JB's Reef Tank

[fatman]

For once I have to agree not to do a water change. There is no need to do a water change as your using base rock for your cycle, and have introduced no other life forms yet. About the only life that comes with base rock is deep inside and that is pretty hard to kill no matter how high ammonia, nitrite and nitrate get. You are going to eventually get algae regardless of the lights being on or off now, but I see no need at this moment to support the cost of power for the lights, unless you have a web cam on your tank. It would be nice to see some tank web cams! There is nothing wrong with having your lights on during a cycle or rock curing, it is recommended by a lot of experts that they be on, with shortened hours or even full hours.

[jb61264]

This is all good to hear...I have manually turned on the lights for short periods while I'm at home today...just too hard not to have them on when I'm here When I turn them off tonight at 9, they will be off until I return Wednesday evening...by that time, my cycle should be further along (done hopefully!)

Web cam...hmmm...that would be cool (and doable for me)...I'll buy one through work since they want me to do that on a couple of our labs too, so I have a good excuse to "learn"

[fatman]

Great! Yes, if your lucky your cycle will be done. Amonia and nitrite at zero and nitrate high. Just do a good size water change to bring nitrates down and your set to start adding small amounts of stock. Expect at least a diatom outbreak, and do not be surprised if you have other algae breakouts as that is pretty common with new tanks that have not yet built up a large population of bacterias.

[jb61264]

Measured my evaporation rate again today. I measured it last week for a 12 hour period and then did the calculations and figured out I had a 0.68 gallon/day evaporation rate.

I measure again this morning and had measured for a 18 hour period and the calculation came out to 0.69 gallons/day evaporation rate.

For the driest season of the year...I'd say that's not too bad compared to what I've seen from others with 1 gallon/day and sometimes a bit more.

[jb61264]

Another test today before I leave this afternoon for three days:

NH3/NH4+ (Ammonia) > 5.0mg/l
there is lots of ammonia brewing...the colorimetric was literally off the chart this test was MUCH darker of a result than Friday evening

N02- (Nitrite) > 1.6 to 3.3 mg/l
this is higher than it was Friday evening

pH = 7.5 to 8.0 (confirmed with two separate tests)

KH = 10

CO2 Content = 5-9 mg/l

SG = 1.024

Temp = 78


Nitrites are definately higher than they were Friday night (and so is Ammonia too)

Lights will be left off now for a few days while I am gone...will test as soon as I get home Wednesday evening.

[fatman]

Hum. Plenty of cycling going on without the addition of a shrimp, just base rock. As you are not trying to preserve any life forms that hitch hiked in, or macroalgae etc etc. I would just let the cycle run its course. If there were more life forms to preserve than what little life comes on base rock Iwould recommend a 30-40% water change to try to drop your ammonia down, as 0.5 mg/l is more than sufficient to feed a cycling.

[jb61264]

where should I order my next 30 lbs of rock so I can get 'hitchhikers' with the shipment?...tampa bay or drs foster and smith?

[jhnrb]

Finally caught up on your thread. raise your circulation pump a bit higher from the sand bed. at least about 1/2 way up or in the upper portion. develope good surface agitation. Higher on the pump will help clear the water also. The propeller pumps tend to have a larger bottom draw than the standard pumps so by raising it a bit you will not draw from the bottom sand bed materials. Good luck looking good.

[yote]

If its hitch hikers your looking for,go with Tampa Bay.Their rock is full of hitch hikers.

[fatman]

Tampa Bay live rock is about the only live rock that should really be called live rock. The other rock normally sold as live rock is no more alive usually than a used filter pad with the addition of a little coralline algae. When one is lucky bristle worms and pods might hitch hike in with the other live rock, if it was recently held in a live rock holding facility or LFS, but it is extreme luck to get much else viable. Yes, I have seen tons of bad live rock sell as great stuff. No, I have never seen in the states better live rock than the Live Rock - Tampa Bay Saltwater Aquacultured Live Rock live rock.