Got a few questions

George Willings · Jan 6, 2018

Okay, got the phosphate test kit delivered. Tested for phosphates and it is 0 ppm. So I am going to give this tank another week to see what the heck it wants to do. Starting to think it might be bipolar, lol.

George Willings · Jan 6, 2018

Reading 0 ppm

GBRsouth · Jan 6, 2018

George, it may take time for things to breakdown in the rock before you get phosphate readings. Unless the rock is very clean. Check once a week over the next four weeks at least for phosphate. If none then watch the nitrates.

George Willings · Jan 7, 2018

Yes the rock is very clean. It was power washed prior to me buying it, when I rinsed it I did use a dish brush to make sure more was taken off. But, I am going to just let this tank run for a while before I just start putting live animals into the tank.

Gareth elliott · Jan 7, 2018

George Willings said:
Yes the rock is very clean. It was power washed prior to me buying it, when I rinsed it I did use a dish brush to make sure more was taken off. But, I am going to just let this tank run for a while before I just start putting live animals into the tank.

Clean is more than just the cleaning you do. Inside the pores, bacteria and macroscopic life inhabited deep inside. As soon as these died they started to decay. The amount of this life in the rock is what we mean by how clean

George Willings · Jan 7, 2018

Yeah, I know that. But either way, this tank will run longer than anticipated before I put anything in it. Right now the soonest would be around the end of Febuary to beginning of March at the earliest.

George Willings · Jan 29, 2018

Okay, got some new water readings this evening. 8.0 ph, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0 nitrates, KH 125.3, Calcium is 340, salinity 1.024, water temp is 76.4 (might need to bring that up a bit). Green algae on the rocks turning brown. Picked up another 10 lbs of sand, letting the sand warm up to room temperature before I add a pound. I plan on adding 1 pound a week for 10 weeks unless I should add less than that. Now I need and ATO.

George Willings · Feb 24, 2018

Late February, I have 5 Nassarius snails, 2 Trochus snails, a peppermint shrimp, a few scarlet hermits, and 2 clowns. Next week will add either a frogspawn or a hammer coral as the tank is really too small to put an anemone in there and the tank is too immature.

Susan Edwards · Feb 24, 2018

One of the best things I did was move to the hanna phosphate test kit. The others just weren't accurate enough. It is more expensive but I know I'm getting better readings.

George Willings · Feb 25, 2018

The Hanna is in the future, liked their stuff, and then the reviews made me like them even more.

So today I picked up a purple tip hammer and a brain cora

George Willings · Feb 25, 2018

Here are some MUCH smaller photos of the corals, I forgot to shrink them down.

Susan Edwards · Feb 25, 2018

George Willings · Mar 1, 2018

Susan Edwards said:
Nice

So I forgot to get some mysis shrimp for the brain. So I am going to pick up a couple shrimp on my way home from work today slice them up and rise them RO water, and then mash them to Target feed the brain.