chad29 Posted September 6, 2004 Share Posted September 6, 2004 Hello. I wanted to post my pics of my 1st ever aquarium; which happens to be a 12 g JBJ nanocube. The 1st picture is from 9/1/04 when my temp became stable at 78-79 degrees. Live rock was added this day. 2nd picture is from today (9/5/04). Here is some data: Nano first setup and checked for leaks on 8/31/04. heater installed. timer installed. mercury based thermometer installed. RO water added with live sand. LR added on 9/1/04. 2 stones are Fiji, 1 stone Marshall Island. Sep. 2nd, 2004 8:29 pm Nano setup. 13.2 lbs of aragonite live sand. 13 lbs of live rock. temperature 78 degrees. sp. gravity 1.022 Nitrate < 10 ppm (trace pink) Ammonia < .025 ppm (no color) Nitrite < .1 ppm (maybe a hint of color) pH 8.4 with phenol red test Amphipod (sp!) activity noted today. Moonlight DIY installed. September 3rd, 2004 added distilled H20 to account for evaporation. September 5th, 2004 7:53 pm temp. 79 degrees sp. gravity 1.021 Nitrate <10 ppm (trace pink) Ammonia .025 ppm Nitrite < .1 ppm (almost completely clear) pH 8.2 - 8.3 (test does not have good specificity) 8.25 new activity noted. small slug-like creatures are numerous as well as amphipod activity. one semi large (1/2 inch) slug noted today. some plant growth on 2 Fiji Rocks, no plant growth noted on Marshall Island rock. algae growth noted on all LR. No real spike noted as of yet, but I am planning to be very patient in order to do it right. I am planning for cycling to take between 4 and 8 weeks. I have decided to not add any carcus/chemical to my reef to speed bacteria population. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! Link to comment
chad29 Posted September 6, 2004 Author Share Posted September 6, 2004 Sorry, I'm not sure how to get my photos properly formatted for easy viewing on the server. I'll work on it. X) They are in my gallery, though. It's just when I post them in the thread, they're huge and require a lot of scrolling. Link to comment
nu2nano Posted September 6, 2004 Share Posted September 6, 2004 Hi Chad, take the pictures in 640x480 that usually helps the size. Also, if you need to cut, crop or resize. There is a free program that is out there that works well. It's called IrfanView. Just type that into any search engine to find it. Good Luck with your project, I'll be watching to see how it goes... Best, nu2nano Link to comment
EtOH_is_good Posted September 6, 2004 Share Posted September 6, 2004 your sg is a little low for a reef tank. for fowlr your okay. Link to comment
dodgerblew Posted September 6, 2004 Share Posted September 6, 2004 agree with Etoh. 1.024ish is good Link to comment
Withers Posted September 6, 2004 Share Posted September 6, 2004 to post pics easily... go to www.imageshack.us, sign up, and host your pics there. from that point you can post any size pic you want Link to comment
chad29 Posted September 7, 2004 Author Share Posted September 7, 2004 Thanks, I had no idea. LFS told me 1.022, so I thought I was doing good. Would a good way to bring it up be to add my pre mixed RO saltwater to account for evaporation instead of distilled freshwater? That should bring it up after a few days, right? Link to comment
EtOH_is_good Posted September 7, 2004 Share Posted September 7, 2004 yes, you can top off with sw to bring up sg. why would you listen to lfs? haven't you read here about the bad advice they continuously give nanoreefers. Link to comment
holyherbiness Posted September 7, 2004 Share Posted September 7, 2004 Originally posted by EtOH_is_good yes, you can top off with sw to bring up sg. why would you listen to lfs? haven't you read here about the bad advice they continuously give nanoreefers. Well, that is being harsh. LFS do sometimes have knowledgable and helpful employees (albeit rare in some areas). Link to comment
chad29 Posted September 7, 2004 Author Share Posted September 7, 2004 Being new to the hobby, I guess sometimes it's hard to decipher what is good or bad advice. But thanks a lot for the tips. I definitely want to have a complete reef with featherdusters and other invertebrates. I had read that the bubble tip anemone would be a great clown hosting species to try as well. But after reading one of the FAQ's I found on here, it has about scared me away from attempting that too soon. I wouldn't wanna be pulling out a dead anemone 4 or 5 months from now because of my inexperience. Link to comment
EtOH_is_good Posted September 7, 2004 Share Posted September 7, 2004 okay, so i over generalized about bad lfs advice, but most ppl have to say that their lfs has tons of experience before they accept their advice as gospel. Link to comment
chad29 Posted September 7, 2004 Author Share Posted September 7, 2004 pic of my nano, day 7 Link to comment
The Punisher Posted September 7, 2004 Share Posted September 7, 2004 Have you thought about putting the heater in the back compartment to get it out of view? Link to comment
chad29 Posted September 7, 2004 Author Share Posted September 7, 2004 No, that sounds like a great idea, though. Thanks for the feedback, punisher. I don't guess there's any disadvantage to doing that? Link to comment
Sushi Posted September 7, 2004 Share Posted September 7, 2004 no disadvantage to putting heater in the back. as long as your power head is running, and flow is being passed through, your heater will still retain it's original function of heating up the water Link to comment
chad29 Posted September 14, 2004 Author Share Posted September 14, 2004 Hello everyone, Just wanted to update you on my saltwater disaster. I am aware of my sp. gr. being too low. Have been topping off with RO saltwater from LFS, but having problems getting it to raise much above 1.022. I am getting a little frustrated because I really thought I would be seeing more action by now in terms of ammonia production. My wife hates my nano and can't see any good in it, so I guess I'm getting a little impatient to get it going to prove to her it will be nice. How am I doing? Please hit me with any suggestions. Thanks!!! Below are my journal entries: September 8th, 2004 added 7 more lbs of LR. This LR looks much better than previous live rock with abundant plant life to hopefully initiate nitrogen cycle. September 13th, 2004 temp. 78 degrees sp. gravity 1.022 (hydrometer seems imprecise today) Nitrate <10 ppm (trace pink) Ammonia <.025 ppm (trace color) Nitrite < .1 ppm (trace color) pH 8.3 noticing some brown algae growth on sand bed and on magnetic algae cleaner. Link to comment
footbag Posted September 16, 2004 Share Posted September 16, 2004 You are running through the cycle. Your using cured live rock right? If so the cycle won't be so noticable. I would expect ammonia to max out below .5 . You could add some fish food to help boost the cycle, but it has already started. Your pods will appreciate some food, and you will get to know how fast your system is processing the ammonia>nitrite>nitrate. Also, plants will not initiate the nitrogen cycle unless they die. Plants do absorb Nitrate though. Enjoy Link to comment
revance Posted September 16, 2004 Share Posted September 16, 2004 You have quite a bit of macro algae growth... so that will also minimize your cycle. Link to comment
chad29 Posted September 17, 2004 Author Share Posted September 17, 2004 oh. So if I am not going to see a well-defined cycle, is it safe to assume that adding a clean up crew would be ok fairly soon? (based on the fact I'm getting some macro algae growth) Footbag, Yes, you were right: all cured liverock. I guess that would be a good experiment for me to add some food and to determine the actual speed of my NH4 NO3 NO2 cycle. Thanks again. Link to comment
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