Let the journey begin.

[Ted]

Looking good, that live rock will really help seed the dead rock. Your on the road now...

 

[Barch]

I tested water this morning and it looks like the ammonia is starting to build. It's been 4 days since I added the shrimp, I have some live nitrifying bacteria....when would you guys recommend adding it? I thought this would help cycle the tank.

 

[ReefCarl]

Hey Barch,

Nice looking set-up you've got started! I really like the slick RODI storage/salt-water set-up you've built behind the tank. I'm thinking of doing something similar and your switches gave me some ideas.

I wish I could offer some advice on your cycle, but I'm not really an expert. It does sound like you are doing things correctly with the shrimp, a few pieces of live rock, etc.... I am sure the people on this board will be able to help. I just like looking at the pictures.

One bit of advice that I received when I was cycling that really made sense to me was the idea that your bacteria need to be fed too, so you may need to provide a source of ammonia until you have fish that do that for you.

Good luck and I'm looking forward to following your build.

 

[Barch]

I tested the water today and I'm at .50 on Ammonia. My question is how high will it go and should I pull the shrimp out of my refugium? It's starting to look pretty nasty. I did add some nitrifying bacteria to the tank yesterday. Any thoughts?

 

[Ted]

You can ditch the shrimp, its purpose has been done. With the shrimp gone you will see the ammonia start to go down and the nitrite go up.

 

[Barch]

I'm just kinda hanging in limbo waiting for the tank to do it's thing...
Test Results
Ammonia 1.00
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
PH 8.07
Salinity 1.025

the water has settled really well now crystal clear

I did start my skimmer to start breaking it in and added some cheato to the refugium

I noticed that there were some pods in with the cheato. Do you think they will survive the rest of the tank cycle?
Also noticed a little zoa? on my live rock that has started to open up...will he survive too?

just waiting around to do more!

 

[chichimom79]

Great start! The skimmer and chaeto wont do much until they have waste to remove from the water column. I love having a Reefkeeper Lite. Makes things much easier :D

Zoas and pods are pretty hardy, so they may make it through. Good luck!

 

[Barch]

agreed on the Reefkeeper. I love it!

 

[Barch]

Well it has been 11 days since staring the new saltwater tank and here is the progress report.

test results this morning. Looks like Ammonia is coming down and the nitrite is starting to show. Also a little change in the nitrate level.
New life is starting to show up in the DT tank as well.

I came in this morning and my skimmer was over flowing. It seems to be "surging" the foam will build in the neck and then fall back down....is this normal during the break in period? it's never spilled over before and I have had it running for about a week now. I'm happy with the way things seem to be coming along. Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks

 

[Civicdemon]

Just turn.it down a bit untill the.bubles just reach the neck of tje cup. On another note might want to turn up your temps a bit closer to 79 f. I have ben reading that what was taught to.be good temps at 77 is actually not all that great. The waters around coral reef are actually at around 81 to 84 f. Atleast thats what i have read . My temps jump to 80.3 in the day time and 79.4 at night and my corals look way happyer. Its really up to you do.

 

[Barch]

I have been watching the temps. I may have to add another heater. I have one now but it won't get it warmer than 78. I was waiting for the temps outside to moderate. It has been colder than normal here and I was hoping that once the temps outside come up a little that it would help so we will see.

 

[Civicdemon]

Quick question on the reef keeper. How does it work Exackly, does it have proves to check everything and does it turn on doesing pumps and stuff or is its just for reaqdings like PH and temps ???

 

[Barch]

The RKL comes with a temp. and PH probe. You can program it for dosing pumps as I understand it. I'm not there yet as my tank is new and I'm not dosing anything now. The ATO feature is really nice and works really well. It gives you some peace of mind in that it will shut off the heater and turn on cooling fans and chillers based on programming. Same with the lights. So for me it was worth it.

 

[Civicdemon]

Ahhh ok so i can attach aheater and fans to it with plug and it will turn one off or one on depending on my temps ???

And i can also hook up a ato to it or it has built in ato feture ??

 

[Ted]

On the rxl you have to get a unit with the SL1 unit to run the ato. You will also need to buy the float switch and a aqualifter pump. The float switch is around $25 and a aqyalifter pump is like $15

 

[Barch]

Update, tested water this morning and have 0 Ammonia .25 Nitrite and 10 Nitrate. Diatoms have taken over my tank and covered everything. Today I went to the LFS and picked up a CUC. 20 hermits so they could get started cleaning up the tank. Boy they don't waste any time gettin with it.

the sand here was completely covered and they had it all cleaned up in just a few minutes and have now started to fan out across the tank.

 

[Ted]

I love hermits...right until you put a few unsecured frags in the tank. Then you want to smash them lol You will want some snails for the glass, I like turbos for that.

 

[Barch]

We are 15 days into the new set up and here is the latest update.
Diatoms are still going strong although it looks like today they are starting to dissipate a little. The Skimmer is starting to collect some green nasty stuff. The crabs are having a blast cleaning up the diatoms. and we are waiting...waiting...waiting...

Ammonia 0
Nitrite .10
Nitrate 10
PH 8.04
I'm planning on doing a 20% water change after the weekend.

 

[Ted]

Worse then waiting on the UPS man....but its coming along...

 

[lilmatty5dimes]

Looks good keep up the good work.