New to Salt Starting a 60g

I

iturra

New Member
Hi everyone, just wanted to make sure I was on the right track for my first attempt at FOWLR aquarium build. Have been doing Freshwater for about 5 years.
Right now I have -
60 gallon standard glass tank
running an Aqua Clear 70 and Emperor 400 for water circulation
40lbs of dry arganote sand
65 lbs of live rock
Nova Extreme T5HO x2 54watt
salinty is at 1.025
also I am using tap water with Prime treatment.

I ordered a Eshopps Hang-On Protein Skimmer PSK-100H and two Hydor Koralia #3 Aquarium Circulation Pumps should be coming soon.

I just stuck my live rock in yesterday and attempting to cure it. For test kits I only have the freshwater kit, so will have to be ordering a saltwater kit real soon.

Just would like some comments on if I need to add or do anything different. Thanks for looking!


Picture is mobile phone so it is ugly.
salt.jpg
 
I

iturra

New Member
Thanks for the tip on the Hydrometer. I'll look into a better one. I was going to just remove the 2 HOB filters when I put on the skimmer and two circulation pumps. Will that be fine for my tank or should I have a canister aswell? I do have a Rena xp2 canister filter on my other tank I could use if I needed to.

Do I have to wait till the tank is fully cycled to add any clean up crews?
 
GreatWhiteShark

GreatWhiteShark

Member
Your tank should be fine with just your protein skimmer, live rock, and powerheads. This filtration method is called the "Berlin" or natural system which is successfully utilized by many aquarists. Your HoB filter can be used for activated carbon only (I use one in my setup). I would wait until your tank is fully cycled before adding any clean up crew. Many invertebrates are sensitive to high levels of nitrite/nitrate.
 
I

iturra

New Member
Thanks for the info again. I forgot to scrub the live rock before I put it in the tank. Should I do this now since it has only been a couple days or will it be fine? some of the rock has some old red coloring and some dead worms and starfish.
 
I

iturra

New Member
Took out my emperor 400 but kept my ac70 running with only a bag of carbon. Also put in my two Hydor Koralia #3. I have them both pointed toward the center. is there a certain way to position the powerheads? Also picked up like 10 more pounds of live rock. Cycle is going fine, I added ammonia to the tank during the second day and it stayed around 4ppm till the next morning now the nitrite spiked today and ammonia has dropped back down to .5ppm. Rescaped the rocks too. what you guys think? Also using tap water for now, but thinking about switching to Natrual Seawater since I have the San Diego Scripps water available. Wont have to mix salt nad water would be better then tap.
tank0323.jpg
 
I

iturra

New Member
Well it has barely been a week and starting to have what look like 3 Aiptasia Anemones this one is the biggest. one is on the glass too. Should I just wait till tank is cycled and get some pepperment shrimp?
 
B

Bennyboy515

New Member
throw that hydometer away and get a refractometer off ebay for 30 bucks, they are temperature sensitive and mine was 5 whole points off salinity was 1.31 I know right, and then get some peperment shrimp from reeftopia and very good deals, or somewhere you can get alot for cheap a got 10 for 3 bucks a piece and they anialated hundreds of aptasia, that rock looks like dry rock thats like 2 dollars a pound, and will turn into live rock, don't waste your money
 
I

iturra

New Member
Just bought a RO/DI system, should come on monday. Will start using it when I do my first water change. Was thinking about collecting saltwater from San Diego Scripps Pier but its like 20 miles from my house. Figured it would be cheaper than going over there ever two weeks. But do have to buy salt mix guess its better than lugging around jugs of water.
 
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