Viking Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 FTS 6/28/2016 I've decided to start up a new tank due to the issues with both the start and execution of my current 20 Long. Thanks to advice from my LFS and many discussions over that last year, I think that starting over, and doing a proper cycle and the correct equipment (and more experience), I'm hoping this will turn out a bit better. I'm moving to an IM 25 gallon Lagoon tank with a stand I (over)built myself. I will be using my existing Hydor SlimSkim nano ( so long as it works right, willing to switch if needed) attached to the middle of the back wall/ divider in the Display (like I'm doing with my current 20) and have a reactor with carbon/GFO in one rear chamber and a 75W cobalt Neotherm in the back. Due to the heavy amount of evaporation I get from A/C being run constantly, an ATO will also be used. Lighting will probably start with the lighting from my 20; 2 bulb T5HO from aquatic life and a Current Marine LED (not the PRO ) I am planning to run without sand, but I am willing to chnage that if it needs down the road. I have seen several of these tanks set up without sand and they look really good to me. Here are a few pictures from the past couple of weeks showing the progress of my stand, I think it turned out decent concidering the only power tool I have in my apartment is a Cordless drill. Not exactly Legos: Taking Shape Finally Finished ! Well, Mostly.... ...note, I was impatent and went and bought the tank before I finished the stand. I blame my poor willpower . Tank finally on the stand I am still trying to decide how I want to finish the front. It will have a door, but working out what kind of finish I want to go with. Maybe finish off the black trim and leave the actual door wood tone? Link to comment
Slowtwitch Posted March 15, 2016 Share Posted March 15, 2016 Good luck with the reboot. Link to comment
Viking Posted March 15, 2016 Author Share Posted March 15, 2016 Awww yiss I told you I would be making a new thread soon Good luck with the reboot. Thank You ! I plan on giving the cycle as long as it takes... I already have a tank I can look at when I need to. Just need to, you know, ignore the uglies and such...and the missing rocks I killed off to reuse... Also, as proof that its a Small World After All... When I went the LFS store yesterday, there was couple I hadn't seen before buying about a gallon of water, which seemed odd. When the Owner's wife recognised me, she turned back to the couple and told them that I had started my Salt water hobby with a Bio Bubble as well. I wish them better luck with the pump than I had Link to comment
Viking Posted March 17, 2016 Author Share Posted March 17, 2016 And we now have a scape and water! I have SW from my LFS and started the daily Microbacter dosing. We are underway! Link to comment
Viking Posted March 17, 2016 Author Share Posted March 17, 2016 Now that I've started the cycle, should I go ahead and start running Carbon and GFO, or should I wait a little bit until the Bacteria gets established? Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 Doesn't really matter, the water should be clean and free of most DOCs and excess phosphate, so at this point the media would just become more surface area for bacteria lol Link to comment
pgrVII Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 Doesn't really matter, the water should be clean and free of most DOCs and excess phosphate, so at this point the media would just become more surface area for bacteria lol Check out the big brain on Ben Looks nice man off to a great start! Link to comment
Viking Posted March 17, 2016 Author Share Posted March 17, 2016 Thanks guys, will fire it up later tonite! Link to comment
metrokat Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 Check out the big brain on Ben Looks nice man off to a great start! Link to comment
Viking Posted March 20, 2016 Author Share Posted March 20, 2016 So I found out the hard way why you rinse GFO and Carbon before you introduce it to your tank. I have always rinsed carbon bags before using them before, but I forgot to rinse the media chamber before sliding it into the reactor while I was setting it up. It looked like I chummed the tank looking for sharks. On the other hand, I now know that the socks that come with the tank for the overflows can really do a good job, kinda like the Confidence Course the Army puts you through for gas mask training. I bought a 2nd pair of socks so I can keep a rotation of clean socks now as the originals are a very deep orange at the moment. Link to comment
Viking Posted March 22, 2016 Author Share Posted March 22, 2016 Smart ATO is absolutely being added this coming weekend. The water loss in the back of this tank is pretty rediculous. I'm going to blame the Air Conditioning. Display is still a little cloudy, but I think I;ve got about 90% of the GFO dust out and will be switching the socks in a day or 2. Today will be the 7th day adding Microcbacter. Link to comment
Viking Posted March 22, 2016 Author Share Posted March 22, 2016 Nitrites just tested at 0.2, so it seems there is some cycle activity going on now. I have been dribbling a little bit of thawed Mysis/ Cyclops into the tank to provide some organics to break down to help feed the bacteria. I will probably do Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate test either tomorrow or day after to get a bigger picture. Seems to be going good so far. Link to comment
Slowtwitch Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 Still dosing the microbacter7? Things should progress rapidly now. Link to comment
Viking Posted March 23, 2016 Author Share Posted March 23, 2016 Still dosing the microbacter7? Things should progress rapidly now. Yes, was planning to continue for the full 2 weeks. I have my old tank still up and running, minus some live rock I "borrowed" and killed for the new tank as I didn't want to drag anything "extra" over. I want to get everythng I still have moved over, but not until the new tank is ready. That doesn't mean I'm not willing to cheat. Link to comment
reefhound Posted March 27, 2016 Share Posted March 27, 2016 here I thought bacter 7 was cheating? may as well go all the way then right? Link to comment
Viking Posted March 27, 2016 Author Share Posted March 27, 2016 Not sure about "cheating" but it should accelerate thing a little. It will still take months for the bacteria to colonize the rock, so this is just cutting a week or so off the begining. I have 2 tanks going now and I'm not set up to handle that long term in this apartment. The sooner I can get this tank cycled, the sooner I can start moving my friends over to their new home Link to comment
Viking Posted March 31, 2016 Author Share Posted March 31, 2016 So far, I've had ammonia right around 1.0 - 1.2. Nitrite has gone from.2 to about .5 and Nitrates were at 5 yesterday. Since there was no change in the ammonia since yesterday, I will holds off on testing Nitrite/Nitrate until I see it go down. The Microbacter 7 dosing stopped on Tuesday in accordance to the directions. I did add a small cup of sand from my established aquarium since the rock I'm using was pretty much dead to start with. There is a slime of either algae or bacteria (I hope) forming on the glass, so I'm holding that as a good sign. The Smart Micro ATO went in on Sunday and has gone through the better part of 2 gallons already. Hoping it won't be much worse once full on summer gets here. Starting to feel like it already.... Link to comment
Viking Posted April 7, 2016 Author Share Posted April 7, 2016 Added the skimmer to the Display on Tuesday and it seems to be cooking along nicely, even after the heavy cleaning I did. Foaming up nicely and pulling a bit wet, but not expecting to get anything dark yest with no real bio load. The cup of sand I added had a bit of the brown I get in my current tank for a day or 2 after I put it in, but that has since gone away. There may be a litle bit of it trying to form again, and if they are diatoms, like I believe, it may be a sign that things are getting closer. I haven't check the ammonia yet this morning, but it was still around 1 last evening. The light I'm using on it is temporary, It's the Aquatic Life T5 dual from my 20 long, since all I have in that one are some softies and an LFA, the Current Marine LED should be fine until I get the AI Prime tomorrow and put the T5s back. I'm hoping the cycle starts to speed up, but it's just a matter of time. Link to comment
Viking Posted April 7, 2016 Author Share Posted April 7, 2016 Today's ammonia test came in at .4! We have progress! Took a few more shots of my scape from other angles, as I'm happy Link to comment
Viking Posted April 8, 2016 Author Share Posted April 8, 2016 Ammonia was just barely above 0 today, so I tested Nitrites,,, off the scale of my Red Sea test, looked deeeeep purple. Seems the anaerobics haven't caught up yet. Will be picking up my AI Prime in a few hours, but the LFS said they are out of the black mounting arms, seems they had one more light than mounting kits. I could get a silver one and plastidip it ( might fix the possible sag issue as well with paint taking up some of the slack), or maybe go for a hanging kit and hope the cats don't decide its a target. Link to comment
Viking Posted April 9, 2016 Author Share Posted April 9, 2016 AI Prime is installed and set up, currently in ramp down and close to shut off. No issues with the light sagging, seems to be pretty stable as of yet. No buzzing coming from it yet either. I picked a 1 1/2 lb piece of live rock from the store while I was there to help seed my rocks and took the sand from my other tank out as I started seeing small brown patches on the rock. Could be natural, but I don't want to move any of the stuff I've been fighting from the old tank, so why take more chances than needed. Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted April 9, 2016 Share Posted April 9, 2016 Actually, the some of the same bacteria that fix ammonia also fix nitrite, just at a different rate Link to comment
Viking Posted April 9, 2016 Author Share Posted April 9, 2016 I thought the nitrite to nitrate was done by the anaerobic bacteria, or most of it was, Either way, added some (cleaner) established rock shouldn't hurt me, and I'm not adding anything else from my tank until I'm sure it going to be safe for them. I want it done now, but it will be ready when it's ready I think what i'm looking forward to is that fact that this tank is set up BEFORE things go in, instead of adding stuff to help fix something. Would be great if it's ready before Reefapaooza, but honestly, don't think it will stable enough by then. Link to comment
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