Dystinction's Display Frag Tank Build

[Bmasculine]

Sunday update night.....
Officially day 15 of the cycle.

Ammonia finally broke below 2 this week, and as of tonight was sitting at 0.2.
Nitrites are still high....actually higher than my Red Sea kit reads (over 1).
Nitrates have been climbing steadily and sit at around 40.

This is still my first round of Ammonium Chloride dosing. I may do a small water change to get the Nitrites down some, as I do not want to add any more Ammonium Chloride with them being still high.......or I may sit it out some more, there's definitely something going on in there!

I did not cut my acrylic frag racks yet, but I did get around to creating the 'Playground'. The idea here was to provide a little something more for the future fish inhabitants, and well, it is a Display Frag Tank after all.

The back-most structure looks like an angry duck monster, or something.;Wideyed

I placed all the rock on a thin piece of black acrylic, mostly because of someone's ingenious idea at Deep Blue to put serial number stickers inside the bottom center brace....I guess it's not an eye-sore if you're running sand....
If anyone has any other ideas on how to 'hide' the stickers, let me know......I'm not sure if I'm sold on the black acrylic.

My last two tanks have been B.B. and I cut a sheet of pvc board and lay in the bottom mainly to protect the glass bottom were I to drop something or a rock fall etc. I think you would be happier and it would look better if you covered the entire bottom. It wouldn’t stand out so much. Just my 2 cent. Tank looks great

 

[Dystinction]

Sorry @Bmasculine , I missed your response, and thanks for checking in.

I agree, I may very well sheet the entire bottom, however, it does not 'stick-out' to me nearly as much as it initially did. We shall see.

I missed my Sunday update. Got all caught up with 4th of July week and such.

Ammonia levels have dropped to zero, and have been that way since the 5th.
Nitrite is still registering off my Red Sea test kit chart. I would guesstimate around 3. The Nitrites have been at this level since 1 July.
I am seeing conversion into Nitrates, as those numbers are high (~40), as expected.

I have not performed a water change yet (as previously considered), however, I am getting more tempted to do so, as I would have expected Nitrite levels to at least start decreasing by now.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm 'chompin' at the bit' just as much as the next person cycling a tank, however, I'm also willing to ride this out for another 2 months if that's what it takes.
I'd hate to 'interrupt' what's going on with a pre-mature water change.....does anyone have thoughts?

BTW, for anyone else who happens to stop by and is, or will be cycling a tank, here's my piece of advice:

Don't watch the live sales, and don't go to your LFS!

 

[chefjpaul]

This is looking awesome

 

[Bmasculine]

Those live sales are brutal. I was “working “ Saturday watching the TSA live sale trying to score a nice milli. Didn’t get one but ended up hitting my budget on other stuff. Lol

 

[Bmasculine]

Sorry @Bmasculine , I missed your response, and thanks for checking in.

I agree, I may very well sheet the entire bottom, however, it does not 'stick-out' to me nearly as much as it initially did. We shall see.

I missed my Sunday update. Got all caught up with 4th of July week and such.

Ammonia levels have dropped to zero, and have been that way since the 5th.
Nitrite is still registering off my Red Sea test kit chart. I would guesstimate around 3. The Nitrites have been at this level since 1 July.
I am seeing conversion into Nitrates, as those numbers are high (~40), as expected.

I have not performed a water change yet (as previously considered), however, I am getting more tempted to do so, as I would have expected Nitrite levels to at least start decreasing by now.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm 'chompin' at the bit' just as much as the next person cycling a tank, however, I'm also willing to ride this out for another 2 months if that's what it takes.
I'd hate to 'interrupt' what's going on with a pre-mature water change.....does anyone have thoughts?

BTW, for anyone else who happens to stop by and is, or will be cycling a tank, here's my piece of advice:

Don't watch the live sales, and don't go to your LFS!

I felt like my first B.B. tank took a really long time to cycle. I chalked it up to fact that you don’t have as much surface area without sand. My second one I loaded the sump with marinepure spheres, much faster cycle. My 3rd tank added a plate of marine pure under skimmer to lift it up a little, moved over all the spheres from my old sump, and the rock as well. Fastest cycle ever lol. I don’t know what you have in your sump, but a little more surface area for bacteria can’t hurt.

 

[Dystinction]

This is looking awesome

Thanks for stopping by and for the compliment @chefjpaul
Any chance you made it to RAP in NY?

@Bmasculine , you know, I was this close (shows pinched finger and thumb) to using Marinepure, in fact had it purchased and everything. Ended up changing my mind and going with a bunch of reef saver dry rock instead.
I think you nailed it though, the bare bottom definitely does not help with the cycle! The relatively small amount of rock relegated to the sump, and the small playground in the display is still not the volume most would implement in a display tank, so it makes sense that it will take a little longer.

It is what it is, and it'll happen when it happens.

I think I'll go ahead with about a 15 gal water change this weekend, as I have one plumbing tweak I'd like to get accomplished. I also have an additional small bottle of Dr Tim's that I'll throw in, then monitor and wait.

 

[Bmasculine]

 

[Dystinction]

I'm well overdue for an update, however, updates during the cycle process are boring!

As you might suspect from the implication above, the tank cycle finished around the 18th of July.
After multiple test to satisfy myself, I deemed her safe for inhabitants.

I added 2x Blue/Green Reef Chromis that a friend had been quarantining. He had a group of eight for his large display, but I talked him out of two.

I also added a few zoa frags from my LFS, Reef Koi Corals.

Got to playing around with the DSLR (Canon 80d). I have never really used it, as it is my wife's on-again, off-again hobby, but I am determined to learn.
Here's a couple shots....I promise they'll get better as I play/learn some more.

I ordered a porthole for the camera to do some in-water top-down shots.
I also need to get a tripod....don't realize how much you shake till you're looking through a camera.
A decent macro lens is also on my list.

I'm going to let the tank sit back and cook for awhile.
I still have zero algae from the lights-out cycle, so there's still much maturing and fun times ahead!

 

[Dystinction]

Just a small update to keep things lively.

I added a Red Sea Filter Media cup to the main drain line in the sump. I do not have a large bio-load by any stretch of the imagination, however, I wanted to filter out the large food bits, then let the skimmer do the rest. It's very easy to maintain, and so far, so good.

I've dialed in my skimmer little by little, with the help of R2R skimmer masters. It's doing its' duty, even with the small bio-load.

My parameters are all where I feel they are acceptable, and nothing is swinging or changing abnormally.

My biggest problem now is that I want to buy ALL the corals. However, I have been able to show some restraint....some.
I have 9 frags in the system, 7 zoas, a blasto, and a favia. Zoas/Paly's are still my favs at this point in the game.
I have had two baby's form out to small heads that were not visible nubs when I purchased them (or so I did not see) on a BBEB and Bam Bam. I also have been enjoyably watching a new nub form and grow from another frag (Pink Zipper), that should open up very soon.

I purchased a camera tube from Building an Obsession LLC. Very well made, with great adjust-ability and function. I wasn't sure when purchasing, however, am pleased that it is tripod compatible with the tube affixed to the camera.

I snapped these shots this morning with the tube. Still very much playing with camera settings, and no post-processing yet.
These were taken with a Canon 80d, and the 'Nifty-Fifty' 50mm lens.

(That's my new baby on the right )

I love the top-down shots, always have, and am pretty sure that's why I love shallow tanks. You just can't beat looking at corals from top-down!

 

[Bmasculine]

Just a small update to keep things lively.

I added a Red Sea Filter Media cup to the main drain line in the sump. I do not have a large bio-load by any stretch of the imagination, however, I wanted to filter out the large food bits, then let the skimmer do the rest. It's very easy to maintain, and so far, so good.

I've dialed in my skimmer little by little, with the help of R2R skimmer masters. It's doing its' duty, even with the small bio-load.

My parameters are all where I feel they are acceptable, and nothing is swinging or changing abnormally.

My biggest problem now is that I want to buy ALL the corals. However, I have been able to show some restraint....some.
I have 9 frags in the system, 7 zoas, a blasto, and a favia. Zoas/Paly's are still my favs at this point in the game.
I have had two baby's form out to small heads that were not visible nubs when I purchased them (or so I did not see) on a BBEB and Bam Bam. I also have been enjoyably watching a new nub form and grow from another frag (Pink Zipper), that should open up very soon.

I purchased a camera tube from Building an Obsession LLC. Very well made, with great adjust-ability and function. I wasn't sure when purchasing, however, am pleased that it is tripod compatible with the tube affixed to the camera.

I snapped these shots this morning with the tube. Still very much playing with camera settings, and no post-processing yet.
These were taken with a Canon 80d, and the 'Nifty-Fifty' 50mm lens.

(That's my new baby on the right )

I love the top-down shots, always have, and am pretty sure that's why I love shallow tanks. You just can't beat looking at corals from top-down!

Very nice, I need to work on my camera skills, I’m not even sure where my camera is right now. Glad to hear you got your skimmer dialed in.

 

[Dystinction]

Thanks for checking in, @Bmasculine .
Yeah, I have much camera skills needing to be learned, but it's an enjoyable endeavor.
The skimmer will most likely be my greatest nemesis in my system, but I am learning and adapting.

 

[Bmasculine]

Thanks for checking in, @Bmasculine .
Yeah, I have much camera skills needing to be learned, but it's an enjoyable endeavor.
The skimmer will most likely be my greatest nemesis in my system, but I am learning and adapting.

Are you still having issues with it

 

[Dystinction]

No, not really any issues....but I can't seem to stop checking in on it to make sure it's doing what it's supposed to be doing.
I started a thread asking some questions, and got some great advice.
Not sure if it's very common or not, but my skim-mate head/froth totally dies when I feed. It returns, but it takes hours to do so. I now feel that it is simply toying with me, as I constantly check to assure that the 'normal' operation returns. I resist the urge to 'fiddle'....but it's hard.
Can skimmers laugh at you?

 

[Bmasculine]

No, not really any issues....but I can't seem to stop checking in on it to make sure it's doing what it's supposed to be doing.
I started a thread asking some questions, and got some great advice.
Not sure if it's very common or not, but my skim-mate head/froth totally dies when I feed. It returns, but it takes hours to do so. I now feel that it is simply toying with me, as I constantly check to assure that the 'normal' operation returns. I resist the urge to 'fiddle'....but it's hard.
Can skimmers laugh at you?

I probably peek in on mine at least twice a day. But yeah depending on what I’m doing in the tank it definitely changes the foam head.

 

[Hallowhead]

Any updates ?