Setting up my tank, Help

dexterqg

Non-member
So I’ve just plumbed my empty 75 gallon tank with a 40 gallon sump and now I’m ready to set it up but I can only produce and store 30 gallons of water at a time at a slow rate, so should I put water in 30 gals at a time or find a way to stock all the water I need first?

Also I have some dry rock I want to put in and was wondering what process goes into that.
Should I put my live sand in first then the rock?
Do I have to cure the rock for a new tank and if so how?
And finally should I put live sand where I plan to put my Refugium?

Any help is greatly appreciated
 
Last edited:
Oh geez that's a lot of questions lol. Welcome to the addiction of reef keeping. Basically for right now what you want to do is fill the tank up 75% of the way with water. Mix in your salt and shoot for 1.021-26 salinity. After that place your rock in and "rockscape" the aquarium. Heat the water to roughly 78 degrees, After that's done put in your sand/live sand. Add water if necessary and recheck your salinity. Throw in a piece of raw shrimp and cycle the tank approx 1.5 months. You may want to add a few pieces of live rock in there to help seed your dry rock faster. There's a lot to learn in this hobby. Take it slow and google as much as you can. Take care
 
Oh geez that's a lot of questions lol. Welcome to the addiction of reef keeping. Basically for right now what you want to do is fill the tank up 75% of the way with water. Mix in your salt and shoot for 1.021-26 salinity. After that place your rock in and "rockscape" the aquarium. Heat the water to roughly 78 degrees, After that's done put in your sand/live sand. Add water if necessary and recheck your salinity. Throw in a piece of raw shrimp and cycle the tank approx 1.5 months. You may want to add a few pieces of live rock in there to help seed your dry rock faster. There's a lot to learn in this hobby. Take it slow and google as much as you can. Take care
Awesome thank you so much I really appreciate the help and I’m definitely hooked on this haha
 
So I’ve just plumbed my empty 75 gallon tank with a 40 gallon sump and now I’m ready to set it up but I can only produce and store 30 gallons of water at a time at a slow rate, so should I put water in 30 gals at a time or find a way to stock all the water I need first?

Also I have some dry rock I want to put in and was wondering what process goes into that.
Should I put my live sand in first then the rock?
Do I have to cure the rock for a new tank and if so how?
And finally should I put live sand where I plan to put my Refugium?

Any help is greatly appreciated
Oh geez that's a lot of questions lol. Welcome to the addiction of reef keeping. Basically for right now what you want to do is fill the tank up 75% of the way with water. Mix in your salt and shoot for 1.021-26 salinity. After that place your rock in and "rockscape" the aquarium. Heat the water to roughly 78 degrees, After that's done put in your sand/live sand. Add water if necessary and recheck your salinity. Throw in a piece of raw shrimp and cycle the tank approx 1.5 months. You may want to add a few pieces of live rock in there to help seed your dry rock faster. There's a lot to learn in this hobby. Take it slow and google as much as you can. Take care


I would get all the RO water you need mixed to the right salinity ready to go in the tank first. No need to worry about temp at this point. Put the sand in first into the the display tank then put your rock in. Use a dinner plate or something (so you are not displacing sand everywhere) and fill the tank up with the saltwater water. Once everything is in place, you can turn the pumps on and set the heater to 78.

You can use the shrimp to kick start the process if you would like or "ghost feeding" then adding nitrifying bacteria. I find it easier and a little quicker cycling time when buying and using nitrifying bacteria, but it's your call.

I don't think there's any need to cure the rock before, since you will be doing the same think in the tank with the cycling process.

Here's a good link that should cover most of your questions about cycling a tank. Good luck and have fun! Setting up a reef tank is one of my favorite parts of this hobby :)

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/cycling-an-aquarium.306554/
 
I would get all the RO water you need mixed to the right salinity ready to go in the tank first. No need to worry about temp at this point. Put the sand in first into the the display tank then put your rock in. Use a dinner plate or something (so you are not displacing sand everywhere) and fill the tank up with the saltwater water. Once everything is in place, you can turn the pumps on and set the heater to 78.

You can use the shrimp to kick start the process if you would like or "ghost feeding" then adding nitrifying bacteria. I find it easier and a little quicker cycling time when buying and using nitrifying bacteria, but it's your call.

I don't think there's any need to cure the rock before, since you will be doing the same think in the tank with the cycling process.

Here's a good link that should cover most of your questions about cycling a tank. Good luck and have fun! Setting up a reef tank is one of my favorite parts of this hobby :)

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/cycling-an-aquarium.306554/
Thank you! The link was very helpful in understanding why and how I’m cycling my tank
 
I would get all the RO water you need mixed to the right salinity ready to go in the tank first. No need to worry about temp at this point. Put the sand in first into the the display tank then put your rock in. Use a dinner plate or something (so you are not displacing sand everywhere) and fill the tank up with the saltwater water. Once everything is in place, you can turn the pumps on and set the heater to 78.

You can use the shrimp to kick start the process if you would like or "ghost feeding" then adding nitrifying bacteria. I find it easier and a little quicker cycling time when buying and using nitrifying bacteria, but it's your call.

I don't think there's any need to cure the rock before, since you will be doing the same think in the tank with the cycling process.

Here's a good link that should cover most of your questions about cycling a tank. Good luck and have fun! Setting up a reef tank is one of my favorite parts of this hobby :)

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/cycling-an-aquarium.306554/
the only part that I would disagree with is that I prefer to put the Rock in before the sand I think it makes for a more stable structure where you don't have to worry about burrowing causing things to shift. Just my preference.
 
I also suggest having the rock directly on the bottom glass. Otherwise when critters burrow under sand, they can cause a collapse. In theory you could put in sand first if you then shimmy the rocks all the way down through it to the glass.
 
I also suggest having the rock directly on the bottom glass. Otherwise when critters burrow under sand, they can cause a collapse. In theory you could put in sand first if you then shimmy the rocks all the way down through it to the glass.

I wholeheartedly promote this practice. I set my tank up this way without even thinking about why, but buy was I glad I did when I added an engineer goby. He had moved every bit of sand in the tank, but everything is still stable! Boy was I lucky!


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