Slowtwitch Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Thought that seemed pretty fast. What was the source for your bacteria to start with again? The food you have been adding is probably at the stage of rot where it is making ammonia. Bacteria should start to reproduce rapidly now. Link to comment
teenyreef Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Yep, I agree. Waiting for the cycle sucks. Patience sucks. But the results are worth it Link to comment
da1001 Posted January 30, 2015 Author Share Posted January 30, 2015 I was hoping for fast, but I get normal speed. Meh, I can dream! I don't mind the wait since I am so busy at work right now but I was hoping to at least have a clean up crew in there by this weekend so the young niece and nephew could take a look. Guess I will continue to keep it under wraps until its "pretty". I am not willing to risk the health of any animals over my impatience so for now I just keep my head down at work and try not to think about my tank for more than an hour or two a day. Link to comment
reefernanoman Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 I was hoping for fast, but I get normal speed. Meh, I can dream! I don't mind the wait since I am so busy at work right now but I was hoping to at least have a clean up crew in there by this weekend so the young niece and nephew could take a look. Guess I will continue to keep it under wraps until its "pretty". I am not willing to risk the health of any animals over my impatience so for now I just keep my head down at work and try not to think about my tank for more than an hour or two a day. Patience is very important in this hobby. Your tank will be beautiful one day, I promise . Link to comment
da1001 Posted January 30, 2015 Author Share Posted January 30, 2015 I could use some advice on corals. I have about 7 really good spots on rockwork atm for some good corals. I am thinking a small Xenia and definitely a small hammer, probably some Zoas too for sure, so that leaves me 4 spots. Any suggestions? Keep in mind I want to try to keep it about 20-30 each so no 6000 dollar Acans or anything crazy Link to comment
Slowtwitch Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 You might like a trumpet. Pretty easy to care for. Lots of cool Duncans out there as well. They are on my short list. What about nems? Rock Flowers don't get too big. Link to comment
Jay Wee Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 I could use some advice on corals. I have about 7 really good spots on rockwork atm for some good corals. I am thinking a small Xenia and definitely a small hammer, probably some Zoas too for sure, so that leaves me 4 spots. Any suggestions? Keep in mind I want to try to keep it about 20-30 each so no 6000 dollar Acans or anything crazy What 7 spots? You'l be surprised to find 3 - 4 more extra spots for corals. haha. Xenia's great to start with but it'll grow really fast in no time so they will need space. And they sway too much and will touch surrounding corals. You can consider Candy Canes, Leather Toadstool, Frog Spawn, Branching Hammer and Aussie Duncan. You should also consider mushrooms. There are some really colorful ones. You can consider Acans and Blastos. If you're buying small frags they shouldn't cost more than $30 for 1-2 head frags. And lastly zoa your whole sandbed. That's gonna be awesome. haha. Link to comment
reefernanoman Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 I could use some advice on corals. I have about 7 really good spots on rockwork atm for some good corals. I am thinking a small Xenia and definitely a small hammer, probably some Zoas too for sure, so that leaves me 4 spots. Any suggestions? Keep in mind I want to try to keep it about 20-30 each so no 6000 dollar Acans or anything crazy Xenias grow like weeds( I would suggest against putting them on your LR. Maybe on your backwall would be a better idea). Hammers grow very fast and are aggressive(they need wiggle room around them). Do you have any birds nest? like screaming green ones? How about some encrusting montis and digitatas? Link to comment
da1001 Posted January 30, 2015 Author Share Posted January 30, 2015 *writes all the suggestions down to check them out in a bit* Good news!! Nikon D90 got here, everything works great. The guy listed it as used very good but I would say its almost used like new. He bubble wrapped the crap out of it so it made it safe and sound, he even threw in an 8g SD card an extra battery and neck strap. It just feels "good" in the hand, nice and heavy and professional feeling. The macro lens (Tokina 100mm f/2.8 for Nikon) comes in 6 days. The Pico Skim should be a few days after that. The Tunze 3152 is on its way as well, should be here in a week. More good news!! I'm finally getting readings that are different from before!! Used to be: 79.7 degrees, 1.022 Salinity, 8.0 pH, .25-.5ppm Ammonia and 0-5ppm Nitrates. Today: 79.3 degrees, 1.022 Salinity, 8.0 pH, 1.0ppm Ammonia and 20ppm Nitrates. This means: A. my test kits are good and B. my cycle is finally taking off after 6 days of fish food cooking away in there for starting this sucker up. I couldn't be happier. So happy in fact that I went and got 2 nice fat steaks for the grill tonight. I need it bad after the work week I have had. Thanks for all the suggestions everyone, I will make sure I check out each and every single one of them, I have them listed in a notepad document right now and I will give you a heads up as to what I will be looking for. Link to comment
da1001 Posted January 31, 2015 Author Share Posted January 31, 2015 And voila!! Here is the list! (this list all hinges on what the LFS has in stock when I go, of course. I like to buy all of mine at the exact same time so they come from the exact same water parameters, etc etc.) trumpet coral (hell yea, metallic green maybe?)duncans (ya ok maybe if they don't have any xenia haha)rock flower anemone (....maybe, although I've never seen one at my LFS)candy canes (yes plz mwahahaha)leather toadstool (I've never been one for toadstools, unfortunately but if I see a good price on one I could always toss it in to see what happens)frog spawn (i always thought it would grow too big, I will add it to the list since the LFS always has it cheaper than their hammers and maybe get that instead)acans (red/green for the win)blastos (they are kinda cool but I would have to find one in the exact color combo that really lights me up haha)birdsnest (i kinda like it > If i see any I might grab some but these are usually on the 30 dollar rack instead of the 10 and 20 dollar racks haha)encrusting montis (ok i guess, better if green or blue, a definite maybe)digitatas (montis? maybe, but again, like the leather toadstool, not really my cup of tea, but if I saw it for a good price, sure)I wouldn't mind a cool Ric, either I got a smaller rock sort of to the left and in front of the main rock that I can always stick the more aggressive/wavy/tentacled guys to so they don't wreck my bigger boat in the night. So that's why I am ok with a weed-growing Xenia or a pissed off Hammer. You are right on the spots JayWee, I keep finding more. And I hadn't even thought of making the sand bed a Zoa carpet. Hats off to you, good sir. Link to comment
Slowtwitch Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 Might want to raise your salinity a tad as you start to do your water changes to get rid of the nitrate build-up. Link to comment
da1001 Posted January 31, 2015 Author Share Posted January 31, 2015 Might want to raise your salinity a tad as you start to do your water changes to get rid of the nitrate build-up. That's my plan Happy to see you looking out for me, Slowtwitch Link to comment
Slowtwitch Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 That's my plan Happy to see you looking out for me, Slowtwitch Everybody wins when we all look out for each other. Hey I figure you'll remember this when you get an awesome piece that you can frag and send to me for free! Link to comment
da1001 Posted February 1, 2015 Author Share Posted February 1, 2015 Well, time for a quick update. I got up this morning and the tank was just looking, well...nasty. Not algae, just needed to have the glass and back cleaned up etc. from general mung. I decided to go ahead and toss in my carbon and purigen into the media basket when I replaced my filter floss to see how they fit....kinda like those shots of O.J. trying to get the murderer's glove on his hands, really. Tight is an understatement. Well, at least I know which size baggies to buy in the future, the size below what I got this time. I scrubbed my glass clean and got the background this time too which really needed it because I didn't get it the first week. Ammonia was high so I decided to do a small water change too. Everything looks clean and sexy again, and here are the parameters about 10 minutes after I finished up: Temp: 77.5F (I will aim for about 79.5 during the day and 78.5 at night probably, its just low because the water didn't have a heater in it when I was mixing my salt water for more than about 3 minutes, lol) Salinity: 1.022 (idk why it likes to stay at that level even with me putting in a bit extra Reef Crystals to try to bring salinity up ) pH: 7.9ish Ammonia: 2.0 ppm (whoa, big spike, glad I water changed) Nitrates: 20 ppm If the ammonia stays that high for a few more days, I will consider another water change probably to keep it in check. Thoughts? Link to comment
Slowtwitch Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 Anything in there that you are trying to keep alive? If yes, then do a water change. A big one. Link to comment
da1001 Posted February 2, 2015 Author Share Posted February 2, 2015 Yea I water changed, its now back down to 1.0 ppm Ammonia again. Back to slow-cooker mode! Link to comment
teenyreef Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 Yep, you are cycling away An easy and safe way to get your salinity back up is just top off with salt water instead of your regular RO/DI water. Monitor daily until it gets back where you want it. Link to comment
jeremycee Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 Yep, you are cycling away An easy and safe way to get your salinity back up is just top off with salt water instead of your regular RO/DI water. Monitor daily until it gets back where you want it. Solid advice just be careful not to over do it and watch the levels closely. I really dig your setup, its always super exciting to start up a new tank. If I had the chance again I would have been more picky with my coral selections in the beginning. Starting off with corals that are hardy since its a new tank. also, getting a nice base to work around as stuff grows out. Like starting off with a few nice zoa frags to grow out into a garden,a couple ricordea, and maybe some star polyps. I saw you were thinking about getting some xenia and I strongly urge you not to. They are out of control and will spread everywhere you don't want them to. I have first hand experience haha its not awesome. Cant wait to see the progress! Link to comment
da1001 Posted February 2, 2015 Author Share Posted February 2, 2015 Yes, I have been meaning to start using saltwater for my top offs, I just keep forgetting, shame on me. I even have an extra bucket with a lid on it that I could use to keep evaporation down. Work has been so crazy lately what with the class they have me taking, having to pack up and move a few rows over until they can totally redo our work space and then hearing about potential procedural changes which might or might not take about half of my daily work away....sheesh. I could use a break. I will leave myself a note to mix up like a gallon of saltwater tonight to start slowly increasing salinity with when I top up in the mornings and evenings. That will hopefully get me to 1.023ish right as my ATO unit arrives in 2 days via UPS and then I can go back to DI water until I can order my RO/DI unit. I only need to top up about .5 liters a day due to evaporated water, so its really not too bad. A gallon will last me about 8 days. Link to comment
da1001 Posted February 3, 2015 Author Share Posted February 3, 2015 Daily update: I updated my first post to show current costs incurred starting this sucker up. Also updated parts list as to items used and the one item I have already switched out. Mixed up some 1.025 salt water so I can get my salinity up in the display tank. I will be topping up with it until I have the salinity I want (probably about 1.023-1.025ish). Started this morning at 1.020 and currently 1.022. Ammonia is still 1.0 ppm and cooking along. Kinda getting pissed at that same color every single time I test. I have noticed more purple algae growth on my rocks. Small specks, but its starting to color up. I have a sort of weird milky looking substance on the back of my large rock. I don't think? its anything bad but I will definitely being watching it closely. My macro lens got bumped back from Wednesday to Thursday on the delivery date. Still waiting to hear back on when my Pico Skim will order. Back-order date was listed as today, so I hope to have a tracking number tomorrow. Link to comment
Slowtwitch Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 The "weird milky substance" is probably the result of some die off in the rock and is likely the source of your ammonia. You can siphon it out if/when you vacuum your sand bed. Link to comment
da1001 Posted February 3, 2015 Author Share Posted February 3, 2015 I hope I can reach it, it is on the very back of the rock work right near the glass, I might have to make a special brush tool thingy to reach it. Like maybe a....paint brush? Link to comment
da1001 Posted February 3, 2015 Author Share Posted February 3, 2015 I woke up to see that about half of my rock work looked like it had been hit with a green spray can overnight. Not the bad algae, the good kind. Still no diatoms and no time to check test kits other than a quick top off before I head out the door for work (Tunze Nano in the mail tomorrow w00t) and I will check it again in about 9.5 hours when I get off and drive my jolly ass home at top speed. Link to comment
da1001 Posted February 3, 2015 Author Share Posted February 3, 2015 Ok, getting close. Its been 10 days now. I am seeing little tiny pockets of diatom popping up on both my sand and rock, the green algae is getting even thicker on my rockwork and the purple algae has really been spreading. I checked a few of my parameters: Salinity: 1.022 (grr, still increasing it) Ammonia: .25 ppm (woooo, finally headed in the right direction from 1.0 its been all week lol) Nitrates: 40 ppm finally over the 5-20 its been stuck at so ammonia is being gobbled up finally and turning into Nitrites/Nitrates. Hopefully CUC, fish and corals this weekend? But only if ammonia is 0 by then. We shall see! Link to comment
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