+1

+1 to your total statement, I also did FW for years before doing SW and agree that the right equipment will be a lot less frustrating. Patience and research will be rewarding, to quote an old saying " been there done that" is what most reefers will tell you. Have fun and enjoy. :biggrin:

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Wasnt gunna order for 2 weeks... But j&l's sale this weekend convinced me to order it today baha

For time being, we may just do fowlr until we upgrade the light. Can clowns be in fowlr tanks? Or do they need corals and stuff for residencey and what not

Yes you can but I would put a clay pot or small bowl in the tank for them to host

Okay cool, i have tons of already cut up and shaped clay pots that i made for cichlids and never used

Are u sure? I coulda sworn it said half cup per 5 gallon haha

What are the pros and cons on uv sterilizers? Do any of you guys use them? Do i need one or no?

Added sand.
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............................... Thats all i have to say..

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Is the foam on the water surface okay...?

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Does this stuff work? Found it in the bag

I run a uv sterilizer on my system but it's just a small one so not sure if it's really doing anything but I read that a sterilizer larger than 12w can kill ich at a certain stage of it's life whether it's true or not I'm not sure. If I had the funds for a larger uv I'd probably invest.

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So its almost there. 11 hours after adding the sand and have zero filtration in there

Are you adding more sand or is that it.... If so then if you have any rock place it in there and use your power head to circulate have it slightly angled upwards so it's not blowing the sand around. With the rock in there it will clean up that much faster and you will see where the water currents are as well.

Thats it for sand, my live rock doesnt get her for a few days. Gotta pic it up at the air port on tuesday afternoon. I was thinking about putting an old hob filter on it with a bunch of filter floss in it

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Someone from a local reef group is selling me this, hydor controller good for 2 power heads along with a 425 gph, so im gunna hook the one im getting on this sale and the 425 that i already have up to the controller and have them mid level in my tank, then im gunna have my 600 gph top level above my heater pointed down to help circulate temp as well

I run that Hydor system and I love it have my pumps on 3 hr timer works awesome

I wont.have mine alternating, read to much about it wrecking powerheads so im.just gunna have 2 going.constant

This works well, if you don't have any filter floss a cheap bag of Walmart polyfil works great.

Yes your power heads will wear out in time from switching but I also think in a tank that small you will probably find your power heads will be fighting each other for flow if you have them both going at the same time unless both are flowing from the same side. Give It a try both ways but ultimately the decision will be up to you

One of the 425s is gunna be near the back pretty much flowing behind my live rock, and the other is gunna be on the opposite side of the tank near the front with my 600gph above it but close to the back, should create a counter clockwise type flow without clashing with eachother

A large HOB filter filled with poly wool will clear that up.

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Its almost good now so im not.gunna bother, when i put thebskimmer on in a few days it should be good

Finally!! :D bali premium rock

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http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/08/13/ryrupy9e.jpg
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Now comes the fun part....the long wait:biggrin:

With live rock and live sand I wouldnt think there would be much of a cycle. Don't think it will be that long of a waiting game. If it were me id have it full in 2 weeks :mrgreen:

I.smelled every peice of rock as i took it out of box, it was still really moist and didnt smell off at all

Next question is, how do i exygenate the water..? Will my reef octopus bh100 oxygenate it as the water comes back.into my tank?

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How does this skimmer work. No instructions lol reef octopus 100. Have it all set up and everything, i dont understand hoe anything would make it into the cup tho?

Give it time they take a while to break in and produce anything. Turn it on a low setting and adjust from there in time. Basically the skimmer will agitate the water and produce foam that will climb up the skimmer body to the cup

How do u put it on low setting?

Just turn down the air flow. Usually a little hose with a valve of some kind coming off the air pump. With HOB skimmers anyways.

Yeah theres no valve lol theres the hose that comes off the pumps intake, that has a black silencer on the end of it

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Got my little 15 gal premix setup, with a maxijet 400 to mix and then when the time comes i bought some hose to attach to it to pump it into my tank

Nice and cheap mixing container
Looks good

I may have missed it ... what skimmer are you using ?

OH, nm, I see it
RO 100

http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14...4907b8dec4.jpg

Kinda hard to see them, but will microbubbles go away after break in? One of the reasons i bought this skimmer was because all the videos and reveiws i seen ppl said they didnt get any microbubbles

Some quick reading on the web shows me that you may want to add an air valve to the air intake so you can fine tune it
Some suggest nearly closing the air intake altogether to get great skimmate

You can use something like this if it's standard airline tubing sized

http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/s...t_ID=tf-plmvbb

They usually diminish in a week or two. HOB skimmers are pretty prone to having some micro bubbles but after the break in period it's not usually a problem on the better models. I went with the Aquamaxx over the Reef Octopus model for a HOB skimmer mostly because I liked that I could point the discharge pipe against the back aquarium wall so any micro bubbles that were present didn't get pushed out into the tank.

Im hopeong that as i raise my water level the bubble trap will work better, its just one of the 3 sponges that are actually in the water right now, been waiting to add water to see my salinity was at cuz i just got my refractometer today. Set up my pre mix tank and mixed to 1.025, gunna let it sit amd stir over night and add water tommorrow afternoon amd then try amd fine tune the skimmer. My intake tube is currently bent almost horizontal because my water level isnt high enough for it to be on the proper vertical possition

You got nothing to worry about. Like everything in this hobby it just takes time. You got a great hob skimmer and after it's been running for awhile and you have everything set up correctly you will see some nasty gunk being pulled out of the tank.