aIIan Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 Day One, I picked up a couple of pounds of live rock and 16 gallons of water from the LFS. Put the rock and and filled it with water. Rock looks pretty funky so I'm hoping it won't take too long to cycle. My dry rock from ReefCleaners won't be here till Tuesday or so. So I'll hold off on putting in the sand for now. EQUIPMENT Innovative Marine Nuvo 16 (3) Innovative Marine 8w Skkye lights (2) Innovative Marine Spin Stream nozzles (2) Maxi Jet Pro 9oo return pumps Hydor Koralia Nano 425 power head (3) inTank media baskets Eheim Jager 5ow Heater . . . FILTRATION 2 lbs. live rock from LFS 10 lbs. Nature's Ocean Samoa Pink sand 15 lbs. ReefCleaner's Florida Reef Rock Chemi-Pure Elite Seachem Purigen . . . LIVE STOCK Sargassumfish Ocellaris Clown CUC from ReefCleaners Blood Red Fire Shrimp Fire Fish . . . CORALS Bunch of Zoas Aussie Duncans Pulsing Xenia Green Star Polyps Torch Coral . . . o8 JULY 2o12 Link to comment
aIIan Posted July 8, 2012 Author Share Posted July 8, 2012 I like it so far LOL I know, she's a beaut. I'm still trying to figure out what kind of filtration media I should put in the EIGHT different baskets in the filter. I'm thinking polyfil in (1) & (4), some Chemi Pure in (2) & (5) and some cheato in one of my fuge baskets. Link to comment
got2envy Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 I only use Chemi pure and filter floss as well...that is all u need and maybe a bit of macro algae if u want. Link to comment
MGDMIRAGE Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 Looks nice, not much room in back of those things for a fuge huh. I'd keep the middle water level fairly high too to prevent too many microbubbles getting back into the display. A couple spinstreams would be cool on the returns. Link to comment
aIIan Posted July 8, 2012 Author Share Posted July 8, 2012 Now that it's up and running how often should I check that water's parameters? How significant are the swings when cycling? Just checked the basics and the only thing out of wack was the ammonia @ .125 ppm. Link to comment
aIIan Posted July 8, 2012 Author Share Posted July 8, 2012 Hey got2envy, I see you're in West Palm. What's your go-to LFS in the area? I've been to a few over the last month or so and haven't been totally impressed with any of them. Thanks. Link to comment
got2envy Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 I usually go to The Barrier Reef in Boca because it s close to my job and they always have nice stuff in the frag tanks and a nice selection of fish and tanks...other than that check out www.PBMAS.org for local reefers selling frags anda list of LFS' s I also like Oceans Below and Tanks A lot...I get my natural sea water at Barrier Reef. Link to comment
aIIan Posted July 10, 2012 Author Share Posted July 10, 2012 Got a little lazy and used the premade water from the LFS Sunday. Stopped by Petco on the way home tonight and bought a cheap Kent Hydrometer just because I was curious. Just checked the water and it's through the roof! The needle is literally pegged to the top. I don't have anything in the water except for some alleged live rock from said LFS I bought with the water. What's the easiest way to bring things back down to normal? Did I somehow ruin the live rock? I'd like to add my sand and dry rock tomorrow, should I hold off until I get the water figured out? Thanks Link to comment
Enigma Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 Very nice tank. I had no idea they had so many media baskets. Are you planning on adding much more rock to the display? If not, you might like to use Matrix in baskets. I would place poly in (1) and (4). I would put Purigen in (2), Matrix in (5), carbon in (3) and ROWAphos in (6). I would check ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate daily until I saw something happening. Once something was happening I would check every three days, or so. I'd test everything else once a week. To get the salinity down, remove some of the water from he tank and add fresh RO/DI or distilled water. If you're adding dry sand and rock, the increased salinity won't do them any harm. I'd get it in promptly so the nitrifying bacteria has more to populate. Your live rock looks like cured rubble to me (what I started my first tank with), so I think it should be okay. Your salinity really shouldn't be that out of whack (unless someone at you LFS is on glue). I suspect an issue with your hydrometer. Did you soak it in fresh water first. Did you get all of the bubbles out while it was in the tank? I find a refractometer more reliable. Did I miss anything? Link to comment
aIIan Posted July 10, 2012 Author Share Posted July 10, 2012 Yes, I've got the sand just waiting for my dry rock to come in. I think the water just might be geeked. I checked and rechecked a few times. The hydrometer worked perfectly on the different fresh water sources I used. Link to comment
got2envy Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 If it is NSW it always tends to have a higher salinity 1.027...what LFS are you going to to get water? Please don't say Coral Sea also buy a refractometer...Hydrometers are not very accurate Link to comment
aIIan Posted July 10, 2012 Author Share Posted July 10, 2012 Got it from Tanks A Lot on Dixie and 13th Ave. Link to comment
got2envy Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 tanks a lot is a great place. NSW is def higher in salinity, I always have to dilute it. Link to comment
aIIan Posted July 10, 2012 Author Share Posted July 10, 2012 Natural sea water Ahhh, I shoulda been able to figure that one out. Does this look like a decent refractometer? Also, about how long does it take to get posting privileges over at PBMAS' forums? I registered almost a week ago. Link to comment
aIIan Posted July 14, 2012 Author Share Posted July 14, 2012 14 July 2o12 Update... I gave up on trying to get the SW from the LFS to balance out. I couldn't figure out how much water to remove/add. Partly my fault, partly my $8 hydrometer's fault. I went ahead and bought some 'drinking' water from Walmart and some NeoMarine salt. Mixed it up and poured it in along with some Nature's Own aragonite and ReefCleaner's dry rock. The salinity is around 1.o25, is that too high? The refractometor I bought on FleaBay hasn't showed up yet (so much for buying local) so I won't worry about it till then. Added some polyfil (also from Walmart) and some ChemiPure Elite into a set of inTank's media baskets. Added IM Spin Streams and a Hydor Koralia Nano 425 - How do I know if I have enough good flow? Should I aim the power head up over the rock formation, in to, in front, behind, or what? How established does a tank need to be before I can start growing Chaeto in the fuge? How do these numbers look for parameters? 14 July 2o12 Link to comment
got2envy Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 You can add the chaeto now if you want, no problem. From now on use either purified or distilled water, drinking or spring water can still cause problems since it is not run through reverse osmosis. I use the green top purified to top off from Publix. I am sure that Tanks a lot can test the salinity for you of their water vs. your water and you can get an idea of what the salinity is of the NSW. Link to comment
aIIan Posted July 14, 2012 Author Share Posted July 14, 2012 The water jug said it it was filtered via reverse osmosis so I figured it was GTG. It had a green top as well. Refractometer came in today via snail mail. Water salinity is fine. Link to comment
aIIan Posted July 15, 2012 Author Share Posted July 15, 2012 So, what are the consequences for dropping a fish in too soon? My 6 yr. old son came home from the beach last night with what appears to be a Sargassum Fish - I never should have shown him the wonderful mini world of a Sargassum clump. After a couple of "NO WAYS" I finally broke down, put him in and to my surprise it survived the night and even found himself a nice little nook in the dry rock to hang out in. Link to comment
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