Some questions about cycling my tank

glad to see you are reading. It is always a great idea with this hobby. Keep up the research and you will do great.

-Dr Marco :sfish::sfish:
 
I'm back, taking a break from reading books on American Indian Studies... Even though I have a test to do before midnight... had to come back and feed my addiction for a while and ask a few more ?'s...

What do you guys think about the skilter 400, or what ever this filter/ skimmer I got, was that a good choice? When should i open up the valve to have the skimmer part start doing its thing? and how far open should it be? its awfully loud when its working, and I really have no idea how far it should be open. The control is a little plug in the end of the hose with an angled side to it, so pulling it out farther allows more air into the hose...
 
I'm starting to get a decent amount of live rock built up... I think im still about 18 lbs short.. I might just get it overwith and buy the rest I need tomorrow instead of going to the same store every day after school and buying it a few chunks at a time... The selection is still the same as the first day, minus what I bought so far... Maybe he will cut me a deal if I buy almost 20 lbs in 1 shot.. If I do, what do you guys find is the best way to set it up...? In that book I got it has a few different ways and descriptions of how to do each... what would work best in my 48" long tank?

Aquarium049.jpg


Aquarium043.jpg


and my cute little damsel stopped for a split second and let me actually get a clear picture... hes so cute! but hes such an ass, both of the damsels have been harassing each other all night, not violentely, just going back and forth for dominance... Mainly flying at the otherone, then turning around and wiggling really wierd in the others face... unless that is some sort of sexual mating dance? lol... When I got my tuxedo damsel (which I found out he is, not the 4 stripe one) he was in a small tank with 2 small clowns... how is that possible?
 
those are known as humbolt damsels in this part of the US. They are traditionally not as aggressive as the neon black one you have. They can be with clowns, if both clowns are added at the same time.

-Dr Marco :sfish:
 
ahh. The lady at the pet sore today said that I have a big enough tank that a clown could probably get along with them, if I moved my live rock around and made them all re establish there terratories and stuff, But i think when my tanks ready to start adding fish ill try and get those 2 damsels out of there... its wierd you say that the blue velvet one is more aggressive, the white and black ones the one always starting fights from what it looks like...
 
lose them both if you can so you can get in fish that you really want.

-Dr Marco :sfish::sfish::sfish:
 
I did it!! I think I finally have enough rock, by my calculations Im a little over 50 lbs now, I needed 18 more, and i got like 22 lbs today, the guy even threw in 3 little hermits for me... weather they live i dunno.. i tried putting some flake food in front of them on the ground, but they werent fast enough to grab it before it floated away on them... Here is a panoramo, dont mind the double heaters... I dont really have double heaters, just a slight miscalculation when aligning the picture...
tankdonerocking.jpg


What should i get to feed these little bitty hermits? All I have right now is flakes.. and they float away too fast for them to grab. Should I go get some pellets and get them soaked and right in front of them, at least until they get enough poop in there to eat, or what ever else they eat...
 
oops, christ I just realized i have 15 lbs of rock left in a brown bag next to my tank... goddamn it now i have to rearrange it all.... ahhhh
 
hotimportknight said:
oops, christ I just realized i have 15 lbs of rock left in a brown bag next to my tank... goddamn it now i have to rearrange it all.... ahhhh
Click to expand...

You got it looking good Import.

Look on the bright side,Finding left over rock gives you a good excuse to play with your tank.
 
Tankfinsihedrock.jpg


There, now its all done and arranged... I dunno about the huge rocks... Maybe some time when I get more ambitious Ill take a chiesel to them and break them in half.... is it safe to have my rocks planted the way they were? the base ones are on the glass, the rest are stacked fairly solidly... nothing other than some big fish should be able to topple those down will they?
 
Now that all my live rock is in I can wait for my tank to cycle properly... so how do I know when its ready? ammonia will spike, then nitrate, and when both those are zero nitrate will start to rise, then do a water change? If i remember correctly.
 
Most fish wouldn't be able to topple rocks... Unless you get a dumb one and he decides to swim head first into them :).

If you are really worried about your rocks, you can drill holes in them and secure them together with cable ties, or stick them together with some epoxy putty.

Your tank is looking great! Good job aquascaping. About the hermits, you can buy some pellet food and that will sink to the bottom for them. You can feed them that way until you get some algae growing in your tank (which, unfortunately is inevitable for a new tank).
 
Cycling:

Ammonia rises, nitrite rises, then nitrate rises. When ammonia and nitrite are at zero, do water changes to get the nitrates down. Then you can add animals.
 
Right now ammonia and nitrate are high right now, nitrate is 20 ppm yet, so still in the OK range, nitrite is still absolutely nothing , ammonia is starting to get higher now too...
 
Once the nitrites start to climb the ammonia will fall off.
Then as the nitrates climb,the trites drop.
You done cycling when the nitrites drop back to 0.
 
With my skimmer, should I turn it on right now? the guy at the pet shop said that it probably wont do anything, then I found someone in town that has a reef tank, well both him and his dad, so he stopped over and was talking for a while and said that I should have it on right away... what do you guys think?
 
Alright cool, I got it on now, its about 10 times louder than without... so I thought id see if it was even worth it to make all the extra noise right now. Also a cool thing he gave me some magazines with crap loads of aquarium supplies, and there is a big warehouse where you can buy stuff at an outlet right out of the magazine, no shipping at all, and some pretty good prices too... So im gunna save wait a little bit then grab some lights I think from there... He said his dad has a 75 gal reef tank and hes dying to frag off some stuff because its over crowded and he would just give me a bunch of stuff... He said he's had soft corals and some other stuff in his tank the first month he got it and they are doing fine... so hopefully I can pick up some lights and get some coral from his dad some time in the future...
 
Wow, something hillarious I just found... my tuxedo damsel HATES these little blue LED's i have shining in the tank, I dont have any kind of moon light at all, so i set my kodak camera near the tank on my desk with the charged status lights facing towards it... hes freaking out being all agressive towards it and going nuts for the last minute now... lmao
 
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