Seattle 75, Scratch that, 120 Gallon Build

[mfinn]

And nothing fine tunes a drain like a gate valve.
Ball valves can be difficult.

 

[rbarr110]

And nothing fine tunes a drain like a gate valve.
Ball valves can be difficult.

Ordered a couple gate valves and reduced the flow to around 700 total for the system. Overflows are much quieter at the lower flow. The drains themselves are not that loud but occasionally one of the open channel drains make a bit of a burping/bubbly sound as I cant get the siphon tuned on the one overflow. Changing to the gate valves when they arrive will require some re-work of plumbing, but not too bad.

 

[rbarr110]

Cycle Question - Ammonia is dissapearing fast. Did a manual 2 ppm addition last night and in less than 12 hours went from 2.0 ppm to about 0.25 ppm. However, Nitrite is staying at a steady 1.0. I am assuming no more ammonia addition and wait for Nitrite to drop? Any idea how long until I see Nitrite start to drop?
Once Nitrite hits ZERO, I can add some living creatures?

 

[mfinn]

Cycle Question - Ammonia is dissapearing fast. Did a manual 2 ppm addition last night and in less than 12 hours went from 2.0 ppm to about 0.25 ppm. However, Nitrite is staying at a steady 1.0. I am assuming no more ammonia addition and wait for Nitrite to drop? Any idea how long until I see Nitrite start to drop?
Once Nitrite hits ZERO, I can add some living creatures?

I would not add any more ammonia at this time.
Once the nitrite is gone is when something can be added.

 

[rbarr110]

I would not add any more ammonia at this time.
Once the nitrite is gone is when something can be added.

So I was looking at my filter socks, and am wondering if the majority of my bacteria are there in the socks and not necessarily on the rock, in the sand, or in the marine pure blocks. Would it be worth a shot putting new socks on and do a small ammonia addition to see if it drops as fast as it did? Or just go ahead and wait on the nitrite drop?

 

[mfinn]

So I was looking at my filter socks, and am wondering if the majority of my bacteria are there in the socks and not necessarily on the rock, in the sand, or in the marine pure blocks. Would it be worth a shot putting new socks on and do a small ammonia addition to see if it drops as fast as it did? Or just go ahead and wait on the nitrite drop?

I would not add any more ammonia. IMO you would only be stalling the cycle.

 

[rbarr110]

I would not add any more ammonia. IMO you would only be stalling the cycle.

So the Nitrites have started to drop, measured about 0.2-0.3 and it had been at 1.0 for days and days. Seeing more brown algae forming on the rocks, and one green spot. Pink is from the epoxy used to do my aquascape. Assuming the green is not necessarily something I want?

 

[mfinn]

You are starting the unwanted algae and other issues stage.
It happens to most everybody.

 

[rbarr110]

You are starting the unwanted algae and other issues stage.
It happens to most everybody.

Thank you for your help. Having someone provide regular input to a first time reefer during this process has been very helpful. Going to rely on you a little more.

My closest LFS is 30-45 minutes from home, but work has me going past a couple different shops today. Wondering if I am jumping the gun by stopping in and picking up some cope pods and phyto to put in the tank or if I should hold off?

 

[mfinn]

Thank you for your help. Having someone provide regular input to a first time reefer during this process has been very helpful. Going to rely on you a little more.

My closest LFS is 30-45 minutes from home, but work has me going past a couple different shops today. Wondering if I am jumping the gun by stopping in and picking up some cope pods and phyto to put in the tank or if I should hold off?

Hold off adding anything until all the nitrite is gone and you are seeing nitrate.

 

[rbarr110]

Hold off adding anything until all the nitrite is gone and you are seeing nitrate.

Nitrite so close to zero. I tested this morning and the test had a very faint tint of pink to it. The pink color was lighter than the lowest scale reading of 0.05.... but not clear yet.

Still dont understand the nitrate test results. The test is off the charts reading on the card around 50. The instructions state that if you get a 50 reading, pull 1 mL and add to 4 mL ro water and multiply by 5 for true value. When I do that it is about 10-12 ppm. However, 10 ppm is on the color scale so why doesn't it read 10 initially?

 

[rbarr110]

So Nitrite has been zero for a few days and I went ahead and picked up a couple emerald crabs and hermit crabs and have been feeding them with fish food. They are pretty good at hunting the little pellets down. Has been fun to watch. I added a couple pieces of live rock from a LFS as well to the tank so the critters would have some established rock to pick at. I dipped the live rock and a few critters came off of it, a few worms of some kind (reminded me of planaria but a bit larger) and a couple other creatures, I went dry rock because I wanted to make sure I was starting pest free. When purchasing the crabs I felt guilty that my dry rock may not give the crabs the best chance at survival, hence the live rock addition.

Now I need to find some macro algae. I wanted to get some from Algaebarn but they are always out of stock.

 

[rbarr110]

 

[jeflen651]

Congrats on your new build. I am in the process of taking my tank down and have 2 clown fish, 1 bengia cardinal, and 1 blue chromis that I need to rehome. I live in the Puyallup. Wa area. Also I have a few small colonies of zoas , testing equipment and additives. Pm me if interested and I wil get back to you.

 

[mfinn]

Now I need to find some macro algae. I wanted to get some from Algaebarn but they are always out of stock.

Barrier usually has some.
I've found a few good deals in the classified section, but the downside is, right now is a terrible time to ship macro, unless it's in a insulated box.
Most deals in the classifieds are with it shipped in a padded envelope and almost always shipped 2 day or 3 day mail.
Chaeto just doesn't do well in elevated temps inside baggies.
I've had a couple shipments go south on me.

 

[rbarr110]

So I added some fish over the weekend. A guy near me (kinda....40 minute drive) was breaking his tank down after 10 years and I intended only on grabbing a couple of fish, but came home with more. I ended up with 2 black/white clowns, 1 damsel, 3 blue-green chromis, a blue legged hermit crab, and a small GSP colony . Was so excited to finally get livestock...I forgot to dip the GSP and ended up with a tiny brittle star hitchhiker (hopefully nothing else). At the moment I only have a bad/blurry picture of the clowns and hitchhiker.

 

[Antics]

I love black and white clowns! Tank is looking good. Wish I was handy with acrylic, would make life a lot easier.

 

[rbarr110]

So I haven't been keeping up with updates, but honestly not a lot to update on. I have been a mix of very busy and super lazy. I haven't finished clear coating the side doors of the cabinet or finishing the cabinet trim. I haven't made the hood. I finally got lights up a while ago but only have a temporary wood framed light rack up that well, looks cheap and crappy (too embarrassed to share a picture). I only have two corals at the moment, taking it slow and easy.

 

[rbarr110]

I have been battling high nitrates since I cycled teh tank. Even after a couple substantial water changes the nitrates are still way too high. I was talking to myself earlier in the week saying that I have been lucky that I hadn't had an explosion of algae from the high nitrates. Well sure enough Sunday afternoon I noticed the tank has a splattering of green algae popping up everywhere.

Since my aggressive water changes had little affect, should I get a bottle of the RedSea NO3-PO4X ? That seems to be what people battling nitrates go to.

 

[mfinn]

First thing I would do is do find a friend or lfs and do the nitrate tests again with a different test kit to make sure yours is accurate.