New Fluval

[Knighty]

Hi

 

my first post on here so before i go into my problem ill give a little intro.

 

I have been keeping fish since my early teens. Ive kept hundreds of species from bettas to rays, asain arowanas to mbu puffers and pretty much everything inbetween. This however is my first solo endevour into the marine world.

 

After much research i decided to get myself a Fluval evo sea, the 13.5G tank with the built in filtration.

 

from the outset i ditched the insert and in a DIY media rack in chamber 2 im running floss, carbon, bio max, Rowa and course sponge. Chamber 1 houses a 200w heater (my house gets cold at night) and the 3rd chamber is housing the stock pump. On the divider between chambers 1 and 2 i blocked off all but the top 2 cut outs to force the water through all the media, and the nicley place hole in the back wall has been plugged.

 

the tank has been running since saturday with a 1-2inch bed of red sea pink sand, 8kg of Arka rock and 41.5 litres of RO water at 1.023 sg.

 

the tank is heated to 25.5 raising to 26 around mid day. As for the other parameters i have not yet ran a set of tests other than Ph, which is sitting at 8, as there has been no real need.

 

In due course i willl be adding a CP1 power head, the LED timer and probably upgrading the return pump. I have added a chunk of prawn today to start the cycle going and will start checking parameters over the next few days.

 

with that out the way onto my problem.

 

my water is still cloudy, watching the outlet of the pump i can see what looks like clouds being stirred up. Is this sand dust, leaching from the rock or something with marine tanks im not acustom to? All my tropical tanks have been cloudy on setup but within 24 hours have cleared.

 

any ways thanks in advance

 

Dave

 

 

 

 

Just before theres any panic, the electrics have been moved and no longer are behind the tank

🤗

[Daniel91]

That is some sweet rock!

 

FYI, remember to fill the little whole hole on the back wall - it’s to ensure there’s always enough water for the pump in sump. However it interrupts “prober” filtration

[Knighty]

Thanks for the reply @Daniel91

 

hole has been plugged with a piece of black plastic siliconed over the hole. Its crude but will do until i order the intank bung. 

[DreC80]

I would give it a couple of days to settle down and clear up.  Did you rinse your rock or sand?  If not, that could be why it's cloudy.  

 

Recommend removing your course sponge and only run filter floss.  The sponge will become a detritus trap in no time.  Great scape with your rocks.

[Knighty]

29 minutes ago, DreC80 said:

 Did you rinse your rock or sand?  If not, that could be why it's cloudy.  

Hi @DreC80 i did give the rock a good scrub but the sand i just tipped in, looking back could be a mistake on my part.

 

thanks for the advice on the sponge, its hard to go against all i have learnt over the years with tropical tanks.

[DreC80]

Understood.  Sponges in general are frowned against in marine tanks.  They just trap too much detritus and are hard to clean.  Most just run filter socks and or filter floss.  Floss is easy because it's cheap and you can toss it.

 

I would also consider adding some biospira from instant ocean or all-in-one from Dr Tim's to help establish your bacterial colony quicker.

[Knighty]

Are these products more stable than the ones used for resh water systems?

 

in the past i set a 400litre planted tank up and had nothing but problems after using a bacteria booster to the extent i stripped it down and started again. After letting the tank cycle naturally i never suffered another problem until the tank was put out of use.

 

always made me cautious of these type of products.

 

the sponge has now gone and i replaced the floss, at £2.50 a bag its not even worth trying to clean.

[DreC80]

Yes, they are safe and used by many reefers.  You can cycle your tank without adding them, but they will help speed up the process.  I guess it all depends on how patient you are when it comes to cycling the tank.  I used biospira and all-in-one when I started my tank a year ago.  

[Knighty]

My patients can be questionable at times but with every living thing i have kept be it fish, frogs, lizards, inverts, I have always put the needs of them first so would be happy to let it run its course,

 

however

 

if there is a product that is regarded as safe and is widley used i will be taking a closer look at the recommendations.

 

im going to have to order a new test kit as my current one only has one thats compatible with salt water and thats Nitrite. 

 

Any recomndations on a good all round kit and what tests i should keep at hand for a reef tank. Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and Ph are already on the list ( cant keep smuggling samples into work to use the Ph probe ) what else is good to monitor ?

[DreC80]

Phosphate, calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium...if you plan on keeping corals at some point.  I personally use salifert test kits for everything except phosphate.  I use a hanna checker for that.

[paulsz]

Salifert or Red Sea are good for alkalinity, calcium and Mg. I use salifert for nitrate (easy to use). But for phosphates, I'd go Hanna low range phosphorus (HI736). Saves you a big headache from other phosphate tests. 

 

If you plan to add corals, make sure you raise the salinity to 1.025 or 1.026! Right now at 1.023, you are okay for fish, but not corals

[Knighty]

8 hours ago, DreC80 said:

Phosphate, calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium...if you plan on keeping corals at some point.  I personally use salifert test kits for everything except phosphate.  I use a hanna checker for that.

 

Thanks again @Dre,80 for the reply, the hanna looks a cleaver bit of kit.

 

7 hours ago, paulsz said:

If you plan to add corals, make sure you raise the salinity to 1.025 or 1.026! Right now at 1.023, you are okay for fish, but not corals

 

Hi @paulsz thanks for the reply. I am aware my salinity is slightly low, was my first solo attempt at mixing salt water so i think i was a little to cautious. My plan to raise the salinity was to let the water evaporate until i was at the desired level the  top up with salt water mixed to the new level. Is this the correct method or is there a better way?

[paulsz]

4 hours ago, Knighty said:

Hi @paulsz thanks for the reply. I am aware my salinity is slightly low, was my first solo attempt at mixing salt water so i think i was a little to cautious. My plan to raise the salinity was to let the water evaporate until i was at the desired level the  top up with salt water mixed to the new level. Is this the correct method or is there a better way?

If there is no livestock in the tank, I think you're okay doing this. What some people do is add a bit of salt to the top off water. You could calculate how much salt you would need for that.

 

But given that you don't have any livestock, you should be okay doing it your way. 

[Knighty]

8 hours ago, paulsz said:

You could calculate how much salt you would need for that.

Do you know how i would calculate that?

[paulsz]

Do you remember how much salt you put in to the 41.5L by any chance?

 

[4Swanson2Reefer0N00b]

Why plug the bottom filter hole?  Someone explain this to me.  I must say this tank works wonderfully stock from the box.  All of these add on suggestions I think are unneeded.  

 

Just st out of curiosity-would you be willing to just use the tank stock while you cycle and see how it works before making so called improvements to the "aio-reef ready" tank?

 

ive been using this tank out of the box for 15 months and my only upgrade was a slightly more powerful pump at a cost of 15bucks. This tank works great stock with a decent maintenance routine and some common sense.  

 

When you baste your rocks and stir your sand-the bottom hole in tank does a good job sucking detritus that doesn't get pulled to the skimmer thereby filtering more stuff out.  It also allows for the chambers to pull water evenly with the skimmer plate down. 

 

The sponge "is a nutrient trap"!!! Omg.  That's good for my little ecosystem to feed on.  The most healthy the entire system is the more stable imo.  Besides some corals need that "dirtier water" in a more mature tank.  You want that nutrients and bacteria and microorganism growth.  Just change a couple gallons of water every other week and once a month squeeze/rinse/wring out the sponge in your dirty water. Keeps it kosher but also clean out too much buildup. 

 

Lights!  Two ai primes I have ready people putting on this thing holy shit!   Wow that is expensive and total overkill I think.  Stock light on a 12 hour mechanical timer has grown every coral I've thrown at it including sps. 

 

Ill get get off the soapbox but I have tired of reading all these suggestions for how to fix this tank.  Best advice I've received in my 15months of reef keeping is take it slow and observe after you do something.  A semi decent maintenance routine is really the only thing this tank needs to succeed.  

 

i wouldn't plug the hole.  I wouldn't ditch the sponge. I wouldn't do anything but change water and build a routine.  I'm also a noob so I could be full of shit! Who knows.  I love the tank and best of luck.  One of the positives of the tank is you don't really need to spend to oblivion to make it work.  I'm cheap!

[Daniel91]

@4Swanson2Reefer0N00b - To answer all your questions about the nescessity of modifications - to each their own. Stock may work for some, (several) modifications for others. 

Pretty sure OP is just asking for recommendations and people are sharing their set ups and ideas.

[4Swanson2Reefer0N00b]

Explain the hole to me though.  Why plug it?

[Knighty]

On 1/30/2019 at 3:28 AM, paulsz said:

Do you remember how much salt you put in to the 41.5L by any chance?

 

I started of at 333 grams per 10 litres. So far i have added an extra 200 grams which has took me to 1.0245

On 1/30/2019 at 4:05 PM, Daniel91 said:

@4Swanson2Reefer0N00b - To answer all your questions about the nescessity of modifications - to each their own. Stock may work for some, (several) modifications for others. 

Pretty sure OP is just asking for recommendations and people are sharing their set ups and ideas.

Having kept many tropical tanks i can already see where “I” would like to make some adjustments. But never keeping corals before i wanted to get some input from those with tried and tested setups. 

On 1/30/2019 at 11:19 PM, 4Swanson2Reefer0N00b said:

Explain the hole to me though.  Why plug it?

The idea behind plugging the hole is to force all the water to pass through all 3 chambers. Any water that enters through the holde is missing going through the media (in my set up any ways) and thats something i wanted to avoid. Granted that looking at the hole size compared to the overflow it seems minimal but the close proximity it is to the pump would leave the overflow second best. 

 

Now thats the replys done onto my update.

 

tank has been cycling for just over a week now, algee has started to grow on the rocks and fake wall. Im not to worried as im aware the cycle the tank goes through and with no algee growth i could not even consider a clean up crew (although tanks not ready). The tank has cleared up very well, lots of sand dust to remove from the bottom of chamer one. I consider that leason learned. Ammonia has hit 4.00ppm and nitrite has just started being detected ao the rotting prawn has been removed. My plan is to let the nitrite spike and ammonia go down. Once the nitrite is down im going to lob another prawn in follow what happens. 

 

I have been looking at a Fluval CP1 power head to improve my flow. Whats the general consensus on power heads vs upgraded pump? Im pretty happy with the pump but can see a few dead areas in my flow.

 

 

[DreC80]

I think several people upgrade the return pump so they don't have to have more equipment In the display.  It also depends on what your inhabitants need.  If you are going with SPS you will more than likely need an additional form of flow.  If sticking with softies and LPS an upgraded return pump may be all you need, if the stock pump isn't cutting it.

 

[Knighty]

2 hours ago, DreC80 said:

I think several people upgrade the return pump so they don't have to have more equipment In the display.  It also depends on what your inhabitants need.  If you are going with SPS you will more than likely need an additional form of flow.  If sticking with softies and LPS an upgraded return pump may be all you need, if the stock pump isn't cutting it.

 

I like the idea of not having any equipment in the display. I was defo sticking with LPS and soft corals. Dont have the experience yet for SPS. Whats the recomended upgrade for the pump?

 

thanks again for the help

[DreC80]

I would look at a maxi jet 1200 or sicce.  Double check dimensions before ordering to make sure it will fit.

[Knighty]

So after 39 days and a chunk or two of prawn my tank has zero nitrites, zero ammonia and an sg of 1.025. 

 

Going to look for the start of my CuC at the weekend as the algee has started to blossom.

 

I eventually upgraded to a Tunze silence pump, tight fit but much better flow even though its only rated 15 GPH more.

[Knighty]