My first Tank! "Lucky"

[asonitez]

My New Tank!!!!!!!! Follow my progress here

My Fish Tank Named Lucky



I honestly don't know what to do now. Lol I don't know what the break in cycle is like.

 

[metalac]

Is the rock you got cured, or uncured? If it's uncured I'd doubt those fish will be able to survive.

 

[asonitez]

its cured rock from an established tank

 

[mr_X]

welcome asonitez.
how did you pick up that rock? in buckets and left it dry for the ride home? covered it with wet newspaper? submerged in buckets of water?

you will see a cycle. you'll go through different algae blooms, and depending on how you transported that rock, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate spikes as well.

do you have a test kit? you'll need to start testing your water to see at what point you are, and also, it's a good practice to test your water periodically if you have any livestock in the tank.

i hate to put an end to your alleged "lucky streak", but i think you are going to need to replace that skimmer with a good one.
also, remove the bio balls from the wet/dry. they will work against the live rock.

basically the cycle is the same as you've experienced with freshwater.

you might start thinking about lighting. what corals will you be keeping in this tank? there is an on-going lighting thread in this forum you should read before purchasing. also the topics marked *sticky* are very important reads.

again, welcome and good luck with the tank. and try not to add any more livestock until you are sure that the tank has cycled. :wink:

 

[mr_X]

btw, was that rock under the purple coralline covered rock? it looks white as if it has been shielded from light.

 

[asonitez]

The rock was cured rock it was transported in a rubber maid container submerged with water from the original tank. I also got 5lbs of the sand from the orogonal tank. That tank was live for 8 years. Most of the prime pieces were gone but i picked up the pieces with most diverse coralline coverage, greens, oranges, purple. Some pieces were obviously bottom pieces while others still have remnants of corals on them.

No bioballs are in the wet dry. Though before i got the canister i had replaced the bio balls with ceramic ones. I dunno wat to do Mr. X i hate the tank sticking so far out from the wall with the overflow boxes. I like the canister filter better. Unless i can have the canister empty into the sump and have that return the water. What you think?

 

[extremepb319]

If/ when you upgrade your protein skimmer DO NOT get the coralife seaclone 100 or 150. honestly IME they are terrible. I just took the powerhead off and use it just as that now. Just thouhgt id let you know in case you see one at your LFS.

 

[asonitez]

lol i keep hearing horror stories about SeaClone. I think its safe to stay away from them. what do you think of my idea about having the canister fiter into the sump and then sump into the tank?

 

[extremepb319]

I have never used a canister before so im not too familiar with them. But in theory it sound like a good idea from what I can tell. I would just be cautious about using a pump to bring water to the sump and back to the tank. For example if one of them fails there will either be water all ofer the floor and/or a burnt out pump. I would ask that question in the DIY section because im sure they know much more than I do about that topic.

HTH

 

[mr_X]

i wouldn't use the ceramic rings either. the live rock will be the source of good bacteria. you don't need the rings for that and they will do nothing more than cause you trouble later.
just use the cannister for sponge filters and carbon, or maybe phosban, but clean the sponges out regularly....like once a week.
you can try the cannister filtering to the sump and back up with another pump, but then you have 2 pumps to rely on. i just have a bad feeling about that. what if the intake on the cannister gets some algae or something caught in the end.....then the whole system will be off and something will overflow.
can you get the tank drilled? 2 holes in the back pane and you are in business.

 

[asonitez]

yeah a friend of mine told me he had a bad feeling about that too because of the reliance on 2 pumps. how often do pumps go bad?

 

[mr_X]

it's not just the pumps. in order to get even flow to, and from the tank you will have to have 2 exact lengths of hose, 2 perfectly calibrated pumps, the same amount, and angle of bends in each hose....it's just too many things to orchestrate.

i'm afraid that you have 3 options-
1. drill the tank....2 holes in the back pane towards the top of the water line and you'll only have to move the tank away from the wall far enough to get a piece of pvc behind it.
2. go sumpless and skimmerless, which can be done with a limited bio load and regular, sizeable water changes.
3. put up with the tank away from the wall some.

:wink:

 

[ChrisRD]

Since you started the tank with live rock that was transported wet, you may never see any significant readings for NH4/N2/N3 as there may not be much die off. I would still give the system time to settle down before trying to add any livestock.

Canister filters are not typically used with reef tanks, nor are they needed. With the live rock/sand, good circulation and a good skimmer you'll have adequate filtration. IMO it's worth keeping it around for periodic detritus removal, water polishing or maybe running carbon occasionally, but personally I wouldn't run it full time. If you choose to keep it on there, clean it very frequently as a neglected canister filter will do more harm than good to your water quality.

As for balancing water exchange to/from the sump with two pumps - as mentioned - forget that idea. Even if you could somehow get that setup perfectly balanced initially, it will never stay that way...

 

[extremepb319]

Yea i did not beleive that would work with the whole 2 pump idea but i wasnt too sure. I guess the others confirmed it.

Im in your boat too tho. I have a crappy skimmer and want a sump but not enough room or resources....

 

[asonitez]

Well Algae ALL OVER..

Hair Algae
Red Slime Algae


Everything was going SOOOO well. I didn't even get my NEW lighting in the mail yet! and my TUNZE 9005 Skimmer is OTW.

I'm very dissapointed....

Steps I'm taking to kill the algae..


Purchased

5 Astrea Snails
2 Nassirus Sand Snails
5 Hermit Crabs Blue/Scarlet

1 Lawnmower Blenny slightly big. I already saw him grazing.
I have stopped lighting the tank for 8 hours. Instead I light the tank now from 7 - 11 at night during the fishie feeding.

I'm going to do a 5 Gallon Water Change every 2 Days.

 

[metalac]

algae is VERY normal for new tanks. I'm still fighting mine and it's been a month. It finally started to die off. Skimming, and more skimming is the key. Water changes will help as well as the snails. Also you if it really gets out of control you can remove it by hand, at least the green hairy one, just pluck it with hand, don't scrub it so it goes all over the place.

 

[mr_X]

you don't have any corals. you can turn the lights off completely.
also, nothing will eat the red slime. it's not algae, it's cyanobacteria.
i wouldn't get discouraged just yet. it's perfectly normal.

if it makes you feel any better, my new 200 gallon is going through a brown diatom bloom and i recently noticed a coating of red slime on the sand bed. i'm not alarmed. i anticipated this.

you can turn up the flow a bit to combat the red slime, and cut down on the feeding. water changes to remove nutrients are also a good idea, which is the course i'm taking(i feed too much), and believe me, if i didn't have a tank full of corals, i'd have my lights off.
one more bit of experience- don't use miracle red slime removers and antibiotics.

 

[asonitez]

No Lights? KEWL! I just have some green chromis and the blenny with lots of snailies.



ok im gonna go light less for a few days and feed normally. I think i over fed a bit at the beginning. I'm gonna starve the algae to death. but not my pretty fishies. Idk what anyone says... I bought my lawnmower blenny at petco for 14 bucks. His colorations are beautiful and hes quite the character to watch feeding. He loves his new home with lots of nooks and crannies. i have a dark sheet covering the tank to stop light getting in hopefully it will kill the algae. I plan to do a water change today and keep it up for the next week or so. Then I will go back to my weekly 5 - 10 gallon water change.

-Aso

 

[asonitez]

Well I just figured out the solution to two problems. Since I only have a few fish and hermits and now a few snails I don't really need a lot of Light going into the Aquarium during the day when No one is at home. I hopped on the old Sewing machine and Made a nice covering and through the help of velcro added that to the visible sides of the aquarium. I even sewed a cool Fish into the cover It is black and gives the effect of complete night in the tank. The only lighting is coming from the custom moonlights I wired into the Current-Sea 65watt 50/50 Acitinic bulb I was currently using until my MH system arrives. That was a fun project. For about 10 dollars I purchased some LED's from Radio Shack and drilled holes into the housing I wired tapped them into the Existing moonlight. Pics later!!!