allows.

Setup has been running well for 5 weeks (added eel at 3 weeks)
Please critique and or comment!

 

[ReeferBob]

That eel will really limit what you can keep in the tank. It will eat most inverts and fish. Also could eat the coral as well. Usually these are best in species only tanks. I'd wait for at least another month or two before adding any more livestock.

 

[jdack]

Thought I'd add this, my current overflow is not connected inside the tank. Here is a quick drawing of what it is, then what it will be. And what might be, if it could work.

 

[jdack]

That eel will really limit what you can keep in the tank. It will eat most inverts and fish. Also could eat the coral as well. Usually these are best in species only tanks. I'd wait for at least another month or two before adding any more livestock.

I have planned around this. As I wasn't planning on doing corals for another 4 months, I have plenty of time to plan a true reef tank, with reef friendlies. Plus, ill have my taxes soon.

 

[Lynn52]

I've had several snowflake eels and have never had them go after fish. It isn't their natural diet. Shrimp and crabs are another story, That is their natural diet and they have a good chance of becoming eel food. I always fed mine krill and fed them well. The only issue I ever had was their ability to get out of the tiniest of holes in the cover.

 

[jdack]

Luckily I can pretty much air seal the tank. I have maybe 1/8" gap where the top has.. Warped? But the lid stays in place, I've made a plexiglass cover for the slit on the back, and my 1 inch top bulkhead. I'm confident that as long as I devise a non light impeding way to cut that bowing out, ill be 100% sure. This also of course means so much less gas exchange, much higher co2 in the air inside the tank.

 

[jdack]

If you zoom in on last picture, op, you can see said bowing. The slit in the back is EXACTLY the width of the emporer 400. Was thinking of maybe keeping it, devising a way for my water ruturn to enter it.

 

[jdack]

Here's some pics of the progress today

Smart water bottle weir, for now till I can build the final standpipe.

 

[jdack]

Got some improvements done!

 

[jdack]

Airline tube is his feeding stick at the moment. Since the picture I raised the return line so it isn't below normal water line. Picking up a check valve in the morning.

 

[jdack]

All parameters stable! New aquascape!

 

[jdack]

Alright, so today marked the start of the gallon a dollar sale at Petco, in my area. New 40 gallon breeder all in one project, for.. Sidegrade? Lol. Anyway here's the pic, with some clothes to give me a general idea of what my rock will look like.

Brown towel in corner represents AIO chamber.

 

[jdack]

Alright, so I had to combine 2 tanks, the 20g developed a leak. Problems arose, as you might expect. Lost the fish, anemone survived.

So, brown diatom stage again. And a nasty one. Battling nitrates hard, still, even with just my anemone. I removed the canister filter, received 4 800gph powerheads. Placed 2 in the tank. Have added purigen..? Can't recall, but a phosphate remover,, in with my hob 55/75. I've got the intank skimmer (cheap used one, upgrading when my taxes get here).

Could that filter floss in the skimmer be the nitrate factory? I know if was placed in there by the previous owner, to prevent microbubbles.

How should I deal with this brown algea, without stressing my purple tip?

Thank you for reading!

 

[jdack]

Quick update. Pretty sure my rock wasn't cured. Herebe a warning to Craigslist users. Anyway, a single turbo snail will take care of my diatom/hair algea. Diatoms were so bad everything was brown. No joke. Even the glass. Some scraping, glass is clear.

I do realize that this is normal, just a document to my progress. And I do realize, and understand that I'll have to either induce algea, or supplement algea food for this snail to live.

 

[jdack]

Everything was brown. That white swath? Turbo snail.