So far, So good

[Reefrookie]

Well, it's been about three weeks since I set up my 125 gal. The ammonia spiked and returned to 0, the trites spiked and returned to 0, but I did not see much movement on the trates at all. Why would this be?

Anyway, here is a few pics of the tank in progress
125 gal.
150 lbs of base rock
40 lbs. of live rock ( yeah I know, I will add more slowly)
Remora Pro skimmer
2 Koralia 3s
Wisper 40 HOB filter for mechanical filtration and flow, for now
72" Nova Extreme Pro T5's 468 watts

[stagofdoom]

Looks real good!
How do you like your lights...im looking into getting a 90 gal tank and looking for lights. Also where did you get them?

[dustin_P74]

you dont need to add more LR because the LR will seed the base rock and you will eventually have 190lbs of LR. and you need to do a massive water change and that should take care of the rates. other people will give better comments on your lights but i dont think that they are strong enough to keep corals, you only have 3.74 watts per gallon

[daugherty]

you will be able to keep many low light corals i think with that set up

[Bifferwine]

T5s don't follow the wpg "rule of thumb". Those T5s will be fine for almost all corals, you'll just need to put ones that need more light close to the top of the tank. I used to have 4 wpg of T5s over my old 55 gallon tank, and I was able to keep SPS and an anemone successfully.

[Reefrookie]

Originally Posted by stagofdoom

Looks real good!
How do you like your lights...im looking into getting a 90 gal tank and looking for lights. Also where did you get them?

I really have had no time to enjoy them yet, I have kept them mostly off during the cycle. I purchased them at www.thatfishplace.com in Lancaster, Pa. I went there looking to buy a more expensive Orbit system and the salesman told me these were a much better buy because of the T5s. He said Orbit may discontinue the other fixture next year that I was looking at.

[Reefrookie]

Originally Posted by fishfan

you need to do a massive water change and that should take care of the rates

Thats not what I meant by not much movement. What I meant was that the nitrates have not gone up much at all. Why would that be the case?

[dustin_P74]

as long as the trates are low and they have been stable for a week or so then your good to SLOWLY start stocking your tank with about one fish every three weeks to let your bio load catch up

[Piggy]

Good choice of lights. I shop there also. Staff is very knowledgeable. Their frozen food is pretty cheap also. I just love that store. Tank is looking great. The fun part comes when you get to stock it.

[yote]

Its not un-heard of for nitrates to stay low durning a cycle.Dont ask the why,but say thanks for it.A lot of people have a hard time getting trates down after a cycle.Maybe your setup is different and will effectly convert the trates to nitrogen.