my 40g marine aquarium project

[noisetherapy]

Hello all. I'm new to these parts. Thought I'd share my progress in this thread. Please feel free to comment/critique/question!

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stand built out of 2x4 & MDF

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painted

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gimpy kitty checkin it out

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new setup murky water from improper sand addition

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added lights & more LR

[tang daddy]

Looks like you're off to a good start!
Are you planning to have just fish or adding corals too?
Also I see 1 powerhead in there, you should add 1 or 2 for more flow.

[noisetherapy]

Thanks for the tip! I have added a powerhead to the opposite side. I'm experiencing diatoms right now. Read that they will eventually go away on their own?

I'd like to get a bunch of coral once I finish purchasing LR. Too expensive!

[tony1928]

You can buy dry baserock to supplement your live rock. That will help save money as baserock is probably 2 bucks a lb versus 8-9 bucks for premium live rock. The best price would be to buy live rock from people getting out of the hobby....alot of times you can get it for around $4. The baserock will become live over a couple of months. The big advantage of baserock is that you can get exactly the shapes you want and be certain its not bringing anything undesirable into your tank. It will slow things down for sure though in terms of being able to increase livestock quickly.

[spit.fire]

you could always buy some liverock off of me haha
ive got lots, not getting out of the hobby but i have alot of it "laying around"

[noisetherapy]

oh really??? Abbotsford is just too stinkin far from Kitsilano.
unless...... you deliver for free......... and are cheap........ and supply beer......


hahah thanks at any rate!

[spit.fire]

i drive a pig on gas, but im cheep, but i dont drink

[noisetherapy]

attack of the killer diatoms

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that brown goo is diatoms correct?

i want it to go away



-added more LR and another powerhead

[spit.fire]

its pretty much a new tank thing, i usually throw phosphate remover in my filter to help slow it down / get rid of it

[tang daddy]

Just let the diatoms be.... It's part of a cycle, it will disappear soon then you will get hair algae, that will eventually disappear and you may go through a stage of cyano aswell. These are all common symptoms to starting a new tank, a stable tank doesn't happen in a couple weeks, it takes atleast 6 months for a system to be somewhat stable. You have to let the tank go through these stages to mature, trying to rush it or remove it with medication is just prolonging the cycle. Most people start a tank with no patients and within a few months shut it down because it doesn't look good, they fail to realize it takes time. I have also seen people try to be chemists by adding chemicals to remove certain thing from their tank when the simplest option is sticking to routine WC and let the pest algae and the other types of nuisance take care of itself.