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6linewrasse
44 minutes ago, 6-wrasse said:

20170621_195647.jpg

40 gal actinic new setup HELP!!

Hey guys I am new to Saltwater please help me setup this baeutiful potential reef

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6linewrasse

Well long story short.. I once had a tank and had no idea what I was doing.. ended up feeling like a murderer and lost alot of money.. 

 

I since then decided to stay out of the hobby until most recently I noticed a nice tank at my LFS and had to purchase... so I just setup everything over the weekend. Now I would like to prevent mistakes from reincurring and setup a nice reef tank. 

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To help you we are going to need details.

 

Rock used, water used, equipment, filtration, testing. How you are cycling the tank.

 

It's very important to do  a lot of research on water chemistry, maintenance, cycling the tank.

 

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6linewrasse

Hey Clown.. 

 

The rock I used was that of my old aquarium.. since I stopped with SW I put the rocks outside until last weekend. So they were there for approx 8 months. Now they are dead/dry rock and I thouroghly rinsed and washed them with RO & Saltwater. Then added them to my new tank. The tank has been running now for about 6 days. 

 

I also added caribsea live sand to assist with the nitrogen cycle. And bought a couple of small pieces of LR from my LFS with coraline algea to seed the dead rock. 

 

The water I got was premixed to 1.025 at the LFS and I pay p/l for the water. They told me that they used RO to mix and Dymax sea salt. 

 

I have a Dymax LED lighting module with 2x Functions, blue actinic which I think should be on during night and a bright white colour.( please tell me if you need pictures of these equipmemt) 

Also I have a basic 120w Heater which I have set to approx 28deg C. 

 

I Got the Dymax EZ 40 Submersible 3 stage filter as I do not have a sump. According to the specs, this powerhead within the unit is rated at 600l p/h. I have calculated the water volume to be approx. 165l . The tank is volume is 200l but with all the space taken up by rock etc. I have come up with that figure. 

 

The Ez40 unit has a seperate compartment for a protein skimmer made for it. I bought this skimmer and it is currently running in the tank. Now this is not your average skimmer with a powerhead that needs to run in order to skim . It has a wooden air block that requires an air pump for it to create the bubbles. 

 

My Idea is to not have more than 6 fish and a few invertabrets. Also I would like to have a huge cleanup crew etc. 

 

I Was planning on running the tank like this for 8 months and do 25% waterchanges once a month. Also to topup with RO once the water levels have gon down about 5cm. Please give me a suggestion on how to go about this.

Ive read that the nitrogen cycle takes about 6 weeks but I do not want to be hasty about anuthing here. Hence the long running periods with no live stock.. again please suggest an alternative should you have any. 

 

I have no water testing kits at this time since it costs an arm here in South Africa. But I do understand how crucial it is to get these in order. 

 

 

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The only way to knowing your  tank cycles  is by testing ammonia and nitrate every day. Its not about time as a cycle can be completed in 10days, some 6 weeks.

 

I an not familiar with that type of filter. So I can't offer my advice on that.

 

Waterchanges  should be done weekly 15% or every 2 weeks 30%. 1 time a month isn't very efficient for maintaining low nutrients or replenishing  the much needed elements the salt provides.

 

There is no measurement for topping up. You have to top up evaporated water  every day with  freshwater.  Make a mark on the side of thetnk when it's full and at the proper level. When it drops by the next morning- top up.

 

As for lighting. Blue and white are to be run during the day. If you plan on corals, Blue is important. 

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6linewrasse

Hi Clown.. Thanks for your assistance. 

 

I will be doing 20l  water changes once a week as my tank is 150l ,and top up with RO as needed. 

 

I am defenitely planning on a stunning reef tank with lots of corals.. which corals would you suggest that are colourful and very hardy/easy to keep. 

 

Also what is the maximum amount of fish I can keep (reef friendly/community friendly) in a tank this size. 

 

 

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6linewrasse

This morning I noticed a britte star in the tank moving around on one of the new pieces of LR that I bought. Is this hitchiker a good addition or going to cause problems?

Brittle *

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6 hours ago, 6linewrasse said:

This morning I noticed a britte star in the tank moving around on one of the new pieces of LR that I bought. Is this hitchiker a good addition or going to cause problems?

Brittle *

 

Brittlestars are good. 

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On 6/23/2017 at 2:52 PM, 6linewrasse said:

Hi Clown.. Thanks for your assistance. 

 

I will be doing 20l  water changes once a week as my tank is 150l ,and top up with RO as needed. 

 

I am defenitely planning on a stunning reef tank with lots of corals.. which corals would you suggest that are colourful and very hardy/easy to keep. 

 

Also what is the maximum amount of fish I can keep (reef friendly/community friendly) in a tank this size. 

 

 

Number of fish depends on, well, the fish.  The kind of fish, size of fish, habits of fish, etc.  Easy corals are things like xenia, kenya tree, leathers, GSP, zoas, mushrooms...some of them can kinda take over if they like your tank though, so do your research before adding to the tank.

 

I saw you said something about waiting till the water was down 5 cm before topping off?  If so, that's like 2 inches, which even in a tank your size is going to mean significant salinity swings.  I wouldn't even let it get 1 cm down before topping off.  Make a mark on the side of your tank when full, as suggested, and try to keep the water as close to that line as possible.  Top off every day, definitely not more than every 2 days. 

 

Spend some time reading the articles Weetie suggested, they will answer a lot of your questions.  Does your LFS offer testing?  If so you can bring your water by to get tested every few days until you get your own test kits.  Do water changes every week or two, once a month is a pretty long time between changes, and stuff will get depleted by your corals so when you change the water it will lead to parameter swings.

 

Depending on ambient temperature, the heater may not be enough for a tank that size.  Generally 5w per gallon is a good rule of thumb.  I don't know if that light will be strong enough for corals, it depends on the PAR and light penetration which is not my forte lol.

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6linewrasse

Hi Thanks for the reply.. 

 

I have topped off again this morning after topping off 2 days ago.. my water really evaporates quite fast. My heater keeps the water temp at 26°C, which in my experience is fine ? 

 

I think I should invest in an RODI Unit & a automatic top off system. At my LFS the 2 units would set me back approx. R 5000 ( South African Rand ) or $ 390 US. Do you know of a more affordable option?

 

I took my water to my LFS approx. 500ml of it so they could do the testing. 

I also told them that the tank is going through a cycle. We tested for Nitrates,Nitrites, Phosphates, calcium,magnesium,salinity, alkalinity etc. The nitrates were very high and they said it could be because of the nitrogen cycle the tank was going through and because I used old rock. 

 

I am really looking at a complete reef tank where there are no rock visible and some fish like reef safe triggers,puffers, chromis,anthias,basslets,butterfly,tang,and an angelfish. 

 

Regarding the light , it seems like my light is penetrating fairly well though. 

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The only affordable method to topping up is manually.

If your  tank evaporates  a lot than it's very important to top up daily.

 

You can use distilled water but not sure how much that costs there.

 

Once your cycle is completed you need to do a water change to reduce the nitrates.

 

The rock is your biological filtration. You need it for a reef tank.

 

Your  tank is 40g? So you need about 30lbs. To Remove it from the tank, you would  need a sump to place it in.

 

You Can't fit all those fish in that size tank.

 

Tangs  80g or more

 

Butterfly 100g or more

 

Anthias 70g or more (You can have the geometric perchlet but it has a caution for reef)

 

Triggers-100g or more

 

You can do out of your list

Valentini  puffer

Basslet like royal gramma, black cap, or chalk

Blue/green chromis

 

As long as they are all compatible 

 

Liveaquaria.com

 

Provides a comparability chart and all the info of each fish and size of tank they need 

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I have a 40 and the list of available fish is about the same as a 20. You can do any fish you want, it is just that tangs, triggers, most angels are social fish and require space and friends, as well as a sustainable food sources (they will pick the tank clean in no time leaving almost nothing for anything else).They also will soon out grow the tank and become stressed out and die or at least be really unhappy.

There are still plenty of nano sized fish available. Clowns(or almost any damsel), blenny, goby, wrasses, chromis...

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