Slims 20 long

[Slim64684]

So I decided to start a reef tank. But in order to keep the wife happy I had to "recycle" one of my planted tanks. I decided to keep my 65 gallon planted as i could move all my fish into it. So the 20 long became the reef tank. I'm going to reuse my canister filter as my stand already has holes to run the hoses and why not use what I already have. I plumbed a diy inline heater into the return from the canister which i will also be reusing. included pic of the canister and heater and older pic of 20 when it was planted.

[Slim64684]

I got 20 pounds or BRS reef saver rock and stared at it for about 3 weeks. I started of this this scape.

Before deciding on this 

Ran by the lfs and picked up some instant ocean hold fast to start sticking everything together and ended up with 2 large structures. I also used some rubble to give the epoxy some texture. 

[Slim64684]

While I was working on getting the filter and tank cleaned up i went ahead and mixed up a batch of water using io reef crystals.

Got the inside of the tank all cleaned up and put the tank back in place. 

[Slim64684]

Got the rock structures in. then added a bag 20 pound bag of arag-alive special grade sand.

[Slim64684]

And started to fill the tank after adjusting water to 1.025.and of course my shadow had to inspect everything that was done correctly.

[Slim64684]

Mixed up the second batch of water and went quick to get the tank filled and running and didn't adjust the final salinity so my tank is at 1.024 right now. turns out a 10 gallon tank only holds nine gallons of water. second batch of mixed water was 8 gallons. So 17 gallons of water filled my 20 gallon long and my canister. 

 

After filling the tank i went to bed. Here is a pic of it in the morning.Tank was dosed to 2 ppm ammonia on 11/18 and now sits in the dark. Hoping for approximately a 4 week cycle but we shall see.

 

Also I want to maintain a salinity of 1.025 and currently im at 1.024 should i just use 1.025 water to top off or mix it to a higher salinity?

[WV Reefer]

33 minutes ago, Slim64684 said:

Mixed up the second batch of water and went quick to get the tank filled and running and didn't adjust the final salinity so my tank is at 1.024 right now. turns out a 10 gallon tank only holds nine gallons of water. second batch of mixed water was 8 gallons. So 17 gallons of water filled my 20 gallon long and my canister. 

 

After filling the tank i went to bed. Here is a pic of it in the morning.Tank was dosed to 2 ppm ammonia on 11/18 and now sits in the dark. Hoping for approximately a 4 week cycle but we shall see.

 

Also I want to maintain a salinity of 1.025 and currently im at 1.024 should i just use 1.025 water to top off or mix it to a higher salinity?

 

Looks good. 😊

 

 I would just add salt directly since there is nothing in there.  

[Slim64684]

Ordered a Current USA light and flow combo from @Marine Depot today. A 24-36" LOOP IC light and a 1050 gph wavemaker for $10 more than the lfs quoted me for just the light. Hopefully it should be here in a week or so.

[Slim64684]

It's been 8 days since i dosed the tank to 2ppm ammonia and i decided to go ahead and run some tests. 

pH 8.2

Salinity 1.024

Temp 76.2°f

NH3 0-.5ppm (hard to tell on api kit)

NO2 5ppm

NO3 20ppm

Alk 140ppm

 

My tests are seriously screwed up or something. These readings dont make since to me.

[Slim64684]

Picked a new test kit up today and will try to redo tests tonight. Also got the shipping confirmation for my light today too.

[ccejka]

1 hour ago, Slim64684 said:

Picked a new test kit up today and will try to redo tests tonight. Also got the shipping confirmation for my light today too.

What light did you end up going with.

[Slim64684]

1 minute ago, ccejka said:

What light did you end up going with.

24-36" current loop ic

[ccejka]

1 minute ago, Slim64684 said:

24-36" current loop ic

So far mine seems to be working well only a few days with coral in the tank but everything has opened up and seems to be happy.

[Slim64684]

2 minutes ago, ccejka said:

So far mine seems to be working well only a few days with coral in the tank but everything has opened up and seems to be happy.

That's refreshing to hear. Im not planning on light demanding sps right now but i figured I could always add a second ic light if i needed more

[ccejka]

15 minutes ago, Slim64684 said:

That's refreshing to hear. Im not planning on light demanding sps right now but i figured I could always add a second ic light if i needed more

I plan to upgrade at some point to a Hydra but for now it seems to be handling the LPS.

 

Another buddy just got the ic pro for his 75G.

 

 

Don't mind the arrow lol trying to figure out if he could do a fuge in that sump lol.

[Slim64684]

Retested with new kit and got similar results

pH 8.0

Ammonia .25ppm

Nitrite 2-5ppm

Nitrate 5-10 ppm

 

Good news is looks like my cycle will go from ammonia to nitrite and nitrite possibly reducing. Once I can clear the nitrites (hopefully a few days) ill redose ammonia and see what happens.

[Slim64684]

Cycle is progressing 0 ammonia tested tonight. Now if i could just process those pesky nitrites.

 

Also light and powerhead should be here Tuesday. 

[Slim64684]

I feel like I keep typing the same thing over and over. Waiting on nitrites to drop. But I did get the light an powerhead in today and got them hooked up. Still need to do some cord cleanup but turned everything on for a quick pic.tank is much brighter in person. Gonna have to figure out how to take better pics.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

I love the tank so far. My 20g high I wish I had done the cardboard trick when I did my rocks. I had to redo the scape a couple months later and it was a damn mess lol. My next build I will be doing the tank outline with cardboard first and making the scape out of the tank.

Can't wait to see the progression :-)

[specore]

Seems like it takes forever to cycle dry rock.  Been there for sure 

[Slim64684]

7 hours ago, specore said:

Seems like it takes forever to cycle dry rock.  Been there for sure 

This waiting game is killing me. I wish I could seed this tank from my freshwater planted. I have some night out 2 but i dont know if it will really help that much or not. I did get a little bit of cord management done tonight as well as i noticed some salt on the side of my canister. No water though. not the prettiest but better than it was. I still need to figure out a better solution for my mixing bucket pump and heater cord. 

 

 

Also I've noticed my tank temp swinging about 1-1.5°F. I think it might be partially due to my heater being inline under the stand. I looked at the inkbird heater controllers to only find multiple reports of issues with them so I am open to suggestions. 

[Slim64684]

8 hours ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

I love the tank so far. My 20g high I wish I had done the cardboard trick when I did my rocks. I had to redo the scape a couple months later and it was a damn mess lol. My next build I will be doing the tank outline with cardboard first and making the scape out of the tank.

Can't wait to see the progression 🙂

I'm not an artful person and due to the fact i had my tank running as a planted tank when I decided to go salt the cardboard was my only option. It did work out quite well though. 

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

I can't wait to see animalsin there. The cycle is the worst part, hang in there. Also good job on the wires. I'd hate to show you mine lol.

[Slim64684]

Still don't see a drop in nitrite but nitrate is up to 20ppm so I know my cycle is still progressing. Also with all the extra surface agitation caused by the powerhead and the slight bump in temp (seeing a solid 76.8-77°F now) I'm losing close to a gallon of water every 3 days. Might be time to invest in an ato.  If I do it will more than likely be a diy project as i enjoy those kinds of things. 

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

5 minutes ago, Slim64684 said:

Still don't see a drop in nitrite but nitrate is up to 20ppm so I know my cycle is still progressing. Also with all the extra surface agitation caused by the powerhead and the slight bump in temp (seeing a solid 76.8-77°F now) I'm losing close to a gallon of water every 3 days. Might be time to invest in an ato.  If I do it will more than likely be a diy project as i enjoy those kinds of things. 

Good progress 🙂. Now that it's winter my tank is evaporting really quick. The 5 gallon bucket I have needs to be filled about every 10ish days. ATO wasn't a must but it sure is nice not having to worry.