scubs Posted January 11, 2009 Share Posted January 11, 2009 Howdy folks! This is my first post at Nano-Reef. I live in San Francisco Bay Area and I am an avid diver. I have dove Monterey, Fiji, Indonesia, and Hondras and I absolutely love the ocean and its marine life. When I came across this website, I got hooked, and had to get an aquarium! I've never had an aquarium before, so I am a virgin in the aquarium world, bare with me. So after I spent tremendous amounts of hours of research on Nano-Reef forums I decided to go with the BioCube 14. I also decided to create a blog about the whole process behind creating and maintaining a salt water aquarium as a newbie. You can check it out here and see couple of more pictures of it http://anters.wordpress.com/ This is what i got: * 14 gallon BioCube tank * Stand * 12 lbs of Live Rock from Tonga * 20 lbs of Live Sand - Fiji Pink * MaxiJet 900 pump * Heater * Purigen * Chemi Pure * API test * Thermometer So based on other mods on here, these are my mods: * 3rd chamber — I replaced the stock pump with the MaxiJet 900 and removed the sponge * 2nd chamber — I removed all of the stock filters, bioballs and sponges and replaced it with bag of Chemi Pure and stack of Filter Floss * I cut 3/4″ between the 1st and 2nd chamber for better overflow * 1st chamber — Took out the false bottom, placed bag of Purigen and the heater The rocks are uncured and have a LOT of growth on them, I don't know if thats a good thing or a bad thing? Here take a look: If you guys have any suggestions please let me know! I want to become a successful reefer! Link to comment
jejenkins Posted January 11, 2009 Share Posted January 11, 2009 First to N-R. Sounds like you are off to a good start. As far as growth on the rocks......yeah that's a good thing and all part of the process. Give it a week or so and check water params. Great idea about the blog. Link to comment
Schwanson Posted January 11, 2009 Share Posted January 11, 2009 Looks like you really did your homework before diving in to this hobby. I look forward to watching your tank progress. Link to comment
Jenna Posted January 11, 2009 Share Posted January 11, 2009 Welcome to the madness! Have you ever dived the mines in Bonne Terre, Missouri? Awesome blog! Link to comment
OreO Posted January 11, 2009 Share Posted January 11, 2009 your tank is looking good, any ideas for livestock? Good luck! Link to comment
nanoreefnate Posted January 11, 2009 Share Posted January 11, 2009 another bay area reefer! awesomeness. to nano-reef!!!! good luck on your tank! ill be tagging along. also there will be a frag swap next weekend don the 17th for NCNRS. everybody is welcome and you should come to it because you could get some free coral to start you off. it will be in san jose at the lucky goldfish. more info here http://www.ncnrs.org/home/ Link to comment
basser1 Posted January 11, 2009 Share Posted January 11, 2009 Welcome to Nano-Reef! While I have never had an opportunity to dive, I watched a DVD, "Coral Reef Adventure", and like you I was hooked! You'll find lots of friendly folks here, and a few goofy ones (you know who you are)! Link to comment
scubs Posted January 12, 2009 Author Share Posted January 12, 2009 Thank you all for the warm welcome, this is such a great community. Today I had an impulse shopping spree and came home with 5lbs more live rock. So, I had to do some re-arranging. It was frustrating at the beginning, because everything got cloudy again and I was not happy with the initial formations. But, than at the end I was satisfied with the end result. I made a lot of crevices, caves and swim-troughs. My water temperature was slightly high 82F, even though I set the heater (Jager 50W) to 75F. The apartment is not that warm 65F. So I will keep on reducing the temperature on the heater and see if that will work. I also got the API master kit and i did my first testing. Here are the results: * Salinity........1.022 * PH ..............8.0 * Ammonia....2.0 * Nitrite.........0.5 * Nitrate........20 I don't know what to do with the PH, how should I raise the PH to 8.2? Have you ever dived the mines in Bonne Terre, Missouri? Awesome blog! Hey Jenna, thanks for the welcome. I haven't dove Bonne Terre. The only fresh water diving I've done is at Lake Tahoe. another bay area reefer! awesomeness. to nano-reef!!!! good luck on your tank! ill be tagging along. also there will be a frag swap next weekend don the 17th for NCNRS. everybody is welcome and you should come to it because you could get some free coral to start you off. it will be in san jose at the lucky goldfish. more info here http://www.ncnrs.org/home/ Oh cool! I would love to join NCNRS. I came accros the website during my research. It will be great to meet other reefers, so I can bother them with my newbie questions Link to comment
pwrmac2 Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 Looks Good. Seems like your off to a nice start. Link to comment
Whacked Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 Welcome! Nice start on your reef addiction Once a year, MARS has a frag swap and get a lot of people from the bay area. Keep it in mind and make the trip to Sac, its definately worth it. Link to comment
nanoreefnate Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 Oh cool! I would love to join NCNRS. I came accros the website during my research. It will be great to meet other reefers, so I can bother them with my newbie questions looking forward to seeing you there! Link to comment
scubs Posted January 13, 2009 Author Share Posted January 13, 2009 After reading some posts, I realized that I am not supposed to have chemi-pure and purigen during the cycling period, so I went and removed those and left just the filter floss. Luckily its just the 2nd day. I hope I am doing the right thing?! Also, my heater doesn't seem to turn itself off. Its Jager 50W. Without the heater my temp runs around 78F. With the heater on, set to 78F the water gets to 82F. It's very frustrating. On top of that I noticed that there is maybe 10-15 really tiny Aipsatsias. What should I do with those? They are really tiny. Link to comment
nyfishguy Posted January 13, 2009 Share Posted January 13, 2009 looking good my friend keep up the good work...they're are a lot of great ppl on this site that will be able to provide you with a wealth of knowledge about how do things right the first time Link to comment
grovernorsnr Posted January 13, 2009 Share Posted January 13, 2009 After reading some posts, I realized that I am not supposed to have chemi-pure and purigen during the cycling period, so I went and removed those and left just the filter floss. Luckily its just the 2nd day. I hope I am doing the right thing?! Also, my heater doesn't seem to turn itself off. Its Jager 50W. Without the heater my temp runs around 78F. With the heater on, set to 78F the water gets to 82F. It's very frustrating. On top of that I noticed that there is maybe 10-15 really tiny Aipsatsias. What should I do with those? They are really tiny. I just finished a 1 month cycle and my live rock had aiptasia as well, about 6-7 little ones about the size of a pencil eraser or smaller. As I saw them I would pull the rock out and put a few drops of purple-up directly on the spot where it shrank down to. It killed burned them every time and tank calcium levels remained fine throughout (the area did remain white for a few days). I did not dose my purple up on days that I killed aiptasia however. Link to comment
scubs Posted January 14, 2009 Author Share Posted January 14, 2009 I just finished a 1 month cycle and my live rock had aiptasia as well, about 6-7 little ones about the size of a pencil eraser or smaller. As I saw them I would pull the rock out and put a few drops of purple-up directly on the spot where it shrank down to. It killed burned them every time and tank calcium levels remained fine throughout (the area did remain white for a few days). I did not dose my purple up on days that I killed aiptasia however. The ones that I have, I think, are really small ones, 1/8" or even 1/16". I really don't want to remove the rocks and disturb the sand again. The re-scaping was frustrating. So maybe when the cycle ends, I can add a Peppermint shrimp to eat them up. I got two questions: I am on my 4th day of my cycle and the ammonia is 4.0, N02 is 1.0 and N03 is 20. So my question, should I do any water changes to preserve the live on the "uncured" rock? If yes, how much and how often? My second question is really a noob question. How much Filter Floss do you put in the 2nd chamber? I have 6" of it, is that too much? Link to comment
scubs Posted January 16, 2009 Author Share Posted January 16, 2009 Is it normal for an uncured rock for the ammonia to go to zero on day 6? The live rock is freshly delivered uncured rock from Tonga. I did put a very very small piece of shrimp on day 2. According to the tests i've done, the ammonia has gone to zero! I guess the cycling is happening! Here are my test results from today and previous testing for comparison. Day 3: * PH 8.2 * Ammonia….2.0 * Nitrite………1.0 * Nitrate……..10 Day 4: * PH 8.2 * Ammonia….4.0 * Nitrite………1.0 * Nitrate……..20 Day 5: * PH 8.2 * Ammonia….4.0 * Nitrite………2.0 * Nitrate……..20 Today, Day 6: * PH 8.4 * Ammonia….0 * Nitrite………5.0 * Nitrate……..0 I double tested the ammonia and both times it turn zero. The rocks are turning brown, some grass growing at places, some algae, and then there are bubbles forming as well. Also I've noticed some "spiderweb like" covering a patch of the rock, I used turkey baster to blow it off, but it formed again after one day. And I noticed couple of hitchhikers so far: A tiny red feather like thingie, with 1/8" white tube and 1/16" feathers. Maybe an aipstasia? And something that I can't tell what is it. It flinches from time to time. Maybe a clam? Maybe some of you more experienced reefers can help me identify the hikers? Link to comment
lakshwadeep Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 spiderweb= sponge feather= feather duster aiptasia= maybe some other type of anemone clam= maybe (or other bivalve) Link to comment
scubs Posted January 16, 2009 Author Share Posted January 16, 2009 spiderweb= spongefeather= feather duster aiptasia= maybe some other type of anemone clam= maybe (or other bivalve) it's sponge? I did use turkey baster couple of days ago and it broke off easily in particles, it's like a thin film over the rock and the algae, just in one spot 2.5" in diameter. But after 1 day the film formed again on the same spot. Link to comment
lakshwadeep Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 It could be a fungus or something produced by an animal in the rock. Link to comment
scubs Posted January 17, 2009 Author Share Posted January 17, 2009 It’s day 8th and the aquarium is turning brown! Is it possible that my tank is cycling this fast with uncured rock??? What should I expect now and what steps should I be taking? Here are my test results as of today: PH ...........7.8 Ammonia… 0 N02…………. 1 N03…………. 20 Link to comment
blizzardscout2 Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 It is looking good. Your cycle should be done in a few weeks. Dont worry about the aiptasias, after your cycle just get a few peppermint shrimp and they will eat them right up. I had a few that were getting pretty large and they ate them within 2 days of placing them in the tank. Reese Link to comment
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