JB's Reef Tank

[yote]

Tampa Bays rock rock is what the LFS I use sales.Just to give you a few examples of what I've seen come in with the rock,All of this arrived alive with the shippment:Octopus,ells,small fish,lots of different kinds of shrimp,all kinds of corals.The last shippment I helpped put up had a bunch of rose brain corals growing on it.

[jb61264]

After an intense week of training at Dell Headquarters in Austin, TX I am back and immediately took some measurements...I left for Austin on Sunday afternoon and just got back Friday late evening. Mucho props to my stepdad for coming over every other day to add some top-off RO/DI water!

And.......drum roll.......the measurements are:

NH3/NH4+ (Ammonia) - 0mg/l (a trace at the most, if any)
NO2- (Nitrite) - > 33 mg/l (off the colorimetric chart...literally)
pH - 7.7 to 8.0
SG - 1.024
Temp - 77F
KH - 7 dH
CO2 Content - 4-5mg/l

I'd say I'm right in the middle of a cycle...I am going to the fish store tomorrow morning to pick up a Nitrate kit (why this kit doesn't have it I'll never understand).

I'm also placing an order for 30lbs of additional live rock from Tampa Bay Saltwater tomorrow morning. I sent them a note about their recommendation for timing on getting additional rock and he said to go ahead and order it as he was a little backed up anyway with some of the bad weather around the country.

Anyway...I am back and ready to continue building my reef

[fatman]

Without knowing the nitrate there is know way of gaging how near you are to the end of the cycle. If your nitrates are starting to go up you coulb very well be very near the end of your cycle. It would be nice if your pH was higher and your alkalinity will probably go up when your pH goes up which should start happening as your nitrite drops and your nitrate goes up. Are you using your lights and had they been on nearly your full light period before the pH and CO2 readings were taken? There can be an easy doubling of your CO2 when the lights are off for any appreciable length of time thereby dropping your pH byusually around 0.2 to 0.3 points. Take your pH and CO2 readings around an hour before you turn your lights off as a general habit. As much life as what comes with and on the Tampa Bay live rock prepare to follow there dirrects as to the cycling and curing or you will lose a lot of what you paid for. This means prepare by saving up some water for water changes. You will probably loose enough sponges alone to start another cycle. However, with a few water changes done in the first week too two weeks after getting the new rock, the new cycle should be pretty quick and easy due to the cycle your now going through. It is gorgeous rock though. If you want to keep the sponges going for any length of time you ill want to get some phytoplankton to feed them. You can get it in tubes until you decide whether you really want the sponges. Phytoplankton is easy to raise but it is one more obligation of time but cheap once you get set up. Set up is a culture fertilizer, soda bottles flourescent light small air pump, air valves, vinyl tubing and some rigid air tubing. About $50 to $75. Long tank life for sponges is usually about 18 months at most. Some corals love phytoplankton as do larger plankton , freshly hatched brine shrimp, life forms in your sand and on your rock. Plus fish hatchlings, until they are big enough for rotifers and brine shrimp.

[jb61264]

Originally Posted by fatman

Are you using your lights and had they been on nearly your full light period before the pH and CO2 readings were taken?

Lights have been off since last Sunday. Since I was in Austin, TX training at Dell I decided to just leave them off as everybody really suggested that since I was cycling that I could/should do so to prevent unwanted algae.

Originally Posted by fatman

This means prepare by saving up some water for water changes.

Thanks for the great information...I will be prepared for the new rock and water changes as you suggest.

[jb61264]

Purchased a Nitrate test kit this morning and ran a test...nitrates are "off the chart" (scale measures up to 100mg/l)...so it appears as though the tank is now trying to establish these two bacterial populations.

Ammonia was pretty close to zero when I measured yesterday.

[fatman]

No lights, death to organic organisms that meed light. Hence, low pH, high organic wastes (nitrites). It is good that your nitrate are elevated, in that it shows the bacteria needed to turn nitrites to nitrates is present and working. However, things would have definitely worked better with some lighting. It is as near to a fact as you can get that you will have some algae problems with a newly established tank. Algae problems are pretty much the standard with newly established tanks. Cutting the lights at most just moves the time table to a place where the algae comes after the cycling whereby you can use a cleaning crew to help deal with it. Water changes start dealing with the problem before it happens. However, even a few water problems is not going to eliminate all plant nutrients from your tank. That takes time, god husbandmanship, a well functionind bacterialogical system and light loading and thereby light feeding of foods containing nutrients. Plus good water for water changes and top offs. Plus diatom algae (brown algae) is usually a larger problem with tanks that did not use lights during cycling. It is best to use all equipment you have during cycling with the exception of ultra violet filters, which should not be brought on line until a cycle is complete, some people say the same about ozone. If you have them, it is even wise to use carbon ang phosphate remover (ferric oxide) during a tank cycle, as they will remove the phospate and heavy metals leached out of your rock and sand while the pH is low during cycling. Even if you do not plan on using them as routine maintance it is nice to remove them initially.

[jb61264]

No UV or Ozone here...I placed an order from TampaBay Saltwater a short while ago (25lbs)...which will bring my total rock up to 70lbs for my 40 gallon tank. No worries about good husbandry here, I am pretty anal about the setup and monitoring and keeping things clean...there has been a little buildup of debris in certain spots that I have been gradually removing with a turkey baster that I've been using to baste my rock with over the last week...keeps things in suspension really well too for the overflow prefilter to remove.

Will be making up some new water for the new rock arrival on Thursday. I have a brand new mini trash container ready to use when I take water from my tank to use as rinse when the rock gets her...sort of a water change/new rock rinse all in one day

[fatman]

Just remember that sponges can not take being out of water. This rock will have lots of little sponges on it, along with polyps, corals and who knows what else. Sponges are filter feeders and seem incapable of ridding themselves of the air they take in when out of water. There should not be much for you to clean off he rock when it arrives, mainly just macro algae and sponges that have obviously died or been badly mangled in shipping. You will definitely be wanting to check the tank every night after the lights go out for things like pistol shrimps and some crabs that can sneak in. The Tampa Bay site has a good photo gallery of good and bad hitch hikers to look for. If he has not shipped his order to you yet you would be wise to have him add a few pounds of live sand to your order. With your tank size I would go for five pounds of his sand. It is only two dollars a pound, so it shouldn't really be very noticeable to your overall cost. His live sand is exceptional in that it is loaded with life forms, worms, snails, brittle stars and lots of real little squirmies and bacteria.

[yote]

Like Fatman says,Be sure to do some tank watching in the dark.
A small flashlight with a red bulb works great.You'll be surprissed at just how many nocturnal critters you'll have.

[jb61264]

Argh...nitrates are still beyond my Tetratest colorimetric scale which tops off at 100mg/l

I will most likely delay getting my 25lbs of live rock and 5lbs of live sand from TampBay Saltwater unless I see some decrease soon.

It will be officially 2 weeks tomorrow af around 5pm since I added the first batch of live rock (45lbs purchased from LFS)...Ammonia set it 3-5 days later...Nitrites and Nitrates have both been really high since I returned home from Austin on 2/1.

I know, I know...patience...ugh

Not much action going on with the skimmer at all...I pulled up the air tubing that attachs to the wooden airstone to concentrate even more of the bubbles to where the water flow is coming in from the pump so we'll see if that helps increase the skimming action. It has pulled some gunk up into the inner cylinder but never really anything foaming over the top into the collection cup.