10 years in the making

crazy irishman · Jun 16, 2014

Hello all. I got a 75 gallon tank ten years ago, and could never seem to put it all together

wellâ€¦ I found a 125 gallon for a fair price, and the wife said go for it

so here I am; I bought the 125, a 40 breeder for the sump, the glass for the sump and overflow are being cut, I drilled the drains and returns (still shaking a little lol), have a SRO 2000int, Reef Radiance Lumentek 240 pros should be here friday, and currently working on stand and canopy. I ordered 180 pounds of live rock about three weeks ago. The rocks have been curing in the 75 gallon ever since. Ammonia zeroed two days ago (pretty excited about that), nitrite is at 2ppm and nitrite is at 20ppm. I am expecting a short cycle when I move the rocks to their final resting place in the 125. Am I correct to expect that? Any who I figured I should stop reading from the shadows and participate in the forums, so here I am : )

crazy irishman · Jun 16, 2014

Oops I meant nitrates at 20ppm lol

Reefing Madness · Jun 16, 2014

Yup, your cycle will be null and void with your rock already curing.

revhtree · Jun 16, 2014

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crazy irishman · Jun 16, 2014

Started seeing a bit of algae on the rocks this morning (expected it), so I made the tank completely dark. Should I just keep it dark until the cycle is over, or am I headed off in completely the wrong direction? Don't really want to fight anymore algae than I have to (at least not till it stabilizes). Phosphate came up to .25ppm. Is this normal during curing? I would image it is. Yes I am using RO/DI

should I do a water change, or just hold off for now?
Thanks in advance

Iamonlyme · Jun 16, 2014

Algae is a normal process of cycling IMO it is what your CUC will survive on during the time you take to stock and get a good feeding routine. I took note of what was growing and tried to build my CUC off of that growth.

I hope this helps

I also would not go dark during your cycle because you want your tank to synchronize with your lighting schedule

Tahoe61 · Jun 16, 2014

Welcome and congratulations on getting the set up going, boy you have patience.

Phosphates are kind of high, so no that is not normal, I would get the value double checked. Did you get the live rock from a vendor? Normally I leave the lights on but until you double check that phos value I would leave them off in hopes of prevent notable initial algae bloom.

Check the phos value of your RO just for the heck of it. Do you have a TDS monitor?

crazy irishman · Jun 16, 2014

The rocks are from Live aquaria. My RO is showing 0 phosphate and 0 tds. I will get the phosphate value double checked as soon as I can. If it is confirmed to be high should I do a water change?

Tahoe61 · Jun 16, 2014

crazy irishman said:
The rocks are from Live aquaria. My RO is showing 0 phosphate and 0 tds. I will get the phosphate value double checked as soon as I can. If it is confirmed to be high should I do a water change?

If it's the value is that high (you want somewhere around 0.03) then it's got to be coming from somewhere, and a water change it's just a temporary fix. You might have to get some GFO or phosphate binding medium. I doubt it's liveaquaria rock so I am stumped. Did the rock have a lot of algae die off or was it completely cured?
I might understand if you were feeding tank inhabitants,it just seems odd to me.

crazy irishman · Jun 16, 2014

Rocks were uncured, and they did have to fly all the way to Alaska lol, so yes there was a bit of die off. Unfortunately everybody's favorite box store wiped out our LFS a couple years ago, and now the closest one to me is in Anchorage (2.5 hour drive). That being said I am going to try to find another tank owner in the area to confirm the phos.