Thornbreaker
New member
I added an air sponge about 2 weeks ago. What else would you recommend for encouraging the bacteria growth?
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Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
5 foot long in wall tank build
- Thread starter Thornbreaker
- Start date
Thornbreaker
New member
Yeah, there's really no rush. I'm just a little frustrated as I expected the Dr. Tim's to speed up the process at least somewhat.
I was down to ~.3 ppm ammonia this weekend. Nitrite at .05 and Nitrate at about 5 ppm. It's getting there.
Also, I think both LFSs are out of clown fish at the moment due to the holidays, and I'm looking to buy from one or the other so I can see exactly what I'm taking home. At least for my first set of fish anyway.
I was down to ~.3 ppm ammonia this weekend. Nitrite at .05 and Nitrate at about 5 ppm. It's getting there.
Also, I think both LFSs are out of clown fish at the moment due to the holidays, and I'm looking to buy from one or the other so I can see exactly what I'm taking home. At least for my first set of fish anyway.
Thornbreaker
New member
So it's week 8. I'm still at .1 ppm Ammonia and about .05 to .1 ppm Nitrite on the QT. It just seems to have stagnated again. Would it be reasonable to put a clean dish sponge into the QT for added surface area?
In other news, I received my Trigger Systems Ruby 36 yesterday, and a DC return pump. I'll start putting together the main display tank plumbing this week! Woohoo.
In other news, I received my Trigger Systems Ruby 36 yesterday, and a DC return pump. I'll start putting together the main display tank plumbing this week! Woohoo.
Thornbreaker
New member
Last week I attempted to test out the overflow on the main display tank and in the process begin loose fitting/sizing my plumbing. However, from the pics above you can see the damage I was dealing with on one of the bulkheads that occurred during delivery. I was unable to get that to be leak free after trying the patch and multiple ABS bulkheads. I contacted SC Aquariums again, and due to the damage they are kindly sending me a new 150 gallon tank. It arrives this week, woohoo!
In other news, my ammonia finally hit zero last week as well, so I went to the fish store on super bowl sunday and got a baby snowflake clown and baby regular ole Nemo. I'll be trying out the Tank Transfer Method for the first couple of weeks. And then I'll move them to my 20 gallon for a good extra quarantine period (until main tank is ready).
At this point, I'm hoping to have the main tank up and cycled by May at the latest (doing some heavy traveling in April, probably start cycling then).
So far the new fish were happily swimming around this morning and eating well after being pretty shy last night. I'm using 5 gallon buckets for the TTM. I will likely treat with Prazi on the 2nd session and 4th sessions. I have some extra equipment coming in on Wednesday, so I'm hoping I beat the 72 hour clock for the first transfer, otherwise I'll restart the first session on Wednesday evening.
In other news, my ammonia finally hit zero last week as well, so I went to the fish store on super bowl sunday and got a baby snowflake clown and baby regular ole Nemo. I'll be trying out the Tank Transfer Method for the first couple of weeks. And then I'll move them to my 20 gallon for a good extra quarantine period (until main tank is ready).
At this point, I'm hoping to have the main tank up and cycled by May at the latest (doing some heavy traveling in April, probably start cycling then).
So far the new fish were happily swimming around this morning and eating well after being pretty shy last night. I'm using 5 gallon buckets for the TTM. I will likely treat with Prazi on the 2nd session and 4th sessions. I have some extra equipment coming in on Wednesday, so I'm hoping I beat the 72 hour clock for the first transfer, otherwise I'll restart the first session on Wednesday evening.
Thornbreaker
New member
Update:
After testing out my initial 150 gallon tank, I couldn't get the damaged bulkhead to seal properly. The manufacturer (SCaquariums) replaced the tank. Great service by them.
Since then I've gotten the old swapped out for the new. I also did the plumbing last night. See pic. I decided for now to go with tubing on the return as I may add something more permanent later. (jaebo dc12000 return pump). I also have flex pvc straight from the union going into the refugium section for the E-drain. I'll likely trim that down later on if I like where it's at. Lastly the main siphon has the gate valve with one 45 elbow and the rest flex pvc to the sump bulkhead.
All three bulkheads looked good on a quick leak test. And all three bulkheads have unions immediately below which isn't visible in the picture.
In other news, I have 2 clowns in QT. Named them Fizzbo and Flash. I started with TTM on super bowl Sunday, and after 12 days moved them to a 20 gallon long QT. I recommend doing the TTM. It turned out to be pretty easy using 5 gallon buckets. I followed the sticky on it . Dosed with Prazi on two of the transfers.
One of the things it doesn't mention much is that water changes are acceptable, so long as temp and SG are matched. This along with Prime can keep your ammonia in control, especially if you have 2 fish in a 5 gallon. Feed lightly, siphon excess food, waste out.
Fish are eating well, seem to be healthy. I have one spot on the snowflake clown I'm keeping an eye on. It may just be a white scale, but it'd hard to tell and the one downside to starting with buckets is the lack of horizontal visibility so I have no idea of before/after. It's definitely not ich.
20 gallon long QT is cycled and doing a great job so far of keeping down the ammonia. I did a 20% water change on Saturday and will keep doing so until the main tank is ready.
My next steps are hanging lighting above the tank, and ordered rock, sand, and the skimmer. Hope to be running main tank and cycled by end of April.
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After testing out my initial 150 gallon tank, I couldn't get the damaged bulkhead to seal properly. The manufacturer (SCaquariums) replaced the tank. Great service by them.
Since then I've gotten the old swapped out for the new. I also did the plumbing last night. See pic. I decided for now to go with tubing on the return as I may add something more permanent later. (jaebo dc12000 return pump). I also have flex pvc straight from the union going into the refugium section for the E-drain. I'll likely trim that down later on if I like where it's at. Lastly the main siphon has the gate valve with one 45 elbow and the rest flex pvc to the sump bulkhead.
All three bulkheads looked good on a quick leak test. And all three bulkheads have unions immediately below which isn't visible in the picture.
In other news, I have 2 clowns in QT. Named them Fizzbo and Flash. I started with TTM on super bowl Sunday, and after 12 days moved them to a 20 gallon long QT. I recommend doing the TTM. It turned out to be pretty easy using 5 gallon buckets. I followed the sticky on it . Dosed with Prazi on two of the transfers.
One of the things it doesn't mention much is that water changes are acceptable, so long as temp and SG are matched. This along with Prime can keep your ammonia in control, especially if you have 2 fish in a 5 gallon. Feed lightly, siphon excess food, waste out.
Fish are eating well, seem to be healthy. I have one spot on the snowflake clown I'm keeping an eye on. It may just be a white scale, but it'd hard to tell and the one downside to starting with buckets is the lack of horizontal visibility so I have no idea of before/after. It's definitely not ich.
20 gallon long QT is cycled and doing a great job so far of keeping down the ammonia. I did a 20% water change on Saturday and will keep doing so until the main tank is ready.
My next steps are hanging lighting above the tank, and ordered rock, sand, and the skimmer. Hope to be running main tank and cycled by end of April.
Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
Thornbreaker
New member
Update:
Rock, sand, salt, pumps, and a light are all in. Planning to start the cycle on Saturday night.
I used 130 lbs of reefcleaners rock.
140 lbs of Marco Bahama sand
Definitely wash that sand out if you get it. I did and haven't seen any cloudy dust issues. Was worth the few hours it took. It looks tan in the pictures, but with the lights on it looks white and pretty nice.
Reefcleaners was great customer service. The rocks look good in the tank. I'll probably supplement it with some pukani or some local fish store live rock later to bring me closer to 1lb/gallon of rock.
I've done a power outage test, and will probably do one more after I reduce the volume some. Forgot that adding salt would contribute to volume [emoji53]. Tanks at 1.027sg right now. Will bring it down to 1.026 by time cycle is done.
Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
Rock, sand, salt, pumps, and a light are all in. Planning to start the cycle on Saturday night.
I used 130 lbs of reefcleaners rock.
140 lbs of Marco Bahama sand
Definitely wash that sand out if you get it. I did and haven't seen any cloudy dust issues. Was worth the few hours it took. It looks tan in the pictures, but with the lights on it looks white and pretty nice.
Reefcleaners was great customer service. The rocks look good in the tank. I'll probably supplement it with some pukani or some local fish store live rock later to bring me closer to 1lb/gallon of rock.
I've done a power outage test, and will probably do one more after I reduce the volume some. Forgot that adding salt would contribute to volume [emoji53]. Tanks at 1.027sg right now. Will bring it down to 1.026 by time cycle is done.
Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
Thornbreaker
New member
Update:
Ammonia was zero on 5/5/18.
However, my nitrites and nitrates were at 1.5ppm and 40 to 50ppm respectively.
I waited another week and did a 30 gallon water change on 5/11. This dropped my numbers to about 1ppm and 25-30ppm.
On the 12th I decided to test out a clean up crew. Picked up a cleaner shrimp, a sand sifting tiger conch, and a couple nassarius snails. These guys are mostly doing well. Not sure about one of the nassarius. He's not moved much in several days.
It was good timing as some brown algae has started to bloom and encrust as expected.
Last night I did another 30 gallon water change. This morning I had <5ppm nitrates.
My 2 Clowns will be going into the DT this evening!!
Long road to this point and very excited.
Provided that goes well tonight I'll look at QTing another fish or two when I return from vacation at the end of the month.
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Ammonia was zero on 5/5/18.
However, my nitrites and nitrates were at 1.5ppm and 40 to 50ppm respectively.
I waited another week and did a 30 gallon water change on 5/11. This dropped my numbers to about 1ppm and 25-30ppm.
On the 12th I decided to test out a clean up crew. Picked up a cleaner shrimp, a sand sifting tiger conch, and a couple nassarius snails. These guys are mostly doing well. Not sure about one of the nassarius. He's not moved much in several days.
It was good timing as some brown algae has started to bloom and encrust as expected.
Last night I did another 30 gallon water change. This morning I had <5ppm nitrates.
My 2 Clowns will be going into the DT this evening!!
Long road to this point and very excited.
Provided that goes well tonight I'll look at QTing another fish or two when I return from vacation at the end of the month.
Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk
Thornbreaker
New member
That should say this morning I had less than 5ppm nitrates.
Thornbreaker
New member
Happy clowns, though they do seem to be chasing their reflection alot.
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Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk
Thornbreaker
New member
So an update after 7 months.
Tank has 4 fish now. Foxface lo, royal gramma, 2 clowns.
Have a cleaner and fire shrimp. One blue tuxedo urchin, a conch, and a bunch of various snails.
In September I has a return pump fail, and in the process of replacing and getting back up to speed, the hammer frag which was happy prior to the failure, has subsequently receded.
Probably dead, but I still see a bit of green tissue so it's been moved but still in the tank for now just incase I'm wrong.
The blasto now has 6 or 7 heads after buying it in August with the 2 big heads. So I think it's doing really well.
I've had trouble getting plenty of flow in the DT while finding spots for the hammer where the flow was more low to moderate at the time.
Other troubles, I attempted to QT 5 leopard wrasses. 3 from LA originally that didn't last a few days. The other 2,well I lost the 2nd after over 3 weeks in QT last night.
So I'm looking to set aside that pursuit for now and consider other fish to add. As I'm only 8 or 9 months in, I think it's still too early for a mandarin.
Any suggestions are welcome on stock that would go well with the above.. Down the road I plan a mandarin while finishing off with a yellow tang and another appropriate tang.
And I may look to get a torch or blasto soon.
Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk
Tank has 4 fish now. Foxface lo, royal gramma, 2 clowns.
Have a cleaner and fire shrimp. One blue tuxedo urchin, a conch, and a bunch of various snails.
In September I has a return pump fail, and in the process of replacing and getting back up to speed, the hammer frag which was happy prior to the failure, has subsequently receded.
Probably dead, but I still see a bit of green tissue so it's been moved but still in the tank for now just incase I'm wrong.
The blasto now has 6 or 7 heads after buying it in August with the 2 big heads. So I think it's doing really well.
I've had trouble getting plenty of flow in the DT while finding spots for the hammer where the flow was more low to moderate at the time.
Other troubles, I attempted to QT 5 leopard wrasses. 3 from LA originally that didn't last a few days. The other 2,well I lost the 2nd after over 3 weeks in QT last night.
So I'm looking to set aside that pursuit for now and consider other fish to add. As I'm only 8 or 9 months in, I think it's still too early for a mandarin.
Any suggestions are welcome on stock that would go well with the above.. Down the road I plan a mandarin while finishing off with a yellow tang and another appropriate tang.
And I may look to get a torch or blasto soon.
Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk
reelredfish
Member
any updates? I have an in wall 180 starting over almost
Thornbreaker
New member
Yeah, so I haven't added any new fish lately. I did add a torch though that seems to be doing well. I'll add a pic if I don't have one up.
I'm looking at adding 2 mandarins after I get back from traveling in april, and then a couple of tangs in the summer. After that, no clue.
Tank is running well though. I think I've finally defeated the red cyano that was still lingering in my DT.
