Starting my reef
After discussions with a few fellow reefers I have decided to try and document the first few months of my reef keeping experience. This article or
journal will relate what I did and what was happening in the tank as I set it up, took it through 'the cycle' and began to establish a mature reef.
I have documented the decisions I made when planning my reef and the equipment purchased elsewhere on this site so suffice to say I will be talking about my 36x24x20 tank with sump.
I have kept and bred a wide variety of freshwater fish over many years and have had one reasonably unsuccessful foray into keeping marines about
25 years ago. On starting this project I was not sure how, or if, these experiences would be of benefit to me. Looking back, some of the basics of aquarium management are very similar.
Perhaps the first difference is the use of a protein skimmer. These are not used in freshwater husbandry but most marine keepers use them, although, as I am now aware there are many who keep reef tanks successfully without them. Without going into great technical detail, the skimmer is a way of removing organic waste before it breaks down, thus reducing the load on the rest of the filtration system. The skimmer also acts as an aid to the gaseous exchange needed in the reef.
journal will relate what I did and what was happening in the tank as I set it up, took it through 'the cycle' and began to establish a mature reef.
I have documented the decisions I made when planning my reef and the equipment purchased elsewhere on this site so suffice to say I will be talking about my 36x24x20 tank with sump.
I have kept and bred a wide variety of freshwater fish over many years and have had one reasonably unsuccessful foray into keeping marines about
25 years ago. On starting this project I was not sure how, or if, these experiences would be of benefit to me. Looking back, some of the basics of aquarium management are very similar.
Perhaps the first difference is the use of a protein skimmer. These are not used in freshwater husbandry but most marine keepers use them, although, as I am now aware there are many who keep reef tanks successfully without them. Without going into great technical detail, the skimmer is a way of removing organic waste before it breaks down, thus reducing the load on the rest of the filtration system. The skimmer also acts as an aid to the gaseous exchange needed in the reef.
Again, as I have said elsewhere doing your research and having a good idea of what you want before you start is key. Once I had all of my equipment set up the time came to fill the system with salt water. My LFS were very helpful here in that they delivered 250 litres of RO water to my house and helped me fill my display tank. I only filled up to the level of the weir to allow for displacement when I put the live rock in. I decided to use the same salt as my LFS and measured out the quantity as per instructions, turned on my power heads and heater and then left it to dissolve over a 24 hour period before checking salinity. I wanted 35ppm at 26C. Initially it was a little high so I needed to siphon some salt water out and replace with RO until temperature and salinity were as I wanted.
I now needed to wait for the live rock. NEXT PAGE |