For my first post....
I setup and cycled a 28 Gal HQL tank. I put 20 LBS or live sand, a total of 25-35 LBS of rock (about 8-9 was live rock, it does have a lot of surface area, the other part was base rock that was out in the sun for about a year from a tank that had a hair algae outbreak) and used seasoned water from the system of a shop. The tank cycled in about 11 days (big spike in NH, No2 and then Zero on those), I did put a deli shrimp in it.
I added two blue chromis, snails and two scarlet Hermits. Tested for ammonia daily (result was zero).
The tank cycled quite fast. After I added the trial fish and some crabs, levels were still normal. Then, I proceeded to add the CUC...everything was ok then too. Added a few frags and everything was ok again. Boring, huh? Then, the interesting part...I got 3 shrimp, 2 cleaners and 1 coral (he just looks cool, though a bit of a *****). While acclimating these, I used 5 gallons of water, correctly mixed, RO, with the same salinity of the tank. This was the equivalent of a water change, 30%. I say 30% because In reality, the tank has about 17 gallons after tanking into account the displacement of the rocks and sand. I know for a fact that for about 4-5 days I was overfeeding, this has been corrected.
Saturday (4 days ago), the water appeared cloudy, I measured ammonia and, bingo, 0.25. I know that's bad, so I bought Microbacter 7 and started dosing it. So far, the NH3 has held fast.
Here's where it gets funny. After thinking about it long and hard (That's what she said), I traced events and found these errors. In addition to not having enough bio filtering yet. 1. I overfilled the tank, the back part is divided in 3, water to be filtered cascades into the sump, then it goes into the two other areas where it gets sent back into the tank. Well, the water was getting all mixed up because the water level was above the dividers (genius). This went on for at least 4-5 days until I realized it. Now I check every day. To add insult to injury 2. The wavemaker was set to keep both pums on simultaneously....well, I played with it a bit and switched it to 10 sec interval, to watch it for a bit...but didnt switch it back, so 50% filtration capacity for a few days.
Those things and the fact that the amount of actual live rock is small at the present time add up to a wonderful situation that smells like ammonia and some brown algae.
Awesome.
At least, I get free RO water from a friend, 15 gallons at the time. Salt is not free, but, oh well.
I hope this has been amusing for you, thank you for taking the time to read this.
C
-nothing has died yet
PS, Im a dentist, I will be happy to answer your dental questions. All areas of expertise (perio, surgery, ortho and endo).
I setup and cycled a 28 Gal HQL tank. I put 20 LBS or live sand, a total of 25-35 LBS of rock (about 8-9 was live rock, it does have a lot of surface area, the other part was base rock that was out in the sun for about a year from a tank that had a hair algae outbreak) and used seasoned water from the system of a shop. The tank cycled in about 11 days (big spike in NH, No2 and then Zero on those), I did put a deli shrimp in it.
I added two blue chromis, snails and two scarlet Hermits. Tested for ammonia daily (result was zero).
The tank cycled quite fast. After I added the trial fish and some crabs, levels were still normal. Then, I proceeded to add the CUC...everything was ok then too. Added a few frags and everything was ok again. Boring, huh? Then, the interesting part...I got 3 shrimp, 2 cleaners and 1 coral (he just looks cool, though a bit of a *****). While acclimating these, I used 5 gallons of water, correctly mixed, RO, with the same salinity of the tank. This was the equivalent of a water change, 30%. I say 30% because In reality, the tank has about 17 gallons after tanking into account the displacement of the rocks and sand. I know for a fact that for about 4-5 days I was overfeeding, this has been corrected.
Saturday (4 days ago), the water appeared cloudy, I measured ammonia and, bingo, 0.25. I know that's bad, so I bought Microbacter 7 and started dosing it. So far, the NH3 has held fast.
Here's where it gets funny. After thinking about it long and hard (That's what she said), I traced events and found these errors. In addition to not having enough bio filtering yet. 1. I overfilled the tank, the back part is divided in 3, water to be filtered cascades into the sump, then it goes into the two other areas where it gets sent back into the tank. Well, the water was getting all mixed up because the water level was above the dividers (genius). This went on for at least 4-5 days until I realized it. Now I check every day. To add insult to injury 2. The wavemaker was set to keep both pums on simultaneously....well, I played with it a bit and switched it to 10 sec interval, to watch it for a bit...but didnt switch it back, so 50% filtration capacity for a few days.
Those things and the fact that the amount of actual live rock is small at the present time add up to a wonderful situation that smells like ammonia and some brown algae.
Awesome.
At least, I get free RO water from a friend, 15 gallons at the time. Salt is not free, but, oh well.
I hope this has been amusing for you, thank you for taking the time to read this.
C
-nothing has died yet
PS, Im a dentist, I will be happy to answer your dental questions. All areas of expertise (perio, surgery, ortho and endo).
