To: Kelstorm(3ft Setup)

[chuckos]

Hi kel,

been reading up on marine setups bla bla... so heres how im gona carry out my setup, can u help by giving some valuable suggestions and advice???

1. Use my 3ft Fiveplan fish tank as the main tank but im not sure of the thickness of the sides and base.
2. DSB, i presume that this means filling up the bed of the tank with sand.What is e brand that u r using for ur DSB? Can i ask what's aragonite?
3. Filter system comprising of 1x2213, 1x2215, media consisting of act.carbon, eheim substrate and wool.
4. A mid-high end protein skimmer..need some recommendation here
5. Fill up half tank with prepared saltwater and e other buy from LFS or from pasir ris farm and carry out ammonia cycle till NH3,NO3 ppm = 0. test kits will be purchased thereby. Intend to carry out process for say 2mnths to be on the safe side.
You mentioned b4 about adding a few pieces of prawns or fish to kickstart the process, but i have this to ask, will adding more of these kickstart the process faster or even have a probability that more beneficial bacteria will be cultivated?? leave em' inside without taking out ?
6. What will be a good time for me to add in the live rocks? someone did mention before that liverocks add on to the bioload whereas someone else mentioned that it would not be safe to add LRs till the ammonia cycly is over. ??? *confused*
7. Lights? doin a LR 1st den slowly move on to Reef. so need to noe the amount of light output needed at least for LRs.
8. Don't intend to get any invertebrates yet, so no need to get a calcium reactor right? even if getting, will only get a few, so may just do with calcium additives. (budget constraint)
9. Aeration? do i need any form of aeration for the fish in the near future?
10. using 1 dc fan to maintain a constant temp of 27'C (tried it with my planted tank, so no worries)
11. read several articles but none mentioned about water changes during the ammonia cycle or even when tank has 'matured' ?? oh, hydrometer bought, floating type.

Im sorry if the above mentioned is not well furnished enough. but still, i need some evaluations from you. thanks alot if you can help..!!

[kelstorm]

1. Use my 3ft Fiveplan fish tank as the main tank but im not sure of the thickness of the sides and base.
perhaps u can check it out.. usually, they sides and the base are the same thickness.. just make sure that it is at least 8mm thick.. although i personally would prefer it to be ard 10mm to be safe
2. DSB, i presume that this means filling up the bed of the tank with sand.What is e brand that u r using for ur DSB? Can i ask what's aragonite?
for DSB to work, u need to consider at least 4cm thick... there isn't any brand that i am using but what i'm using is what they called No.1 coral sand and it is available at petmart at ard $10 per 10kg.. as for aragonite, it is a kind of sand that have buffering properties.. in fact, all coral sand have buffering properties.
3. Filter system comprising of 1x2213, 1x2215, media consisting of act.carbon, eheim substrate and wool.
what u will be using or experiencing will be all wet filtration.. the changing of substrate, act. carbon and wool will be as what u have been doing.. change constantly when doing maintenance but do not add new ones.. as they contains bacteria that is good for the tank..if u need to change, just make sure that u have some old and used stuff to help to seed the new media.
4. A mid-high end protein skimmer..need some recommendation here
i dun know your budget, but i can recommend either using a berlin or H&S... u wun go wrong with them.. but they cost ard $650 - over 1k depending on the range
5. Fill up half tank with prepared saltwater and e other buy from LFS or from pasir ris farm
save the money and use all prepared saltwater lah.. no pt mixing them.. will not make any diff coz ur tank is still not cycled yet
and carry out ammonia cycle till NH3,NO3 ppm = 0. test kits will be purchased thereby. Intend to carry out process for say 2mnths to be on the safe side.
u mean carrying out nitrogen cycle.. yes, u need to get NH3 and NO2 to be zero before u start adding in your fishes... for NO3 to be zero.. u might want to consider having a denitrator.. but up to 10ppm for NO3 is fine..and depending on the rate of cycling and the amt of bacteria being introduced, u can vary the time factor
You mentioned b4 about adding a few pieces of prawns or fish to kickstart the process, but i have this to ask, will adding more of these kickstart the process faster or even have a probability that more beneficial bacteria will be cultivated?? leave em' inside without taking out?
this is not the case where more is better and faster to cycle the tank... the more u have inside means that u will have cultivated enuff bacteria to cope with the bio-load that u will be putting into your tank eventually... but it does not make it any faster.. it still have to go thru the same process.. and i recommend going the natural method.. instead of buying those bottle bacteria.. i dun believe in bacteria can survive in a bottle... and once u start the cycling process, dun take it out... leave it inside.. but just a note, it really stinks up the house ok..[:]
6. What will be a good time for me to add in the live rocks? someone did mention before that liverocks add on to the bioload whereas someone else mentioned that it would not be safe to add LRs till the ammonia cycly is over. ??? *confused*
i personally would recommend start adding in your live rocks slowly when your NO2 is falling to almost zero.. and yes, LR do contribute to the bio-load but it is minute as compared to the livestocks like fishes.. i do recommend adding the live rocks slowly.. rather than to dump everything all in once shot.. perhaps like in 2 trips.. and wait and monitor the water parameters again for 1-2 weeks b4 u start shopping for live stocks.
7. Lights? doin a LR 1st den slowly move on to Reef. so need to noe the amount of light output needed at least for LRs.
[b]u need to mentioned what type of corals u are keeping...LR, dun matter if u use FL,PL or MH.. but the corals that u are planning to keep will determine the kind of lightings u need

[chuckos]

hi there kelstorm,

thanks for ur advice and suggestions.. im gona keep a LR marine tank in the near future, at least. cos im not so sure about using MH lights and those supposedly diff to keep corals. As such, maybe u can tell me more about using protein skimmers because i just went down to aquamart with a fren, and the boss recommended strongly about the use of an AquaMedic biowheel protein skimmer(nt really sure the proper name), and he mentioned dun bother using canister filters. with that i got realli lost.

so whats the exact use of a skimmer? a

bout the corals, what general types are there? tot i could just use a MH bulb for most types?

can i jus start off with a PL light system?(probably 4tubes?), and what are the kinds of corals that i can keep with that amount of light?

what corals would u recommend for a start assuming that i can use the PL light system mentioned above?

thanks alott bro ~!!~!

[kelstorm]

im gona keep a LR marine tank in the near future,
LR marine tank?? just rocks only?? can't be right.. hahaha[] there are a few terms that we used ard here, reef (all corals and only 1-2 fishes), semi-reef and Fish only with live rocks systems.. i figure that u are trying to do up a semi reef but do bare in mind, that the amt of NO3 inside the tank due to the fishes.. if u are keeping just fishes like me, then it is not an issue, ie for lights..

at least. cos im not so sure about using MH lights and those supposedly diff to keep corals.
like i mentioned earlier, hard corals love lights.. strong lights ard 10000 kelvins.. if u dun intend to keep them, but would like to use PL instead, u can.. using the 50/50 actinic and 4 tubes is fine.. go for softies if that is the case... but mind the temp of the water.

As such, maybe u can tell me more about using protein skimmers because i just went down to aquamart with a fren, and the boss recommended strongly about the use of an AquaMedic biowheel protein skimmer(nt really sure the proper name), and he mentioned dun bother using canister filters. with that i got realli lost.
well.. aquamart stuff and prices is abit on the high end.. personally, canister can be used.. me is using it for my 2ft seahorse tank...it is all sales talk.. i have a few friends with up to 4ft.. keeping heavy bio-load, using 2 x 2215 and some with 2229.. it can work.. however, a sump would be better as it is less maintenance..to say the canister dun work.. it is just sales talk.. check out the books.. they also mentioned on canisters.

so whats the exact use of a skimmer? a
a skimmer purpose is to remove all the proteins that are dissolved in the tank and can't be removed by the filter...

bout the corals, what general types are there? tot i could just use a MH bulb for most types?
simply put.. there are 2 types, hard and soft corals. and yes, MH can be used for both..

can i jus start off with a PL light system?(probably 4tubes?), and what are the kinds of corals that i can keep with that amount of light?
it is unlike FW where we talk abt the number of watts.. we need to look into the lighting intensity.. u shold be looking at PL lights that give out at least 9500 Kelvins.. anything less than that is useless.. i would recommend u to try soft corals.. personally, even if i keep corals, i wun go for hard corals(personal conviction).. so, for hard corals, perhaps u can try asking spiff

what corals would u recommend for a start assuming that i can use the PL light system mentioned above?
mushrooms.. leather corals but with those lights that u mentioned, u might wan to consider ways to lower your tank temp.. coz i foresee high temp.

thanks alott bro ~!!~!
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