aggiereefer Posted November 3, 2003 Share Posted November 3, 2003 I set my tank up last night. it hasnt even been running 24 hours yet. I was told not to do water changes until the tank has cycled. is this true? Also, If any critters tagged along w/ the rock would I have seen them by now? I'm kinda disspointed w/ my rock. What can I say about my rock that hasnt already been said about afghanistan? It looks bombed out and depleted. The rock does have some nice purple and green coralline algae but I think thats about it. Has anyone had any experience with Coralife's "deep six" specific gravity meter? Im not trusting the readings it's giving me. I'm getting erratic measurements, different salinites in different spots within the tank. Link to comment
SeaMountain Posted November 3, 2003 Share Posted November 3, 2003 Not too worry aggie... When I first setup my 10g the LR seemed pretty bland as well. Within a few months it looked like this: If you search some of my threads you'll find me b!tching about no hitchhikers too! Now I have feather dusters, worms, copepods and even freaking flatworms! Trust me aggie... Patience is a virtue - dammit! Hang tough and spend your time checking out www'JustPhish.com , wwwTheLogicalReef.com and wwwSPSFrags.com . Start planning your purchases and before you know it you'll be JCT material! Link to comment
MKramer Posted November 4, 2003 Share Posted November 4, 2003 I liked the Deep Six, as specific gravity meters go. I long ago replaced mine with a refractometer, but that's something you can consider later. I don't know how you can be getting different readings around different areas of the tank. I suggest you rinse it out with freshwater between uses, to make sure there aren't any salt deposits inside (from evaporation). You also have to be very careful with bubbles. Let it fill very slowly, up to the line, and inspect for any bubbles on the floater. If you see any, do it again. Link to comment
tinyreef Posted November 4, 2003 Share Posted November 4, 2003 I'm getting erratic measurements, different salinites in different spots within the tank. a couple of possibilities: make sure all air bubbles are knocked off the 'arm', did you 'season' the arm (soak it overnite, i dunno if that really makes a diff tho), and differing temps will give varying results (e.g. next to the heater, near the lights, etc.). Link to comment
SW20Rida Posted November 4, 2003 Share Posted November 4, 2003 Originally posted by tinyreef a couple of possibilities: make sure all air bubbles are knocked off the 'arm', did you 'season' the arm (soak it overnite, i dunno if that really makes a diff tho), and differing temps will give varying results (e.g. next to the heater, near the lights, etc.). tinyreef, When you 'season' the arm, do you soak it in fresh or salt water? Link to comment
Yves Posted November 4, 2003 Share Posted November 4, 2003 some product reps have told me as little as 20 mins though Link to comment
Yves Posted November 4, 2003 Share Posted November 4, 2003 you can kinda check your hydrometer with r.o. water... should read right at 0 Link to comment
aggiereefer Posted November 4, 2003 Author Share Posted November 4, 2003 i washed out the hydrometer before i used and I was sure to try and not take in any surface water and i got some readings that werent through the roof. thanx now i just need to build a time acceleration machine and put my tank in it. cycling is so agonizingly slow and its only the 2nd day my tank has been running! ROOARR!!! Link to comment
MKramer Posted November 4, 2003 Share Posted November 4, 2003 I hear that. I just set up a new tank with some hideously uncured liverock. It's been four weeks now, and I've still got nitrites. But at least that horrible sewage stench only lasted one week. Can't wait to start stocking it. Link to comment
birdman204 Posted November 5, 2003 Share Posted November 5, 2003 yves, does your hydrometer go down to 0, I've heard the swingarm type are hard to calibrate due to that fact. P.S. Just got a refractometer a couple weeks ago...to quote the comicbookguy from groenigland.... "Best...Purchase...Ever!" Link to comment
Ike Posted November 5, 2003 Share Posted November 5, 2003 Hey aggie, Yes you are correct about the water changes. Don't do any until the tank has cycled and you are getting 0 ammoina, 0 nitrite and are detecting levels of nitrate. You want the bacteria in the rock to do their job. They do it better & faster when the have ammoina & nitrite to eat. When you do a water change you reduce the levels and just cause the cycle to take longer. Don't sweat the hitchhikers issue yet. My rock looked like your too. Give it a couple of months & you'll be amazed at what starts growing out of it. Like Sea said be patient. Nothing good happens fast. you're going to have several algae blooms/diebacks, etc. Just be patient, don't worry about them, because they will eventually go away. Just be meticulous about water changes and maintenance. Don't rush anything. Finally, the Deep Six is fine. As was stated before make sure you bang the bubbles off the arm. I have one & it works great. I don't know how accurate it is, relative to a refractometer, but as long as it's consistent I don't care. What I'm saying is that if my Deep Six tells me that the salinity is 1.026 and in reality the salinity is 1.024 I don't care. As long as everytime I make a batch of ASW I make sure that my Deep Six reads 1.026 everything will be OK. Since everything in my tank can live happily within a range of parameters I think that being consistent is more important than being dead-on accurate. But that's just my opinion. Ike Link to comment
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