Starting 75g first salt water tank

[lostanime]

Depending on your bio-load, you might need 20% worth of water changes weekly. If your lightly stocking early on though, you probably wont need water changes this large for a bit. Using the berlin filtration method (live rock and skimming for primary filtration) is a balanced low maintenance way to filter a tank BUT does not lend itself for supporting heavy bioloads. I understock for that reason (when systems are pushed closer to their limits, a very small glitch can turn into a catastrophe quickly...)

If you do see your nitrates climbing beyond whatever your acceptable range is (<20 is normally OK for most fish, undetectable is preferred when corals are involved)... just increase your water changes until you find your balance. As you add fish, and as your fish grow your water changes may need to as well. I would do multiple 10% water changes a week instead of a single 20% weekly change... 20% in my opinion has alot of wiggle room for abruptly changing a parameter in your tank if the temp's not quite right, a hydrometer gives a faulty reading, or the stuff in the salt bucket started settling so certain things are in high/low concentration for the scoops you use to mix, etc etc.

Quickly changing a parameter, even to the exact right value most of the time does more damage then the parameter being wrong to begin with... fish can acclimate and tolerate less then desirable conditions much better then they can tolerate abrupt changes. you should certainly pay attention and try to slowly steer the tank in the right direction if it's off course, but... as quoted all over the place - "the only thing that happens quickly in a reef is disaster!"

Chaeto (and any other macroalgae/plants) unfortunately do need lighting so canister wouldn't cut it but it doesn't need fancy lighting (can be a cheap light from the hardware store)

[Fitler]

Alright, cool im glad you brought up that point that 20% weekly may be too much considering it can abruptly change things if not done right. Il do what you said, il keep checking the nitrate levels and use that as my judgement as to if and how much each water change should be. 10% in one shot sounds a lot easier then 20%.

Now as far as chaeto goes, is there any place it can go besides in a sump. The canister idea is out seeing as how theres no way to really put a light in there. Im assuming that directly in tank somewhere hidden from view is also out right? Or can that be done without any of the livestock going after it?

[Fitler]

Well at this point I am down to ordering the skimmer, filter and then the live rock/sand, then finally the adventure can begin. Anyways I have decided to go with a Marineland C360 canister. I understand how they work and I don't plan on running any carbon in the canister unless im polishing the water or in the event I need to one day remove meds from the tank. Most of the time the canister will only be stocked with filterfloss and probably some bioballs. All I want to know is how you go about cleaning it out? Can you use normal tap water to rinse it out or water that has already come from the tank. I know these things need frequent cleaning and I want to get that part down pat so the thing doesnt become a nitrate factory.

I also wanted to ask about how often should I be expected to have to top off the tank from water evaporation? Do you guys mark a spot on the tank where the normal water level is and whenever its down below you just top it back off to that point?

[lostanime]

I just use tap water and a paper towels to scrub out filters, and if there's something stubborn that wont easily scrub off I let it soak in vinegar and then scrub it out. Just make sure you wipe it out after you use tap because you dont want much (if any) tap getting in your tank.

I would recommend at least occasionally, if not constantly running carbon. carbon neutralizes chemical buildups, including but not limited to allepathy (chemical warfare between corals) and other nasty things that build up in tanks. If you constantly run carbon, make sure when you do water changes to save a bucket of old tank water to dip and shake the carbon around in to knock out excess detritus built up.

I top off my tanks every 2-4 minutes. Seriously though, I use a float valve hooked to a small pump in a top-off reservoir so that water is replaced as it evaporates. The reason for this is because only your water evaporates, not the salt... so as evaporation is taking place, your saltwater is becoming more concentrated in salt (same amount of salt in less amount of water)

For modest amounts of evaporation, topping off daily or weekly may be completely fine, but if you are losing much water, or if you are interested in keeping fairly delicate things (or if your forgetful or lazy)... setting up an auto top off can be a lifesaver. This also means you have a single reservoir to dump or produce your pure water within once a week or month without having to store or constantly measure and pour water to a set line. An auto top off avoids any sudden local change in salinity (ie - areas of tank being VERY low in salt before the freshwater completely mixes) when dumping in top-off.

Before we went with an auto topoff, I just drew a line on the outside of the tank with a dry-erase marker to make sure I kept it filled around there. Keeping constant water levels also helps skimmers perform consistently - water levels constantly changing can cause some skimmers to stop skimming or start overflowing depending on whether the water is higher or lower then when you adjusted the skimmer

[Fitler]

Well I do plan on running the carbon regularly, just not all the time. I got anxious and I just ordered the canister and Remora skimmer off Ebay.

Right now that just leaves me with options for what im going to do as far as the water itself goes. I keep debating on whether or not to go with an RO system for the house or if im just going to use distilled water from the store. I don't mind toting the water around. Im a manager at a grocery store and therefore could just get the water as needed without having to go out of my way but im not sure how much money I would be saving in the long run. I would save at first but I am leaning to the filter as being the better choice. For those of you who use a filter at your house, does it make a big difference on your bill? Obviously the only time im really going to use heavily is when the tank is first filling up, but then after that its just water changes and top offs.

[Judge]

I just rinse mine out really good with plain ole water. As far as topping off can't really answer that without knowing the room conditions. If it's fairly humid probably less often than say like in my room where the air conditioning keeps it dry.

[Fitler]

Well I guess now is the time to start thinking about whether I want to do a peaceful tank or more aggressive. One question I have always wondered is if you have aggressive fish, how in the heck can you maintain a good clean up crew? Im kind of interested in fish such as the Triggers and puffers but they will eat any clean up crew I have, so what does one do about that?

[lostanime]

I kept both a blue throat trigger and a porcupine puffer in a tank with hermits and snails, never had any issue! the porcy was pre-corals though... doubt he would have left the corals alone - the blue throat even left all the corals and clam alone!

[Fitler]

I just think triggers are so neat. I was at a buddys house earlier today and hes got a picasso in his 125 and its the neatest little guy. Im thinking this is going to be a somewhat more aggressive tank. Those seem to interest me the most. Il give clams and crabs and whatever else a shot and if they get eaten oh well. I was talking to the owner of one of the fish stores here and he said that when im ready he can get me any fish I want so I suppose thats a plus. Im getting close to getting this thing going, just need the RO water, live rock and sand.

[lostanime]

Very awesome. Piccasos are beautiful (can be terrors to corals)

I'm very fond of the "rough and tumble" theme tanks myself... I've got a soft spot for angels (both dwarf and large) as well as tangs, so for the most part I go for fish either large enough to not matter that they are docile, smaller fish that are scrappy enough not to get bullied around, or critters so strange that no one messes with them.

With our latest stocking... our big tank wont be where we want it this year, but so far we've got an atlantic pygmy angel, 6 line wrasse, along with a multicolor angel, a purple tang, and a pretty large mimic tang. We're still planning on adding a pair of photon clowns in the next month, (when we move the pygmy angel and wrasse to our nano), a naso tang 6 months down the road, and either an emperor angel or a regal angel once the majority of coral colonies are at least 12"