Samhain's Little Kitchen Reef

Samhain

Samhain

Satin, Lace, and Sequins
Well, here's the start of my 10 gallon ! This is going to give me something interesting to watch when I'm cooking, washing dishes, or whatever other kitchen chores I might have to do......

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Sand is in. 10 lbs of dry rock, 2 koralia 240 gph powerheads, and a heater are on the way from BRS. I'll be seeding the tank with 2-4 lbs of LR from my 90, and then we'll let the cycling fun begin!
 
Just got the notification that my rock, powerheads, and heater are supposed to be here on Friday. I work Friday, so I won't be able to post pics until that evening. I'm hoping the aquascaping works out like my 90 did and the rocks just tell me what configuration they like. I will be epoxying these rocks, since I'm not going to be putting in any aggressive/semi-aggressive fish and I won't need to rearrange once I settle on a scape. So I'm expecting to fill the tank and start the cycle on Saturday or Sunday! Then it's time to sit and wait. Although I may get that one and only stuff to speed it up............
 
Samhain;539762 So I'm expecting to fill the tank and start the cycle on Saturday or Sunday! Then it's time to sit and wait. Although I may get that one and only stuff to speed it up............[/QUOTE said:
Yay! How exciting! I would love to see how fast your tank cycles with Dr. Tim's one and only.
Click to expand...
 
It's awesome how big all of these 10g tanks look! If I wasn't so broke from setting up my 90 I just might jump of the bandwagon :)
 
Not quite 24 hours into the cycle.

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Tank is looking a little on the cloudy side too, and the mahi mahi has disappeared.....

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I had forgotten how much a cycling tank stinks......That whole corner of the kitchen has a distinctly unpleasant odor....
 
Tank has cleared up, and the cycle is progressing. Levels as follows:

pH: 8.0
Ammo: 6 (yup, wouldn't want anything living in THAT!)
Trite: probably about 3-3.5 (it's darker than 2.0, but lighter than 5.0)
Trate: 20

Happy with these levels since it's day 4 of the cycle.
 
Cycle is complete! Levels as follows:

pH 7.9
Ammo 0
Trite 0
Trate was almost black on the color chart, but after a 6 gallon water change is reading 10 now!

The cycle went a lot faster than I thought it would (my 50 took 5 weeks to cycle, not 3), so I was just starting to consider lights. I know I want LEDs due to temperature issues. We keep our house at 76 in the summer, and I keep my tank heaters set at 78. My 90 stays at 80 degrees on the dot, but with the horrible stock lights that came with the 10 I'm seeing a 6-8 degree fluctuation in a 24 hour period. Now obviously I'm not keeping that trash. The water (as you can see in the above pics) looks yellow, and they haven't even been strong enough to grow algae, so I don't even have anything to feed a CUC at the moment. I'm debating between Marineland LEDs or getting a fixture from FinSanity I really like the Marinelands, but I wish they had separate cords for day lights and moon lights. That's the only downside, considering the price point. I really want to be able to put the day lights on a timer so I don't have to worry about the photoperiod being inconsistent.
 

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