coralsnaked
New member
OK guys I had to post a thread for you guys to chew on for a while. We all know that if you go fast you crash, Right? ... Well maybe not! My son is ten and he wants his own tank, and wants to do it his way. He has watched me for the last ten years work with my tanks and I said OK birthday boy what do you want. Answer a JBJ 28 Nano. OK well not my first choice for a tank but it is his B-Day money so OK. What else. Wants to pilfer my big bull nose refugium for sand, live rock, and water. Still not my idea of a party but i say OK we will get you what you need. (Not coming outta my tank) but we will get you what you want. Rest of the plan is his and I don't want to even know what it is , just have a plan.
Well he is a smart kid right? You might not think so when you hear his plan unfold. Tank comes in on a Thursdday. Without any help except to unpack it he sets it up in his room on an old tank stand from the garage on the back wall near a window. Not really a good idea in Austin TX where it gets 105 in the summer. This was six weeks ago by the way. I don't say jack squat. Friday night he comes to me and says ,"Dad, you gonna be home tommorrow." "Yes I answer." Well he wants to raid my tank. I answer how bout we go to the LFS and get you what you need. He frowns and says only if they got what i need. Saturday morning we go to the LFS.
He goes right in and says and I quote " I want some fully cured rock that is not scrubbed, you know the kind with all the junk on it. and I want 40 lbs of it, and I want 25 gallons of water out the same tank, and I want 30 lbs of live sand." Hey that came out my kids mouth! Has he been really listening all this time? Long story short I did help him persuede the owner into giving him the water from the tank. Nows he is paying for this on his birthday VISA. Total cost around $275.00 Well we haul it back and I help him haul the rock sand and water to his room and all the while he is saying "Hurry up Dad, hurry up. We ain't got much time."
He's standing on a chair and I'm handing him rock. He's stacking and restacking for about ten minutes. "OK " he says, good enough pour the sand in. "All of it" I say. "One bag Dad, OK" he says. Ends up using 1 1/2 bags and has about 2.5 inches of sand. A little to much I think but I keep my mouth shut. Next goes the water which I had to pour slowly while he held a plate on top the rock. Man those 5 gal containers are heavy. Now the tank is full and he sets up the standard filtration on this JBJ 28 gal, which is mech on top, carbon in the middle and ceramic on the bottom. So I ask "Do you need the rings with the rock?" Answer "Dad!" Ok, OK I'll see you later little dude. Sunday morning before church I peek in and lights are running and water is crystal clear and on his table I see a box of Aqua ----- enzyme and live bacteria. I ask "Did you use this?" Response"Dad?"
Sunday he ask me to run a couple of test for him and I do, Results
Salinity1.022
Ph 7.9
Amonia trace
Nitrites 0
Nitrates trace
Kh 270
Ca 420
Phos 0
Iron 0
Pretty good little man. Now he wants to go back to the LFS for 20 Gallons pre mix premium salt water, by the way I have my own RO system, so i ask why not mix our own. He says he is not experienced enough and I am not allowed to do anything for him cause it is HIS tank. OK lets go. Got your VISA I remind him, back to the house he goes and then we are off for water.
Monday morning I leave for Houston and return on Thursday night. Immediatley he says "Come see my tank." I go and I find crabs and snails. I'm like "Little man when did that happen?" "Today he says". "On day 5" I say, "Your pushing it." He explains, Mom took him to the LFS and had them test the water and there was no traces of Amonia anymore and only a trace of nitrates and he bought 10 snails and 10 crabs, and they'll be fine you'll see.
And they were for ten days and then....
On day 15 he ask for a four inch peice of green zoo to test the waters. Don't you want maybe a little Damsel. Nope. OK then I guess I'm fraggin a fricking peice of green zoo for him to kill. But first we test the water and all is good and the CUCs are all good and cleaning away on that live rock. Day twenty and all is good then all heck breaks loose. Not the tank, him!
I come home and has has proceeded to place three new corals in the tank. A 3" green striped long tennecle plate coral from his sister cause it took up too much space in her tank, a 4" closed brain from mom, which he did chores for (He says), and a GSP from the LFS (Green Star Polyp from the local fish store). Im a little PO'd but Im tired so I blow it off. Another 10 days go by and lo and behold no crash. So I ask whats up little man how you doing it? He says he makes 5 gallon water changes every 5 days and added a new shot of his Aqua ---- in afterwards. Hummmm? I got no comment. On day 25 he announces he wants some SPS frags from the day room tank. OK it's raining and I'm kinda in to it now. Here's what we did and all at once, cause you kbow kids got no patience. Well it really took all weekend to frag cause I do got patience.
4 Acans
2 Duncans
1 Frogspawn head
1 Blastomussa
1 Acupora
1 Capri
3 Mushrooms small assorted
Five days later he adds from the LFS three Gobys, and now I'm awaiting for the crash...Do dodo dodo do do.. sing a few bars of jeopardy to pass a few days here. He has me checking his labs and he keeps changing water every five days and then whammo! After 5 weeks it happens, he has a plankton outbreak. What I say, he manages to keep this tank a float through what must have been a cycle, but where? When? Did I miss something? This kid of mine pushed right thru without missing a beat and kept his livestock alive thru what I suspect was several mini cycles.
Upon reflection I think the keys to his success was several, he started with unscrubbed but well cured live rock, and some pretty grungy water from the rock tank. That coupled with his CUCs on day 5 started a cycle, but he did a 5 gal water change which minimized the cycle. And he continued to do them every five days, which kept minimizing the cycles. Now these cycles were gonna be pretty small anyway, because you remember how he rushed me up. "Come on Dad hurry up and lets get the rock, sand, and water into the tank". This caused probably little if any die off, therefore little if any cycling. But when he added the four Goby, I though for sure he was doomed but then there's the 40 lb of live rock and 30 lb of live sand in 23 gallons of water. Its a heavy enough of a filter to hold that small amount of water steady. And the 5 gallon water changes every five days for five weeks helped a bit too. And there was the Aqua ---- suppliment, but I do'nt know. Also around day 30 he added some reef builder to stabalize his Ph, and started feeding the corals on day 30, not sure what it is but it is from the LFS and a complete trace element suppliment. Oh and he added Iodine at day 30.
Now were at week eight I think he did pretty good for a ten year old, with just a litttle help from Dad and maybe more help from his mother that either of them will ever admit. After all it was her who kept taking him to the LFS for the water. Im sure she handed him a few tips. But I did get him the JBJ 28 gal nano with 105 quad lights, wave maker and two 398 gal pumps. OK, I'll come clean, I also bought with my own VISA a 1/10th HP chiller and installed it for him to compensate for the heat generated from the quad bulbs and the window. After all we live in Austin TX and today its over 98 degrees. But the rest is all him. What do you think, Maybe you can go fast and not crash. You decide! And we'll see in a couple of more months
Well he is a smart kid right? You might not think so when you hear his plan unfold. Tank comes in on a Thursdday. Without any help except to unpack it he sets it up in his room on an old tank stand from the garage on the back wall near a window. Not really a good idea in Austin TX where it gets 105 in the summer. This was six weeks ago by the way. I don't say jack squat. Friday night he comes to me and says ,"Dad, you gonna be home tommorrow." "Yes I answer." Well he wants to raid my tank. I answer how bout we go to the LFS and get you what you need. He frowns and says only if they got what i need. Saturday morning we go to the LFS.
He goes right in and says and I quote " I want some fully cured rock that is not scrubbed, you know the kind with all the junk on it. and I want 40 lbs of it, and I want 25 gallons of water out the same tank, and I want 30 lbs of live sand." Hey that came out my kids mouth! Has he been really listening all this time? Long story short I did help him persuede the owner into giving him the water from the tank. Nows he is paying for this on his birthday VISA. Total cost around $275.00 Well we haul it back and I help him haul the rock sand and water to his room and all the while he is saying "Hurry up Dad, hurry up. We ain't got much time."
He's standing on a chair and I'm handing him rock. He's stacking and restacking for about ten minutes. "OK " he says, good enough pour the sand in. "All of it" I say. "One bag Dad, OK" he says. Ends up using 1 1/2 bags and has about 2.5 inches of sand. A little to much I think but I keep my mouth shut. Next goes the water which I had to pour slowly while he held a plate on top the rock. Man those 5 gal containers are heavy. Now the tank is full and he sets up the standard filtration on this JBJ 28 gal, which is mech on top, carbon in the middle and ceramic on the bottom. So I ask "Do you need the rings with the rock?" Answer "Dad!" Ok, OK I'll see you later little dude. Sunday morning before church I peek in and lights are running and water is crystal clear and on his table I see a box of Aqua ----- enzyme and live bacteria. I ask "Did you use this?" Response"Dad?"
Sunday he ask me to run a couple of test for him and I do, Results
Salinity1.022
Ph 7.9
Amonia trace
Nitrites 0
Nitrates trace
Kh 270
Ca 420
Phos 0
Iron 0
Pretty good little man. Now he wants to go back to the LFS for 20 Gallons pre mix premium salt water, by the way I have my own RO system, so i ask why not mix our own. He says he is not experienced enough and I am not allowed to do anything for him cause it is HIS tank. OK lets go. Got your VISA I remind him, back to the house he goes and then we are off for water.
Monday morning I leave for Houston and return on Thursday night. Immediatley he says "Come see my tank." I go and I find crabs and snails. I'm like "Little man when did that happen?" "Today he says". "On day 5" I say, "Your pushing it." He explains, Mom took him to the LFS and had them test the water and there was no traces of Amonia anymore and only a trace of nitrates and he bought 10 snails and 10 crabs, and they'll be fine you'll see.
And they were for ten days and then....
On day 15 he ask for a four inch peice of green zoo to test the waters. Don't you want maybe a little Damsel. Nope. OK then I guess I'm fraggin a fricking peice of green zoo for him to kill. But first we test the water and all is good and the CUCs are all good and cleaning away on that live rock. Day twenty and all is good then all heck breaks loose. Not the tank, him!
I come home and has has proceeded to place three new corals in the tank. A 3" green striped long tennecle plate coral from his sister cause it took up too much space in her tank, a 4" closed brain from mom, which he did chores for (He says), and a GSP from the LFS (Green Star Polyp from the local fish store). Im a little PO'd but Im tired so I blow it off. Another 10 days go by and lo and behold no crash. So I ask whats up little man how you doing it? He says he makes 5 gallon water changes every 5 days and added a new shot of his Aqua ---- in afterwards. Hummmm? I got no comment. On day 25 he announces he wants some SPS frags from the day room tank. OK it's raining and I'm kinda in to it now. Here's what we did and all at once, cause you kbow kids got no patience. Well it really took all weekend to frag cause I do got patience.
4 Acans
2 Duncans
1 Frogspawn head
1 Blastomussa
1 Acupora
1 Capri
3 Mushrooms small assorted
Five days later he adds from the LFS three Gobys, and now I'm awaiting for the crash...Do dodo dodo do do.. sing a few bars of jeopardy to pass a few days here. He has me checking his labs and he keeps changing water every five days and then whammo! After 5 weeks it happens, he has a plankton outbreak. What I say, he manages to keep this tank a float through what must have been a cycle, but where? When? Did I miss something? This kid of mine pushed right thru without missing a beat and kept his livestock alive thru what I suspect was several mini cycles.
Upon reflection I think the keys to his success was several, he started with unscrubbed but well cured live rock, and some pretty grungy water from the rock tank. That coupled with his CUCs on day 5 started a cycle, but he did a 5 gal water change which minimized the cycle. And he continued to do them every five days, which kept minimizing the cycles. Now these cycles were gonna be pretty small anyway, because you remember how he rushed me up. "Come on Dad hurry up and lets get the rock, sand, and water into the tank". This caused probably little if any die off, therefore little if any cycling. But when he added the four Goby, I though for sure he was doomed but then there's the 40 lb of live rock and 30 lb of live sand in 23 gallons of water. Its a heavy enough of a filter to hold that small amount of water steady. And the 5 gallon water changes every five days for five weeks helped a bit too. And there was the Aqua ---- suppliment, but I do'nt know. Also around day 30 he added some reef builder to stabalize his Ph, and started feeding the corals on day 30, not sure what it is but it is from the LFS and a complete trace element suppliment. Oh and he added Iodine at day 30.
Now were at week eight I think he did pretty good for a ten year old, with just a litttle help from Dad and maybe more help from his mother that either of them will ever admit. After all it was her who kept taking him to the LFS for the water. Im sure she handed him a few tips. But I did get him the JBJ 28 gal nano with 105 quad lights, wave maker and two 398 gal pumps. OK, I'll come clean, I also bought with my own VISA a 1/10th HP chiller and installed it for him to compensate for the heat generated from the quad bulbs and the window. After all we live in Austin TX and today its over 98 degrees. But the rest is all him. What do you think, Maybe you can go fast and not crash. You decide! And we'll see in a couple of more months
