New Introduction

[proteus5]

Sound like the cycle is just about the same as freshwater, but I must admit that I was suprised to see the nitrites and nitrates this high after only 48 hours. In fresh water its slow, and nitrites and nitrates take days to show up after the ammonia starts. And the ammonia gets high before they do. I guess it's because in fresh you start with basically nothing in the take, but is SW you are seeded with the live rock, which creates the ammonia with the dieoff, and then has a good colony of bacteria right fom the begining to start converting it. Still seems pretty fast to me. I really don't thing that my live rock was "cured" since at my LFS you have to but it in unopened 50 pound boxes. They had it for about a day before I bought it, and it was damp in the box, and had no real smell other than a kind of salty/earthy smell. It did have a few dead sponges on it, has a little green, and a little purple. It came from Sea Dwelling Creatures in Calif all the way to NJ, so I really have no idea how long it may have been out of water.
As for Walmart, I just don't like how thay are all nice to you when you go in, but look at you and your bought and paid for stuff like your a shoplifer/criminal when you leave. If you can't trust me you don't need my business.......
Robert

 

[meowzer]

Sams does that too...I have always hated that...you have to pull out your receipt and they go thru your stuff...the walmarts by me don't do that yet....but I think they are going to start soon...it's a pain
I have FW tanks, and have never had ammonia...even in the inital set up times....

 

[proteus5]

Originally Posted by Katsafados
http:///forum/post/3062306
Robert since you have the XP2 filter, and are using it for water movement and guessing you use the spray bar you should think about modding it like I did.
I drilled holes(same size as the others) into the spray bar in different directions inbetween the holes that came stock with it. Placed it vertically in a corner of the tank rather than horizontally and it works great at creating more of a current. The spray shoots in different directions now rather than just straight.
Heres a bad pic of what I did.
Just an Idea.

Katsafados,
Thanks for the info, that's an idea I hadn't thought of. Right now I'm not using the spraybay, just the jet for the water movement. I've got the live rock across the middle of the tank, and I had thought of putting the spraybay above it pointing down on the rock, with a korilla 1 on each end.
I like your idea though, would you mind sending me a full sized pick of your setup so I can see it a little better? send it to zz_its_me@hotmail.com
Thanks....Robert

 

[proteus5]

Originally Posted by meowzer
http:///forum/post/3062327
Sams does that too...I have always hated that...you have to pull out your receipt and they go thru your stuff...the walmarts by me don't do that yet....but I think they are going to start soon...it's a pain
I have FW tanks, and have never had ammonia...even in the inital set up times....

Meowser,
Yeah, my wife had a Sams club membership, and I went with her. The place was wall to wall busy, we waited 20 minutes in line to check out, then when we got to the door, 1 old guy checking receipts, looked to be the better part of an hour to get out after I bought my stuff that once paid for I now own and they dont need to see!!!. I walked by the whole line and out the door with a cart full of stuff. The old guy starts yelling "Come Back Here" I yelled back waving my receipt in the air "you want to check my stuff, follow me to the car!!!!!"

next thing I know there's 10 other people going by the guy doing the same thing. It was great, and my wife almost had a cow. I now don't have to go to Walmat, Sams or BJs club with her anymore.

Robert

 

[katsafados]

Sent the pics Rob

 

[meowzer]

Originally Posted by proteus5
http:///forum/post/3062342
Meowser,
Yeah, my wife had a Sams club membership, and I went with her. The place was wall to wall busy, we waited 20 minutes in line to check out, then when we got to the door, 1 old guy checking receipts, looked to be the better part of an hour to get out after I bought my stuff that once paid for I now own and they dont need to see!!!. I walked by the whole line and out the door with a cart full of stuff. The old guy starts yelling "Come Back Here" I yelled back waving my receipt in the air "you want to check my stuff, follow me to the car!!!!!"

next thing I know there's 10 other people going by the guy doing the same thing. It was great, and my wife almost had a cow. I now don't have to go to Walmat, Sams or BJs club with her anymore.

Robert

I would have killed you.....BUT I agree it's a pain to go thru all that

 

[katsafados]

Originally Posted by proteus5
http:///forum/post/3062342
Meowser,
Yeah, my wife had a Sams club membership, and I went with her. The place was wall to wall busy, we waited 20 minutes in line to check out, then when we got to the door, 1 old guy checking receipts, looked to be the better part of an hour to get out after I bought my stuff that once paid for I now own and they dont need to see!!!. I walked by the whole line and out the door with a cart full of stuff. The old guy starts yelling "Come Back Here" I yelled back waving my receipt in the air "you want to check my stuff, follow me to the car!!!!!"

next thing I know there's 10 other people going by the guy doing the same thing. It was great, and my wife almost had a cow. I now don't have to go to Walmat, Sams or BJs club with her anymore.

Robert

Its all the same! I live in Canada and they do that here also. But the Walmart employees dont care here, they stand at the door but dont check thank God lol. That and self checkout is how I got my 10g tank for 99 cents when I was 16, but no longer do that stuff

 

[proteus5]

Katsafados,
Thanks I got the pics, Nice looking tank, what size is it. I've got the 50 pounds of LR in mine, no sand yet, and it seems pretty full. The rock I got was fairly large pieces. Once I get cycled, I'll have to see about making some smaller I guess, I don't know. I'll try to post a pic tomorrow.
I like the idea of using the spray bar in that way. I did get the Rena Smart heater 150w that acts as the intake for the XP2, that way I've only got intake and the outlet in the take, and it is black so you get rid if a lot of the horrible blue/green of the xp2 intake.
Thanks again.
Robert

 

[katsafados]

Its only a 10g. The intake it in my display tank and the spray bar is now in my refugium with my heater since I wanted to get rid of most of the hardware in my display tank.

 

[proteus5]

Originally Posted by Katsafados
http:///forum/post/3062356
Its all the same! I live in Canada and they do that here also. But the Walmart employees dont care here, they stand at the door but dont check thank God lol. That and self checkout is how I got my 10g tank for 99 cents when I was 16, but no longer do that stuff

I refuse to do self checkout anywhere I go until they pay me for doing thier job by giving me a discount for using it. Sound like they paid you well though

I won't even use an ATM. I go to the bank and have a teller count out my money. Helps them keep thier job, and I don't pay for the convienience of doing it my self

Robert

 

[katsafados]

Originally Posted by proteus5
http:///forum/post/3062368
I refuse to do self checkout anywhere I go until they pay me for doing thier job by giving me a discount for using it. Sound like they paid you well though

I won't even use an ATM. I go to the bank and have a teller count out my money. Helps them keep thier job, and I don't pay for the convienience of doing it my self

Robert

haha I see your point. I like to do self check outs every once and a while get expensive items for cheaper by mistake of course

. ATM's are just dumb, only good in emergency's

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by proteus5
http:///forum/post/3062289
Meowzer,
RO from walmart is probably OK too, I just didn't want to go there. (really hate walmart, but that's another story

)
Anyway, another question, since my Nitrates are 80 (from 0 after only 48 hours) , and the Nitrite is 1 Ammonia looks to be 0 to .25, How high should I let the Nitrates get before a water change? I know for freshwater you leave it alone until the cycle completes, but is it the same for saltwater which is more sensitive to Nitrate, or is that only after fish and inverts are added????
Thanks......
Robert
Welcome to the boards!!! Your cycle is going through quickly because your live rock was mostly cured. I would do a water change now. Don't let the nitrate get high, it already is high. The life on your rocks will not like the high nitrate. Be sure to pre mix your salt mix in a separate container. Use a power head and let the water mix for at least 24 hours. 48 is better. There is a gas exchange that takes place. As the salt dissolves carbon dioxide is released. You need the power head to mix the water and make it oxygen rich again.
Originally Posted by proteus5
http:///forum/post/3062311
Sound like the cycle is just about the same as freshwater, but I must admit that I was suprised to see the nitrites and nitrates this high after only 48 hours. In fresh water its slow, and nitrites and nitrates take days to show up after the ammonia starts. And the ammonia gets high before they do. I guess it's because in fresh you start with basically nothing in the take, but is SW you are seeded with the live rock, which creates the ammonia with the dieoff, and then has a good colony of bacteria right fom the begining to start converting it. Still seems pretty fast to me. I really don't thing that my live rock was "cured" since at my LFS you have to but it in unopened 50 pound boxes. They had it for about a day before I bought it, and it was damp in the box, and had no real smell other than a kind of salty/earthy smell. It did have a few dead sponges on it, has a little green, and a little purple. It came from Sea Dwelling Creatures in Calif all the way to NJ, so I really have no idea how long it may have been out of water.
As for Walmart, I just don't like how thay are all nice to you when you go in, but look at you and your bought and paid for stuff like your a shoplifer/criminal when you leave. If you can't trust me you don't need my business.......
Robert
Cycling a salt tank is not like a FW tank. I had FW for years before getting into salt. You have he right idea about why it is different though. I think you will do awesome in this hobby. Just remember to take things slow. Unlike FW you are not ready to add five fish after it is cycled. One fish at a time and none at first. You have several stage of algae that you will get next. Get a QT cycled. Quarantine new fish. It will save you a lot of headache. You cannot just add chemicals to a SW tank when ich shows up. Read through the stickies in Disease and Treatment for details.

 

[proteus5]

Well,as promised here are a couple of pics of the tank about 4 days into the cycle. 50 pounds of live rock, no sand as of yet. Water has a slight yellow tint so I'll get some carbon to clear that up. Let me know what you think.
Robert

 

[big]

Originally Posted by mjlogan
http:///forum/post/3062285
I buy my RO/DI water at the grocery store. All i had to do is check around untill i found a place that had it. I only pay 33 cents a gallon too.

Good luck with the new obsession........

I just had to say something about the 33 cents a gallon posted though..
In a small system the 33 cents a gallon for water may be OK where the usage over time is verysmall..
I never realized it cost that much in the stores.
Lets see, in the last year at a gallon plus a day for top off and 10 gallons a week partials that is some where around......520 plus 365 plus gallons for me....885 gallons at 33 cents per, would have cost me about 270 bucks for just one year in RO...Plus all the trips to the store..........Even with my lack of partials at times, bad me, I still used at least 700 or so gallons.or RO in a year.......
I think this makes me appreciate my little 130 dollar Reef-Keeper RO-DI a bit more........ After the initial investment, 30 bucks for new filters once a year or so is a lot cheaper than buying RO in a store by the gallon in any larger system.

 

[meowzer]

Originally Posted by big
http:///forum/post/3064058
Good luck with the new obsession........

I just had to say something about the 33 cents a gallon posted though..
In a small system the 33 cents a gallon for water may be OK where the usage over time is verysmall..
I never realized it cost that much in the stores.
Lets see, in the last year at a gallon plus a day for top off and 10 gallons a week partials that is some where around......520 plus 365 plus gallons for me....885 gallons at 33 cents per, would have cost me about 270 bucks for just one year in RO...Plus all the trips to the store..........Even with my lack of partials at times, bad me, I still used at least 700 or so gallons.or RO in a year.......
I think this makes me appreciate my little 130 dollar Reef-Keeper RO-DI a bit more........ After the initial investment, 30 bucks for new filters once a year or so is a lot cheaper than buying RO in a store by the gallon in any larger system.
LOL...+1...In 11 months I started with a 225g...added a 54g...now also have a 29g....if I had to buy water for top offs and w/c's I'd need a third job...I LOVE MY $135 ro/do unit

 

[yummysalt]

Originally Posted by proteus5
http:///forum/post/3064010
Well,as promised here are a couple of pics of the tank about 4 days into the cycle. 50 pounds of live rock, no sand as of yet. Water has a slight yellow tint so I'll get some carbon to clear that up. Let me know what you think.
Robert
Looks great.
Do you plan on having another powerhead or one of the existing powerhead to aim it towards the water surface? This will help keep the top layer clean.