Dailyn's Biocube 32

[DailynJ]

On Saturday (four days ago), I dosed 2ppm of Dr. Tim's ammonium chloride and added an entire small bottle of biospira. I'm happy to see the cycle progressing so quickly. I've only ever done cycles in freshwater where I put in food to make the ammonia and dosed daily bacterial supplements. 

 

[WV Reefer]

26 minutes ago, DailynJ said:

Do you have them with fish and other inverts or in a species only tank?

Mine are in with a clownfish and a wrasse and several random inverts.  

[DailynJ]

I tested the levels today and the ammonia was at one and the nitrite was almost at one. My nitrate has stayed constant for the last few days. Could denitrification already be happening? In a couple of days I’m going to redose 2ppm of ammonium chloride to make sure the cycle is actually ready and hopefully get fish a little white after that! What are the best ways to remove the high nitrate in the tank now? Run the skimmer?

[banasophia]

23 minutes ago, DailynJ said:

I tested the levels today and the ammonia was at one and the nitrite was almost at one. My nitrate has stayed constant for the last few days. Could denitrification already be happening? In a couple of days I’m going to redose 2ppm of ammonium chloride to make sure the cycle is actually ready and hopefully get fish a little white after that! What are the best ways to remove the high nitrate in the tank now? Run the skimmer?

It wouldn’t be denitrifying yet... you would just do a water change to lower your nitrates if needed. 

[Frag Factory]

Your tank won't be processing nitrate for a while yet, that's a process that can tank months and even when people claim it happens, it's just more likely that nitrate is being consumed by coral and algae rather than denitrification.

 

Nitrate will show up soon, when your tanks done cycling nitrate will be quite high, probably 20ppm if not more. The solution is dilution, do a large water change the day before you plan to add your first livestock. 75% or more will be ideal.

[DailynJ]

On 12/7/2019 at 7:42 AM, Frag Factory said:

it's just more likely that nitrate is being consumed by coral and algae rather than denitrification.

I don't have any algae or coral yet. I guess I was just performing the test wrong.

[DailynJ]

After my initial dosing of Dr. Tim's ammonium chloride hit zero ammonia and zero nitrite, I dosed 1ppm to see how fast it disappeared. By 24 hours the ammonia was 0pmm and the nitrite was 0.25! I can't believe the tank cycled so fast.

 

When I initially filled the tank, my refractometer wasn't calibrated. Whoops. So I tried rasing the salinity since the cycle is done because it was below 1.020. Then I accidentally raised it too high. But I tested it this morning and it's finally perfect! I adjusted my heater as its 78F setting makes the tank 79F and I fixed my ATO. I had a power outage two days ago and whenever it turned off, the hose from the ATO reservoir created a suction and started draining into my stand! I only lost maybe a gallon, but I was really shocked. I changed the location of the hose to where it pours the freshwater into the saltwater rather than sitting below the waterline.

 

It's been a wild last few days but things are settled down again. My LFS ordered two pairs of naked clownfish today and I plan on picking up a pair in 5 days! I can't believe this is all happening so fast, but I'm so excited!

[banasophia]

1 hour ago, DailynJ said:

After my initial dosing of Dr. Tim's ammonium chloride hit zero ammonia and zero nitrite, I dosed 1ppm to see how fast it disappeared. By 24 hours the ammonia was 0pmm and the nitrite was 0.25! I can't believe the tank cycled so fast.

 

When I initially filled the tank, my refractometer wasn't calibrated. Whoops. So I tried rasing the salinity since the cycle is done because it was below 1.020. Then I accidentally raised it too high. But I tested it this morning and it's finally perfect! I adjusted my heater as its 78F setting makes the tank 79F and I fixed my ATO. I had a power outage two days ago and whenever it turned off, the hose from the ATO reservoir created a suction and started draining into my stand! I only lost maybe a gallon, but I was really shocked. I changed the location of the hose to where it pours the freshwater into the saltwater rather than sitting below the waterline.

 

It's been a wild last few days but things are settled down again. My LFS ordered two pairs of naked clownfish today and I plan on picking up a pair in 5 days! I can't believe this is all happening so fast, but I'm so excited!

Yayyy! Things are moving along. Bummer about the ATO mishap, glad you figured out the issue. You may not need an ATO if you are keeping the lid on... I don’t get any appreciable evaporation in my 16, and so far so good in the 32 as well... the lid prevents a lot of evaporation, but that means it also prevents evaporative cooling too so over the summer you might find you need a chiller. 
 

My temp in the 32 has been running 80 with the heater set at 78, so I just reset it to 76 to get it to run closer to 78. 
 

Can’t wait to see your clownfish!! My LFS is ordering my clownfish today too... I went with the black ice snowflakes.