gulf view lr pics

talked to Dale at gulf view yesterday and ordered 10lbs ls and 20 lbs lr. was overnited and delivered to my door at 9am (yahoo!). the rock ordered was premium coralline. i'm *very* pleased with it. the total cost to my door was $128 and worth every penny. pics in a moment.

i thought since this is a fairly large amount of rock, i would cycle in 2 10g tks.

specs:

tk1

10g std glass

20" current usa orbit

ac 300 (with pad and carbon during cycle)

404 mini-jet

tk2

10g std glass

18" coralife 18w 50/50

ac 300 (with pad and carbon during cycle)

404 mini-jet

i plan to place the rock in tk2 to my main tk, 1 rock a day starting at day 3 if the cycling goes well. will also do about 2 gal water changes tk/day to keep the ammonia in check.

the pics:

sorry am tryin to figger out how to attcah jpgs. lessee if this works

all items were well packed. the rock was wrapped in wet paper towels.

10 lbs live sand. the sand was very granular and noticed lots of life. worms, small crabs and stars were noted.

the rock was well wrapped and dripping with water. all rock had the odor of low tide at the jetties, nothing foul. 10 small pieces total (perfect for a small tank)

here are 5 pcs in tk2

tk2 with lighting

here's tk1 with 5 pcs and ls

dunno what this is yet (Dead Man’s Fingers ?)

Large Leaf Watercress Algae

nother close up-notice sargassum

notice feather duster and encrusting sponge

to the right

all is going well.....noticing more life poppin' up. a few more ghost dusters and feather dusters are coming out.

am doin' 2 gal water changes per tank per day (1g in the am and 1g in the pm). this is keeping the nh3 below 1.0. n02 is now .25, so the cycle has started. will update if there's any feedback. seen that this thread has been viewed lots but no comments ;0

Man I wish I gone through them for my live rock .The rock looks so full of life.Good job documenting your order.Thanks for sharing.

very nice for being so early in the cycle....also looks like its really dense

lots of macro lookin stuff n encrusting life = more stuff to watch pop up with in the next couple weeks so it should be fun

not a lot of rock, so you have pleanty of room to frag your tank to death and overstock

stopped water changes, as both tanks have nh3 .50 or less.

tank 1 seems to be cycling like some tanks i've recycled. no die off has been observed. cycling is very fast. water params:

tk1

sg - 1.023

temp - 77-79

pH - 8.1

nh3 - between .5 and .25

no2 - .25

no3 - 10

tank 2 (without the ls) is cycling slower:

tk2

sg - 1.023

temp - 77-79

pH - 8.1

nh3 - .5

no2 - between 0 and .25

no3 - 5

am posting this info to help out fellow noobs. while having a fo fresh tk, fowlr salt and a 300g goldfish pond (nano pond), cycling aquacultured lr is a *little* different.

tk1 is considered cycled, with no die off. macro continues to show. i lost 1 of 6 mussels with no nh3 spike. thinkin of terminating the other 5 mussels as i think these may foul the tk later on if they die off. water params:

tk1

sg - 1.023

temp - 76-79

pH - 8.1

nh3 - 0

no2 - 0

no3 - 10

did a two gal water change to tk1 after 0 results on ammonia and nitrites. also pulled the foam block and charcoal form the ac 300.

tk2 (without ls) is still cycling. not any change from yesterday. i don't know if the diff is between no live sand or the lower lumens of the tk. interesting to see the diff tho.

tk2

sg - 1.023

temp - 76-79

pH - 8.1

nh3 - .5

no2 - 0

no3 - 5

plans are to add one of the larger pieces of lr form tk1 to tk2 tomorrow. am also thinkin of using tk2 as a fuge in the future. dunno, i'll see how things work out.

nice look'n rock and a cool avitar

It seems that most people get good rock from them, but you seem to have gotten a lot more instant life then most

Any bad hitchhickers yet?

Originally posted by TheCurriculum

Any bad hitchhickers yet?

not unless you consider the mussels, they may be a nuisance. no other hitchhikers except growth on rock.

oh.....and have fun with your pond. we have a 300g goldfish pond on our patio that is our refuge (fuge pond) ;-]

y would mussels be considered a nuisance?

new to this and don't know if the mussels will live from here on out. from what i've read, they may pose a prob if/when they die in our small tanks. dunno, already had one open up and didn't see an ammonia spike. am hopin someone can add to this.

ive got prob around 8-10 mussles that have managed to hitchhike on frags n LR and they just kinda sit there and filterfeed all day w/ out harming anything or dying mysteriously.

They are SO hardy from what ive seen. I keep mine in there w/ no probs and consider them more benefical than anything b.c they are filterfeeders.

Some may beg to differ tho~

hummmmmmm

hay man thanks for the reply. am watching the mussels, doin good so far. won'tt get rid of em just will watch em for awhile.

yesterday and today tk1 is still stable. no ammonia or trites and trates are 5.0. pH rose to 8.4, like i read it would. new life still showing up, diatom starting. added 4 hermits from the fish tk and they're keepin busy. also put fresh carbon in filter to help me through the algae.

tk2 spiked on the ammonia yesterday. was 1.0, trites 0. did a 2g. wc. today ammonia was 0.5 and trites were at 0.5, should finish cycling in a coupla days. no water change planned.

Everything sounds like it's going on schedule :woot:

You may get lucky and have the cycle finish in a couple more days but don't be to shocked if it pulls out another week.