A novices attempt at 75 gallons

[Chito]

Hey all, my wife and I were in the hobby years back and had a 45g marine tank, but kids happened and we had to sell it. Finally, 4 years later, we are back in the hobby thanks to a trip to the Vancouver Aquarium where my 2 year old son was awestruck by the tanks there. He didn't care about the dolphins or whales, it was all about the reef tanks.

We found an awesome deal on the local used website and now here we are. It's a 75g with a sump, skimmer, overflow box and some skookum lights. I'm still kind of figuring everything out, so this thread will be mostly for questions and the occasional pic.

First question: The previous owner had the lights all on timers. The 3 small luna lights just stay on all the time, then the actinic run from 8am-9pm, and the 2 metal halides run from 9am-8pm. Would it be bad to have the halides on longer than that? I don't get home until after 5 and would like more time to enjoy the tank in all it's full lit glory.

Thanks for reading! :)

 

[BL1]

You probably shouldn't run your lights for more than twelve hours, for two reasons. After a certain length of time all you're going to do is create an algae problem from having them on for so long. Second, you have to think of the live stock, in the wild they have a long period of darkness for the same reason we do, to sleep. What you can do is just adjust when your lights come on so that you can enjoy them. For example, instead of having them turn on at 8 am, have them turn on at 11 or 12 that way they'll run later into the night for you to enjoy. Also, you should have your actinic lights come on before your MH lights to simulate dawn and sunset. The way I run mine, I have my actinics come on at 10 am, at noon my MHs come on then at 7 the MHs go off and at 9 the actinics go off. And I have my lunars running 24/7.

 

[Bifferwine]

I agree with Brian -- you will be battling algae if you leave your lights on any longer. Just make them turn on later!

 

[Chito]

Good call. Right now the actinics do come on before the MH. I've got the whole sunrise/sunset thing going on already.

The sump is so noisy! I run a D&D group and we play at the dining room table every Sunday night. Would it hurt the fish if I turned off the sump for a couple of hours every week?

 

[Bifferwine]

No, it won't hurt, as long as you have some powerheads in the tank to keep the water moving.

Why is it so noisy?

 

[BL1]

Why is it so noisy?

You shouldn't hear much noise from it at all. My sump is outside my stand and I don't hear any noise at all from it.

 

[Chito]

Hmm... Well, there's the splashing from down below, but I'm eventually gonna' put some tubing on there so it just goes right into the water. The top makes kind of a sucking noise but I may just need to top the tank up. Waiting for some water to be reverse ozonated... or something. :)

This thread needs some pics!

 

[Chito]

Oops, big pics!

EDIT: Fixed 'em.

 

[Bifferwine]

Looking good! You are right -- the part where water enters the sump should be underwater. That will cut back on the splashing sound.

For the overflow sucking sound, you will probably need to build a standpipe out of PVC.

Durso Standpipes (DIY instructions on the left).

 

[PRC]

Looks great! Did the tank cycle? Nice purple Tang.

 

[Chito]

Thanks for the tip! I have some work to do.

Did my first testing on the tank today.

PH: 8.3
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0

The purple tang is really nice. He came with the tank along with a couple of false percs, a blue damsel, a green chromis, some kind of dwarf angel that didn't survive the trip, :( a couple of crabs and snails and a shrimp.

 

[PRC]

When did you get the tank wet? You may be starting a cycle if you haven't had one already. It could be detrimental to your fish and inverts. Was the rock out of water on the way home?

 

[Chito]

I was wondering about that too. I'm gonna' check it tomorrow again and keep up with the water changes.

The rock was in water all the way home. I had about 75% of the previous owners water and then topped up the rest with mine.

 

[PRC]

Hopefully it will settle down without a full cycle....

 

[Ulta]

ugh, if you continue to read ammonia get some ammo lock. I used it to save my fish. Also adding a bacterial supplement daily can help speed things up greatly, use a decent amount. 0.25 is walking that fine lethal line with fish, some of the more fineky ones might not do so well. check it in the morning if its not going down you might wanna invest in these.

 

[BL1]

StressZyme = fix all, no matter what the problem, StressZyme will cure all your tank problems

nitrates increases normaly as your cycle goes on the only way to get rid of them is by using a live beneficial bacteria (stress zime) that will brake down nitrates and ammonia down leading to nitrite which is used by a number of plants to grow including saltwater grass

 

[Chito]

Awesome. That's a load off my mind. Thank you very much.

I'm not 100% on the reading either. I was trying to match up the colours and I wasn't sure if it was at 0 or .25. There was nothing in between, so I just rounded up.

 

[Bifferwine]

Watch it, he is being sarcastic!! ;)

AmmoLock and StressZyme can be useful in an emergency situation. It's very common for ammonia test kits to falsely read .25 when it's really 0. I wouldn't sweat it if I were you. :)

 

[Ulta]

BL1 is being facetious...[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]

 

[BL1]

Watch it, he is being sarcastic!! ;)

Apologies, I meant to add that afterward but, got distracted :shock: