teenyreef Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 That whole first six weeks of tank cycling/uglynewtanksyndrome is so hard to wait through. At least you can play with all the different settings on the MP10 while you wait Link to comment
Mr. Microscope Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Fun build! A pico with an automatic upgrade. Best of luck to you. Looking forward to more. Link to comment
Steelen Posted January 18, 2015 Author Share Posted January 18, 2015 That whole first six weeks of tank cycling/uglynewtanksyndrome is so hard to wait through. At least you can play with all the different settings on the MP10 while you wait I think I have toned down just enough for it not to create dunes haha. Also I hope with the sand that I got it will reduce the cycle. If not I will do a 100% water change and get water from the LFS that I have become friends with. There are a lot of ways to reduce the cycle. If you have a LFS you trust and know is clean, get a good few gallons from them. And then slowly switch to your own saltwater while you do water changes over time. This week will tell if this sand has helped. There are a ton of tiny worms moving about in the sand also. Link to comment
teenyreef Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 I soft cycled my 10g tank with live rock, live sand, and bacterial additives, and it went really well. I never really had much of an ammonia or nitrate spike at all. But I've never found a way to speed up that ugly new tank syndrome where you get the diatom/cyano/other algae blooms while everything gets balanced out. Good luck! Link to comment
Steelen Posted January 18, 2015 Author Share Posted January 18, 2015 I soft cycled my 10g tank with live rock, live sand, and bacterial additives, and it went really well. I never really had much of an ammonia or nitrate spike at all. But I've never found a way to speed up that ugly new tank syndrome where you get the diatom/cyano/other algae blooms while everything gets balanced out. Good luck! Yea those are quite hard to avoid. I hope the tank slowly settles in by next week so I can order a CUC. Link to comment
Steelen Posted January 19, 2015 Author Share Posted January 19, 2015 Slowly shifting into the nitrite! Link to comment
Jay Wee Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 Good choice on starting with the small tank now before moving to the 40. I was hoping u would go with the 12g long. Love those tanks. But the fusion 40 seems like a good size. Anyway good luck with the visa! I'm an alien too. Link to comment
Steelen Posted January 19, 2015 Author Share Posted January 19, 2015 Good choice on starting with the small tank now before moving to the 40. I was hoping u would go with the 12g long. Love those tanks. But the fusion 40 seems like a good size. Anyway good luck with the visa! I'm an alien too. Thanks man! Yea I looked at the 12g long but the wife ordered this 5.5. Yay another alien! Link to comment
Steelen Posted January 20, 2015 Author Share Posted January 20, 2015 More movement! I think this will go quick because of that sand. Link to comment
Steelen Posted January 21, 2015 Author Share Posted January 21, 2015 Woke up this morning with this bad boy in the tank. I guess he was under something and survived the moving, ammonia and a lot of other things. Link to comment
teenyreef Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 That's great! A true survivor. If he breeds with other snails you should have a whole tank of unkillable snails Link to comment
Steelen Posted January 21, 2015 Author Share Posted January 21, 2015 That's great! A true survivor. If he breeds with other snails you should have a whole tank of unkillable snails No doubt about that. Sandbed is turning brownish as well! Getting there haha Link to comment
vlangel Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 I read through your thread. Very cool and I will plan to follow! Link to comment
Steelen Posted January 22, 2015 Author Share Posted January 22, 2015 I read through your thread. Very cool and I will plan to follow! Thanks man! Should be an interesting several months with transforming this small one to the big one later this year. Link to comment
Steelen Posted January 22, 2015 Author Share Posted January 22, 2015 Ammonia is gone as of today. Nitrite is slowly fading also. On monday the CUC from Reefcleaners will be shipped. Already have a clown reserved at my LFS. We went with a Davinci thats about a year old but is small because there is a bigger one in the same tank. So this is good for us and will slowly be able to grow over time and hopefully be ready for the big tank by the end of the year when we get there! Also the LFS is looking for a toadstoal that is Neon green or at least bright green. If he cannot find anything affordable he will get us a standard one. Hopefully it works out. Exciting times. Link to comment
Steelen Posted January 23, 2015 Author Share Posted January 23, 2015 The diatoms are real! Slowly covering whole tank. Ammonia gone, nitrite almost gone. Guess 1 more day of cycling. Water change on monday and then when my wife has her day off we will pick up the Davinci clownfish and wait for John to send out the orders. Link to comment
Steelen Posted January 24, 2015 Author Share Posted January 24, 2015 Cycle is done. No more ammonia, nitrite and barely any nitrate. My wife cannot wait any more. So I think we will pick up the clownfish when she gets home from work haha. I could have easily waited till tuesday or wednesday. Sherman aka Fireball (wife calls him that), the snail is sand diving like crazy and hiding from the diatoms it seems haha Link to comment
Steelen Posted January 25, 2015 Author Share Posted January 25, 2015 The Davinci is in the house. My wife called him/her Omen. Link to comment
Steelen Posted January 26, 2015 Author Share Posted January 26, 2015 Picked up some coral from a local reefer. For $10 each, we didn't do bad! The frogspawn is from an amazing mother. Green Pocillopora Purple & Green Frogspawn It changes green to purple over time and back to green. Link to comment
vlangel Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 That's a very cute pic of Omen front on! Tank is shaping up. Link to comment
Steelen Posted January 29, 2015 Author Share Posted January 29, 2015 Clean up crew is in as of yesterday. Great amount of snails even some big ones I never ordered haha. I will let them clean the tank for a while and then figure out what I need and do not need. Might give some to a local reefer and trade it for one of his green plates (he wanted to give them to me anyway). Also Omen seems happy, albeit it be still freaked out. Especially after last night when I added the clean up crew. Her normal sprinting section is now covered in snails. She swims back and forth the side of the glass and around the heater like she is practicing for the Olympics. Wish she would discover the frogspawn. That would make me a while lot happier lol. More updates when we add the green plate. Also March my reef club will be doing an auction for its members so that should be interesting! And in May/June we will drive down to Key West for a diving expedition and are allows to collect selected animals! They do this every year. Will have to investigate some more on this. Link to comment
Steelen Posted January 29, 2015 Author Share Posted January 29, 2015 Well that was short lived. I noticed the clownfish breathing quickly and gasping. Did a water check, ammonia spike. We suspect its from the clean up crew. Tank is so small the slightest things will be magnified. Waiting on my wife to get back so that I can do a water change. She has the bucket in the back of the car (no room to store it in the bedroom). Those 1 gallon changes are more annoying than bigger ones. We have a 5G bucket but the heater is too tall... So we have to get a rubbermaid storage container for 7 gallons but its flat so I can lift the bucket at an angle haha Link to comment
Steelen Posted February 1, 2015 Author Share Posted February 1, 2015 Not sure what corals to put in next. Wife wants some piece that will pop in color when the tank grows. I thought of a Green, Pink and Purple predominantly with flashy colors in between. Anyone got some suggestions? Link to comment
Steelen Posted February 2, 2015 Author Share Posted February 2, 2015 We seem to be having an ammonia issue. After done some water changes i noticed it wont go down. Seems to be stuck on .25 for some weird reason. I dont feed a lot of mysis/brine mix. I go through half a cube in 4 days. Maybe ill do even less tomorrow. See if maybe that fixes it. Test kit I use is API that could also be the problem. Its so weird. After adding the CUC last week it has been like this. Could it be snails dying off? Also Omen wont really swim around just waterline surfing but isnt gasping for air. Corals are doing good. Going to a local reefer who is giving me some of his stuff from his 400g system outside his house (benefit of Florida). Some tiny green plates from his inside aquarium and some candy canes that apparently were burried under rocks and bleached a bit but they should do great in here. Wife already mentioned we might up to a 10 gallon in 6 months, 5g is small I told her that. Wouldnt listen haha Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.