RRon Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 Hi everyone, I started the hobby about two years ago with a 180g in Las Vegas, NV. Unfortunately, things didn’t work there out, sold the tank and I just recently moved to Bremerton, WA. I’ve been missing the hobby so on Black Friday I bought the 55 gallon aquarium kit from Petco. I want to make sure I start back off right(rusty), so I’m looking for help/advice. When I started my first tank I had a sump for filtration and the LFS said I can start with tap water and salt mix for cycling. I started with dry rock and I used muratic acid to kill off the organisms. I did my aqua scraping, filled up with tap water, a few days later I added Carib Sea Arag-Alive sand, then added Instant Ocean Bio-Spira to start the cycle. It took about 6 weeks to cycle and I had no problems at all. I did a 20% water change with RODI and used RODI at that point. I found that Washington’s tap water is better quality than Las Vegas. So, I’m debating on doing the same thing with my new 55 gallon. I will start with tap and water changes will be RODI, but this time it’s a lot less volume and I will be running a HOB. So I’m not sure if it’ll be an issue this time around. Sorry for the rant, any advice for the new set up? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 6 hours ago, RRon said: Hi everyone, I started the hobby about two years ago with a 180g in Las Vegas, NV. Unfortunately, things didn’t work there out, sold the tank and I just recently moved to Bremerton, WA. I’ve been missing the hobby so on Black Friday I bought the 55 gallon aquarium kit from Petco. I want to make sure I start back off right(rusty), so I’m looking for help/advice. When I started my first tank I had a sump for filtration and the LFS said I can start with tap water and salt mix for cycling. I started with dry rock and I used muratic acid to kill off the organisms. I did my aqua scraping, filled up with tap water, a few days later I added Carib Sea Arag-Alive sand, then added Instant Ocean Bio-Spira to start the cycle. It took about 6 weeks to cycle and I had no problems at all. I did a 20% water change with RODI and used RODI at that point. I found that Washington’s tap water is better quality than Las Vegas. So, I’m debating on doing the same thing with my new 55 gallon. I will start with tap and water changes will be RODI, but this time it’s a lot less volume and I will be running a HOB. So I’m not sure if it’ll be an issue this time around. Sorry for the rant, any advice for the new set up? Welcome back to the addiction! I filled my 240 with RODI, it is not that bad if you can get a 1/4" line all the way to the tank. Myself, I would not start with tapwater. Reason? Simple, its a variable I can control. There are so many variables in a tank, it is nice to have a handle on a few when things are not going right. Not saying it cannot be done, though, obviously you did it already! Good luck, post some pics Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Z Reef Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 (edited) As TheClark mentioned, you will be better off starting with RODI. This way you control what’s going in. Washington does have some decent tap water in certain areas but I’d take out the variables and do it with clean water. Maybe this time try cycling with a bottled bacteria product like Dr. Tim’s or Micro Bacter 7 (along with many other options). These can help take the waiting out and speed things up to being ready to start adding in fish/corals. EDIT: Saw that you used bio-spira, so do that or an equivalent good luck, ask questions, and take pics! Lots of good people around here willing to help out 👍 Edited December 7, 2018 by Blue Z Reef 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Z Reef Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 Another piece of advice is do your homework on the HOB skimmers. Most are pretty terrible but a few decent ones exist. i think the issue with the 55 gal is that it’s 4 ft long so it appears you can put more/bigger fish in it. Things get crowded and the water gets dirty fast, also not helping the sub par skimmers. Just things I’ve delt with in the past. Try to plan your stocking list ahead of time and know your limits. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RRon Posted December 11, 2018 Author Share Posted December 11, 2018 Thank you guys for the replies and the welcoming to the community! I appreciate it! I can make daily trips to the LFS to fill up the tank with RODI. My next concern is, If there’s not aeration for the water will it be okay to sit daily until it gets to 55 gallons(roughly 10 days)? I only have one 5 gallon bucket. As I am not living in my own house I can’t have a equipment and misc fish stuff laying around. The LFS has dry live rock I’m going to purchase. I just moved out here so I don’t have a lot of money at the moment. Can I buy half of my rock and cycle with it and then add more later or could that cause another cycle? And yeah def downgrading to a 55 I can see it’ll be crowded. I wanted to honestly do like 20-25 pounds of rock only, 30-40 pounds of sand. My concern is the HOB it came with the Aqueon 75. I am going to change out the media and in the future probably buy an Aquaclear 110 to assist with filtration. I’m good at regular maintenance so keeping the water clean will not be an issue doing weekly-two week water changes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted December 11, 2018 Share Posted December 11, 2018 No problem on RODI sitting, it sits for most of us in containers until ready for use. Are you going fish only, or coral? If coral, what kind are you hoping to stock with? Adding rock definitely can cause another cycle. Especially if there is unseen organic matter. If you get lucky, live rock shows up for sale on the forums here when people are tearing down. Your dollar might stretch further if someone is tearing down and the rock is pest free. If its not pest free you can do the muriatic acid/bleach treatment. Here was my new live rock from BRS, note the organic material That surely would have caused a cycle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RRon Posted December 11, 2018 Author Share Posted December 11, 2018 Okay cool thanks for clarification. Last time I went a mixed reef with Ocean Revive and got some good growth and color. I’m going to want to upgrade in the future so this tank I’m going to try and go the cheaper route. Chinese black box LED and softies, maybe a few hardy LPS. I will just be patience and buy all the rock at the same time, I won’t be able to do the live rock treatment here, so I’ll start with the dry rock. I can’t wait to get back into it, I definitely missed this hobby. I will post pics once I build my stand of the empty tank and then as I progress. Thank you guys! Oh yeah wow!!! Good thing you did the treatment. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milesmiles902 Posted December 11, 2018 Share Posted December 11, 2018 Got some rock for sale. Although, you'd have to dry it out. Maybe use some smaller pieces that look clear of pests as a start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RRon Posted December 13, 2018 Author Share Posted December 13, 2018 Thanks for the offer. I am going to buy dry rock from LFS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdxmonkeyboy Posted December 19, 2018 Share Posted December 19, 2018 my only advice.. finish your aquascape.. then take 1/2 of the rock out. "fruit stand" disorder afflicts millions of reefers who lack imagination. A tank is a piece of art... or at least it can be. Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterKenka Posted January 24, 2019 Share Posted January 24, 2019 Cool-lookin' rock, TheClark! Oh, and welcome aboard, Ron! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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