wopadobop Posted April 24, 2012 Author Share Posted April 24, 2012 Alright! got the rock in Hood and lights in whole system shot. All dry rock and dry sand right now. The dr. tims should be here in the next few days. I would never try this with live fish so i had them send me ammonia to start to the cycle. when the ammonia and nitrites read zero I will move my fish over from my other tank one at a time. I plan on posting all my findings and test readings here so if any of you are interested you can come give it a look see. If it works ... cool. If not at least we can all say we tried it right? right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wopadobop Posted April 30, 2012 Author Share Posted April 30, 2012 So the Dr. tims worked way better than I expected. day 1 ( added my tomato clown and 2 pajama cardinals) ammonia 0 ppm nitrite 0 ppm As this tank was sterile to start this is to be expected. day 2 ammonia .10 (this is the amount recommended to add the bacteria so they have something to start reproducing with) Nitrite 0 Added 4 oz of bacteria at 9:00 p.m. with lights out. day 3 ammonia 0 ppm nitrite .5 ppm Nitrates 10 ppm Not bad for day 3 day 4 Ammonia 0 ppm nitrites 0 ppm im sure there is some still there but my test kit isnt showing it. nitrates 40 ppm (kinda high as i have been feeding rather heavy to make sure bacteria has enough to live and grow on. and I am not running the skimmer at all) day 5 ammonia 0 ppm nitrite 0 ppm nitrate 20 ppm (did a small water change and used some water and a scoop of sand from other tank) Thats pretty much it. I'm sure at this point I will have to add live stock slowly as to not overly stress the biological filtration but that's kind of a given. 6 days is not a bad cycle time for dry rock. I would assume that not having any extra dead matter from live rock stops the bungy effect of the cycling. dont even have diatom bloom. Running lights 10 hours a day. Also running a phosphate media (gfo) in an upflow reactor right from day one as my last tank had a pretty bad case of phosphate leaching from the terrible lfs i got it from not using ro/di water. :( Finally got the rock work the way I want it with no dead spots and the live stock have a few calmer areas to relax in. REgrets: If I had a choice to build the overflows over again. I would run the cal flow box on the outside of the tank. I really thought I would have more room to put the box in without it interfering with anything but looking at the tank and seeing the white pvc for the bean animal is kind of ugly and really takes away from the asthetics of the tank. Any ideas to fix this? comments? bueller? buueelller? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeramy Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 Slide a piece of black or blue acrylic down the inside front of the over flow box problem solved Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kimberlee Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 Coraline will end up covering that up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wopadobop Posted April 30, 2012 Author Share Posted April 30, 2012 Coraline will end up covering that up. I a have never had good luck with coraline growth. Even with no coral in a tank I monitor my calcium mag and kh and keep them at reef parameters just for good practice. Maybe need more actinic supplement. but lets hope. I do like the look of it. Slide a piece of black or blue acrylic down the inside front of the over flow box problem solved I have read that krylon fusion holds up very well to saltwater. Maybe ill try that. My other idea was to maybe turn it into a small algae scrubber? thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeramy Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 you might run the risk of clogging the drains if you encourage algea to grow there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wopadobop Posted April 30, 2012 Author Share Posted April 30, 2012 good thinking. Ill go with the blue acrylic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wopadobop Posted June 25, 2012 Author Share Posted June 25, 2012 SOooo, Little update for everyone. Recently changed out my MH for a radion fixture. I have to say that not having a load of huge bulky timers and my cabinet full of lights is just one of many awesome things about this change. Corals seem to open up a bit more and are growing very well. Here is a fts . Tank is now about 8 weeks along. Been battling a little bit of cyanobacteria on the sand. Think this is from having very low phosphate and its leaching from the crushed coral substrate. I'll give it a few more weeks of no changes to see if it passes. BTA Is growing very fast. Got him 4 weeks ago at about the size of a quarter and is now at least an inch and half in diameter. Pocillipora (I realize these are easy to care for) doing very well.When I got them they were very brown. Under the halides they pinked up and under the new l.e.d. fixture they just shine Little frag of red setosa I picked up at reeftech. Has already grown about 1 cm in the last 3 weeks. About 4 weeks ago my Protein skimmer broke down. So I decided since the tank was new to try something a bit different. Currently feeding 1 cube of prawn roe , 1 cube of mysis and .05 grams of spectrum pellets daily. The only filtartion on this tank is this. Seems to be working out so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandinga Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 I a have never had good luck with coraline growth. Even with no coral in a tank I monitor my calcium mag and kh and keep them at reef parameters just for good practice. Maybe need more actinic supplement. but lets hope. I do like the look of it. Coralline just takes time....like a yearish to start to take off. Once it starts, its hard to stop. I let mine build up for about a month and then it takes me about 2 hours to clean it off my glass(48 gal cube tank). give it time, its usually one of the last things to really start to grow. The actinic doesnt have anything to do with it...the salt mix you use and the lighting will determine what type grows...it comes in pinks, purples, reds, greens, etc. My tank only grows Pink. I like your stand...it looks like it has a sweet little handlebar moustache:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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