Bentonb's Nano In 90

Bentonb · Jun 25, 2012

UPDATE:7/23
Everything is good so far, just letting everything grow, only two new additions this week, a Six lined wrasse and a cleaner shrimp. I'm still having a small algae problem, I'm pretty sure I need more snails to take care of that, but I don't get paid till Thursday, so those will have to wait. For now, I'm just using my nano mag to clean the glass.

Total spent: $50 bucks
(contest winnings from a sponsor)

Wish I had more financial liberty to spend on my tank, but even though the tank looks sparce I still love it

I tried to upload my latest full tank shot here but I kept getting an error, so the newest FTS is in the last post.

Hey guys, even though I'm 10 days late, I've decided to enter. I have no expectations on winning, but I figured it would be fun to compare with you guys anyway. I plan on picking up a JBJ nano cube tomorrow from my LFS. (it would be awesome if I won another :tongue: lol) Anyways, I'll post my progress after tomorrow. Good Luck to Everyone!

Oh, one question, how long should I let my new tank cycle? It will either be the 24 or 28 gallon JBJ cube, hopefully the 28 gallon. I let my current 10 gallon cycle for like 36 hours and everything turned out fine, but I wanna try to do it right this time. Thanks!

wysiwyg · Jun 25, 2012

welcome to the contest wish you the best of luck. would love to see some pics

Mike&Terry · Jun 25, 2012

Glad to have you participating in the contest! It is hard to say how long your tank may take to cycle. It varies from tank to tank depending on what type of rock you are starting out with.

-M&T

Bentonb · Jun 25, 2012

Mike&Terry said:
Glad to have you participating in the contest! It is hard to say how long your tank may take to cycle. It varies from tank to tank depending on what type of rock you are starting out with.

-M&T

Thanks, I would just be using regular run of the mill LFS live rock... because even if I did want to steal from my 10 gallon (which I don't due to a mild hair algae/apista <-- (spelling?) problem, I wouldn't have enough anyway.

BarbH · Jun 25, 2012

Welcome to the build off. As stated above it can be difficult to know how long it will take for the cycle. Are you planning on using all live rock or do you think that you might use some dry rock also? Best thing to do is to test for ammonia nitrites and nitrates once you have everything set up.

Bentonb · Jun 25, 2012

BarbH said:
Welcome to the build off. As stated above it can be difficult to know how long it will take for the cycle. Are you planning on using all live rock or do you think that you might use some dry rock also? Best thing to do is to test for ammonia nitrites and nitrates once you have everything set up.

I was originally going to do all live rock, but the more I think about it the more I think I might throw in some dry rock (its only financially sensible lol). Any suggestions? All live? or some live, some dry?

BarbH · Jun 25, 2012

With cured live rock your cycle will tend to be shorter but as you have said it can become expensive quickly. Doing a mixture of live and dry will be better on the pocket and the live rock will help with the cycle. If it was me I would personally do a mix of the live and dry.

Bentonb · Jun 25, 2012

BarbH said:
With cured live rock your cycle will tend to be shorter but as you have said it can become expensive quickly. Doing a mixture of live and dry will be better on the pocket and the live rock will help with the cycle. If it was me I would personally do a mix of the live and dry.

Sounds good to me, I did all live on my 10 gallon, that could be why it was shorter... lol 16lbs in 10 gallons, but don't really want to drop that much money per gallon this time. Any specific ratio of live/dry you would suggest? 50:50? 25:75?

revhtree · Jun 25, 2012

Welcome to R2R! Thanks for joining and please make sure and post often!

Bentonb · Jun 25, 2012

revhtree said:
Welcome to R2R! Thanks for joining and please make sure and post often!

lol ummm thanks again... :wink: (I've already posted in the welcome thread lol) but I'm sure that's hard to keep track of =)

revsgirl · Jun 25, 2012

Nice!! Good luck! Lookin' forward to seein' whatcha come up with!

BarbH · Jun 25, 2012

Bentonb said:
Sounds good to me, I did all live on my 10 gallon, that could be why it was shorter... lol 16lbs in 10 gallons, but don't really want to drop that much money per gallon this time. Any specific ratio of live/dry you would suggest? 50:50? 25:75?

If you are wanting to try to go with a shorter cycle time I would try to do a larger ratio of live rock to dry or at least 50:50. It will all depend on how much dead organics are on the dry rock along with die off from the live. When I set up my 72 gal I used all dry rock and my cycle took a little less than 2 months. For exact times on how long it will take I am not sure, but the more live rock you are able to do the more likely your cycle time will be shortened. Hope this helps

Tinola · Jun 25, 2012

I only used a lb of cured rock on mine. I had 21 lbs of dry and 1 lb of live. The rock had a lot of stuff in it. My cycle only took 2 weeks and now I have 2 coral frags in there to see if they survive lol.
Make sure you test your params everyday or every other day(ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate) during the cycle to see where you're at.
Just look for quality live rock and your cycle will be quick. And as others have said already, the more live rock, the shorter the cycle.
Good luck!

Bentonb · Jun 25, 2012

Tinola said:
I only used a lb of cured rock on mine. I had 21 lbs of dry and 1 lb of live. The rock had a lot of stuff in it. My cycle only took 2 weeks and now I have 2 coral frags in there to see if they survive lol.
Make sure you test your params everyday or every other day(ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate) during the cycle to see where you're at.
Just look for quality live rock and your cycle will be quick. And as others have said already, the more live rock, the shorter the cycle.
Good luck!

Good to know, thanks. I'm hoping mine is shorter than that... I have 100 bucks of coral coming in on Friday :/ don't really want to put them in my ten gallon lol

Tinola · Jun 25, 2012

Well, if your nanocube hasn't been cycled yet, I seriously would consider putting the corals in your ten gallon so you don't waste your money or kill corals.

Bentonb · Jun 25, 2012

Tinola said:
Well, if your nanocube hasn't been cycled yet, I seriously would consider putting the corals in your ten gallon so you don't waste your money or kill corals.

oh I know lol I'm just hoping for the best situation possible

lane:

Bentonb · Jun 26, 2012

Well, I'm bummed. Went to my LFS and turns out that they are all out of nanocubes, so I'll have to wait till friday or next tuesday until they get more in

out: I'll keep this updated as things come in and I get them set up.