40B Build starting on low budget

[graftobny142]

5 hours ago, Hdale85 said:

So today we're at or just above 1ppm on the Ammonia. I haven't tested nitrites/nitrates yet. Seems like the Ammonia is going away faster now though, probably going to have to put some more in soon. 

You don't have to add more ammonia if you are planning to add life once it's cycled

 

what test brand is that? It looks like 1 ppm nitrites and 10ppm nitrates to me. The API is way easier to read for me with its  different colors 

[Hdale85]

I'm not sure how soon I'll be adding any sea creatures to my tank. It might not be until ReefAPalooza lol. 

[graftobny142]

When is that? If it's more than a few days then adding small amounts of ammonia would be good.

[Hdale85]

The 24th and 25th of this month. 

[zohar78]

waiting sucks don't it..     I got enough money to get the tank, but not stand, sump tank, and sump pump.   but did get my 20g brutge tote so I can start the month long process of curing my rock and then I have to cycle it. lol..   then of course I have to save up for lights for eventual corals. 

[Hdale85]

I got ReefCleaner rock so no worries about curing. But yes waiting sucks.... I went without a sump this time. In a year or 2 I'll be upgrading to a RedSea Reefer 525xl system I think. Luckily that will come with just about everything and I only need to get lights, powerheads, sand, rock etc. But this tank is coming along nicely, right now my biggest pain is making salt water lol. It took a long time to fill up this 40g tank. I'm working on getting a workbench for all my aquarium stuff and making saltwater. I'm going to get a 10-20g storage container so I always have RO/DI water on hand too. That way if I ever need to do a 50% water change it won't take long. 

[graftobny142]

5 hours ago, zohar78 said:

waiting sucks don't it..     I got enough money to get the tank, but not stand, sump tank, and sump pump.   but did get my 20g brutge tote so I can start the month long process of curing my rock and then I have to cycle it. lol..   then of course I have to save up for lights for eventual corals. 

 

Look into Caribsea Life Rock. It's dry rock with a purple color, good shapes and supposedly has bacteria on it that help kickstart the cycle. No curing needed

[zohar78]

15 minutes ago, themummra said:

 

Look into Caribsea Life Rock. It's dry rock with a purple color, good shapes and supposedly has bacteria on it that help kickstart the cycle. No curing needed

yeah...   it is a nice alternative.   and one I did consider, but  I figured I was going to have to get the rock anyways... and made the rock litereallty the first thing I bought, then  heater, powerhead, and container because I knew it was going to take me a while to get the rest of the money for everything else. Which leaves me time to let it cure. This is also gave me time to figure out what the heck I'm getting into and why the heck I want to do this to me.    quite an alluring, beautiful and enigmatic hobby.  

[Hdale85]

Hmm, turned the LED light on today for a bit. Messing with things, swapping out filter floss etc. After watching the latest BRS Investigates I decided I wanted to try moving both my power heads to one side of the tank. The circular water movement looked really neat in the video. Idk if I have micro bubbles or just stuff floating in my water but I can see the flow of the water pretty easily. There are a few tiny hairs or something floating around in there for sure but almost looks like dust as well. Guessing it's just little bubbles although I don't get any vortex suction from my pumps or anything. I turned the flow down on the HOB thinking maybe it's part of the reason. 

 

I think sometime soon I will likely get a real skimmer, I'm not sure this Tidal HOB is really skimming that much. Kind of wishing I had gone with a sump maybe lol. But it's still early so what do I know. After moving the powerheads I can definitely tell there's less movement in the middle on the sand. It kept blowing a hole straight to the bottom of the glass so I'm hoping that doesn't happen anymore. I usually test the water around noon so we'll see what todays readings are then. 

[Hdale85]

Well after waiting a few hours it seems the floating around crap mostly subsided, so that must of just been from me messing around with the filter and stuff. 

[Hdale85]

Looks like .5 ppm Ammonia today, yesterday I think was more like .75 as the color was sort of in between .5 and 1.0. 

[Nidilsky]

Just now, Hdale85 said:

Looks like .5 ppm Ammonia today, yesterday I think was more like .75 as the color was sort of in between .5 and 1.0. 

If it is going down, something is using it. That's good! Do you have any algae?

[Hdale85]

Nope, not so far. I've been keeping the lights off as much as possible. 

[Nidilsky]

4 hours ago, Hdale85 said:

Hmm, turned the LED light on today for a bit. Messing with things, swapping out filter floss etc. After watching the latest BRS Investigates I decided I wanted to try moving both my power heads to one side of the tank. The circular water movement looked really neat in the video. Idk if I have micro bubbles or just stuff floating in my water but I can see the flow of the water pretty easily. There are a few tiny hairs or something floating around in there for sure but almost looks like dust as well. Guessing it's just little bubbles although I don't get any vortex suction from my pumps or anything. I turned the flow down on the HOB thinking maybe it's part of the reason. 

 

I think sometime soon I will likely get a real skimmer, I'm not sure this Tidal HOB is really skimming that much. Kind of wishing I had gone with a sump maybe lol. But it's still early so what do I know. After moving the powerheads I can definitely tell there's less movement in the middle on the sand. It kept blowing a hole straight to the bottom of the glass so I'm hoping that doesn't happen anymore. I usually test the water around noon so we'll see what todays readings are then. 

There is a reason people do sumps. More water and space for fuges, skimmers, reactors, etc.

[Hdale85]

Yeah, but honestly I didn't have the budget for a sump currently. I may add one later. It wouldn't be hard to add on a overflow box and such. I went back and forth on it for a while and looking at prices and such. To get everything I needed I couldn't fit it into my budget I had to finish this tank so I went for a HOB for now. 

[Nidilsky]

9 minutes ago, Hdale85 said:

Nope, not so far. I've been keeping the lights off as much as possible. 

What are your nitrites and nitrates at? 

[Nidilsky]

5 minutes ago, Hdale85 said:

Yeah, but honestly I didn't have the budget for a sump currently. I may add one later. It wouldn't be hard to add on a overflow box and such. I went back and forth on it for a while and looking at prices and such. To get everything I needed I couldn't fit it into my budget I had to finish this tank so I went for a HOB for now. 

Who does have the money? Right?

Got this for free at my LFS.  He was gonna throw it out.

It's definitely a frankenfuge. 

[Hdale85]

Looks like nitrites are around 10ppm, Nitrates seem to be 40-50ppm? How long before these numbers start going down....lol So far they just seem to keep climbing. 

[Nidilsky]

23 minutes ago, Hdale85 said:

Looks like nitrites are around 10ppm, Nitrates seem to be 40-50ppm? How long before these numbers start going down....lol So far they just seem to keep climbing. 

I would start lighting it. Once you nitrites get down to say 1 to .5 ppm, add a cuc and some macro algae to clean some nitrates and phosphates.

How long has the skimmer been running? Those sometimes take a couple of weeks to break in. Then watch the nitrates go bub-bye.

[Hdale85]

It's just a little skimmer screen on the HOB filter. It's been running since water went in the tank.... About a week or so I think. 

[Hdale85]

Should nitrates go away on their own eventually? Or does that only happen with water changes? Am I just looking for Ammonia to drop to 0 before adding CUC or fish in? 

[graftobny142]

Not unless you have a chemical method of reducing them or macroalgae taking them up. Primarily taken out with water changes. I would wait until Ammonia is as close to 0 as possible.

[Clown79]

Cycling is the nitrogen cycle.

Ammonia increases and processes to 0, then nitrites do the same, nitrates increase.

 

Nutrients can't just go away. The need to be exported by manul methods like waterchanges or macroalgae.

 

During cycling don't run lights, theres no reason to unless you want more algae. 

 

After the cycle is complete you do a waterchange to lower the nitrates. Depending on the nutrient level depends on the size of waterchange. If ammonia stays at 0 then you can start with a small cuc.

[Hdale85]

So people that get 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrites, and 0 Nitrates have tons of algae in their tanks? 

[Nidilsky]

1 hour ago, Hdale85 said:

So people that get 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrites, and 0 Nitrates have tons of algae in their tanks? 

Yes. It is a signal to you that your tank has cycled. Now, get animals that eat algae and animals that eat detritus. You can also start thinking about something that swims(something hardy, because new tanks fluctuate like crazy), because fish(as will most higher order species, as well as dead animals)give off small amounts (dead animals release all of it accumulated ammonia...so, get it out of the tank) of ammonia through their gills and detritus. This will keep the nitrifying bacteria fed and the bacteria that turns the nitrites into nitrates, which the algae feeds on. The cycle continues.....get it?