I'm finally up and running!!!

[marvelfan]

Just tested my QT. Looks like we are progressing through the cycle
pH 8.4
Ammonia 0
Nitrite > 5 ppm
Nitrate ~20 ppm
I don't really plan on using the prime, I have plenty of ready to go salt water mixed up. What is the shelf life of Salt water when mixed? Do the elements deplete eventually, or is that only when used in the tank?
I keep a 32 gallon barrel of RO/DI water and about 15 gallons of saltwater on hand.

 

[mr. limpid]

Quote:
Originally Posted by MarvelFan http:///t/390857/im-finally-up-and-running/100#post_3465979
Just tested my QT. Looks like we are progressing through the cycle
pH 8.4
Ammonia 0
Nitrite > 5 ppm
Nitrate ~20 ppm
I don't really plan on using the prime, I have plenty of ready to go salt water mixed up. What is the shelf life of Salt water when mixed? Do the elements deplete eventually, or is that only when used in the tank?
I keep a 32 gallon barrel of RO/DI water and about 15 gallons of saltwater on hand.
Probably for ever its not a food to spoil, just need to top off from evaporation. I never have that problem I mix and use.

 

[marvelfan]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Limpid http:///t/390857/im-finally-up-and-running/100#post_3466052
Probably for ever its not a food to spoil, just need to top off from evaporation. I never have that problem I mix and use.
Thanks. That's what I thought. I have the water sealed up in buckets so I'm not worried about evaporation but I always check Salinity before I use it. I color coded my containers. I almost used my saltwater container for my ATO a couple days ago. But I tested it before I did thankfully.
Last night I forgot to turn off my RO/DI and got a couple gallons of water onto my basement floor. 2nd day in a row I did that. I should probably look into a float valve for it. (or set a reminder on my phone before bed).

 

[mr. limpid]

Quote:
Originally Posted by MarvelFan http:///t/390857/im-finally-up-and-running/100#post_3466055
Thanks. That's what I thought. I have the water sealed up in buckets so I'm not worried about evaporation but I always check Salinity before I use it. I color coded my containers. I almost used my saltwater container for my ATO a couple days ago. But I tested it before I did thankfully. I forgot to say that you should air rate the
water while in the bucket and check the PH B4 you use it.
Last night I forgot to turn off my RO/DI and got a couple gallons of water onto my basement floor. 2nd day in a row I did that. I should probably look into a float valve for it. (or set a reminder on my phone before bed).
I do that all the time, my wife get so mad at me because it is in the Laundry room. She steps into a puddle, even tho there is a floor drain in there it still puddles.

 

[marvelfan]

Before I use the stored water, I put my spare 950 GPH pump in the bucket and let it run for a couple hours to stir-up the water (I do this for 24 hours when I initially mix the saltwater). The heat from the pump actually raises the water temp to my DT temp in about an hour and a half. Then I place a lid on it and put it into storage.

 

[sweatervest13]

Quote:
Originally Posted by MarvelFan http:///t/390857/im-finally-up-and-running/100#post_3466055
Thanks. That's what I thought. I have the water sealed up in buckets so I'm not worried about evaporation but I always check Salinity before I use it. I color coded my containers. I almost used my saltwater container for my ATO a couple days ago. But I tested it before I did thankfully.
Last night I forgot to turn off my RO/DI and got a couple gallons of water onto my basement floor. 2nd day in a row I did that. I should probably look into a float valve for it. (or set a reminder on my phone before bed).
OMG. I do this all the time too. Now I have gotten into the habit of making water (love that phrase, lol) on Wednesdays and have to leave a note for my wife that we are, "making water". She usually needs to call me at work the next day saying that it is close to overflowing. But have not had a bad flood for about 6 months.
I think I move my container around too much for a float valve. I just need to keep buying my wife nice presents and she will help turn off the RO/DI unit before it floods.

 

[mr. limpid]

My problem is that I only rent space in laundry room (from my wife, lol), so I use gallon jugs for top off water. When I do water change in DT I use a 32 gal can which takes up to much space in front of washer so I make it over night so I can get it out of the way during the day.

 

[marvelfan]

I added my first additions to my DT. 2 Ocellaris clownfish. I picked one slightly larger then the other. They seem to be doing well. Very playful. I put them in last night. I was going to quarantine them, but the QT tank is going to take a while longer then I thought to cycle (I'll admit I ran out of patience). I won't be adding any more fish livestock without 6-8 week quarantine now that the first fish are in there. I've been feeding the tank with flake food for the last week or so and I haven't seen any Ammonia, Nitrite or Nitrate. Everything has stayed stable. I'm checking the parameters twice a day right now to make sure everything is good and so far it is. I had the LFS feed them and they ate right away. I feed them a small portion this morning of brine shrimp. (Should I switch to Mysis, my LFS was out of it and he said they feed them brine but that they will eat anything). I must have sat there for an hour and half just watching them after the 2 1/2 hour acclimation. Very cool creatures!
SG is 1.025
Temp 77.9
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
The only thing I noticed is that I do have quite a bit of flow for my real estate. I have 2 550 gph CP's in a 30 gallon. They each spent some time swimming into the pumps and letting it push them back. They seemed to hang around one area together. I adjusted one pump to push up and create some wave action and the other to point down and to the back. This seemed to help. They started to go all over the tank. I started a lighting schedule as well. I'm running my lights on a timer. Blues come on at 5:00AM, switch to White at 7AM, back to blue at 9PM and off by 11:30PM.
When the lights go out these guys went over to one of the CP's and laid down on the sides and top of it. I think they are hosting my CP!

I also did a 10% water change after I placed them in the tank.

 

[dustintx]

Looks good. I also added two ocellaris 2 weeks ago and within a few days they had ich,so pay close attention to their eating habits and salt like stuff on them. I ended up doing a fresh water dip for them and a water change and within two days the ich fell off and they were eating again and have since been great! They play non stop and even do the pairing dance now. Also,if u dont have corals or plan on getting any soon,ur gonna have to monitor your specific gravity because as it evaporates the sg will rise. Mine is at 1.022 and is a fowlr tank,no corals. So just keep an eye on those things. Overall,good looking tank man.

 

[marvelfan]

DustinTx, Sorry to hear about the ich - glad it seems to be better. Did you have them in the main tank from day one? How much water did you change?
I'm inspecting them everyday. My ATO is keeping my salinity and levels stable. Working out really nice! Tank parameters are still good, no nitrates creeping up. I'm now seeing some algae from my lights running the last couple days. Just a little bit. I only have my 2 snails in there. I'm going to order a CUC from Saltwaterfish.com, but I"m waiting for a Fire Shirmp to come back into stock. Hopefully this next week I can place an order.
I'm thinking:
Nassarius Snails 10 to 20 (buy 10 get 10 deal looks sweet)
Nerite Snails (5-10)
Emerald Crab (1 or 2) - I'm thinking of doing the adoption of the injured crabs. How long does it take fro them to molt and grow there limbs back
Fire Shrimp - 1
Anything else I should be looking at maybe a conch or turbo?
I also picked up some JB Water Weld - Planing on attaching my loose Live rock down this weekend.
I'd like to throw a small LPS on the bottom of the tank for the clowns over the next week or two. I'm not sure an anemone would be a good starter for me. I've been reading they may be too sensitive to a new tank. Would that be correct?
I was thinking some a couple branches of Hammer Coral on the bottom for the clowns to possibly host.
Opinions?

 

[dustintx]

DustinTx, Sorry to hear about the ich - glad it seems to be better. Did you have them in the main tank from day one? How much water did you change?
I'm inspecting them everyday. My ATO is keeping my salinity and levels stable. Working out really nice! Tank parameters are still good, no nitrates creeping up. I'm now seeing some algae from my lights running the last couple days. Just a little bit. I only have my 2 snails in there. I'm going to order a CUC from Saltwaterfish.com, but I"m waiting for a Fire Shirmp to come back into stock. Hopefully this next week I can place an order. 
I'm thinking:
Nassarius Snails 10 to 20 (buy 10 get 10 deal looks sweet)
Nerite Snails (5-10)
Emerald Crab (1 or 2)  - I'm thinking of doing the adoption of the injured crabs. How long does it take fro them to molt and grow there limbs back
Fire Shrimp - 1
Anything else I should be looking at maybe a conch or turbo?
I also picked up some JB Water Weld - Planing on attaching my loose Live rock down this weekend. 
I'd like to throw a small LPS on the bottom of the tank for the clowns over the next week or two. I'm not sure an anemone would be a good starter for me. I've been reading they may be too sensitive to a new tank. Would that be correct? 
I was thinking some a couple branches of Hammer Coral on the bottom for the clowns to possibly host.
Opinions?
Anemones are not for beginners. If something goes wrong and the anemone dies it will poison your entire tank and kill your fish. Not to mention,clownfish dont need anemones to flourish. Mine are using a piece of pvc pipe and a clay pot. So wait until your much more familiar with the hobby.

 

[marvelfan]

Quote:
Originally Posted by DustinTX http:///t/390857/im-finally-up-and-running/100#post_3466430
Anemones are not for beginners. If something goes wrong and the anemone dies it will poison your entire tank and kill your fish. Not to mention,clownfish dont need anemones to flourish. Mine are using a piece of pvc pipe and a clay pot. So wait until your much more familiar with the hobby.
yeah... I won't be adding one anytime soon. But I am playing with the idea of a branch of Hammer coral. I'm doing as much reading as I can. I'm finding it to be a good beginner coral as long as you keep it away from other corals. Since I don't have any other corals I'm thinking it may be a a good starter since its easy to care for.
If a hammer coral dies in the tank can that cause a crash as well.
Right now my to clowns are using the CP in the upper right hand corner of the tank. its there go to spot. With so much rock work i was a bit confused they didn't explore all the caves and tunnels more.
I made the mistake of thinking an anemone was a type of coral. I'm guessing most beginners do the same, but now I know its an invert. I'll be steering clear for now.
*IF YOUR NEW TO THIS HOBBY PLEASE DO YOUR RESEARCH!!!!! Lol
So much to learn! but that's what makes it fun.

 

[marvelfan]

I just had an epiphany! My QT has been Ammonia 0 - Nitrite > 5 and Nitrate 10-20 for the last several days with little change. But I don't have an ammonia source in the tank. Ammonia has been at 0 for a while. I still need that source to feed the cycle correct? I may be prolonging my own by starving out the good bacteria?

 

[sweatervest13]

Quote:
I started a lighting schedule as well. I'm running my lights on a timer. Blues come on at 5:00AM, switch to White at 7AM, back to blue at 9PM and off by 11:30PM.
Your lighting schedule may be a little too long. If you don't have corals in the tank then the only thing you are growing is algae. The fish don't need 18 hours of light a day.
I would back it down to about 12 hours of total light a day. Do some research and see what everybody runs theirs at. I my self like to have my lights on in the evening when I can look at the tank. But mine is in my basement and it stays dark down there. I just worked back from when I wanted them off. So I have mine go off around midnight and on just after noon.
Good looking clowns. Keep a good eye on them for a while just because you don't see ICK on them does not mean it is not in the system. Sounds like you are getting the QT going, nice work!!

 

[marvelfan]

Quote:
Originally Posted by sweatervest13 http:///t/390857/im-finally-up-and-running/100#post_3466458
Your lighting schedule may be a little too long. If you don't have corals in the tank then the only thing you are growing is algae. The fish don't need 18 hours of light a day.
I would back it down to about 12 hours of total light a day. Do some research and see what everybody runs theirs at. I my self like to have my lights on in the evening when I can look at the tank. But mine is in my basement and it stays dark down there. I just worked back from when I wanted them off. So I have mine go off around midnight and on just after noon.
Good looking clowns. Keep a good eye on them for a while just because you don't see ICK on them does not mean it is not in the system. Sounds like you are getting the QT going, nice work!!
I'll look over my lighting schedule. Since I have to manually switch between blue and blue/white modes I usually turn it on the way out to work and then before I start to wind down. Ironically this is when I'm not able to observe the tank. I maybe I'll have the white auto on around 10 AM and then i'll just do the blue by itself for the last 2 hours before darkness. I'll do some more looking into light schedules. Thanks for the input!

 

[sweatervest13]

Quote:
Originally Posted by DustinTX http:///t/390857/im-finally-up-and-running/100#post_3466329
Looks good. I also added two ocellaris 2 weeks ago and within a few days they had ich,so pay close attention to their eating habits and salt like stuff on them. I ended up doing a fresh water dip for them and a water change and within two days the ich fell off and they were eating again and have since been great! They play non stop and even do the pairing dance now. Also,if u dont have corals or plan on getting any soon,ur gonna have to monitor your specific gravity because as it evaporates the sg will rise. Mine is at 1.022 and is a fowlr tank,no corals. So just keep an eye on those things. Overall,good looking tank man.
The Ich is still in the system. Once it is in your system the only way to get rid of it is to go fallow (fishless) for like 6 weeks. The parasite needs to go through its life cycle without a host to attach to. You can also treat with copper or hypo-salinity in a QT(but usually you don't want to do this in your DT, as the copper is not good in a DT). I am no expert but this is the way it was explained to me. Sorry I don't want to rain on your parade but you may see it come back.

 

[bang guy]

Quote:
Originally Posted by MarvelFan http:///t/390857/im-finally-up-and-running/100#post_3466451
I just had an epiphany! My QT has been Ammonia 0 - Nitrite > 5 and Nitrate 10-20 for the last several days with little change. But I don't have an ammonia source in the tank. Ammonia has been at 0 for a while. I still need that source to feed the cycle correct? I may be prolonging my own by starving out the good bacteria?
You are 100% correct. I recommend feeding a small amount of fish food to keep the existing bacteria populations healthy and stable.

 

[sweatervest13]

Quote:
Originally Posted by MarvelFan http:///t/390857/im-finally-up-and-running/100#post_3466461
I'll look over my lighting schedule. Since I have to manually switch between blue and blue/white modes I usually turn it on the way out to work and then before I start to wind down. Ironically this is when I'm not able to observe the tank. I maybe I'll have the white auto on around 10 AM and then i'll just do the blue by itself for the last 2 hours before darkness. I'll do some more looking into light schedules. Thanks for the input!
Gotcha... I bet it is a PITA for switching the lights over. Is there anyway to use more then one timer to get it automated??

 

[marvelfan]

I'm looking into that. Since the blue and white/blue combo run off the 3 way switch (Blue, Off, White/Blue) I was thinking about trying to patch timers between he switch connections. I have found an a person online who has posted his mod and successfully did it on a similar light setup as mine. I may try it. It would be nice to have the light be totally automated

 

[marvelfan]

Well.. Last night I disassembled my LED lights and rigged the blue lights to an independent AC Adapter power source. I just installed a DC "M" style jack and bought a universal AC-DC transformer. 12V at 1A - The 7 blue LED's are only 1 Watt each so it was enough to power them.
I also noticed that I'm starting to get an algae bloom now that the lights have been running. I still don't have a CUC. I need to place my order ASAP from SWF.com
I did take some pictures and I noticed something in one of them this morning. Does it look like I have Aiptasia starting in this pic? Or could it be some coral remains from the previous tank it was in.

Also noticing some algae on the sand bed now too.

I'm only running my lights 12 hours now. Whites/blues from 10-10. Should I cut back even more until I get a CUC in there. It may not be till next week.
Overall the clown are doing really good. They seem happy and playful.