thewire Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 Yeah, still, I would rather just do it the old natural way. For me, it's either pure ammonia, raw shrimp, or throwing some fish food in there to decay. Either way, I find that those methods yield the fastest results. I would have gone with pure ammonia this time, but I don't feel like buying a whole jug of it from the hardware store, and only use a few mL of it. I seed my new tank with some old filter pad.. Link to comment
kgoldy Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 I seed my new tank with some old filter pad.. +1. Or skimmate. That's got all the bacteria you want, and since it breaks down quickly so you don't have two weekks of high ammonia. Link to comment
Zer0 Posted July 10, 2011 Author Share Posted July 10, 2011 +1. Or skimmate. That's got all the bacteria you want, and since it breaks down quickly so you don't have two weekks of high ammonia. Dang.. I wish I knew about that sooner. Still, I don't have any skimmate lol. I don't even have any of that stuff, so I just threw in a raw shrimp and I'm going to let it decompose. Link to comment
kgoldy Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 If you want to let the whole thing decompose, crank your heater up to 85. Link to comment
Zer0 Posted July 11, 2011 Author Share Posted July 11, 2011 If you want to let the whole thing decompose, crank your heater up to 85. Really? That won't affect the bacteria after the cycle is complete? Or should I lower the temp back down after I start seeing ammonia? Link to comment
Bosch11 Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 Haha, or what you get for being a *responsible* young reefer. No, just young. lol Link to comment
phi delt reefer Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 Really? That won't affect the bacteria after the cycle is complete? Or should I lower the temp back down after I start seeing ammonia? nope - cycling at 85 degrees helps speed up the process. You'll get more evap too so just stay on top of that. i cycled my marco rock in a rubbermaid container and just put a lid on it so i didnt have to deal with evap. My basement stunk for a couple weeks so be prepared remove any of the decomposed shrimp after a week though. MB7 and some premium live rock is what i used to help seed some decent bacteria. For $14.00 you get a years worth so its not a bad buy - especially if you decide to go on with pellets or vodka dosing. Link to comment
Zer0 Posted July 11, 2011 Author Share Posted July 11, 2011 nope - cycling at 85 degrees helps speed up the process. You'll get more evap too so just stay on top of that. i cycled my marco rock in a rubbermaid container and just put a lid on it so i didnt have to deal with evap. My basement stunk for a couple weeks so be prepared remove any of the decomposed shrimp after a week though. MB7 and some premium live rock is what i used to help seed some decent bacteria. For $14.00 you get a years worth so its not a bad buy - especially if you decide to go on with pellets or vodka dosing. Great! Yeah I just took a whiff of my sump and it smelled pretty raunchy lol. But I was expecting that anyways. The room doesn't stink yet, but I'm sure it will a bit. Link to comment
Zer0 Posted July 11, 2011 Author Share Posted July 11, 2011 So yeah, the tank has been cloudy since I first put the sand in there. It's not as bad as it was the first couple days, but it's cloudy, and you can easily tell. Easily. I've been running a HOB filter with activated carbon for the past 3 days, but it doesn't seem to be doing jack squat. I figure the water volume of the sump and display combined is just too much for the HOB filter to handle since it's only rated for 20 gallons. It seems it just won't collect anymore of the cloudiness, and I'm pretty sure it's all from the sand. The water in the sump looks clear, but I imagine that's only because there is a lot less water in front of me to look through. Does anyone have any suggestions? Should I just ditch the activated carbon and go with filter floss or some sort of micron filter pad to catch the rest of the cloudiness? There are no particles floating around in the water either.. it's just cloudy. I figure that once I am able to start doing water changes, the cloudiness will drop drastically since I'm changing out the water that is cloudy, but until then, is there anything I can do? It's pretty annoying. I also imagine it will be less cloudy once I set up my LEDs. Like I said before, I have a 3 year old single NO tube over this thing lol. Thanks! Link to comment
19jeffro83 Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 Tanks looking great. Let me know if ou need any zoas. I'll be fragging soon. Link to comment
lawnmowerblenny Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 I Like the scape looks real real nice! good job zero Link to comment
Zer0 Posted July 11, 2011 Author Share Posted July 11, 2011 Tanks looking great. Let me know if ou need any zoas. I'll be fragging soon. Awesome! Thanks for letting me know! Hopefully by the time you start fragging, my tank will be cycled already. I Like the scape looks real real nice! good job zero Thanks pal! Link to comment
19jeffro83 Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 I'll prob be fragging today or tommorow. Itll give a good couple weeks for healing. Let me know when youre ready. I'll shoot some pics in a pm when I cut em up. Link to comment
Zer0 Posted July 11, 2011 Author Share Posted July 11, 2011 I'll prob be fragging today or tommorow. Itll give a good couple weeks for healing. Let me know when youre ready. I'll shoot some pics in a pm when I cut em up. Excellent! My ammonia is already at 1ppm after only 2 days lol. So I'll see how high it climbs in the next couple of days. Trying to get it to 2ppm. Once it does, or comes close, I'll take the shrimp out and it should only take another week or so from then. Woo! I'll await that PM. Link to comment
thewire Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 Excellent! My ammonia is already at 1ppm after only 2 days lol. So I'll see how high it climbs in the next couple of days. Trying to get it to 2ppm. Once it does, or comes close, I'll take the shrimp out and it should only take another week or so from then. Woo! I'll await that PM. Maybe you can seed the tank with some old filter from your old tank...speed up the process lol Link to comment
Zer0 Posted July 11, 2011 Author Share Posted July 11, 2011 Maybe you can seed the tank with some old filter from your old tank...speed up the process lol I don't have an old tank lol. This is the only running tank I own. Link to comment
lawnmowerblenny Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 ;D no hard feeling zero good luck with this tank, cant wait to see it stocked Link to comment
Zer0 Posted July 11, 2011 Author Share Posted July 11, 2011 ;D no hard feeling zero good luck with this tank, cant wait to see it stocked No doubt dude. Thanks man, I can't wait to see it stocked either. Link to comment
Zer0 Posted July 16, 2011 Author Share Posted July 16, 2011 Quick Update: I cleaned up the glass and watermarks and moved around my K1 to try and make the tank look cleaner and I believe I accomplished that. So right now, I have about 840GPH in my tank but I'm not so sure that's enough to keep SPS really happy, so I might upgrade the Koralia Nano to either a K1 or a K2. Not completely sure yet as I really want to see how coral fairs out first. If everything looks fine, I most likely won't upgrade. But if the SPS starts looking a little thin, then I'll upgrade powerheads. Still, the PH's are pretty much pointed directly at the rockwork so maybe GPH won't matter as much. Plus, the Koralias do have some pretty random flow. I did however get to see what the flow looked like today when I cleaned up the glass and particles were flowing all over the place, and no dead zones. Even behind the aquascape, so I'm very happy about that. I'm not a vortech person, and I won't be spending $160+ on a powerhead. Just had to make that known. So, here's some new pictures. This one looks like sh!t but I wanted you guys to see how the equipment at the very top of the back of the tank looked. Pretty out of sight. Let me know what you guys think. Link to comment
Rehype Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 One word.....Awesome That is all. Link to comment
Hognoxious Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 Looking great ... yea, you can barely see the equipment on the back glass - blends in nicely. Link to comment
PIMPALA Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 looks awesome man! as far as flow... in a cube design, if you even hold a stronger powerhead up to that tank, the sand is gonna start blowing all over the place, and never stop. i know it looks awesome, but that fine of a substrate is horrible for a tank like that if you want to keep SPS. Link to comment
Zer0 Posted July 16, 2011 Author Share Posted July 16, 2011 One word.....Awesome That is all. Thanks Hype! I really appreciate it. Looking great ... yea, you can barely see the equipment on the back glass - blends in nicely. Thanks dude! looks awesome man! as far as flow... in a cube design, if you even hold a stronger powerhead up to that tank, the sand is gonna start blowing all over the place, and never stop. i know it looks awesome, but that fine of a substrate is horrible for a tank like that if you want to keep SPS. Well I've kept SPS in the same cube a while back and never really had a problem and I'm pretty sure it was all about the placement of the powerheads. I know the flow could cause problems with the substrate but I don't see anything wrong with it at this point. I'm sure taking out the Nano and replacing it with another K1 won't be a problem. Much more added flow, but not powerful enough to cause problems. Not to mention that in a cube, a lot of the flow will be bouncing off the glass and going in all directions. We'll see though. I will be basing my findings and decisions on how well the desired species of coral fair in the cube. Link to comment
Squared Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 that rock scape annoys me...do you think you break that...thing...to make it shorter? Link to comment
Zer0 Posted July 16, 2011 Author Share Posted July 16, 2011 that rock scape annoys me...do you think you break that...thing...to make it shorter? Shorter? Which part? From the bottom or from the top? Link to comment
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