I'm Extremely Happy

[bigbris1]

So my tank fully cycled within 2 weeks fully stocked pretty much from jump with semi-cycled LR, 30 coral pieces (sps, lps, softies, a gorg & a sponge) and livestock (cleaner shrimp, yellow tang, coral beauty, 2 firefish, a banded goby, 5 blue legged hermits, 2 red legged hermits, 2 nassarius snails & 1 turbo snail).

I have been dosing CB pts 1&2, running a 70gph sponge filter and using 4x24W T5 lighting. I went thru the diatom stage last week and now have bright green algae on the glass and rocks along with bright pink & purple coralline.

Some of my corals have already begun splitting/growing and to think I started this with tap water, switching to waste water, then to 0ppm-3ppm RO water.

It should be noted that I did partial (20%) water changes every other day with IO suking out most of the crap blown off the rocks with a turkey baster and getting the crap left by the fish & inverts.

My yellow tang developed black spot a couple of days ago but is clean now, I think thanks to the cleaner shrimp.

The only casualties in the whole process was a cleaner shrimp juv, a turbo snail & a purple firefish

Using the 4x24W Oddysea T5 lighting fixture but will soon change out the bulbs for ATI as per the Grim Reefer's recommendation. I'm so glad I went thru the trial and error before so that I can enjoy my reef sooner than later.

Thanks to Manhattan Aquariums, Mo~Idol & scunfcu for their coral pieces.

Thanks to MR for the great resource of information which is necessary in this hobby!

 

[MatthewScars]

So my tank fully cycled within 2 weeks fully stocked

Great to hear. Hopefully this thread will say open - just dont start talking about RO water.

 

[bigbris1]

Thanks! My whole point was it doesn't take months to get to this point but unfortunately that was derailed in the other thread. Hopefully now peeps can understand what I meant and I look forward to sharing pics of my matured tank once it does mature.

It does take a lot of work to go the expedited route and I wouldn't recommend it for beginners. But it definitely is possible.

Thanks again.

 

[bigbris1]

The banded goby pulled a Peter Pan and jumped out of the tank I also bought (I know, I know) a Copperband which died after a week and a few days. But the rest of the corals& inhabitants are doing really well. MG test kit came today as well as a Koralia Nano 425 which replaced another temp pump.

Now I have algae on all of the rock faces and scraped some corraline off of a few pieces to hopefully seed the tank.

Very happy and added a few more corals (acans, favia, etc.) So now I have:

32 different corals (some multiples)
2 cleaner shrimp
Coral beauty
Yellow tang
2 Firefish
Algae blenny
Misc hermits and snails

AND, I saw a copepod today!!! YES, man, YES!!!

Some of the corals are already splitting/growing. So happy.

 

[Mattl22]

Wow gonna need an upgrade soon goodluck!

 

[Master Shake]

What size tank? considering the fact that you are only using a 24 inch light fixture im guessing not that big. A yellow tang and a copperband need a tank way bigger than 24 inches. Also i would not recomend moving this fast with stocking a tank, and I would also not recomend putting sps that far down with only 4 t5 bulbs. Sponges and gorgonians usually do better in dirtier tanks and sps usually do better in cleaner tanks so you may have an issue there with either one doing better than the other. Any pics?

 

[46nBliss]

What size tank? considering the fact that you are only using a 24 inch light fixture im guessing not that big. A yellow tang and a copperband need a tank way bigger than 24 inches. Also i would not recomend moving this fast with stocking a tank, and I would also not recomend putting sps that far down with only 4 t5 bulbs. Sponges and gorgonians usually do better in dirtier tanks and sps usually do better in cleaner tanks so you may have an issue there with either one doing better than the other. Any pics?

+1 on this. But your wasting your time. This person is not into taking advice if he doesn't like what u say. Look up his past thread it got locked.

 

[strgazr27]

Would LOVE to see a few pics Even from a cellphone at this point Lol

 

[MatthewScars]

+1 on this. But your wasting your time. This person is not into taking advice if he doesn't like what u say. Look up his past thread it got locked.

Why is this continuing? We have a Tank thread forum for tank updates. It sucks when fish jumps, but keep it in your own tank thread. It's very E/N.

 

[strgazr27]

Why is this continuing? We have a Tank thread forum for tank updates. It sucks when fish jumps, but keep it in your own tank thread. It's very E/N.

Partly because he purchases a CB butterfly for a tank that size that is TRULY not cycled/settled yet and acts like it's nothing that it died...

Perhaps some of us are tired of the obvious lack of respect for living things that is taking place and disregard for proven facts. He states "I also bought (I know, I know) a Copperband which died after a week and a few days. But the rest of the corals& inhabitants are doing really well."

Well isn't that great for the stuff that HASN'T died.....Yet :irked:

I guess you see nothing wrong with that :scratch:

 

[bigbris1]

I guess this should be in the tank threads section so if a mod could move it, I would appreciate it much. I took some pics but wasn't too happy with any of them, but will try to get some up today when I get back home.

Simple point being made here: it doesn't take forever to set up a successful reef tank. For the person who asked, my tank is a 26BF (avatar pic). Thanks

 

[albano]

Simple point being made here: it doesn't take forever to set up a successful reef tank.

Simple point being made here, by others...NO one ever said it "takes forever"...
a few weeks is not anywhere near, being ready to be called a "successful reef tank"!

 

[bigbris1]

Look, I'm not going to argue with you guys, apparently you have nothing better to do that pick nits. This thread was started in hopes of derailing the notion that one must wait forever and a day to finally start adding coral & such. Look at some of the comments here: Oh, I would make sure those sps are at the top of the tank, your lighting isn't sufficient, I wouldn't stock the tank too soon, and such.

C'mon. No sweat off my back. I'd like to see you guys' posts in a year or so when my tank is looking even more awesome.

kthxbai

 

[MatthewScars]

So why don't you just post a tank thread in the TANK THREAD forum and let your little threads live out their lives there instead of getting two topics (im foreseeing this one) closed on the main board because mostly everyone in the community doesn't like your attitude.

I think drinking the waste RODO water has finally gone to your head.

 

[James]

I take you up on your challenge. I will be here to congratulate you in a year when you have an "even more awesome" tank.... the problem is, I would argue your tank is not that awesome now, you have killed several animals in the few short weeks you have had this tank set up and contradicted the good advice you have received... this is not successful in my opinion. I would say post pics and let the pics speak for themselves every week so we can follow along, what say you? At least this way we get to see what it looks like and what livestock you add and subsequently lose week to week.

 

[LatinP]

You can cycle a tank in a week that doesn't mean the tank is mature enough for livestock. Just because you're cycled doesn't mean you've been successful with anything. I can drop some of that bio-spira stuff or Dr. Tim's junk in can (which actually worked for someone I know btw) and be cycled in 72 hours. You think I'm gonna drop sps corals in there?

PS: After reading your last post I only have one last thing to say...

 

[Killarsox]

What kinds of algae blooms have you experienced so far?

 

[strgazr27]

I take you up on your challenge. I will be here to congratulate you in a year when you have an "even more awesome" tank.... the problem is, I would argue your tank is not that awesome now, you have killed several animals in the few short weeks you have had this tank set up and contradicted the good advice you have received... this is not successful in my opinion. I would say post pics and let the pics speak for themselves every week so we can follow along, what say you? At least this way we get to see what it looks like and what livestock you add and subsequently lose week to week.

Yep. HUNDREDS of tank threads on here WITH PICTURES. Best way to prove all of us wrong

I can't understand why, if it looks so great, you wouldn't want to share it with everybody. My tank is chicken scratch compared to most but I'm proud of it.

So why not?

 

[Reefs Creation]

Welcome back to the hobby Big guy! This is lazibonez.

 

[Mattl22]

Post pics please I've done everything recommended by exp reefers and in last 2 yrs have battled flatt worms red bugs hair alge cyano and now diatoms btw my tank looked awesome for first 3 months till hair alage took over


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