Jerad81 Posted February 2, 2020 Share Posted February 2, 2020 (edited) I am officially entering the 365 Day Challenge. This is the first saltwater tank I have ever owned so this could get interesting. My tank is a 20g Nuvo Fusion pro all-in-one. I will also be using a Prime HD light, Hydor koralia circulation and wave pump with a 425 gph flow rate, and a Eheim Jager 100w TrueTemp heater. As required, here is a dry pic of my tank with a food condiment inside it. Since I'm a horrible cook you all get some mayonnaise! Please don't hold that against me . Also, my theme for this tank will be a money cap. Any livestock I add must cost $45 or less. Edited February 15, 2020 by Jerad81 Added my tank's theme so people can find it easily. 10 Quote Link to comment
Jerad81 Posted February 2, 2020 Author Share Posted February 2, 2020 I know this is a pretty bad pic but I just wanted to show that my tank has been refilled and cycling again. I couldn't come up with a way to re-add the sand without making a huge mess so my tank is pretty foggy right now. I'm hoping it will settle in a day or two so I can shift the sand around and spread it out evenly again. In case anyone is reading this didn't read my posts on the challenge thread, I had literally just added water and started cycling this tank when @Ratvan told me about this challenge. So I emptied it back out to take the condiment pic to enter and this pic is the result of me filling it back up. Hopefully I didn't screw up the cycling process too much. I'm using Dr. Tim's all-in-one with Dr. Tim's ammonium chloride solution for the cycling process. 13 minutes ago, seabass said: Good luck! Thank you!! 2 Quote Link to comment
seabass Posted February 2, 2020 Share Posted February 2, 2020 1 hour ago, Jerad81 said: Hopefully I didn't screw up the cycling process too much. I'm using Dr. Tim's all-in-one with Dr. Tim's ammonium chloride solution for the cycling process. No worries, it will be fine. 1 Quote Link to comment
Jerad81 Posted February 2, 2020 Author Share Posted February 2, 2020 5 minutes ago, seabass said: No worries, it will be fine. Awesome, that's great to hear! Thank you! Now I'm even more excited to start adding livestock. I have a feeling I'm about to become a true addict to this hobby. Quote Link to comment
Ratvan Posted February 2, 2020 Share Posted February 2, 2020 5 minutes ago, Jerad81 said: Awesome, that's great to hear! Thank you! Now I'm even more excited to start adding livestock. I have a feeling I'm about to become a true addict to this hobby. I can confirm after taking part in the last contest that is true. You also have some really knowledgeable people on the forum who will help out massively. Have fun. 4 Quote Link to comment
kimberbee Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 I have this tank too and love it! Can't wait to see what you do with yours! 2 Quote Link to comment
Jerad81 Posted February 3, 2020 Author Share Posted February 3, 2020 19 minutes ago, kimberbee said: I have this tank too and love it! Can't wait to see what you do with yours! Thank you! I have to admit I'm a little nervous since this is my first ever reef tank but thankfully my lfs introduced me to nano-reef when I first started looking at tanks. This has been such an awesome community to be a part of and I feel like I've learned a ton just from hanging out here. I'm definitely going to check out your tank now. I think your the first person I've met so far who has the same one! 4 Quote Link to comment
Aqua Splendor Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 It's a lovely tank, good luck for the competition 🙂 don't be afraid to ask any question when in doubt. 1 1 Quote Link to comment
Jerad81 Posted February 5, 2020 Author Share Posted February 5, 2020 I just thought I would post an updated pic of my tank now that it no longer looks like a 20g sand bed! Now I just need to start researching corals again so I can plan how I want to start stocking it. 😁 7 Quote Link to comment
saliferous502 Posted February 6, 2020 Share Posted February 6, 2020 Love the scape! Following Quote Link to comment
Smurf Posted February 6, 2020 Share Posted February 6, 2020 20g stocking options are great. Really love the sleek look and design of these tanks. Good luck through the year! I will stop in to check out your progress whenever you update! Quote Link to comment
Jerad81 Posted February 6, 2020 Author Share Posted February 6, 2020 4 hours ago, saliferous502 said: Love the scape! Following 4 hours ago, Smurf said: 20g stocking options are great. Really love the sleek look and design of these tanks. Good luck through the year! I will stop in to check out your progress whenever you update! Thank you! I've already been finding so many options I started keeping a notebook as a type of at home journal to keep track of all of them. Plus I figure it will help me sort out which ones will work well together or with the space I'll have available in the future. I'm also thinking of adding space for fish and inverts in it as well for the same purpose. Quote Link to comment
Jerad81 Posted February 8, 2020 Author Share Posted February 8, 2020 Wow, my tank appears to be cycling faster than I expected! It's only been one week and my ammonia is showing somewhere between 0.4 and 0.8 ppm. It's kinda hard to tell on those color charts. My nitrite also immediately went dark after adding the last reagent. After waiting out the required time for the test it looked like it was even darker. I feel like I can say with confidence I have A LOT more than 1 ppm the test maxes out at 😁. Now I'm beginning to wonder if I'll be able to start adding life to it by the third weekend? 1 Quote Link to comment
Pjanssen Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 Look @seabass, a fellow Iowan! 3 hours ago, Jerad81 said: Wow, my tank appears to be cycling faster than I expected! It's only been one week and my ammonia is showing somewhere between 0.4 and 0.8 ppm. It's kinda hard to tell on those color charts. My nitrite also immediately went dark after adding the last reagent. After waiting out the required time for the test it looked like it was even darker. I feel like I can say with confidence I have A LOT more than 1 ppm the test maxes out at 😁. Now I'm beginning to wonder if I'll be able to start adding life to it by the third weekend? Remember patience with this "hobby". Starting with dry rock as you did, you will not have a cycle in the usual sense, as there is nothing to die off. Research the Dr. Tim's method of cycling a tank. Good luck with the contest. 1 Quote Link to comment
Jerad81 Posted February 8, 2020 Author Share Posted February 8, 2020 5 minutes ago, Pjanssen said: Look @seabass, a fellow Iowan! Remember patience with this "hobby". Starting with dry rock as you did, you will not have a cycle in the usual sense, as there is nothing to die off. Research the Dr. Tim's method of cycling a tank. Good luck with the contest. Yeah, I'm definitely planning to take my time with this. When my tank appears to be done cycling I'm going to add 2 ppm ammonia to it again and "cycle" it a second time to see how it goes. I figure I'll probably keep repeating this process until it can remove all the ammonia and nitrite in about 24 hrs. After that's ready I'll need to turn my heater down a few degrees (it's currently set at 82 F for cycling) and give it 2-3 days to let the water adjust. I'll probably do a water change at the same time to help. I will also need to finally turn my light on and get it adjusted how I want it. I'm currently assuming this will all take about 1 extra week before I start adding anything. I am definitely not going to try to rush it. Plus I figure it will give me some extra time to save a little more money in my "fish tank fund" as I like to call it and finalize what fish and/or coral I want to start with. 2 Quote Link to comment
FISHnChix Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 On 2/5/2020 at 2:18 PM, Jerad81 said: I just thought I would post an updated pic of my tank now that it no longer looks like a 20g sand bed! Now I just need to start researching corals again so I can plan how I want to start stocking it. 😁 Damn nice job on the scape.. I think it looks great.. might wanna figure a way to get that prime closer to the water. Going to lose some par being that high from the water line. Quote Link to comment
seabass Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 1 hour ago, Pjanssen said: Look @seabass, a fellow Iowan! We're all still kind of embarrassed about the Iowa caucuses. 1 Quote Link to comment
Jerad81 Posted February 8, 2020 Author Share Posted February 8, 2020 5 minutes ago, seabass said: We're all still kind of embarrassed about the Iowa caucuses. Yeah, I think it was all a scam to remind people that Iowa is actually a real state even if they don't know where we are on the map. 🤣 1 Quote Link to comment
Jerad81 Posted February 8, 2020 Author Share Posted February 8, 2020 21 minutes ago, FISHnChix said: Damn nice job on the scape.. I think it looks great.. might wanna figure a way to get that prime closer to the water. Going to lose some par being that high from the water line. Thank you! I will definitely keep that in mind when I start playing around with the light. Thanks for the advice! 1 Quote Link to comment
Pjanssen Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 2 hours ago, seabass said: We're all still kind of embarrassed about the Iowa caucuses. I pay almost no attention to that bullshit. Besides, I’m from Florida(need I say more)! 2 Quote Link to comment
Growerguy Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 20 hours ago, seabass said: We're all still kind of embarrassed about the Iowa caucuses. Not to derail but I'm also in Iowa and doing the contest.. lol! Quote Link to comment
seabass Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 28 minutes ago, Growerguy said: I'm also in Iowa and doing the contest.. lol! Excellent. We'll be well represented. 1 Quote Link to comment
Jerad81 Posted February 9, 2020 Author Share Posted February 9, 2020 2 hours ago, Growerguy said: Not to derail but I'm also in Iowa and doing the contest.. lol! Sweet! It looks like we're taking over!! Good luck in the contest. 1 Quote Link to comment
kimberbee Posted February 10, 2020 Share Posted February 10, 2020 Don't forget to add the 365 day challenge tag to your thread so people tracking the entries can find it easier!! 3 Quote Link to comment
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