My 75G SW input accepted

guitarman,
I have not seen a spike yet in a any level to say it has done or even started it yet.


the fish are what came over from my 30 when I moved into this. so everything except for the water ( i use the 30 gallons from the old tank) is from my old tank. I heard a couple saying a phosphate reactor. is that a need? or does more LR do that job? I also know I need better power heads, as mine dont move nearly enough water.

 

Oh, I didn't realize that you moved from a smaller tank. Well then, you probably won't get a cycle and should be fine.

 

A phosphate reactor isn't necessary, but very helpful. More rock will not remove phosphates. A reactor actually isn't that expensive, they are around $40-50.

 

ok but given the picture and what I ahve told you is that the next thing to do? the reactor or LR? I also know I need stronger powerheads for turnover.

 

You have a good start there. Looks like you have sand instead of crushed coral....that is good. You are on your way with the LR, that is good also. As stated above, LR is your best friend when it comes to filtration. I am going to throw some numbers out at ya just for reference.

ITO LR, a FO system wants 1lb/gallon and a reef wants about 1.75lb/gallon give or take. I see systems with 2lbs/gallon. That is something you can work on a bit at a time, and it doesn't have to be LR. It can be base rock, which is essentially LR that is dead. It is white and not to great to look at, but trust me, it colors up fast and will liven up in time. It is the cheapest way to go and you do not risk a mini-cycle by adding it in.

ITO flow. There are a few rules of thumb that, well, vary depending on the aquarist (I love this hobby!!! Rules change depend on who you talk to!!!). The flow between sump and DT should be between 5x and 10x. This depends on how much livestock you have, how often you feed, etc. The more time the water spends in the sump, the more time it has to get skimmed. So that is a tank by tank thang. Within the tank, 50x turnover is what I am aiming for. For your 75g, that would be 3750GPH minus 500 (presumptive) for your return and about 100 (presumptive) for your prizm leaves a number that two Koralia-3s and one Koralia-4 would cover.

ITO Sump. Looks like a good sump. In time, you may want to upgrade to something like a 20g long and divide it up so part of it is a fuge. That will take care of some nitrates and phosphates.

PO4 Reactor: Good idea.

Denitrator: Tangster makes some good denitrators for cheap. You may want to PM him for a price. It would make a good addition.

Skimming: You already know you need a good skimmer. It is something you shouldn't skimp on. Skimming and lighting are not something you want to go bargain basement. Here are a few suggestions...just to give you an idea of a few quality units

PM Bullet-2
E.T.S.S. Reef Devil Deluxe
AquaC EV-180
ASM G1x
Octopus DNW-180

So this has been lengthy.....kinda got a little carried away....but my posts tend to do that. For that I apologize. Later dude. John.

 

as always thanks for your advice. from my reading and other comments I think LR or base rock and power heads are going to be my next additions. as for the sump, I have my old 30 gallon tank but it will not fit in the stand so it would have to be a 20L. As for a Denitrator, I have one that I built but havnet been ble to test yet... was afraid I did it wrong or something and would kill my tank. if my Nitrate goes up much more I will have to test it out.


so basically my order of addition is going to be
1. LR
2. Power Heads
3. Skimmer
4. Sump
5. Lighting

Are tube worms and sponges good signs, bad signs or no sign of how the tank is doing? I have several colonies of tube worms that glow green under my lights. and several different sponges that range from yellow/green to white. I also found what looks like a clam, he open and closes and it attached to some of the rock. again thanks for all your help here. You all know your stuff!!!

 

The only thing I would turn around in your order of things to do is your sump and skimmer. You need to fashion your sump/fuge before you decide what kind of skimmer to get. Each skimmer has a different 'footprint'.

And when you do decide to upgrade your sump, you may want to design a fuge into it before it goes under the tank. You don't have to use the fuge part of it right away.....but if you every decide to go that route, all you have to do is throw in the substrate and macros. That's what I did. I had the plumbing and fuge in place for about five months before I brought the fuge online.....and that was just last week.

 

Correction; Live rock does not have the ability to eliminate phosphate. In reality it will absorb it and leech it back into the water. Thought I would point that out.

 

Oh yeah.....forgot allllll about that. K+.

 

I would again say Phosphate reactor 5th and lighting 6th.