Progress of my new tank!!

bao · 06-15-2007, 01:07 AM

Hello all!!

Well i finally got my tank up and running. Got the plumbling all done, skimmer hooked up and now the live rock is curing in my tank. Here is a pic:

The equipment that i went with was an aquaC ev-180 skimmer, pan world pump, 30 gallon sump, and I went with the Solaris LED lights!! Lights aren't here yet

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I do have a couple of questions for you experts though. When i received my live rock on Thursday afternoon. I was in a rush and didn't really read too much into the proper steps on cleaning the LR before placing them into my new tank. After the fact, i did some more reading and I'm a little worried that i might of rushed things.

1. I used regular tap water to rinse and clean the live rock. I'm not too sure if i was supposed to use saltwater to rinse it or is tap water ok? I used an old toothbrush to brush off the dying stuff.

2. I'm curing the rock in my new tank setup with a DSB. I read somewhere that i should've cured it in a tub with a skimmer hooked up and a powerhead. The reason was that the dye off from the LR would be easier to clean in a tub. Am I in for some major cleaning once the curing process is done?

1 last question for you guys. I'm not sure if i setup my AquaC properly. Here is a pic of it skimmimg. But i don't see that much foam rising to the top of the collection cup.. What am i doing wrong? I've tried adjusting the water level, air level, but it doesn't seem to rise enough to reach the collection cup.

Could it be that i haven't broken in the skimmer yet? Will have to contact AquaC about this.

Thanks!!

target001 · 06-15-2007, 01:30 AM

hi gratz on yer new tank setup
im not an expert far from it
i cured my life rock in my tank with out even cleaning it off just keep an eye on yer ammonia and u should be ok dont add anything else till yer amonmia lvls are back close to 0 also try and clean up any mess that comes off the rock it will reduce yer ammonia spikein a sence i guess it will help u get past the ammonia spike quicker
my skimmer generally takes a few hours to get anything in the waste bin on top give it time u will prolly find u will have some crap in there overnight

hope this helps, read up heaps on the forums here i did and im learnin pretty quick the ins and outs

-jamie

Otty · 06-15-2007, 04:08 AM

Congrats on the new addition. I wouldn't worry about the lights yet because you won't need them for a few week. You want bacteria to grow right now and not algae from lights. I never turn on any lights until my tank was 8 weeks old and then it was just actinics for 3 weeks before I turned the MH's on. But I cycled my tank the old way and used no chemical to speed up the process. The only thing that happens fast in saltwater is trouble. Take your time, it seems like your already in a rush to get this going. Just watch out for the people trying to sell you snake oil to "get the cycle done fast". Take it slow and let it grow.

cuttingras · 06-15-2007, 05:14 AM

Your skimmer is working right. It does that when you first plug it in. It'll do that until you have load. The water going in may be yellow at first. The skimmer has a break in period. I was running mine with the collection cup tilted so it got a little bit of the bubbles, as not to fill up the cup. Since you don't have fish you may want to run it for a week or two without the cup till it does break in. Does this sound right, everyone? I just got the AquaC Remora and it did the same thing. I set it cock-eyed and then it finally(about 3 days) started skimming and it settled down. My tank is way older than yours though...Good luck with the new tank and REALLY listen to these people on here that are telling you to take it slow!!!!!!

omard · 06-15-2007, 07:40 AM

Hi bao...

Good choice on skimmer! I have same.

From pic it looks like your skimmer water line is too high - unless what I am seeing is just foam.

The outlet valve needs to be adjusted so the water line is just at the base of the main bubble chamber (way lower then you have it) ---...It is not supposed to reach the collection cup.

These skimmers are pretty failsafe...

Looks good otherwise.

bao · 06-15-2007, 10:30 AM

Thanks for the advice guys. My main concern is that when i was cleaning the LR, I used tap water instead of Saltwater. Is this OK??? I'm afraid that i might of wasted 400.00 worth of LR if Tap water is harmful.

If tap water is ok, than whew..... I lucked out.

The skimmer has already broken in this morning and has started to collect some waste!!

Thanks again!!!

Bao

Twan013 · 06-15-2007, 10:59 AM

how long was the LR in the tap water? if it was there for a while, you may have $400 worth of baserock... hate to tell ya that... also, i'm not sure, but if there were any drops of tapwater left on the rock (or if the rock was still wet when you put it in the tank), there could be bad stuff in there already, like metals (copper is the worst i can think of)... i don't know how to get rid of the hardmetals and stuff in there, but if you did in fact kill off everything on the liverock (by using tapwater), it migh not be a bad idea to get a few more pounds of liverock to re-seed everything else... but that's just VERY time comsuming... it will take a long time for coralline, pods, bacteria, etc. to spread from the new rock to the old... you may have gotten lucky though.. some people may chime in and recommend you getting some test kits for metals and such.. if you do get a few more pounds of LR, i wouldn't go through the cleaning/curing process... a lot of people use uncured liverock to cycle a tank.. just drop it in and let it do the work for ya! but still keep a check on all your parameters... unless you haven't already read up on this part, ammonia should start showing up in a couple of days, rise (i think mine went up to a hunded ppm), start to fall, and then nitrites will show up, rise to about the same as ammonia, fall, and then nitrates will start to showup.. when ammonia and nitrites go all the way back down to 0 ppm, you're good to start water changes.. my recommendation is 20% every other day.. if you do too much of a water change at one time, you'll lose a lot of the good bacteria and may have to start the whole process over again...

ziggy222 · 06-15-2007, 12:58 PM

most of the time i get liverock from the store it's alreaddy cured.i just stick it in the tank and wait to see if any aitasia road in on it,then i dab a little kalkwasser paste onto the aitasia to kill it.unless you soaked the rock in fresh water for a long time,your probably ok.that little bit of tap water is'nt going to hurt it or your tank.it takes many months or even yrs of adding tap water to your tank before you start getting mineral build up.i'm going on 6 yrs now lol but i have very good water.your skimmer looks ok.you for one probably don't have much protien to skim yet and also your skimmer needs time to break in.next month you'll have it all figured out.

coral reefer · 06-15-2007, 01:33 PM

I wouldn't clean your live rock in fresh water, though it has already been done...
Uncured live rock is a great way to cycle your tank-and the need for fish is negated this way.
Cleaning your live rock in fresh water will only add to the die off IMO!
Just take your time for the die off to take its course as well as the cycling process. Using the skimmer while cycling is a good idea, and as stated above, lights are not needed at this point in time as bacteria actually prefers dark places.
Make sure your tank has cycled completely before adding anything to your tank for the best success and less chance of death of a living organism.
Good luck!

Otty · 06-15-2007, 07:37 PM

If you want to waste money on test kits then go ahead and test for ammonia, nitrites, & nitrates but just remember there is nothing you can do about these parameters until the tank has cycled. Just let the thing run for a couple months and keep an eye on Ca, Mg, & ALK. That is unless your in a hurry and want the fish in ASAP....

Get one Yellow Tail Damsel and throw him in there and let him do his job and get the bacteria to grow. Unless you had some nasty LR I would shut the skimmer off too but that is just me. My 265 has been running since the 5th of march and I still don't have my skimmer running yet. I want the corralline spores to seed and not let the skimmer take them out.
A wise man helped me through my cycle and I done it with NO algae what so ever.....believe it or not...!

Just remember to read Omards signature...it is so true.....!