First saltwater tank

About a month ago my wonderful girlfriend bought me a complete 90 gallon setup that we found on the Internet for 200. It came with a stand, sump with bio balls, skimmer and collection container, live rock and some power heads, and a hood that pretty much fell apart when we got it home.

I replaced the bio balls with small pieces of rock but I have since seen conflicting info on the Internet. Should I remove it and turn it in to a refugeium?

I filled it up and threw two raw shrimp in 3 weeks ago. All the rock is covered in reddish/brown stuff. Will this go away or should I brush the rock off?

 

Refugium all the way! The reddish brown stuff is probably cyano algae. Totally normal in a new Tank

 

How would I go about turning it in to one? Also the skimmer is really old school and I can't get it too get brown skimmate. It's usually just water. It has a ball valve that I've been trying to mess with but no luck.

 

this is what it looks like now




here is the skimmer

 

The brown stuff is diatom's and will go away on it's own. If you are getting pure water out of your skimmer, adjust the water column down and see if that helps. You should have a gate valve or a slide valve on the side of the skimmer, if this does not help try placing the skimmer on a clean acrilic box to raise it up slightly. It may take some time before you get really good skimmate from a new tank.

 

Welcome to the addiction my friend. Your tank is definately looking like its on the road to awesomeness! few concerns tho.

1. like stated previously bioballs arent all theyre cracked up to be. my LFS has em on one of their main displays and well its algae ridden. Refugium is the only way to go in large systems like this.
2. is that a mass produced skimmer? it looks like billy went to HD and made this him self. IF it works like a skimmer supposed to then by all means use it but somethng is telling me that its performance isnt near up to par with some of the top of the line ones. For one you cant even see the microbubbles, which is kinda important in dialing in the skimmer.
3. i would look into getting a clean up crew within the month, at least. and what i do is i have a toothbrush deticated for tank stuff. Cleanning equipment, rocks, fish teeth, jk!. use one right before a water change and get as much out as humanly possible.

other than that looks like a great little tank in the making... well not little but yea. lol

 

I thought all this stuff was homemade when I went to pick it up. It was made by some little company in PA. Im pretty sure it was just DIY with a sticker on it and probably way over priced. It came with two t12 ballasts with 3 bulbs, one broke so Im just using two for now. I plan on buying a chinese led unit for $160. Im 21 with a daughter on the way, so the budget is tight to say the least.

 

Def keep a skimmer upgrade close on the to-do list. I mean a great skimmer will do wonders for a tank. some ppl say theyre a waste of money but i say no way. I do understand man im 21, almost 22 with no job living off school $ and little cash her n there.

 

I Found a good tread about algae scrubbers and I think that I can build one about 8 inches long where the overflow drains into the sump. Could I also have cheato in the chamber and a deep sand bed? Does it normally take a while for a skimmer to start producing in a new tank and do I even need to be running it at the moment?

 

I rearranged the rock and cleaned the glass last night