Azfishgal New Tank Diary!

[azfishgal]

Originally Posted by saltn00b
az, how is that cheato doing? what kinf of lights do you have on it, how long has it been in there?
It's only been in there for 24 hrs. I have a Mini Coralife Aqualight 9" 10,000K. Is that enough? I understand they do well even in low light, but this light seems bright enough (don't have it on in my last picture of the sump). I was thinking of doing the sump light at night and then turned off during the day. I understand that having some light on at all times in your tank or in the sump helps with the pH levels, is this true? Or should I leave the sump light out 24/7?
The tank lights are not on very much at all right now so I can keep down the diatoms.

 

[azfishgal]

Originally Posted by saltn00b
clowns will often hang out together when they are young, but when they start to become sexually mature, they may start fighting, especially if they are close to the same size. you may have a better % of them pairing tho being that they are together from the start. i dont know how old or mature your clowns are (usually takes about a year to become mature), so its hard to tell about this particular instance.
The larger of the two is almost 1.5" (if I stretch her). And the smaller one is just under an 1". I guess time will tell. So far they are getting along.

 

[anubisxero]

Originally Posted by Bronco300
thats great!looking wonderful!! my clowns used to sleep up top as well but since then have gone down to my zoos and now my sebae...cant wait to see more pics!

i don't mean to interrupt her thread, but do you have pictures of your sebae? I just bought one myself and it's been a little less than happy, but still healthy. I just love sebae's.

 

[bgrae001]

Originally Posted by azfishgal
It's only been in there for 24 hrs. I have a Mini Coralife Aqualight 9" 10,000K. Is that enough? I understand they do well even in low light, but this light seems bright enough (don't have it on in my last picture of the sump). I was thinking of doing the sump light at night and then turned off during the day. I understand that having some light on at all times in your tank or in the sump helps with the pH levels, is this true? Or should I leave the sump light out 24/7?
The tank lights are not on very much at all right now so I can keep down the diatoms.
I left the light on my fuge on 24/7. My PH stayed above 8.1 all the time and it really cut down on diatoms in the DT

 

[bronco300]

Originally Posted by Anubisxero
i don't mean to interrupt her thread, but do you have pictures of your sebae? I just bought one myself and it's been a little less than happy, but still healthy. I just love sebae's.
go look at my "picture diary" and you can see lots o pics of it in the last couple pages

 

[azfishgal]

Originally Posted by bgrae001
I left the light on my fuge on 24/7. My PH stayed above 8.1 all the time and it really cut down on diatoms in the DT
That's interesting, I'll leave the fuge light on and see what happens. In my QT my pH seems to want to stay at 8.0. I'll see what happens in my DT after it's had time to cycle a bit. I wonder why it would cut down on the diatoms? Any ideas?

 

[bgrae001]

Originally Posted by azfishgal
That's interesting, I'll leave the fuge light on and see what happens. In my QT my pH seems to want to stay at 8.0. I'll see what happens in my DT after it's had time to cycle a bit. I wonder why it would cut down on the diatoms? Any ideas?
The algae in the fuge is higher in the chain than diatoms so it uses the nutrients that the diatoms would use to survive before the diatoms even get a chance to use it. Does that make sence? Therefore the fuge cuts down the diatoms.
My tank has been running for 4.5 this time and its going through a red slime cycle. I don't have any fish in the tank everything is in qt. All that is in my dt are my corals and inverts, I don't have a fuge to take use of the nutrients that are left over from feeding my corals. But I do have a metric ton of pods in the dt. They are covering the lr and glass, it's crazy. It looks like I'll be able to get me a Mandarin.

 

[azfishgal]

Tank is doing good, my ammonia started going up and now my nitrites are going up, so things are coming along.
Question about diatoms: Are they redish brown and very light, meaning easy to blow off sand and rock? If so, it looks like I'm getting some (I'm keeping my lights off most of the time to try and limit the amount I get). I also seem to have it in my sump in a rather odd spot IMO. It's in the last chamber where the return pump is, on the bottom. Unfortunatley I stirred it up trying to suck it up with a turkey baster, and some of it went back into the DT.

Is this normal and do you just at times clean that chamber out on occasion? I'm kind of surprised it's in there because it's right after my skimmer and blue/white filter pad. I know in time my sump is going to get a lot uglier, so I'm not worried about this, just curious.

 

[monalisa]

I really like how your rock work turned out...I agree, that piece of branch rock worked out great (not a big fan of branch rock either...but it sure works there). I can't wait to see how everything comes together with fish, corals, everything...
Great job!!
Lisa :happyfish

 

[kevin34]

Got any new pics for us? :happyfish ***)

 

[azfishgal]

Originally Posted by Kevin34
Got any new pics for us? :happyfish ***)
Well, it pretty much looks the same as the last full tank shot. BUT, I do have my test results from earlier today.
Salinity 1.025
Temp 78.1
Ammonia 0.05
Nitrites 0.07
Nitrates 7
pH 8.0
Ammonia and Nitrites are coming down!

So it shouldn't be long.
Nemo and Marlin have been in QT for 2 weeks now, and they are doing great! They eat everything and anything I put in their tank now and when I test their water they come up to great me. :happyfish They are very fun to watch. When I turn off the lights they still both go up to the top of the tank and sleep just above the return, practically on top of each other.

The scary thing is I'm leaving in one week for seven days. :scared: I would like the larger tank to finish it's cycle by then so I can stick Nemo and Marlin in. I feel they would probably do better in the larger tank since it would stay balanced longer than the little 10 gallon QT. Still need to find someone to come over daily and feed the fish (both salt and freshwater) and to add 1.5 gallons to my sump. I think I have someone for that job, but I'm going to call every day to make sure things are going ok. Wish one of you lived near by. (OH WAIT!!! AZreefgirl, are you around the week of March 11???!!!!)

 

[beatlesfan]

Originally Posted by azfishgal
Well, it pretty much looks the same as the last full tank shot. BUT, I do have my test results from earlier today.
Salinity 1.025
Temp 78.1
Ammonia 0.05
Nitrites 0.07
Nitrates 7
pH 8.0
Ammonia and Nitrites are coming down!

So it shouldn't be long.
Well congrats but are you sure thats not .5 and .7? If not then IMO it needs spiked again because it's only been about a week I believe.

 

[azfishgal]

Originally Posted by Beatlesfan
Well congrats but are you sure thats not .5 and .7? If not then IMO it needs spiked again because it's only been about a week I believe.
Ammonia was at 0.5 and the Nitrites were at 0.2 last week. It didn't go as high as my QT but I think that's because my lr that I got from SWF was mostly cured, unlike the very uncured rock I had in my QT. Right now Ammonia is very close to 0, the color was kind of between the first and second color swatch (does that make sense?)but closer to the first; and the Nitrites are between the second and third color swatch. So I think it will be ok.

 

[azfishgal]

Originally Posted by Beatlesfan
it's only been about a week I believe.
100 lbs of live rock and 20 lbs of live sand was added on February 21, so yes, one week. Cycle is not completely done, but is it unheard of to complete a cycle in two weeks?

 

[reefkprz]

Cycles dont end they balance.
since it was all uncured LR it would be amazingly fast for it to cycle in two weeks. I would double check your tests to be sure. But I have heard stranger stories.

 

[azreefgirl]

Originally Posted by azfishgal
Well, it pretty much looks the same as the last full tank shot. BUT, I do have my test results from earlier today.
Salinity 1.025
Temp 78.1
Ammonia 0.05
Nitrites 0.07
Nitrates 7
pH 8.0
Ammonia and Nitrites are coming down!

So it shouldn't be long.
Nemo and Marlin have been in QT for 2 weeks now, and they are doing great! They eat everything and anything I put in their tank now and when I test their water they come up to great me. :happyfish They are very fun to watch. When I turn off the lights they still both go up to the top of the tank and sleep just above the return, practically on top of each other.

The scary thing is I'm leaving in one week for seven days. :scared: I would like the larger tank to finish it's cycle by then so I can stick Nemo and Marlin in. I feel they would probably do better in the larger tank since it would stay balanced longer than the little 10 gallon QT. Still need to find someone to come over daily and feed the fish (both salt and freshwater) and to add 1.5 gallons to my sump. I think I have someone for that job, but I'm going to call every day to make sure things are going ok. Wish one of you lived near by. (OH WAIT!!! AZreefgirl, are you around the week of March 11???!!!!)
If you need me to come by and check on things for a few days, I'd be happy to help!

 

[azfishgal]

Originally Posted by reefkprZ
Cycles dont end they balance.
since it was all uncured LR it would be amazingly fast for it to cycle in two weeks. I would double check your tests to be sure. But I have heard stranger stories.
Yes, I do know that a cycle doesn't "end" but just balances.

I'm using the same test kit I used for my QT and the cycle in that one went a lot higher before coming back down, so I don't think it's the test. Yes, my lr was pretty stinky when I put it in and the water did smell for a few days. My skimmer was also pulling out a LOT of junk. Today I have noticed though that the smell is gone and my skimmer is not pulling out as much as it was earlier in the week, though it is still doing it's job. I have blown on my rock several times to get any die-off off the rock and to stir things up a bit, so I think I have been doing everthing right. I won't be sticking anything in my tank though until both Ammonia and Nitrites are at 0 and my Nitrates are much lower.

 

[azfishgal]

Originally Posted by AZReefGirl
If you need me to come by and check on things for a few days, I'd be happy to help!

Thanks so much for offering, but I will probably just pay my babysitter to come over and add the RO water and feed the fish (though I'm going to have the food in dixie cups so she won't over feed them). BUT, if something goes wrong I might be calling on you to meet her at my house to see what you can do. I think everything will be ok though, especially since nothing is in the tank yet. My biggest concern is the evap, so if we can take care of that I think all will be ok. And I know it would probably cost me big bucks but if it came down to it I could call Aquarium Arts and they would do a house call if I needed.

 

[triga22]

Hey AZ looks like its coming along well. Do you have any recent pics?

 

[reefkprz]

With your skimmer pulling tons of gunk then slowing down I would say it did its job well, and you could be nearing the balance point on your cycle, I would suggest once your ammonia and nitrites drop to zero feeding your tank like there were fish in it wait 24 hours then test again if you expirience no rises in Amm. or trites. then I would say you were good to go (slowly of course).