Hi

[Mike_630l]

Hi,

I have just started a marine aquarium (6 days running).

I thought the best way to obtain sound advice is to join a good forum.

I have a 630l tank with a 110l sump. I have 72kg of live rock at the moment with water circulation of 15000l per hour.
My live rocks have just started to get covered in brown algae which I believe is natural until it starves itself.
Apart from that, cannot wait to stock it!

 

[lilmatty5dimes]

Hello and welcome.

 

[Bebop]

Hello and welcome!

For us backwards people not on the metric system, that's a 166.5 gallon tank, a 29 gallon sump, 159 lbs of LR, and circulation of 3,962 GPH.

Sounds like you're in a diatom bloom, and you're right, it's a natural part of cycling.

 

[JustinsReefTank]

Hello and Welcome Aboard!,

 

[little_fish]

Hello and Welcome!

Did you drop in your table shrimp to get the cycle going?

 

[Waddi]

Welcome to the Reef buddy!

 

[Mike_630l]

Thanks all.

I haven't dropped in any table shrimp. I was told to just let the system run for 2 weeks while keeping an eye on things.
After 2 weeks of running, if my levels are suitable, I am going to add about 5 inverts to the tank. Let that run for about 1 - 2 weeks, then introduce a few fish if the tank is still playing fair.

 

[Waddi]

Sounds about right, but just keep an eye on your levels, also adding shrimp is done to get a good kick start to the cycle. Have you seen any ammonia spikes as of yet?

 

[Mike_630l]

That was the weird thing about the start up of my tank.

I tested nitrites, ammonia, ph and nitrates 3 days into the start up. pH was 8.3, ammonia and nitrates were 0 and nitrates around 5.
I am performing tests again tonight.

 

[Amba]

Welcome to the site!

 

[Mike_630l]

Update - test results for ammonia and nitrates 0 on day six.

 

[315hottuna61]

howdy, welcome to the reef club

 

[Washburn82]

HEy , welcome!

 

[little_fish]

Thanks all.

I haven't dropped in any table shrimp. I was told to just let the system run for 2 weeks while keeping an eye on things.
After 2 weeks of running, if my levels are suitable, I am going to add about 5 inverts to the tank. Let that run for about 1 - 2 weeks, then introduce a few fish if the tank is still playing fair.

No, you should drop in the shrimp. If you dont put a source of ammonia in there to make sure the tank cycles, it will just cycle when you add the fish.

 

[jr7168]

hello hello and welcome to the site! everyone here is very helpful

 

[Bifferwine]

Welcome to the site!

 

[Mike_630l]

No, you should drop in the shrimp. If you dont put a source of ammonia in there to make sure the tank cycles, it will just cycle when you add the fish.

Perfect, I will look into doing this today, thanks.

 

[marcah]

howdy and welcome to the site.. :D

 

[Mike_630l]

Well it has been a while, tank is roughly 7 weeks old now.
I have so far stocked it with
13 crabs; 2 emarlds, 1 blue knuckle and the rest blue and red hermits.
1 cleaner shrimp
5 peppermint shrimps
4 green chromis
2 true clowns and 2 fake clowns - didn't work out so well, got 2 true clowns in the main tank and 1 fake in the sump (has his own mini aquarium) - other fake return to shop
1 copperband butterfly
1 flame angel
1 majestic angel
1 pussey coral
1 green clove polyp coral
1 colony polyp - believe it is dead...

Things are running well, besides my hate of positioning the jets to create sufficient current to keep bubble algae at bay!

 

[little_fish]

That is a lot of fish really fast. You should be only adding one fish every 3 weeks and adding so many fish that fast is likely going to result in horrible algae problems.

Also copperbanded butterflies are a fish that are best left in the ocean, they very rarely make it in captivity. They also arent reef safe, like the majestic angel.