Need Advice on 1st Salt water tank

[brad22773]

I have owned fresh water for nearly 20 yrs. from a 10 gallon to my last 72 Bowfront that finally broke with no replacement parts I am thinking of buying a 125 gallon which is currently a reef tank. The tank has rock and sand in it, but if I decide to keep the tank a saltwater would I need to discard rock and sand? What is the easiest tank set up for saltwater for beginners? I know its not like fresh water it will take a month or so before I can add livestock because of water conditions and tank cycling, I am looking for a setup that is easy to maintain until I feel I can move on to a more experienced level. I went blind into the fresh water keeping african cyclids and spent a small fortune on cleaning and livestock until I learned from my mistakes, I do not want to repeat this process starting out in saltwater as I already know everything costs more.

 

[jrbates08]

Where do u live? I would take them off ur hands no problem

 

[jrbates08]

Disregard that. I miss read it lol

 

[brad22773]

no problem ...I just trying to find out if the rock and sand are any good once I drain tank to move it, if I decide to buy the tank.

 

[jrbates08]

Well have u transported yet? If not, keep the water and the rock and the sand the previous owner had as long as it's still live. Put in 5 gal buckets or whatever u can carry at the time. Then just set it all back up asap. No need to start over unless he had some kind of problem in the tank. Otherwise, keep it all

 

[brad22773]

Tank is still full, I have to drain which allows me to inspect the tank for leaks.Owner is moving is the reason for selling. I cannot drain entire contents of tank and transport back, if I am lucky I can get a couple 5 gallon buckets and save the rock in it. I am going to try to leave a couple inches of water in tank and move sand still in tank. But how long will the rock live in a 5 gallon bucket? Will it last until I can fill the tank and get the water to the correct levels? I havent even bought any of the chemicals to treat water for a salt water setup.

 

[jrbates08]

Mine is fine and it was a 20 minute drive from LFS to come. They were in just a tad of water and we mixed our own salt and water and added them right away. Haven't touched anything in the tank or even checked the levels due to being told to just leave it alone and let nature takes its course and it is. We are almost 3 weeks in and tank is starting to cycle now. Everyone experiences different things and has certain ways of doing things so u will get MANY responses that are different. But from my experience we bought tank bare. Cleaned it, mixed our water using some kinda RO/DI oxidizer purification thing (not sure if that's the proper name) it was 3 canisters that the tap water cycled through before going into the tank. Then we added the live sand. Let that settle. Next day we got the live rock (which already had coral on it 1 kenya tree and a button polyp) right when we got home. Tank was brand new. Everything was new. No wait time. And we have added ZERO CHEMICALS AND CHEMICALS ZERO CHEMICALS and we are good. We test next week (week 4) to see where things stand

 

[brad22773]

I just learned that I need to use RO water instead of tap water adn to run it into a large container and add the salt until it disolves and check it with testing equipment before I add to tank. She ( the lady I talk to at local pet store ) the rock will be fine in bucket for a few days until I can get tank filled and rock back in it.

 

[jrbates08]

See what I mean by everyone has their own was lol this is for sure a trial and error learn as u go type of hobby. Extremely addictive too lol but u do however u Ade comfortable because ein ur anything like me, I'm the type where if i dont do castle as I'm told by someone, I will always doubt myself if anything bad happens then blame myself and say I should listened to so and so. Therefore it's more of a do what u feel ur most comfortable with. Good luck and hope all works out great for ya

 

[*SENSI*]

as far as ro water i would use a 6 stage RO/DI unit, u can not get buy on jus using RO water, far as the sand or substrate i would get new, and i prefer 100% aragonite, again this is jus my opinion, or if u like this guys set up i wouldin vest in sum 35 ish gallon trash cans with lids new with wheels transfer all rock an water in them, leave enough woter in the tank 2 keep the sand/substrate wet get it home an start transfering it back over, very tidious but it can be done. for the salt I always mix it at least a couple days b4 using to make sure its mixed but this is jus wat i find works for me an my tank has soared, pics are of when i got it set up, a week later an one year later

 

[brad22773]

ok...been a few weeks since I posted. I have tank set I bought a 4 stage RO/DI from BulkReef Supply and got my tank filled except for the last 20-25 gallons I am using the last of the water to get my salinty down from 1.028 to 1.025. I have added 120 lbs of new live sand with clarifier to help water clear, I have not done any type of water test other than salinty. Any good refernece threads as to what the next steps would be helpful. I know it takes the tank at least 4 weeks if not longer to cycle. But I have heard I can add my live rocks ( in which I will have to wash with RO water to clean them off) before the tank cycles.

 

[Pete polyp]

ok...been a few weeks since I posted. I have tank set I bought a 4 stage RO/DI from BulkReef Supply and got my tank filled except for the last 20-25 gallons I am using the last of the water to get my salinty down from 1.028 to 1.025. I have added 120 lbs of new live sand with clarifier to help water clear, I have not done any type of water test other than salinty. Any good refernece threads as to what the next steps would be helpful. I know it takes the tank at least 4 weeks if not longer to cycle. But I have heard I can add my live rocks ( in which I will have to wash with RO water to clean them off) before the tank cycles.

Unless there's a bunch of junk hanging off the rocks you should probably skip the rinse. I like to ghost feed the tank while its cycling. Just add a small amount of frozen fish food every 2-3 days.

 

[brad22773]

I used some of the original water from the tank when I moved it to keep on the rocks and put powerheads in there to keep water moving. But since then there is something floating around on top of water, kinda like some type of aglae or something

 

[brad22773]

Here is tank after I added 120 lbs of sand still a little cloudy and has residue at water line from sand. I am going after more ceramic rings so I can put the filter in tonight and hopefully clear some of the cloudiness up. I will upload a pic of the stuff floating in the containers with the rock as soon as the wife sends it to me.

 

[brad22773]

Here are the live rock I have had them like this for a couple months, I dont know if you can tell what the stuff floating around is but it wasnt there when I put them in the containers and put powerheads in the water. I have been reading about sumps and alot of people are using tanks for sumps but I do not have an older tank to use or anywhere to put on if I did. So what would be a good sump to purchase that will fit under my tank?

 

[mfief]

It all depends on what you want to do with your sump. I would go with what as big your budget can handle and can fit under your stand. Some people go as simple as an open tank and drop a skimmer, return pump, and heater in it. Probably the most common method is taking the tank and dividing it into three chambers. On my the build i am currently working on I am using a three chamber sump. One chamber will have some live rock in it. The next will have the skimmer and the last will be where the return pump is. I will be plumbing a separate 20 gallon refugium into it as well. You can order sump off line. Depending on where you are there is probably someone that builds custom sump to your needs. Ask to see their work before you give them your money if you go that route though. I hope I helped you out more than adding more questions. I am always on Google, YouTube, and in the LFS and forums reading and researching.

 

[Pete polyp]

I would suggest putting the skimmer I'm the first chamber and letting it have first crack at the incoming water. If you put live rock before the skimmer it will collect all the detritus and gunk that the skimmer would pull out.

 

[mfief]

I have thought about that over and over. But the sump I have is a trigger systems (came with a 75 I picked up. I may have nothing in that chamber and just have the fuge water flow in there. I can pm an image of the sump for your thoughts.