40b with 40b sump Tank Build

Swope2bc said:
Yes, me too! I am going to supplement with phyto feast a couple times per week to hopefully give them something.
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Fingers crossed brah.

So far some of my tbs sponges have made it and a majority of the barnacles are still in there licking the water.
 
Swope2bc said:
Yes, but, the rock is already alive. It's just building additional bacteria to deal with the small amounts of sponge and whatnot die off.
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You are totally right! I was just saying in general lol but yea I'm still super jealous of your rock!
 
I cycled my qt tank in 24hrs biospira. Tested again with 2ppm ammonia and within 24 hrs was all Nitrate. It's legit. I have heard stability is hit or miss and you have to keep adding it, biospira is wham bang boom
 
Swope2bc said:
I've been dosing stability, which I think is similar. I also drop a very small amount of prime in if the level hedges .4. Those numbers are just before a change so I've been careful to keep them below.
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Ammonia level of .1-.4 can be enough to harm/kill your livestock. Stability is hit or miss (according to my research in the past) and not the same strains of bacteria/track record as biospira. The fact that you have to add it more than once is proof of this (and the fact biospira has patented strains). I tried stability once and it didn't work for me, at all. Some people have success however.

Also, if you keep dosing prime when you get ammonia, it will be hard to build enough bacteria to process it next time. Your getting ammonia spikes because there's die off and you don't have enough bacteria to convert it quickly. If you neutralize it with prime, the extra bacteria won't form as quickly and it will continue to occur until they do.

If you dose biospira once, youll get that bacteria almost instantly, and you won't need to redose like stability/ use prime/do extra water changes IMO. My qt tank was able to convert 2ppm ammonia in less than 24hrs with biospira.

You could continue neutralizing the ammonia with prime and water changes, but dont allow it to get to a point where it needs to be neutralized, which is risky IMO because you dont know when it will spike. I would want to do prime or water change at .1 ammonia if you go that route.

I personally just wouldn't risk it getting all thevway to .4 ppm, especially with all those cool sponges!

"Values in excess of 0.25 ppm total ammonia may require immediate treatment, preferably involving removal of all delicate (ammonia sensitive) organisms from the water containing the ammonia". -randy holmes farley

"I recommend striving to keep ammonia below 0.1 ppm total NH4-N. If the level rises above 0.25 ppm total NH4-N, I suggest taking immediate action, such as using an ammonia binder or performing water changes." -randy holmes farley

Good luck!
 
BigJohnny said:
Ammonia level of .1-.4 can be enough to harm/kill your livestock. Stability is hit or miss (according to my research in the past) and not the same strains of bacteria/track record as biospira. The fact that you have to add it more than once is proof of this (and the fact biospira has patented strains). I tried stability once and it didn't work for me, at all. Some people have success however.

Also, if you keep dosing prime when you get ammonia, it will be hard to build enough bacteria to process it next time. Your getting ammonia spikes because there's die off and you don't have enough bacteria to convert it quickly. If you neutralize it with prime, the extra bacteria won't form as quickly and it will continue to occur until they do.

If you dose biospira once, youll get that bacteria almost instantly, and you won't need to redose like stability/ use prime/do extra water changes IMO. My qt tank was able to convert 2ppm ammonia in less than 24hrs with biospira.

You could continue neutralizing the ammonia with prime and water changes, but dont allow it to get to a point where it needs to be neutralized, which is risky IMO because you dont know when it will spike. I would want to do prime or water change at .1 ammonia if you go that route.

I personally just wouldn't risk it getting all thevway to .4 ppm, especially with all those cool sponges!

"Values in excess of 0.25 ppm total ammonia may require immediate treatment, preferably involving removal of all delicate (ammonia sensitive) organisms from the water containing the ammonia". -randy holmes farley

"I recommend striving to keep ammonia below 0.1 ppm total NH4-N. If the level rises above 0.25 ppm total NH4-N, I suggest taking immediate action, such as using an ammonia binder or performing water changes." -randy holmes farley

Good luck!
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Thanks for that, I'm pretty sure the rock is handling the majority and when the first half of the rock came I was at 0 ammonia by day 5. This new batch has been in for 4 days now and I've seen gradual decrease of the ammonia rise from one day to next.
 
Time for a bit of an update, after being away from my tank for 6 days everything is still running smoothly. Ammonia 0, nitrates between 5 and 10.

I left with diatoms clearly seen and they are now completely gone. I have about 3 quarter sized patches of green algae waving in the flow.

A few pictures and a couple questions.

e92d25a0ebf5b3bb834ce0922d1b222e.jpg


This is another picture of my unidentified coral hitchhiker. Anyone able to identify it from my lousy pictures would be awesome.

1010788f26d2d1a95033f28197e9a1bb.jpg


I initially thought that these were sponges on the rock, but there are less here now and they have an interesting texture. Any ideas?

239fb21cf6c8f4e83f4387feb6658f13.jpg


My largest sponge has some interesting features. I'm uncertain if it's a good thing or not but it looks pretty cool.

3d7c804c715620e7cfa36dcef164dcc7.jpg


My tank has become overrun by bugs! Yup, those are copepods, I think there are about a billion of them lol.

f94de5a9e28749c24f7f97bb0aea2fd8.jpg


One of my tufts of GHA.

6b7718be15c542377f7382b3b4a59787.jpg


One of my serpent stars sneaking out of his cave to snag something. It was pretty cool to watch, he cruised out of the cave and grabbed something (unsure what) the coiled his arm back in to his mouth.


Last but not least, a FTS.


52ff6061ac7116fc5b2f494c52a23ed2.jpg
 
That looks fantastic! Still think that one hitchhiker is a cup coral, but what do I know? lol

I just got back from Aquatic Dreams. Sorry... no clowns. :( Matt can probably order them for you though - maybe in time for Tuesday?
 
ZeeSparrow said:
That looks fantastic! Still think that one hitchhiker is a cup coral, but what do I know? lol

I just got back from Aquatic Dreams. Sorry... no clowns. :( Matt can probably order them for you though - maybe in time for Tuesday?
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[emoji53] so sad... I'll call them and put in an order I guess. As for my hitchhiker, do you mean the orange or the flowery looking bit in the first picture?
 
Glad the tank was uneventful while you were away, but I know it was hard not to worry about it. ;)

That fan right in the middle background looks just fantastic - your scaping looks real good. Can't get over the size of the finger sponge and those clear projections are cool looking.

So how much time are you spending looking at the tank at night? lol Who needs fish and coral when you've got rock?! :D
 
Aframomum said:
Glad the tank was uneventful while you were away, but I know it was hard not to worry about it. ;)



That fan right in the middle background looks just fantastic - your scaping looks real good. Can't get over the size of the finger sponge and those clear projections are cool looking.



So how much time are you spending looking at the tank at night? lol Who needs fish and coral when you've got rock?! :D
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Thanks! Yeah, I don't know what's going to happen when fish enter the picture! I'm constantly mesmerized by all of the little life in there. I'm excited for my wife and kids to get home and see it all. I go to pick them up after church today.
 
still looking good bro.
I'll be catching up with you soon. my 40/40 is cycling now as we speak used some old Dr. tims was expired but i think it helped out and 20# of reef saver rock. next week i'll oder my TBS rock. woot woot

thanks for the updates...
 
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