hello! new here with a lot of noob ?'s...

[deeboi619]

wassup all newbie from daygo. so i bought some instant ocean today. i filled my tank up with the hose. probably get flamed but i was just gonna poor prime and the salt in there and let it settle.

the only thing i don't know how to measure how much salt. it's a 135 gal tank? says 1.5 pound or something but i don't have a scale. someone point me in the right direction and is the instant ocean good?

thanks,

Dee

 

[deeboi619]

someone lemme know what's up...imma bout to return the IO for some dog food.

 

[FOSELONE]

newbie from diego...why not drive to scripps for some nsw???

 

[deeboi619]

that's a good idea. but i'm still trying to learn more about the water parameters and what's needed. sounds like a good weekend thing.

 

[Puffalicious]

IO is fine... i use IO all the time oh and welcome

when i mix it's usually 3 8oz cup of salt/5gal to make 1.025 SW

you should invest in a refractrometer... worth the money

 

[deeboi619]

thanks for the welcomeroud:

and the info!

 

[wishntoboutside]

dee welocome. i would highly recommend getting involved in a local reef club. jsut a few meetings and you will learn alot from others experiences. there are many ways to have a successful tank. the key is paintence. SCMAS or IEMAS covers orangecounty and the inland empire. off the top of my head i can not think of the SD one.. pm jessycat? i think ?may lead you in the right direction.

 

[turbonut]

wassup all newbie from daygo. so i bought some instant ocean today. i filled my tank up with the hose. probably get flamed but i was just gonna poor prime and the salt in there and let it settle.

the only thing i don't know how to measure how much salt. it's a 135 gal tank? says 1.5 pound or something but i don't have a scale. someone point me in the right direction and is the instant ocean good?

thanks,

Dee

dont need a scale normally its half acup of salt per gallon of freshwater so it be 2 1/2 cups of salt per five gallons of water with io it should give you about an 1.023 sp gravity reading get your self a good refractometer and calibrate it properly

 

[Rick]

Welocme!
Now that you filled the tank with the hose and found that it does not leak drain it.

Find some RO water. DI water would be even better.

Fill a trash can with the water add salt and test w/ Refractometer until you get the readings you want. Throw a pump in it and mix for 24 hours and then add to tank!

Repeat as necessary until tank is full.

It will make a big difference down the road. As you will not be fighting extra algae blooms from silicates and phosphates.

 

[Mamejunkie]

Welcome Dee,

I also just started. Just to let you know that the people here are great and very helpful. They're always educating me about the hobby. If you are a sensitive person, avoid the chat :evil:

 

[reef_doug]

Welcome... there are many experienced reefers in San Diego who will be glad to help. You'll learn quite abit on this forum... and save money too!

IMO... I would use Scripps water (it's free!) unless if you have an RO/DI unit to make your own. You'll want to get a RO/DI unit anyway to make your top off water. Instant Ocean is fine, many people use it. There are other good salts also (I use Coralife, Tropic Marin is good too!). Generally 1/2c p/ gal or 2.5c p/5 gal equals close to 1.023 SG.

I would even suggest replacing the water you have already made. You'll be fighting algae break out before too long due to the tap water and you may be tempted to seek & spend money on chemicals that can make it worse (kind of the tail waggin the dog). Prime is ok for removing chlorine, but there are other things that it won't help.

 

[deeboi619]

okay thanks guys. Rick you couldn't make it sound more simpler. i'm still waiting to do it right and just want to make sure i spend my money wisely.

so the water at scripps, do you just poor it in and thats it.

also, i don't have a heater yet and want to know if the saltwater needs to be heated well? or will it die? so cal in the summer time doesn't get real cold or fluctuate too low.

reason is that i'm trying to find a heater that will fit my sump that only gives about 12" the long way by about 2" of clearance under the bioballs eggcrate.

 

[deeboi619]

really i'm just doing a FOWLR and was told tap would be just fine.

 

[reef_doug]

With Scripps you can just pour it in. It is deep sand bed filtered already.

If at room tempature, there is no need to heat it, nothing in the water would die off. I only use a heater in the winter time. My water temp ranges 78-82.

The reason for using RO/DI is to prevent algae blooms which could happen with excess phosphates and silcates in the tap water. It could happen with reef or FOWLR. It's nice to prevent a major hair algae break out.

Good luck, post some pictures!

 

[Puffalicious]

trust me, you don't want to use tap water... even if it's for a FOWLR system..... you're going to have major algae problems

 

[deeboi619]

thanks again guys. Doug you convincing me more and more to do it right, Scripps or RO/DI water, the thing is that i'm dealing with such a large volume of water, it took the hose at least a good 45 min. itself to fill this 135 gal.

how do people transfer large volumes of water out of scripps? i mean i could get a truck and some trash cans, but i was still thinking even if it's in my drive way, how would i transfer it or move a 55 gal containger full of water?

 

[reef_doug]

Yeah, the transporting that volume and weight is a problem. I move about 100gal at a time using 20 x 5 gal jugs that I have. However with the cost of gas (I'm not local to SD), I've been making my own and using RO/DI and Coralife salt with good success.

You will probably need an RO/DI unit anyway to make your top off water (Fresh water to topoff to cover the evaporation loss). You can get RO/DI units for around $150. Important thing with RO/DI units is to get one that does 60-90 GPD (gallons per day) since they have better rejection rates than higher output units. Also look for a unit that has vertical DI chamber and not horizontal sitting above the membrane.

 

[deeboi619]

**** it feels wierd going back to this thread. kinda cool that its almost been a year since i've started this. all the know how i already know now, and still i come back here looking for more! that's the whole thing now more!! but kinda cool about how far and how long since ive started keeping these salty critters!! lol.

btw, i was just going to re-introduce myself at this forum, but i spend most my time on sdreefs, and saw i already made a post like this.

 

[EyeReef]

Welcome back...! How about a pix of your tank to see how far you came along?
Dont be a stranger..lots of members utilize this site as well as sdreefs =)

 

[deeboi619]

cool, i'll have to take some pics then. but right now its still a FOWLR and some lions, triggers, tangs, and others, with some LR also. I'm looking to get more live rock and was moving into corals keeping but not having much good luck yet, had a condy anem that didn't last long in my tank.