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ReefSafe's Lagoon 25: Lots of Euphyllia!


ReefSafeSolutions

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ReefSafeSolutions

Bottled bacteria definitely doesn't work as fast as advertised (what a surprise), but I think it is starting to work. Dosed Ammonia on Friday to 2ppm, dumped the bacteria in the tank Saturday, and today it looks like ammonia is between 0.5-1ppm. Nitrites are pretty dang high, 5ppm+. So...I think I can comfortably say I've achieved the nitrite spike. I'll test ammonia again tomorrow, but probably not nitrites for a few more days. I don't expect the bottled bacteria to blow through the nitrites for at least another week or two.

 

Regardless, progress is progress!

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It was about 6 weeks for me with Dry rock, no sand and Bottled bacteria before I could see that the cycle was converting Ammonia in a proper timeframe. It's just a jumpstart, especially usefull when not using live rock. Cycling with good, fresh Live rock seems to be the quickest, but also a bit spendier. :D

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Bottled bacteria definitely doesn't work as fast as advertised (what a surprise), but I think it is starting to work. Dosed Ammonia on Friday to 2ppm, dumped the bacteria in the tank Saturday, and today it looks like ammonia is between 0.5-1ppm. Nitrites are pretty dang high, 5ppm+. So...I think I can comfortably say I've achieved the nitrite spike. I'll test ammonia again tomorrow, but probably not nitrites for a few more days. I don't expect the bottled bacteria to blow through the nitrites for at least another week or two.

 

Regardless, progress is progress!

 

I say one week is pretty good to cycle a tank =P.

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ReefSafeSolutions

Well...I wouldn't say it's been fully cycled yet! Ammonia was close to .25ppm today. Won't bother testing nitrites until the ammonia is gone. But, the bottle certainly gave me a jump start for sure.

 

I still probably won't put anything in the tank until the end of August, even if I have proof of a cycled tank. I'll be gone for a week mid August, may as well wait till I'll be around for a while to start adding buddies!

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ReefSafeSolutions

Nitrites zero'd out today! Well...maybe they were 0.25ppm, but sub-1ppm for sure. So, I added more ammonia. I'd be surprised if the bacteria can process the ammonia in 24 hours, but we'll see how it goes tomorrow.

 

I'm not thrilled with the stand. There's a little high spot, so I have the tank under foam, but it's just not sitting well with me. I think some time this week I'm going to pull the tank off the stand and sand down the high spot. We're only talking a couple of mm, but it drives me nuts. I don't trust the foam...I keep reading about high density foam, but the high density stuff I got from Home Depot didn't compress at all. There's a bend in the foam and the tank wouldn't even flatten out the bend!

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Definitely better to fix it now rather than later. Even if you have to lose some water, it's just going to add a bit of time to the cycle. Much better than trying once you've started stocking the tank

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ReefSafeSolutions

Definitely better to fix it now rather than later. Even if you have to lose some water, it's just going to add a bit of time to the cycle. Much better than trying once you've started stocking the tank

 

Planed and sanded the top this morning...the humidity here in San Diego this week is lots of fun to work in! Took a couple hours to get everything flat. It's important to establish your personal "tolerance" for "good enough" with a job like this, otherwise you'll go nuts trying to get everything PERFECT. It's just not going to happen without a thickness planer. (I have a power planer for surfboard shaping that worked nicely for this job, but it took a while to blend it all together with the sander) I decided my tolerance would be, at the very most, half the thickness of the high density leveling mat on the bottom of the Lagoon 25. Any high spots that remain are less than 1mm tall when the straight edge is rocked to one side.

 

This way, when the straight edge, and eventually the tank, sit level on the high spots, the gap between the top of the stand and the bottom of the tank (on both sides of the high spot) is 0.5mm, which is easily absorbed by the self leveling mat on the tank. (The mat looks like it is slightly thicker than 2mm)

 

I'm happy with the results. Painted the top, will move the tank back to the stand tomorrow at some point. Time to test ammonia and nitrites!

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ReefSafeSolutions

I really like your lay out I'm glad you went with lighter sand.

 

Thanks! I'm loving the white sand so far. No lights yet, so I don't have to fight with algae yet. Ammonia is down to 1ppm, so the tank isn't quite done cycling yet. Getting closer!

 

I'm starting to debate going with LEDs or T5's. I'm really leaning towards a combo of both.

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Excited to see how this turns out! I eventually want to upgrade to something bigger and can't wait to see how this ends up. Keep up the updates :) btw live the scape

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Cencalfishguy56

 

Thanks! I'm loving the white sand so far. No lights yet, so I don't have to fight with algae yet. Ammonia is down to 1ppm, so the tank isn't quite done cycling yet. Getting closer!

 

I'm starting to debate going with LEDs or T5's. I'm really leaning towards a combo of both.

i need more tank shots, I feel neglected! Haha
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ReefSafeSolutions

i need more tank shots, I feel neglected! Haha

 

I'll take a few shots when I get the tank back up on the stand...right now it's just on the floor waiting for the paint to dry :blink:

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ReefSafeSolutions

Here's a couple of quick pics with the tank back on the stand:

 

58E16B3E-28C5-4F5B-89D0-D4AC2FC265F3_zps

 

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I think my straight edge isn't quite straight! I have a tiny little gap at the front of the tank between the tank and the stand. It's a small section, maybe 0.5mm thick, but it only extends and inch or two back and is maybe a foot wide. I'm not super concerned about it.

 

EDIT: The way I know that is by cutting a cheap, paper-thin plastic plate and sticking it under the gap until it stops.

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ReefSafeSolutions

Quick update. The tank can process out 2pp of ammonia and nitrite in about 36 hours. I just dosed a 2ppm more ammonia, I'm hoping tomorrow the tests will show a cycled tank.

 

Turns out the house has been infested with termites for quite some time, so we're having the house tented next week. Which means draining the water, moving the tank into the shed out back for a few days, refilling with water so the bacteria doesn't die, and then doing it all over again to get the tank back in the house when the tenting is complete. Oh, and we'll need to do it for my dad's tank as well...only his is chalk full of coral and fish. This is going to be interesting.

 

I also did a little side job that resulted in a new MP10 wavemaker...everything is starting to come together! It looks like I'll be adding some sort of fish on the 23rd...I leave town for a few days and get back the 23rd, I'd rather not add livestock and then disappear for a few days. Want to keep my eye on things.

 

Next step, ordering a Prime from AI. I can get them for wholesale, so it doesn't sting as bad. But still, at $225 retail, that's a pretty dang good price for a pretty dang good light.

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Fun build so far. It sucks that the rocks crumbled the first time. I really liked the original scape. It also sucks you have to drain move refill wait and drain and move it back. Anyway you'll love the MP10 Can't wait till you get some life in here!

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ReefSafeSolutions

Yeah I was really excited about the original scape, huge bummer when it all fell apart. I'm pretty happy with the final result though, it's really not much different than the first. The same rocks all in the same place, just moved apart a few inches.

 

 

The cycle is complete! I just tested my water 24 hours after dosing 2ppm of ammonia and I have 0ppm of both ammonia and nitrite! So now I'll have to do a pretty significant water change, since my nitrates are likely through the roof. I'll test them later this afternoon to see how many water changes I'll need to do. I guess since nothing is in the tank I could do close to 100%. I'm not really sure what else to do at this point regarding the cycle. I did so much research on how to get it cycled, but I didn't really think about what to do after. Do I still need to dose ammonia? Or will the bacteria population survive?

 

 

I don't have any lights up yet, so I don't have any algae growing. I know the next logical step is to add a clean up crew, but I don't have anything to clean up, so I don't want the snails to die. I guess next step should be getting that Prime ordered!

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Thanks! I'm loving the white sand so far. No lights yet, so I don't have to fight with algae yet. Ammonia is down to 1ppm, so the tank isn't quite done cycling yet. Getting closer!

 

I'm starting to debate going with LEDs or T5's. I'm really leaning towards a combo of both.

 

I have combo and it's working for me the corals seem happy and seeng good growth.

post-91912-0-44094200-1470513599_thumb.jpg

post-91912-0-00012300-1470513654_thumb.jpg

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ReefSafeSolutions

I have combo and it's working for me the corals seem happy and seeng good growth.

I love the colors you're getting on those corals. I know a lot of people don't like the lack of shimmer on T5 lighting but I actually kind of like it. I think for the time being I'm going to order a Prime HD, and then down the road update to a combo and see how I like it.

Sweet new tank! Sorry about the house pests, that's a pain.

 

Maybe a leveling pad for under the tank to help with the gap?

 

The gap is so tiny, I mean a fraction of a mm, so I think it will be OK. If I came across some high density foam I might give it more thought, but I can't seem to find anything worthwhile at Home Depot. The stuff I got initially (purple foam stuff, super high density) was almost too high density. It had a slight bend in it, and the tank, full of rock and water, wouldn't even flatten out the bend!

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ReefSafeSolutions

OK, so we moved the tanks today. What a nightmare! The lagoon was easy, but my dad's 30L was a tough one. I'll spare y'all the details, but I think we're lucky everything survived and that nothing broke. It wasn't my favorite thing in the world to move.

 

Here's a quick shot of the two tanks in the shed while the house gets fumigated:

 

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We get to do the move all over again on Thursday when the termites are mostly dead. Awesome. But, from then onward it will be (relatively) smooth sailing!

 

I had my torch skeletons in my dad's tank, and he's got about a zillion limpets, so I moved the rock the skeletons are on into my tank to hopefully build a limpet population in my tank. They seem to reproduce like rabbits! Nothing wrong with some teeny clean up crew members.

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ReefSafeSolutions

Quick update...termites have been eradicated. The fumigator checked the air for residual sulfuryl fluoride (Vikane) and gave us clearance to move back in this morning around 10am. The law states that you must get readings of less than 1ppm of the gas before you can move back into the house. Being the skeptic that I am, I'm a little hesitant to hang around inside, but so far no one has experienced any symptoms of sulfuryl fluoride poisoning. I suppose if we make it till tomorrow with no symptoms I can stop worrying a bit. (It's all the little pockets of air you don't think about that freak me out...the space under the bed where the cats hide, under the bathroom sink, the cabinet above the toilet, etc.)

 

My dad had to work this afternoon so we didn't get to move any tanks into the house. I suppose that will happen tomorrow, after I'm done working. But once the tanks are back in the house, I can focus on stocking the lagoon. The water is probably 90°F out in the shed, but I figure it'll take higher temps than that to nuke the bacteria population. So, stay tuned for an update tomorrow!

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ReefSafeSolutions

OK, everything is squared away and we have fish and coral in the tank! And lights!

 

My dad has two cardinals in his tank, but we discovered they're both male, so one was getting hammered by the other one. I wasn't planning on putting any fish in the tank until next week, but it we needed to rescue the cardinal so we dropped him in the lagoon. He's eating and doing fine, and will finally have time to regrow his fins.

 

I also put my old euphyllia frags back in the tank, just to see if they come back. The torches completely disappeared, but my hammers and frogspawn all seem to be holding on. They still have their flesh, but they don't open up much at all. I have about 20ppm nitrates so I'm hoping with the higher nutrients they might make a comeback.

 

My duncan and zoas look great, they didn't seem to be affected by the last crash somehow. I'm not complaining, as I've had great growth with the duncan.

 

And yes, my lighting is not correct, but since we added the fish, I figured I may as well use the old AI Nano to at least give some light to the system and put my old corals in my tank so my dad could free up space in his.

 

So, here's the photo dump, please forgive the bad quality:

 

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Here's a shot of the frogspawn that got hosed in the last crash. Do you guys think it'll recover? It's been this way for a couple of months now.

 

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And lastly, I bought this frag off a local guy this morning. I dipped it in Revive and then in iodine, so it wasn't too happy with me, but it's starting to come out. The guy sold it to me as a hammer, 3 heads for $20...but I'm not convinced it's a hammer. Looks like a torch...maybe a cross between a hammer and a torch? I don't know, what do y'all think?

 

C456F526-AD93-4D71-A48E-B2FCCB50DF5B_zps

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