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16g on dormrooms: dorm disaster!


Lisa166

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2 hours ago, Lisa166 said:

Thanks for explaining!!! 

I have only seen those turkey blaster things in the labs at uni, and never knew this was their english/american name. Thanks. 

 

Yesterday before water change:

No3: 3

No2: 5 

Nh3: 0.25 

 

Cleaned all the rocks with a toothbrush, it smelled awful. They smelled better when I cleaned them though. Took as much die-off off the rocks as possible, and its looking better (and smelling better). Unfortunately one of the macroalgae is looking seriously sad, he seems to be loosening from the rock as well. Just hoping he will survive, because it was the prettiest piece!

 

Changed the set up a bit to get a more sufficient flow throughout the tank. 1490870860791-1359468043.thumb.jpg.38a274f9c633d6c9aaf6c38a4bcd5ac9.jpg

 

Better flow is always good. 

So you did do a WC yesterday?

I think that would be a good idea with ammonia at 3. 

Glad the explanation was helpful. 

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Hey there! Great to see another Dutch reefer on Nano-reef :) I am jealous of your little crab!

I also have a 'budget' aquarium, which has worked fine for three years, so you really don't have to spend a lot of cash to keep things going.

Where are you buying your stuff from?

 

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@FishFrog, cool to see! 

 

If you wouldnt mind, maybe you can give me some tips on how to keep it cheap? I mean, the water tests and stuff is all quite expensive imho. What kind of tank do you have?

 

I have bought the tank secondhand, bought the salt online, and the rock comes from Breda. I am currently using premade water from Putten for water changes. Also loved the store in Delft, but haven't really bought anything there. I love Rifwachter too, they give great advice. 

Where do you buy your stuff from?

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27 minutes ago, Lisa166 said:

@FishFrog, cool to see! 

 

If you wouldnt mind, maybe you can give me some tips on how to keep it cheap? I mean, the water tests and stuff is all quite expensive imho. What kind of tank do you have?

 

I have bought the tank secondhand, bought the salt online, and the rock comes from Breda. I am currently using premade water from Putten for water changes. Also loved the store in Delft, but haven't really bought anything there. I love Rifwachter too, they give great advice. 

Where do you buy your stuff from?

I live in Amsterdam and shop around here or Rifwachter or in Volendam. I make my own water with a 3rd hand rodi system off marktplaats. I buy my coral small, its often a case of asking for a loose polyp. Stuff grows fast so im ok with it.

 

I dont have a skimmer. Its just carbon, filterfloss and weekly water changes.

My tank is a second hand freshwater tank that I bought off a shop employee. The lights are not great but im happy.

 

I rarely test and I probably should dose but I honestly dont do that very often :/ 

 

Its still not super cheap, but its ok like this. My first tank was also a budget 60l :)

 

20170331_151408.jpg

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I am a very happy nerd right now!!!

 

The tank looks good, and so does the water!!

 

-nh3: 0 mg/l

-No2: about 1.5 mg/l

-No3: about 2 mg/l

 

Your time scale guesses are amazing Weetie! 

I'll leave the big tank be for now, only topped it off.

 

Houdini is ok, his ammonia was very high so i performed a water change. And will also make the sand level higher, the water level deeper and add a very small filter to it (which is now in my other tank)' 

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I'm so excited to see this for you!!! :happydance:

Over the next month, you will probably start seeing all kinds of new life pop up out of the rock, it'll be a lot of fun. 

 

With Houdini, it might help if you could put a small rock in with him, or even if you are able to break a small piece of rock off of what you have in your main tank. That way you could have something in his tank that will break down and process his waste. Any kind of filter with carbon would help as well, I'm sure. 

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Yeah weetie, he already has the small rock, but i think that rock is still cycling itself. 

 

I put in some extra sand and (lava) rocks, and he is hiding behind those now! 

His tank is still a work in process. Ofcourse, normally you'd research, then get your pet. Not the other way around. But he still seems well, and is still eating. So i think thats good. And he will get more hiding places as time goes on (planning on making a freshwater pool with some plants). 

 

Screenshot_2017-04-03-20-10-52.thumb.png.e6d091888d12e6fa70111b2e71091b44.pngScreenshot_2017-04-03-20-10-03.thumb.png.f0ca2833dc04031f75e107d2d5232ed0.pngScreenshot_2017-04-03-20-10-19.thumb.png.6d6387b06c4c27038600ee6b3f989813.png

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Thanks weetie! 

Measured just now:

Nh3: 0.25

No2: 0.5

No3: 2.0

 

I think this is going well right? Will do a small water change later today, because there is a lot of debris on the bottom of the tank. Also seeing a lot of algea popping up, like a green film over the rocks, not sure this is normal or what i should do here? 

 

Also, i should start thinking about what to put in the tank once cycling has finished! I defenitely want some pretty zoas and a small gobi or blenny. But what else? 

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That's definite progress!!

It's considered completely cycled once ammonia and nitrite both reach 0. 

When you do the WC and get rid of the debris on the bottom, it wouldn't hurt to also very lightly brush off the rocks to get rid of some of that green film. 

That is something that you will want to get a CUC (clean up crew) for. Some snails, like Cerith, Astrea, Trochus would be good at eating that up and keeping it in check. 

 

As for livestock, why don't you start out with hardy Zoas or Palys and either a Goby or Blenny since you know you are already interested in those. 

As for deciding on the rest, I would suggest reading other people's tank threads and making a list of the corals, fish and inverts that you really enjoy seeing and reading about in their tanks. 

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The algae are way worse then I thought, not just green film but also the actual hairlike algae on the rocks. When i cleaned everything out,  a lot more debris came out too. The water is pretty cloudy now. 

 

I took out 80%, manually filtered that with a homemade net, put it back in, got way more debris, repeated it and then filled it up with new water (20%ish). 

Its still very cloudy and dirty though. But i should not take out more right? 

Screenshot_2017-04-05-15-51-58.thumb.png.6024cc52ca5b0712f0a67bd23d79925a.png

The green film

Screenshot_2017-04-05-15-52-21.thumb.png.ae1bfe7f42295b8f586c0465698dd335.png

Cloudiness

 

Screenshot_2017-04-05-15-52-32.thumb.png.652cc2ef814eccbd235222331a0b9b9b.png

And algae

Screenshot_2017-04-05-15-52-32.png

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Fill tank all the way up and then wait for the cycle to finish. Remove as much algae as you find aesthetically pleasing. If your nutrients are in check the algae will be somewhat self regulating with a clean up crew. When there is zero ammonia, zero nitrites and you see a steady rise in nitrates do a 30% water change and begin stocking slowly.

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@yungKitten, she's had to approach cycling slightly differently. 

She started out with extremely fresh LR full of life so she did a soft cycle to try to save as much life as possible. Her water level is lower to make the 50% WC's more doable. 

However, she is now past the point of needing 50% WC's since ammonia is almost completely gone. 

 

I agree that is a lot of debris and you want to get as much of that out of there as possible.

I'd say to siphon out as much water as needed to get all of the debris out, give it a little while for the debris to settle to the bottom of the container you have siphoned it into and once it's settled, return the debris free water from the top of the container to the tank. 

It probably wouldn't hurt for you to go ahead and fill up the tank now if you'd like. 

I would say to make sure you have no light over the tank til the cycle completes, and as soon as you see 0 nitrite as well as 0 ammonia to add some snails to eat that film algae. 

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24 minutes ago, Weetabix7 said:

@yungKitten, she's had to approach cycling slightly differently. (I've been following this thread)

She started out with extremely fresh LR full of life so she did a soft cycle to try to save as much life as possible. (I know) Her water level is lower to make the 50% WC's more doable. ( I don't think multiple 50% changes will be necessary at this point.)  

However, she is now past the point of needing 50% WC's since ammonia is almost completely gone. (Exactly? Given the params she has more water volume probably won't hurt.)

Granted I've never done a soft cycle. So I defer to you. 

Looking forward to see when you start stocking!

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 Thanks @Weetabix7. Always giving great advice. 

You say i should not have the light on? Its on for about 8h a day now, won't letting the lights off mean all the macro algae die too? 

 

I have tried to get the debris out using that method, but a lot of it is still in there. So probably gonna do the same tomorrow (getting water and debris out, letting it sink for a while, then transferring rhe water to another box and into the tank again). 

Should I fill it all up already? It has about 4g of water now, and would hold about 13g total. I guess if I fill everything up, I should also look into an aquascape again! Things are going so much faster then I thought they would. 

 

I just hope the algae wont take over everything and leave the whole softcycle undone. 

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I think it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and fill it up. 

I suspect you aren't far from the end of your cycle. 

I'd say that it would hurt the macroalgae for you to leave the light off for 2 days or so (maybe even 3) and see where the parameters are then. 

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I thought by using a soft cycle I wouldn't get the algae plague. I guess I was wrong? 

It awful, within two days everything has been bombarded by algae!!! 

 

Guess I'll check the water paramers, do same as yesterday to try to clean it up a bit and then fill up the aquarium more. 

 

If anyone has any tips, they are very welcome! Screenshot_2017-04-06-16-06-45.thumb.png.bba7ab1b8f65bd883bf9fa93a5444122.png Screenshot_2017-04-06-16-07-04.thumb.png.017b03a695e4ed962fc06fa8c970f603.png

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Hang in there. I have no real advise. As new tanks cycle there are many ugly stages. Cleaning / scrubbing where you can and water changes is what I would try. Some of that algae will hopefully run it's course and be gone as it uses up the nutrients that makes it grow.  

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I just want to have it all pretty and now have my cool.macros dying off (which they are doing now :(). 

Water params are pretty okay:

-nh3: 0

-no2: 1.5

-no3:0.5

 

Did the same routine as yesterday and added about 4g extra in the tank. So there's a lot more water now. 

 

Houdini also got an update on his tank. IMG-20170406-WA0053.thumb.jpeg.1f9c20104de888d3d2d226fd35c6178b.jpeg

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