Awaiting Package

[kross]

Day 5 Morning

Day 5 Morning

Good Morning,

Woke up this morning to do my test, and my Ammonia and Nitrates were both up. My Ammonia was .25 and is now 1.0 - 1.25 and my Nitrates back up to a little bit over 1.0. The only thing I did last night after the test last night was replace my filter socks (They were dirty) with new ones. Even thou it was not to I did a small water change.

I am off to the fish store to get my red sea kit they said it is in, and will also bring a sample to them also.

 

[CuzzA]

I'd be willing to bet the more acurate Red Sea test shows zero.

 

[kross]

Day 5 Afternoon Update

Day 5 Afternoon Update

Home from the local fish store. I brought enough water to have us both test.
They tested and I also tested with the Red Sea.

PH - 8.2
KH - 9
Density 1.022
Ammonia - (Red Sea Almost 0 (Cuzza on the money, API Less THEN .25)
Nitrite (Both test kits came in at 0)
Nitrate (API 10, Red Sea .5)
Phosphate - (.2)
Calcium (API 340 Red Sea 360)

They said they would like to see the Density brought up, and the phosphate brought down otherwise the tank parameters are good.

 

[kross]

Day 5 Evening Update

Day 5 Evening Update

Ammonia is or at 0 and Nitrite are at 0 , and Nitrates are at below 10 for tonight test. Looks like we are getting one day closer for package 2.

Tank is at 77.2
PH is 8.2
ORP is 300 (Been going up since we started this)

 

[kross]

Day 6 Update

Day 6 Update

Good Morning Everyone, both Ammonia & Nitrate is or are very close to 0.

 

[kross]

Day 6 Evening Update

Day 6 Evening Update

Evening everyone,

Both Ammonia & Nitrate is or are sill very close to 0.

 

[kross]

Day 7

Day 7

Good morning,

As you may have guessed Ammonia is at 0 and Nitrate still very close to 0.

 

[kross]

Day 8 Early Morning Update Package 2

Day 8 Early Morning Update Package 2

The plane arrived at 5:25 after work, package in my hands by 5:50 and home by 7:00pm it now 2:30 am in the morning and I had to post, I know many been reading this thread and I hope this is what everyone been waiting to see what is in package two.

I will just come out and saw WOW, the content of the boxes were nothing I imagined full of life. Richard out did himself when he said you would be impressed and needless to say I was blow away.

I will take more pictures tomorrow (Very tired), but I added the other 80 lbs of rock except for two pieces for the life of me I could not get the little crabs off these two rocks, so I decided to put them in my quarantine system.

(Love to know what the purple entity is next to the orange sponge very cool looking)

Stunning :hmm1:

A few types of sponges

This shipment of Rock had so much life!!

 

[kross]

Day 8 Early Morning Update Package 2 (Continue)

Day 8 Early Morning Update Package 2 (Continue)

I will post more tomorrow, if there is something specific you want me to take a picture off or a movie let me know. (getting some sleep)

Again, thank you Richard, outstanding very impressed!!!

 

[liverock]

awesome man!

awesome man!

Good job bud!

I knew you were going to have a long night.... playing reefer....lol

And to think, has only been a week since part one of the Package went in and now you have a full blown reef tank..real live rock and sand makes it pretty painless to set up a reef tank and you don't have to deal with all the curing...waiting....water changes....that conventional 'live' rock presents.

Nice to see your tank come back from the dead and into the light!:dance:

Hope you got some sleep before work today..lol....

Keep us posted

Richard TBS
www.tbsaltwater.com :rollface::rollface::rollface:

 

[kross]

Day 8 Morning Update (I am tired)

Day 8 Morning Update (I am tired)

Richard, could have not done it without your help. Your guidance throughout the entire process was essential on the success of this.

By the time I cleaned up went to bed it was almost 4:00am and was up at 6:00am for work. (Whooohoooo)

This morning test shows Ammonia at a trace, Nitrates at a trace.

A few questions for anyone and everyone:

1- Flow on the tank. As you can see I have two MP40, one left and one right of the tank. One towards the back the other towards the front, and one Mp10 also on the left hand side. Do I need to be concern now on the back wall? I never had this much rock in the tank before? I also had to turn them all down by 10% it seem to move the coral around. (They never now get above a total intensity of 60 on either side)

2- Lighting, I am never going up 70%. It increases up to 70% overall intensity, will this be to bright?

3- I had one heck of a time seeing the crabs, tiny buggers they were, and I am not 100% sure I got them all out. I could not even tell if they were bad, because they were so dam tiny. If some get in, which I am expecting what is the best war to eradicate them.

4- Should I move anything to be more shade them light based on what was provided?

I will post some more closes ups so people can see the rock, some of the pictures above do not capture the life I am seeing, it was a challenge to decide just what should be facing the front of the tank.

 

[liverock]

Richard, could have not done it without your help. Your guidance throughout the entire process was essential on the success of this.

It was your perseverance that made this work after coming back from overseas and finding your tank had crashed to a toxic soup mess. Takes gumption to start over!

By the time I cleaned up went to bed it was almost 4:00am and was up at 6:00am for work. (Whooohoooo)

I hope you drink coffee lol

This morning test shows Ammonia at a trace, Nitrates at a trace.

You may get a small ammonia bump for a couple of days....but that is normal after part two goes in.

A few questions for anyone and everyone:

1- Flow on the tank. As you can see I have two MP40, one left and one right of the tank. One towards the back the other towards the front, and one Mp10 also on the left hand side. Do I need to be concern now on the back wall? I never had this much rock in the tank before? I also had to turn them all down by 10% it seem to move the coral around. (They never now get above a total intensity of 60 on either side)

You have great flow.....will be sufficient.....the lights?...just watch you tanks inhabitants and see how the are doing.....the Gulf can be a dark place or a clear place, so the rock and critters can take both with no issues.

2- Lighting, I am never going up 70%. It increases up to 70% overall intensity, will this be to bright?

go slow....

3- I had one heck of a time seeing the crabs, tiny buggers they were, and I am not 100% sure I got them all out. I could not even tell if they were bad, because they were so dam tiny. If some get in, which I am expecting what is the best war to eradicate them.

Crabs....easy peasy.....folks freak about them, but if you see one just reach and and grab him...or the rock they are on and remove...or a piece of raw shrimp up by the glass and when they come for lunch, nab him...

There are good crabs too...so use the list here to differentiate http://tbsaltwater.com/thepackage/organisms.html

4- Should I move anything to be more shade them light based on what was provided?

nope...looks good...

I will post some more closes ups so people can see the rock, some of the pictures above do not capture the life I am seeing, it was a challenge to decide just what should be facing the front of the tank.

time will tell on that...you will be scaping some more...everybody does LOL...

Keep us posted!
Richard TBS
www.tbsaltwater.com

 

[CuzzA]

Looks great. To answer your questions...

The sponges will do best in the shade with medium to high flow. They do not have the ability to shed off algae and algae will suffocate them. The gorgonian appears to be photosynthetic and should put be put in direct light. It's also a good idea to feed the gorg occasionally with a properly sized food that the polyps can capture. While they can survive on light alone, I found they do much better if fed and contrary to popular belief photosynthetic gorgs do eat. Google scholar will yield studies about the digestive content of photosynthetic gorgs.

As for flow, I like to have enough that nothing settles on the sand bed. Basically enough flow that my sand is on the brink of being pushed around, but stays put. If you find corals, sponges, etc. are being blown over you can secure the sponges and gorgs to some rock rubble with a rubberband or super glue the corals down.

Using percentages alone on LED lighting won't work. Either you use a par meter or adjust the intensity depending on how the corals respond. Obviously bleaching and lack of growth means too much light and browning and lack of growth means too little. It can take a while to find the sweet spot. It also depends on what type of corals you intend on keeping.

Hope this helps. Looks great. Instant reef!

 

[liverock]

what he said^^^ LOL...

also...there were some nice corals growing on some of the rocks...make sure they see the light...

Richard TBS
www.tbsaltwater.com:spin3::spin3::spin3:

 

[kross]

Thanks, let thier be light will be no issue.

I currently use 7 Profiles based on the season table of the Apex controller to give a sunrise, morning, mid morning, noon, afternoon, evening, sundown. Noon being the brightest at 70% which I turned down for now at 60%.

The Mp40's and the Mp10 are tied also to the season table for the illusion of the tide coming in and out, with a period of calm in the tank.

I will see about getting a Par meter from the fish store (rent one).

Do you recommend one food over another for the gorgonian?

Thanks

 

[gman 01234]

looks awesome man cant wait till I order mine from Richard on the 31st.. hoping to have the best reef in Wyoming .

 

[CuzzA]

Do you recommend one food over another for the gorgonian?

Thanks

No problem. You want to try to match a food size to the size of the polyps. For my gorgs I use Oyster Feast, Cyclopeez, Phytoplankton. Artemia is a good choice too.

 

[kross]

looks awesome man cant wait till I order mine from Richard on the 31st.. hoping to have the best reef in Wyoming .

Thank you Gman!! You will be stunned at the quality and life!!! Easy, no issues follow the instructions and in 10 days or less your tank will look just like mine.

 

[kross]

Day 8 Evening Update

Day 8 Evening Update

Sorry for not posting sooner, I was exhausted I did my test and went to bed.

Ammonia spiked up to between .5 and .75 and Nitrates were creeping to 1.

This was expected since we just added another 80lbs of live rock to the system.

 

[kross]

Day 9 Morning Update

Day 9 Morning Update

Good Morning Everyone,

Ammonia is down to less then .25 and Nitrates are now dropping to less then .25. Tank looks healthy, I did feed it for the first time last night. I also ordered a LPAR so I can take light readings after visiting the fish store and being told they do not rent them out.

No issues to report, no popping nice. My plan is to transfer the remaining of my content (Fish/Snails etc) from my Tupperware temporary holding tank back to the tank this weekend. The other two pieces of life rock that did not make it to the display tank will remain in the Isolation tank for now on. I have one small piece that that also has the same crabs on it, and baby starfish. I plan to take a picture and post to see if someone here can help p me ID the little buggers.