Finally took the leap and jumped in!

khaari

khaari

Member
Well after a few years of researching on and off, I finally jumped in and set my tank up Friday. :jumping: It's a 29 gal DT with 10 gal sump/fuge. Running a 150w HQI 14K sunpod fixture. Filtration is a HOB overflow rated for 600 gph with a rio 2100 for return.Running a Prizm Deluxe skimmer rated up to 100 gal. 2 Maxijet 900's on each end for flow. 23# base rock and 33# fully cured LR with an extra 2# rubble in the sump. approx 40-45# pink fiji sand and about 10-15 # pink fiji in the sump. Tossed in a raw shrimp fri night and still not registering any ammonia as of today.
temp 80 F
SG/Salinity 1.026/35 ppt
ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 0
ph - 8.0 (attempting to buffer with Kent superbuffer-dKH, just waiting 24 hrs before retesting)
dkh - 10
calcium - 500
phosphates - 0
using RO/DI with 0 tds. water from tap registers 157 tds.




 
khaari

khaari

Member
couple of pics of sump/fuge
Prizm is on left with drain from overflow. Rio 2100 returning water to DT from right side. Middle section is approx 15# fiji pink sand with 2# LR rubble. Mixed fiji with tonga branch. Last pic is a cool coral skeleton looking rock in the main tank.


 
khaari

khaari

Member
thanks just trying to be patient and take my time setting up my first SW tank. I figured after about 5 years of researching on and off it was about time I finally got my feet wet. I hope to be able to share more with everyone as my tank matures and I get to put all my research to work.
 
jasony

jasony

Member
Originally Posted by Khaari
thanks just trying to be patient and take my time setting up my first SW tank. I figured after about 5 years of researching on and off it was about time I finally got my feet wet. I hope to be able to share more with everyone as my tank matures and I get to put all my research to work.


what do u plan to stock it with?
 
khaari

khaari

Member
I plan on turning it into a reef mainly. I'm looking to add a few softies like ricordea, frogspawn, candycane, and maybe a bubble coral. Might try sps and a clam or two later once the tank has had time to mature. As for fish I'm only looking to add a pair of ocellaris clowns and a yellow watchman goby.
 
autofreak44

autofreak44

Active Member
thats the exact setup i wanted, too bad i didnt have enough money for it. looks AMAZING

good thing you did your research, thats probably the #1 mistake in this hobby.
i would think the shrimp would have registered by now, what testing kit are you using?
again, it looks great

 
khaari

khaari

Member
using aquarium pharmaceuticals, I know its on the very very low end of test kits but I also took it by the LFS, the owner uses salifert for his own tanks and tested mine for me. Also came up zero. I too thought I would have some ammonia registering by now as well but possible the 35# of cured LR and rubble may have helped? :notsure:
Thank you for the compliments I can't wait until I can finally add a cleanup crew just so I have something to watch. Other than a small colony of tiny featherdusters and the obligitory bristleworms on the rock I didnt get much as far as hitch hikers. I did get a shrimp of some kind but havent seen it since friday when the rock went in.
It's exciting to finally have something to show for my efforts :)
 
khaari

khaari

Member
go for it!
I got my design from looking at plans others had put up in the DIY section and modified it a bit as real estate is prime in a 10 gal. It also helps that I used a HOB skimmer too, so I just needed enough space for the drains and heater. I also credit renogaw for the idea of using eggcrate to hold up the baffles and also as a divider that doesnt inhibit flow.
 
renogaw

renogaw

Active Member
Originally Posted by Khaari
go for it!
I got my design from looking at plans others had put up in the DIY section and modified it a bit as real estate is prime in a 10 gal. It also helps that I used a HOB skimmer too, so I just needed enough space for the drains and heater. I also credit renogaw for the idea of using eggcrate to hold up the baffles and also as a divider that doesnt inhibit flow.


woot, another $.25 coming my way!!!
looks good :)
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
Oh my god renogaw, you upped your price? I think it's time for a congressional hearing on price gouging.....
 
khaari

khaari

Member
Thanks renogaw, it doesn't look quite as nice as yours but I tried. How about $0.12 to cover the almost but not quite?

Here is something that has me stumped, I tested today to see where I stand so far in the cycle and here are the results:
Temp 79.9 F
Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 0
Ph - 8.0 (still working on buffering)
dkh - 11
calcium - 500
phosphates - 0
After 5 days with a shrimp slowly melting away I would have thought to see at least some trace of ammonia. I thought it could be due to a faulty test kit since im not using the greatest kit atm so I took it to LFS yesterday and he tests 0 as well using salifert kits. :notsure:
I'm leaning towards purchasing my own set of salifert tests but I'm not sure if I should wait a bit first to see if I get any readings.
 
khaari

khaari

Member
Oh and I found the hitch hiker shrimp. He is currently under the front center rock in the tank happily bulldozing away. (thank goodness I put all the baserock on the bottom glass to support the LR before I added the sand)
 
renogaw

renogaw

Active Member
where did you get your rock from? if you got it from someone and just moved it to your tank, you most likely will not experience a cycle. if the shrimp is melting, you could always try putting in 2 shrimp and see what happens, but if you get nothing, i'd say your rock has sufficient bacteria in it.
 
khaari

khaari

Member
The rock came from LFS already cured, roughly 35# total. I will try adding another piece of shrimp and see if I can get a reading. The stringy things are tiny feather dusters. There iswhat looks like a small colony of about 10-12 on that one piece of rock. About 6-8 of them open and close constantly so I have been feeding Kents zooplanton every other day about a half capful.
 
khaari

khaari

Member
Ok update:
I added another raw shrimp to try an see if I can get any ammonia to register. I also went ahead and got a salifert ammonia test kit just to back up the previous 2 tests from my API and the LFS salifert. Below is a photo of the results.
Now my question is how long should I leave it before adding anything if it continues to read zero?

 
renogaw

renogaw

Active Member
leave it in a couple days i guess. it is so cool one of your lfs stock salifert! none of mine have even heard of them :scared:
 
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