Hello, noob here

Nonfamous

Reefing newb
Hello everyone. I'm new to the hobby. Been interested for years, just now getting into it. My tanks is a 90 gallon and it started cycle about a week ago. I've learned a lot over the last year just to get to this point, but still have many silly questions. Please be gentle!

I was a member of another forum, but it appears they don't cater the new to the hobby crowd even though they boast that they do. Very unfriendly. I hope here will be a bit better.

Tank: 48"x24"x18"
Sump: 30"x12"x8" of water
30 lbs of base rock, 25 lbs of Fiji and 25 lbs of Vanuatu live rock in the tank and 5 lbs of mixed live rock in the sump.
Eshoppes 120 skimmer
Sicce 3.0 pump
2 750 gph power heads
Stunner LED Strip lights, 8500k
3" fine sand bed
3 stage RODI system, 30 gallon storage
2 Eheim heaters
Custom cabinet

Water specs, day six:
Salinity 1.0245
Temp 78.9
Ammonia 1.1
Nitrate 20 ppm
Nitrite 3.0
Alkalinity 300
pH 8.0

My only water concern at this point is the pH. I'd really like to have it up around 8.3.

So, this is my hello to the forum. Looking forward to learning from you all!
 
hello and welcome,its normal for your ph to not be stable,i would wait till your tank fully cycles also would add a blue stunner strip as well, as far as i know ive never seen an ro/di in 3 stages,i would go 5 stage at the least and 6 or 7 is the best
 
howdy and welcome to the site.. :D I would also add some more movement in the tank.. ideally you want around 40 times tank size per hour ( unless fish only).. i see you have about 85 pds of rock, depending on what you are going to have for a bioload you may want to get some dry rock or a little more live in there, seeing that will be your means of filtration( usually 1 to 2 pds).. also the eshoppe skimmer may not be enough, have to watch and see how it does..
 
welcome to the site!

I wouldn't worry about your pH. Normal range is between 7.8-8.3 and when it comes to your water parameters, stability is more important then what some people consider "perfect" numbers. You could end up doing more damage trying to raise it and keep it there then just leaving it alone.
 
it seems your off to a great start, in my tank ive never teasted phosphate alkalinity calcuim and all that good stuff O.o. but yeah add like 40 #s more rock and i would get a blue stunnerstrip also. a 8.5k is more toward a plant spectrum, for saltwater typicually a 10k and an actinic would be good, but a 8.5k and a 460 nm would look great. also great choices with the different types of live rock. patience is key in this hobby
 
Thank you all for the welcome!

As for live rock, yeah, I really need to add more, but dang this stuff is pricey! I am going to see how it all turns out and adjust as needed in a few weeks. I ran across a fellow aquarium hobbyist today and he recommended a few places locally. I'll take a look in the next week.

For lighting, well, I have a few ideas I'm mulling over, but with the ambient light of the room with south facing windows, plus the stunner strip, I think it will be okay for a fish only tank. FWIW, my tank is facing south on a north wall out of direct sunlight.

The RODI unit is actually 4 stages, not three. We have a TDS reading of 46 going in and 0 coming out so it's good. It's a 100 gpd unit with an input pressure of 40 psi. At that pressure it doesnt hit the 100 gpd mark, but it does what I need it to do.

It's been argued on and off everywhere I have looked, but how you you guys feel about adding fish to jumpstart the cycle? My biggest issue in doing this is that it's a living creature and sacrificing a live creature just seems sad to me. Some swear by this method, others are more adamant about not sacrificing a fish. If I was confident that the fish would survive, I might think about it. I'm not in a rush but want to get things moving. I've been waiting about a year to get to this point.

As for water movement, well I guess everyone has ideas on this. With headless factored in, I am at about 23x turnover per hour. Seems like good middle ground. I have read numbers from 10x to 40x. Again, mine is fish only with live rock.

Again, thanks for the warm welcome!
 
That light and flow is fine for a fish only tank. And no one on this site supports the idea of cycling with a live animal. Even if the fish lives, you shorten its live by exposing it to such toxic chemicals. Just toss in a piece of table shrimp, does the exact same time without harming any living creature. :)
 
+1 LF, also if live rock is a little too expensive for you, you could always add dry rock to your tank. It will become live after a few months, you won't be able to tell the difference after a while, and it's a fraction of the cost of live rock.
 
I've heard of the shrimp thing, but I have also heard it smells to high heaven. Think I'll skip it and let the live rock do it's thing. I do have about 30 lbs of dry rock in the tank. 25 lbs of Fiji premium and 25 lbs of Vanuatu. My mid depth sand base was dry though. Couldn't find a decent source I was happy with for live sand. It will have life soon enough.

My head is so full of newly acquired information that I think it's going to explode! I've been reading up on this for a while and recently revisited all of my book marks just before putting the water in. I guess at some point Ill figure out how it all fits together for a successful tank! I am looking forward to seeing life come to a once dead tank. Tanking it slow is painful sometimes though!
 
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