Kimberly63 Posted February 2, 2008 Author Share Posted February 2, 2008 Okay, so I went to a LFS yesterday which I was there once before, but it was before I started reefing, and it's a small shop with saltwater fish, but not much knowledge on their part, if you know what I mean, but yeah, the guy there had me kinda upset. First off, I hate it when you try to ask for some advice and it's like your getting a lecture back for how "dumb" he thinks you are, because of how you're doing things with your tank. Now I have little patience for this and was quite irritated and even still. He told me that the reason why I'm not having a cycle, is because I haven't added any fish and I won't have a cycle until I add fish. He said I'll be sitting here forever waiting for a cycle to happen with just LR and LS in the tank. He made me feel so stupid and yes, I won't be going back there again. But now I'm not sure if I should add some CUC to the tank or something to bring up my ph or something. I really don't know what to do. Link to comment
Phixion Posted February 3, 2008 Share Posted February 3, 2008 Add a couple snails and hermits and see how they do. If they don't make it, then you know you aren't cycled yet. If they do, then wait a couple more weeks to add any fish. That's what I did when I set up my first S/W tank, and everything worked out. Also, if you got your rock already pre-cured and cycled, then you shouldn't experience much if any of a cycle. Good luck! Link to comment
SexyShrimp Posted February 3, 2008 Share Posted February 3, 2008 Okay, so I went to a LFS yesterday which I was there once before, but it was before I started reefing, and it's a small shop with saltwater fish, but not much knowledge on their part, if you know what I mean, but yeah, the guy there had me kinda upset. First off, I hate it when you try to ask for some advice and it's like your getting a lecture back for how "dumb" he thinks you are, because of how you're doing things with your tank. Now I have little patience for this and was quite irritated and even still. He told me that the reason why I'm not having a cycle, is because I haven't added any fish and I won't have a cycle until I add fish. He said I'll be sitting here forever waiting for a cycle to happen with just LR and LS in the tank. He made me feel so stupid and yes, I won't be going back there again. But now I'm not sure if I should add some CUC to the tank or something to bring up my ph or something. I really don't know what to do. Oh goodness. I hate it when that happens. I was picking up a few snails today for my tank & there's this IDIOT who was lecturing these adults about how they need to throw lots of fish, snails, inverts and such into their non cycled tank then add lots of copper to start the cycle and I was like ........ & the store owner was nodding his head. Yuck Link to comment
phases Posted February 3, 2008 Share Posted February 3, 2008 Oh goodness. I hate it when that happens. I was picking up a few snails today for my tank & there's this IDIOT who was lecturing these adults about how they need to throw lots of fish, snails, inverts and such into their non cycled tank then add lots of copper to start the cycle and I was like ........ & the store owner was nodding his head. Yuck Copper? How could anybody be that wrong? He must have wanted to kill everything so they would have to restock. If he was smart he would have known they would have died anyway in an uncycled tank. Link to comment
SexyShrimp Posted February 3, 2008 Share Posted February 3, 2008 Copper? How could anybody be that wrong? He must have wanted to kill everything so they would have to restock. If he was smart he would have known they would have died anyway in an uncycled tank. I know right? & the most absurd fact was that he wasn't even an employee. He was just lingering around. Link to comment
Kimberly63 Posted February 3, 2008 Author Share Posted February 3, 2008 Oh goodness. I hate it when that happens. I was picking up a few snails today for my tank & there's this IDIOT who was lecturing these adults about how they need to throw lots of fish, snails, inverts and such into their non cycled tank then add lots of copper to start the cycle and I was like ........ & the store owner was nodding his head. Yuck Wow. What the heck was he thinking? Yeah, this store worker (owner?) told me to start adding fish but bluntly hinted that an 8 gallon is going to be too difficult to keep going with a smirk on his face (grrrr). Link to comment
Kimberly63 Posted February 3, 2008 Author Share Posted February 3, 2008 Add a couple snails and hermits and see how they do. If they don't make it, then you know you aren't cycled yet. If they do, then wait a couple more weeks to add any fish. That's what I did when I set up my first S/W tank, and everything worked out. Also, if you got your rock already pre-cured and cycled, then you shouldn't experience much if any of a cycle. Good luck! Yeah, that's probably what I'm going to do. I kinda tried to get his opinion on that too, but my concern was about them getting enough to eat because I haven't had any algae at all in my tank yet and he was like "well you'll have to feed them" I'm thinking - oh yeah, feed some snails. Lol. Sounded so dumb to me. They had about a dozen or so 20 gallon tanks with saltwater fish in them and had some beauties that my favored, larger LFS didn't have. I saw a little clown goby that just tugged at my heart when I saw him. He had the cutest rosy little cheeks. lol Link to comment
Pinner Reef Posted February 3, 2008 Share Posted February 3, 2008 Yeah I'd say your cycle is complete. The only advice I have is to stock the tank extra slow. Smaller cycles lead to smaller bio-load capacity IME. While the tank has the ability to manage small amounts of waste there are not nearly as many bacteria; adding too much will start a small cycle until the balance is restored. Crap I gotta sleep. HTH or even made sense -pinner Link to comment
Kimberly63 Posted February 4, 2008 Author Share Posted February 4, 2008 Okay, I figured out a shopping list of some more stuff I need before I get any CUC. First I decided I need to buy a digital thermometer for better temperature accuracy. My second item would be a light timer. My question is: Will a power strip with a timer on it work with 4 plugs being on different schedules? That would be awesome! I want to do the regular light, lunar light, fuge light and possibly the heater all on timers. Last would be my chaeto after I decide to finish my fuge (which will be soon - I want to have it done before I put any life into the tank) I ordered calibration solution for my refractometer which I haven't really taken out of it's case yet. I'm still waiting on my digital PH monitor - should be coming sometime this week. That's about it - then comes my snails and hermits. I'm not exactly sure what to get and how much of each should get. Any suggestions? Also when people buy pods from the LFS, and putting them in their fuge, what does this do? Should I be doing this? Link to comment
Phixion Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 Okay, I figured out a shopping list of some more stuff I need before I get any CUC. First I decided I need to buy a digital thermometer for better temperature accuracy. My second item would be a light timer. My question is: Will a power strip with a timer on it work with 4 plugs being on different schedules? That would be awesome! I want to do the regular light, lunar light, fuge light and possibly the heater all on timers. Last would be my chaeto after I decide to finish my fuge (which will be soon - I want to have it done before I put any life into the tank) I ordered calibration solution for my refractometer which I haven't really taken out of it's case yet. I'm still waiting on my digital PH monitor - should be coming sometime this week. That's about it - then comes my snails and hermits. I'm not exactly sure what to get and how much of each should get. Any suggestions? Also when people buy pods from the LFS, and putting them in their fuge, what does this do? Should I be doing this? Let's see... The pods, doing this kinda gives you some definitete pods to kickstart their existance and reproduction in your fuge/tank. Probably a good idea IMO unless you get lucky and have pods to start out with from any macro or chaeto you may get. YES, you can absolutely use multiple timers on a power/surge strip. In fact, before i got my ACjr. controller, I ran 3 seperate timers off of my digital timer 8-outlet strip, lol! Daylight and actinics seperately, my lunarlight on it's own, my fuge light on a seperate one, and my ATO on it's own as well. You shouldn't need to put your heater on a timer however. Just fine tune it so it comes on when you want it to without over-heating the tank. Takes patience and a couple day to a week to get just right. Of course you'll need that digital timer first. Link to comment
Kimberly63 Posted February 4, 2008 Author Share Posted February 4, 2008 Let's see...The pods, doing this kinda gives you some definitete pods to kickstart their existance and reproduction in your fuge/tank. Probably a good idea IMO unless you get lucky and have pods to start out with from any macro or chaeto you may get. YES, you can absolutely use multiple timers on a power/surge strip. In fact, before i got my ACjr. controller, I ran 3 seperate timers off of my digital timer 8-outlet strip, lol! Daylight and actinics seperately, my lunarlight on it's own, my fuge light on a seperate one, and my ATO on it's own as well. You shouldn't need to put your heater on a timer however. Just fine tune it so it comes on when you want it to without over-heating the tank. Takes patience and a couple day to a week to get just right. Of course you'll need that digital timer first. Cool, so just a question, on a timer 8-outlet strip, can only one outlet on the strip be timed? or can all 8 outlets on the strip be on different times? I've seen single outlet timers for like $10 at petco and the strips are like $40 so I wasn't sure what to go with. I bought some chaeto at the LFS and it didn't really have anything visible on it beings it wasn't a clump but all spread out in their tank like a strip. What kind of pods should I get? Link to comment
Phixion Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 Most LFSs should sell a product in a clear bottle called "Aqua Pods" it has pods in it (you may or may not see them) and a smidgen of chaeto for them to cultivate themselves on. The timer strip I have/had was the digital type I'm sure you might have seen before. It has 4 always on outlets, and 4 timered outlets. 2 of those are the daytime ones (on for the amout of time you set0 and the other 2 are on the rest of the time (the time the first 2 are off at till they turn back on). Unfortunately you can't set the "night" outlets to be on when the "daytime" ones are, which is why I had to use extra timers plugged into it. Depending on how many you need, the strips may or may not be worth getting. Surely less clutter if nothing more. I know CoralLife (and other companies) make a 3-timer dual controllable timer strip which might be worth looking into. Or you can go the normal power strip and 4 individual timers route. You can use standard timers (digital or analog) from Wal-Mart which might be cheaper than PetCo. Link to comment
Kimberly63 Posted February 6, 2008 Author Share Posted February 6, 2008 Most LFSs should sell a product in a clear bottle called "Aqua Pods" it has pods in it (you may or may not see them) and a smidgen of chaeto for them to cultivate themselves on. The timer strip I have/had was the digital type I'm sure you might have seen before. It has 4 always on outlets, and 4 timered outlets. 2 of those are the daytime ones (on for the amout of time you set0 and the other 2 are on the rest of the time (the time the first 2 are off at till they turn back on). Unfortunately you can't set the "night" outlets to be on when the "daytime" ones are, which is why I had to use extra timers plugged into it. Depending on how many you need, the strips may or may not be worth getting. Surely less clutter if nothing more. I know CoralLife (and other companies) make a 3-timer dual controllable timer strip which might be worth looking into. Or you can go the normal power strip and 4 individual timers route. You can use standard timers (digital or analog) from Wal-Mart which might be cheaper than PetCo. Wow thanks Phixion - that actually might work for me to do the basic strip if I have the fuge and the lunar lights on at night and the daylight bulb on during the day. Now how have to figure out how to rig it up the way it's supposed to be. $40 did seem like a lot so maybe I'll go up to walmart and see what they got sometime this week. Link to comment
Kimberly63 Posted February 6, 2008 Author Share Posted February 6, 2008 So yesterday, I didn't get to do an update but I did notice on my sand that some brown algae is forming (diatoms?). Also a couple of the smaller pieces of LR are turning a yellowish brown color so I'm not really sure why that's happening. I miss the beautiful green coraline algae that used to be on my rocks Link to comment
Phixion Posted February 6, 2008 Share Posted February 6, 2008 Well with that 3-timer strip in the link, one timer controls the day/night time like the digital singles. When the timer is "on" (daytime) then the night time part is off. Once the daytime timer turns off, then the night part automatically come on. And then it has a 3rd seperate timer. So really you have seperate control there for your fuge light, lunar lights and daytime lights. Link to comment
Phixion Posted February 6, 2008 Share Posted February 6, 2008 I finally updated my 2 tank threads with new pics. Link to comment
Kimberly63 Posted February 7, 2008 Author Share Posted February 7, 2008 I finally updated my 2 tank threads with new pics. Good! I was wondering when you'd get on the ball. lol. j/k Link to comment
Kimberly63 Posted February 8, 2008 Author Share Posted February 8, 2008 Well with that 3-timer strip in the link, one timer controls the day/night time like the digital singles. When the timer is "on" (daytime) then the night time part is off. Once the daytime timer turns off, then the night part automatically come on. And then it has a 3rd seperate timer. So really you have seperate control there for your fuge light, lunar lights and daytime lights. Actually, I just figured out that I'd need something with 4 timers anyway - 1 extra for the actinics. Would I be able to plug in an extra timer into the strip you showed me? Or would there be another easier option? Link to comment
Phixion Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 Actually, I just figured out that I'd need something with 4 timers anyway - 1 extra for the actinics. Would I be able to plug in an extra timer into the strip you showed me? Or would there be another easier option? I had the digital one which only has the single timer with daytime on while night off and vice versa. What I did was set up the day timer to the actinic schedule since they are on first and off last and then plug in the daylights to an external timer plugged into the other timer strip daylight outlet, set an hour after actinic on and hour before actinic off. Worked really well this way, almost like having a controller! Link to comment
Kimberly63 Posted February 8, 2008 Author Share Posted February 8, 2008 Okay, I have a few questions: I'm going through a diatom bloom right now - what should I expect to happen after this? Will I get an algae outbreak? Will the diatoms go away or do I have to get CUC to take care of it? Should I be doing water changes? (I'm doing just top-offs for now) I also have hair algae forming on my rocks right now. My salinity is at 1.022 My pH is at 8.0-8.2 Ammonia - 0 Nitrates/Nitrites - 0 Temp 78-80 (varies) It's been about 17 days since I started my tank and I'm still patiently (barely) waiting to add anything live to my tank. Link to comment
Kimberly63 Posted February 8, 2008 Author Share Posted February 8, 2008 Okay I just got done staring into my tank and I noticed on a small piece of LR, there are 3 aiptasia looking things in a small cluster. They are pretty tiny so there is no way I'd ever get a picture. What should I do? take out the piece of rock? Scrub the heck out of it? What are my chances of it spreading to other rocks? Is there a chance they could be feather dusters? If so, how could I tell? Link to comment
Phixion Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 Just leave the cluster for now and let it grow till it's better identifiable, it could be polyps of some sort and you wouldn't want to scrub those away. Your S.G. is on the low side, when you do your nixt W/C, mix your water to about 1.024-1.025 S.G to help boost it up. You can afford to do it faster right now since you have no livestock yet other than your rock. If you're getting diatoms, it means your cycle is on the brink of being done. Diatoms in most cases will go away on their own after about a week, but when I got them with my first tank, I promptly got a small CUC which took care of them for me. Also since you've noticed some GHA on the rocks, it might be wise to get a CUC anyways as the sooner you attack that GHA, then the better the chances are of it not spreading or getting out of hand. You could get away with doing a 50% W/C right now, but with your tank I'd probably do a 25% (or 2g) since your levels are 0 which is good. I'd get a few blue leg hermits (scarlets are fine too) and maybe a few snails. A nassirus or two, a couple ceriths and a turbo if you'd chose to, but I wouldn't get any more than 1 turbo for now if you get any. Good luck! Link to comment
NogaroBlueS4 Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 Not to chime in late but was that fish store you went to by squirrel hill? Link to comment
Kimberly63 Posted February 9, 2008 Author Share Posted February 9, 2008 Just leave the cluster for now and let it grow till it's better identifiable, it could be polyps of some sort and you wouldn't want to scrub those away. Your S.G. is on the low side, when you do your nixt W/C, mix your water to about 1.024-1.025 S.G to help boost it up. You can afford to do it faster right now since you have no livestock yet other than your rock. If you're getting diatoms, it means your cycle is on the brink of being done. Diatoms in most cases will go away on their own after about a week, but when I got them with my first tank, I promptly got a small CUC which took care of them for me. Also since you've noticed some GHA on the rocks, it might be wise to get a CUC anyways as the sooner you attack that GHA, then the better the chances are of it not spreading or getting out of hand. You could get away with doing a 50% W/C right now, but with your tank I'd probably do a 25% (or 2g) since your levels are 0 which is good. I'd get a few blue leg hermits (scarlets are fine too) and maybe a few snails. A nassirus or two, a couple ceriths and a turbo if you'd chose to, but I wouldn't get any more than 1 turbo for now if you get any. Good luck! Thanks Phixion, the aiptasia looking things look like tiny, tiny feather dusters and they are light brown but the feather tenticle things are so fine I can't tell what they look like. I guess I'll calm down and wait to see what they are. I also have to calibrate my refractometer still so I'm sure to get a good reading. Today I used my hydrometer so I'm not sure how accurate it is - especially since I haven't done a water change since I started the tank - I've just been doing top-offs and the salinity is going down. Maybe I'll calibrate it tonight since I'm bored and home on a friday night. Link to comment
Phixion Posted February 10, 2008 Share Posted February 10, 2008 lol, sounds like a good plan. It's also interesting once the refracto is calibrated, to test it against your hydro. Good luck! Link to comment
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