Here I go!

earlybird

earlybird

Active Member
Starting my tank this week. Finally! Lots of thanks to go around so thank you everyone. I'm testing my setup right now and so far so good. Ordered my 45-50# box of LR to arrive Friday and I'll be aquascaping late into the night probably. I plan on taking lots of pictures and adding them to this post.
Here she is. 29g DT with 10g sump.

 
vpotts28

vpotts28

Active Member
Good Luck Early, we know you are well versed in swa. Look forward to seeing your updates.

Looks great
 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
so you did post pictures finnaly and I just got the gallows built and the noose tied.....
lookin good.
 
renogaw

renogaw

Active Member
wait wait wait...
...
...
...
you're doing a 29 gallon?!?!?!
here i was picturing a 300 gallon set up going up.

looks good though :)
 
vpotts28

vpotts28

Active Member
Originally Posted by earlybird
Wife got home and the first thing I said to her was "where's the camera." Oops.

Also let me welcome you to the world of neglecting your significant other in the name of salt water aquaria. I got in trouble last night for not sitting down to watch the pursuit of happiness

Again Good luck
 
earlybird

earlybird

Active Member
Came home to find my lr had been shipped early and sitting on my front porch for who knows how long in 88 degree heat. I threw it all in a 31g tub that I've had salt mixing for 24hrs. The sg was low and I raised it quickly to 1.025.
I settled down and decided to rinse/shake off the rock and transfer it to tub #2 (same size). Rock looks pretty good and is now in clear water. I'm going to transfer it to my dt tomorrow night and begin my first ever set up unless I hear from SWF and they fix it for me. If not, I have to do something with my $200 investment.
reefkprz, Until tomorrow night should I monitor my amm in the tub still? I probably will and I have 15g of mix ready in the event.
Ta Da!!! Man it's been a stressful night. To top it off my daughter is sick and woke up because she puked in her bed. But I've had a few beers in under an hour and feel much better.
First picture is just the shaking/swishing of the lr in tub 1.

Next 2 are after rock was moved to tub 2.

 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
ITs not bad looking rock, can still see color on it. As for ammonia testing I would start 12hours after sticking it in the tub ior tank it doesnt take ammonia long to appear with lots of dieoff and you really want to try and keep it down to keep as much on that rock alive as possible. since your putting it in your display to cycle I wouldnt worry about doing a waterchange on the tub. just swish the heck out of each (again) rock before you throw it into the tank this'll knock off more of the stuff that was kinda dried on before it got into the tub. if you can keep your ammonia at or below 0.5-1.0
if you hit 1.2amm with a ph of 8.3 you end up with about (also depending on temp) 0.135 ppm un-ionized ammonia (very toxic form) and thats pretty hard on everything including bacterias like the ones that break down trite to trate.
 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
Also I would take one of those powerheads and put it on the bottom of the tub pointing straight up to roll the top of the water (this will allow more of the ammonia to offgass) its not a super efficient method but it can help.
 
earlybird

earlybird

Active Member
Thanks.
I just did an amm test and very little color to no color at all so it's close to zero right now. I did a pH test and it's in the 7 range but realized I tripped my GFCI last night late aroung 2am so I'm going to retest pH later.
 
renogaw

renogaw

Active Member
i figured you'd get it a day early. remember how i said they ship it 2 days, but if someone doesn't pay attention they would still ship it out wednesday and you'd get it thursday.
ehh, spilled milk and all. it still looks nice though :) it probably was well enough insulated and not out there that long.
***)
 
earlybird

earlybird

Active Member
I wish I knew exactly how long it was outside. I thought I was doing them a favor putting my order in early. My guess is they didn't read my specifications/handling instructions. This hobby is about learning through experience right.
 
renogaw

renogaw

Active Member
nah, you were a victim of shipping process. they say they ship all orders second day for live rock and sand. unfortunately, fed'/ex has shipping zones, where no matter HOW something is shipped, from florida to surrounding states it will automatically be shipped the next day, just because they are so close and the processing doesn't take 2 days.
Its the same with UPS> people ask me to ship next day air from mass to ct, or from mass to new york. Instead of getting a $40 charge, i just put ground on it and get charged $10 because it will get there the next day anyway.
it's really the shipping computer program at SWF that needs to be looked at. How many next day airs do they get charged for shipping to Florida? they could be saving themselves OODLES of money.
 
earlybird

earlybird

Active Member
Well I'm hoping that they will right the situation. I'm sure they will.
While I'm on my soap box, they should ship in sealed plastic containers also.
 
earlybird

earlybird

Active Member
my pH is up 8.2 but still no signs of ammonia or I'm doing something wrong. Maybe b/c my rock has been in 2 tubs in 10 hours.
 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
doesnt sound like your doing anything wrong. the initial rinse probably got the majority of the dead stuff off. (the tub is heated right?) it may be a couple days for the ammonia to show if you got it pretty clean. I just always prepare for the worst then am relieved when its not as bad as I thought.
 
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