75G startup

Marinne13

Northern Reefer
Ok so I had an eventful weekend, found a used 75G tank that was pre-drilled with an overflow box/stand/canopy for $150!!! lets just say I upgraded from the 30G

so I bought 30 more lbs of sand and 40lbs of base rock to add with my 45lbs of Fiji. I bought another 1050 GPH powerhead and a 300 watt heater for the sump...I already had a 20G long so we made that into a sump and got our plumbing hooked up.

everything is running good, no leaks, salinity is at 1.024, temp is at 78.6...I started testing Ammonia yesterday and it was at 8ppm, should I just let it run it's course?

I really don't want to stall the cycle by doing a water change, my skimmer is working awesome and pulling gunk out...I also have a filter sock with some ammonia reducing media over the sump intake'

should I do a water change or just leave it

also, since the skimmer is pulling out alot and lowering the water level it seems...do I add more salt water or RODI?
 
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Congrats on the upgrade! Can you adjust your skimmer to skim a little dryer? The only way to know if you need to top off RO or saltwater is to check your salinity. Don't bother with the WC until your done cycling I would guess, although that is really high on ammonia.
 
that's what I though but I am going to wait and see...there must be a lot of die off on this rock as it wasn't fully cured, I wanted to use it to cycle the tank

I will slow my skimmer down
 
so I did a 30G water swap to see if it would lower the Ammonia...it is testing the same

I have tested the RODI water and it comes up zero...WTF
 
it has been up for 4 days, I only did a water swap to see if I could get the ammonia down to a reasonable level for the cycle
 
Doing water changes during your cycle will only prolong it. Same with pulling your rocks out and scrubbing them. Just let your tank be, it can take up to 8-12 weeks to cycle.
 
here she is...not to bad for $150!!!

DSC_0074_zps71346fe2.jpg
 
I know, I thought it was wrong when I asked the guy...to get a 75G tank, stand, canopy, overflow box and the internal plumbing for $150 is a total steal
 
I would think 2 mp10s that way you could alternate them. Would give better alternating current.
 
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