Poriferan's New 130d Set up

Poriferan

Poriferan

Member
Hello,

I got my 1st salt water fish tank 18 years ago when the LFS was pushing under-gravel filters:smack:

Worked in a LFS for a couple years and have done a 55 reef with fair success.

A few years ago I decided, with my wife's help to get rid of all my tanks :cry1:

Well after 3 years of withdrawals I finally convinced her to let me start another saltwater tank, her only insistence was that it had to be a reef tank :clink:

We compromised on the RSM 130d for looks and size.

I got my RSM 130d 1 week ago, set it up and put live rock in. Added new rock yesterday and changed the crushed coral to sugar sand today.

It did come with a broken heater, but I have replaced it with a temp Wal-Mart one until I decide (need help here) what kind to replace it with. Leaning towards a 100W Rena

I will keep you all updated as things progress from here on out and get a pic as soon as the sand dust storm settles.

After reading here and other forums I have found that much of my knowledge on the Hobbie is now outdated so any help or direction is welcome.

Next on the list of things to get are a Vortec MP-10 and a refractometer
I am also thinking of an auto top off unit but I will need a lot more research into this as I know nothing about them or what works well with this tank.
 
magnetar68

magnetar68

Member
Welcome. Looking forward to the pics.

I setup my 130D a few weeks ago. I also received a bad heater: would not heat above 76F. I bought a Jager 150W and it works fine. I keep the house at 55F at night and the tank stays a pinpoint 79 all night long. The jager fits into the heater slot in the back just fine. Most of the heaters I have seen here are 150W or 200W. Any heater can go bad, so many people recommend a controller that will shut down the heater when the tank gets too hot. We have a few folks who fried their tanks with a heater that had a regulator failure. I don't have a controller (yet). There are at least a few running the Marineland Stealth 150W or 200W. If you do a forum search on heater you will see a few threads on the topic.

From what I have read here you will be very happy with the MP-10. I ordered the Marine Depot Refractometer and it appears to work OK, but have not tested it against a Milwaukee or other more expensive instrument.

I got bit by using the Red Sea test kit. I now have the API Saltwater and API Reef test kits. These appear to be much more accurate and easier to use.

I also used SeaChem Stability to cycle the tank (first 7 days). My tank went to 0ppm Nh3 and NO2 in a little over a week.

A lot of folks have upgraded their skimmer to a Tunze 9002. THe primary advantage appears to be the fact it is less noisy, but some have had trouble getting the stock skimmer to fractionate foam.

In doing this, they also upgrade to the InTank Media Basket. It makes getting media in and out of the tank easier since you don't need to put carbon under the pumps in the far left chamber (looking from the front).

Many folks are running a filter floss on the top shelf, SeaChem Purigen on the second shelf, and then Chemi-Pure ELITE (contains a Phosphate remover) or SeaChem SeaGel on the third shelf. THere are others. Most people, however, seem to avoid the ceramic media that comes with the 130D. They argue it increase nitrates.
 
Poriferan

Poriferan

Member
Thanks for all the info. I won't be using the ceramic things, I would like to get one of the media racks also. My skimmer doesn't seem to be having any issues now, adjust the overflow height a bit and a bit of break in time. Stealth is pretty inexpensive, may go with that also if it is reliable.
 
Poriferan

Poriferan

Member
Ok, need to figure out how to get these to look better but for now here is the set up. Still a LOT of dust in the water so the camera is really picking that up.

tank1.jpg
 
mbdave

mbdave

Active Member
Ebo Jager is the heater I have used most over the years and have never had a problem with them.

Also I think your rock looks fine, nice and open for easier circulation, I like large rocks!
 
Reefmack

Reefmack

NaClH2O Addicted
PREMIUM
Welcome again and good to see you started a tank thread! A lot of us have gone to the Marineland Stealth heaters, but no heater IMO can be trusted to never fail. My 2+ year old Stealth heater quit hitting a while back. The same thing happened to StevieT's heater controller in his office tank and he lost a few things due to the tank getting too cold on a weekend. In rhogeo's recent tank crash (another office tank) his old Stealth heater stuck on and cooked his tank, and he lost almost everything. It would mean not having the heater hooked into the power center, but a separate heater controller to keep a heater's built in thermostat from sticking on and cooking a tank is a wise decision in my opinion. Even separate controllers can go bad, but rarely, and it's still a good safeguard.
 
tnwillia

tnwillia

Well-Known Member
Welcome to RS. Your off to a great start. Don't worry about your aquascape your going to change it many times in the next few months. Have fun!
 
Poriferan

Poriferan

Member
Thanks everyone!

I put in a order for a vortech mp-10, refractometer, digital thermometer, stealth heater, some chemipure, purigen, and more salt. I hope that covers it for while:eek:
 
Poriferan

Poriferan

Member
My 1st update.:white:

I tested the water 2 days ago (API) at the 1 week mark and got Ph8.3, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0-5. I am going to wait a few more days and test again to see if the new rock die off changes things. Skimmer is producing a bit of skimate and 1st batch of live rock was fully cured and moved damp within an hour.


The algea growth is mainly on the 1st rocks but has spread to the others and the sand a bit over night. I have the lights on a 12h timer

IMG_8410_1.jpg


IMG_8408_1.jpg
 
Reefmack

Reefmack

NaClH2O Addicted
PREMIUM
Hi Poriferan. You might want to take that one top rock and give it a good scrubbing in a bucket of SW. That white wispy stuff may be some die-off along with hair algae. I had a small rock like that once and when I pulled it out to scrub it the smell was enough to gag me.
 
Poriferan

Poriferan

Member
I will take it out and scrub it tomorrow, the picture made it look white, it has no white in it just the brown. The rock may have a little die off, but could not have bee much as this stuff "looked" lifeless and was completely covered in coralline.

I decided to do another water test and got all zeros today. Even the nitrates looked to be a zero this time. I am not sure what to think as I did not have a test kit until after the tank had been run with live rock for a week maybe 20 lbs.

I have a hard time believing that it cycled in a week, but also have a hard time believing that there would be no ammonia after that long too.

There was a dead damsel:hammerhea (I put one in before I read that this is bad now and mean to the poor fish) that I left in the tank since day 1:tears:

Could it already be cycled with the well seeded initial rock?
 
Reefmack

Reefmack

NaClH2O Addicted
PREMIUM
It could indeed be cycled, especially since you left the damsel in - that would serve the same purpose as letting a shrimp decompose in the tank. Which test kits are you using (sorry if you've already been asked this)?
 
Poriferan

Poriferan

Member
I have the API salt water master and reef master test kits.
Assuming it is cycled :fishy: am I ready for a clean up crew? What is a good combination to start with for this size tank? I like the inverts so give me now and/or max numbers please. Thanks.
 
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