First Setup. 75gallon Day 12 of cycling

[itzgerm]

Browsing online found this forum! Decided I would post my new tank set up, to try and get some new ideas. Also looking for some helpful insight from the pros. I am a beginner and this is my first saltwater tank. My dad always had one as a kid, so once they opened up a tropical fish store about a mile from me I began shopping!

STARTED TANK ON 5/13.

SETUP:
•75 Gallon Marineland tank
•Hang on the back sump (brand etc unknown. Bought used.
•Sicce Voyager 1600 Powerhead
•Rio Plus 2500 Aqua Pump
*Bubble Curve 5 skimmer (not yet installed)
•Temperature at 78

-Started with 20lbs of CaribSea Fiji pink live sand and 40 lbs of Fiji pink aragonite sand.

-Initially bought 67lbs of mixed live rock and dry rock. About 30lbs live 37 dry. A week later I proceeded to buy a 9lb live rock shelf piece and also a 12lb piece of Real Reef rock. Both to try and help raise my pH. (Recommended by guys at fish store.)

***Ive also exchanged 22lbs of dry rock for more live rock. So I believe I have 72lbs of live rock and 16lbs of dry rock in the tank right now.***
(Any ideas on how to aquascape would be amazing! I have a bunch of rocks in sump I’m going to swap out, don’t know what to do)

-Tank was started with 60 gallons of RO water and 15 gallons of saltwater out the display tank of the fish store! Customer service here was beyond incredible! Even drove to my house to help make sure everything was up and running. PalmettoReef.com !! Amazing!


•Day 4 I added two clownfish and the 9lb live rock shelf

•Day 5 pH at 7.6 added the piece of 12lb Real Reef Rock to help naturally buffer. Removed lids and cracked door near tank.

•Day 8 ph had raised added clean up crew
-2 star fish
-3 turbo snails
-6 or so other snails
-10 hermits

STARTING THIS POST DAY 12! Thanks in advance for joining me!






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[fltekdiver]

Coming along great !

Can I ask which light that is that you have?

I like the look of it, seems bright too

[itzgerm]

Originally Posted by fltekdiver

Coming along great !

Can I ask which light that is that you have?

I like the look of it, seems bright too

It’s a Marineland 36” led I believe. It came with the tank! Pretty good so far going to upgrade once im able to get some coral


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[Rover88]

Originally Posted by itzgerm

Browsing online found this forum! Decided I would post my new tank set up, to try and get some new ideas. Also looking for some helpful insight from the pros. I am a beginner and this is my first saltwater tank. My dad always had one as a kid, so once they opened up a tropical fish store about a mile from me I began shopping!

Welcome to Reef Central!

The biggest piece of advice I can give from someone that just got into this in the last year as well is slooooow dooooooooown.

Give your tank plenty of time to mature before adding any more livestock. Let it be a slow and gradual process, take your time to research and read up on what you want to put in there, and smack yourself on the wrist if you ever think of an impulse buy!

The only suggestion I'd have on rockwork is make sure its 'solid'. Especially if you plan on getting sandsifters that might move things around!

Your star fish might not make it... They tend to need established sand, and your tank is just too fresh for there to really be much for them to 'eat' in the sandbed.

Make sure to keep up your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate tests! Your clowns will thank you as your reef matures. Getting some live rock from an established setup will undoubtedly help (Mixed reviews on live sand, most people will advise you its just expensive, wet, dead sand after the shipping process it went through).

If you have any helpful reefers local to you that have healthy tanks, it'd be good for you to get a scoopful of their sand though! That'll have a variety of things in it that could propagate throughout your tank.




If you haven't, set up an excel sheet for the 'basics' that you will want to monitor. I see you mentioned keeping coral, so there are a few more metrics to look after. I track these, and I try to test weekly or at least bi-weekly.
Date/Time/Temp/Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate/pH/Salinity/Alkalinity/Calcium/Magnesium/Phosphates.

There are likely a lot more, but these are the only ones I'm tracking.

[itzgerm]

Originally Posted by Rover88

Welcome to Reef Central!



The biggest piece of advice I can give from someone that just got into this in the last year as well is slooooow dooooooooown.



Give your tank plenty of time to mature before adding any more livestock. Let it be a slow and gradual process, take your time to research and read up on what you want to put in there, and smack yourself on the wrist if you ever think of an impulse buy!



The only suggestion I'd have on rockwork is make sure its 'solid'. Especially if you plan on getting sandsifters that might move things around!



Your star fish might not make it... They tend to need established sand, and your tank is just too fresh for there to really be much for them to 'eat' in the sandbed.



Make sure to keep up your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate tests! Your clowns will thank you as your reef matures. Getting some live rock from an established setup will undoubtedly help (Mixed reviews on live sand, most people will advise you its just expensive, wet, dead sand after the shipping process it went through).



If you have any helpful reefers local to you that have healthy tanks, it'd be good for you to get a scoopful of their sand though! That'll have a variety of things in it that could propagate throughout your tank.









If you haven't, set up an excel sheet for the 'basics' that you will want to monitor. I see you mentioned keeping coral, so there are a few more metrics to look after. I track these, and I try to test weekly or at least bi-weekly.

Date/Time/Temp/Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate/pH/Salinity/Alkalinity/Calcium/Magnesium/Phosphates.



There are likely a lot more, but these are the only ones I'm tracking.

Thank you. I am in no rush but am ahead of schedule on the cycling due to using cycled water and mostly live rock. I’ve switched the clowns fish food to get more stuff in the tank and have more waste for the bottom feeders. The starfish seem to be doing just fine, pretty active in the mornings. Everything in my tank is per recommendation from the guys at the store.I trust them I know they aren’t going to steer me wrong or just let me buy stuff to throw in my tank. They even came and set my tank up for me...FOR FREE ! Came by filled up with water, sold me an old sump and Powerheads cheap. Then even made sure it was hooked up and running smoothly. The customer service here is beyond incredible. There’s three fish stores in my area and won’t go to another one because of how these guys treat their customers. Currently checking water 3x a week until nitrates are high enough to do a first water change. As for research in this hobby I’m sure we all know how friendly that google search is every time we look in the tank or having a question. But the search generally leads to one of these forums with someone with a similar scenario!


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[itzgerm]

Day 27

Tank Finished cycling in 22days this past weekend and I did the first 15 gallon water change Sunday. Ph was 8.1 nitrates were around 50 with no ammonia or phosphates. So finish scaping the rock and added a eshopps 200 protein skimmer and 2 kessil 160 blue tuna LED lights.

Added these coral:
-Eagle eye / blow pops
-Rastas
-Utter chaos
-Jason fox orange
-Candy apple red
-Sunny d
-Gobbstopper
-Sunny d mix
-Green hammer





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[itzgerm]

-Eagle eye / blow pops


-Rastas


-Utter chaos


-Jason fox orange


-Candy apple red


-Sunny d


-Gobbstopper


-Sunny d mix


-Green hammer




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[BrittneyKaiser]

Beautiful!!! ��