Geeks DYI 29G tank build

Give it till January to settle in then how about a fish? Best recipe is add slowly. You've got a lot of new rock and sand that needs to cycle before adding too much too fast, but off to a good start! You may wan't to target feed your hermits as there is not much to forage yet.....
 
Roger . already feeding hungry hermies :) . thanks hopefully cycle won't be too bad if any since rock came from my cycled tank. So far ammonia is 0 tested with strips and API. Don't see nitrites on my test strips but I may want to get better test for that don't have one. I like a fish I forget the LFS I going to go to that looks like they have healthier fish offers rental damsels . Wonder if that be good idea or not.
 
geekengineer said:
Roger . already feeding hungry hermies :) . thanks hopefully cycle won't be too bad if any since rock came from my cycled tank. So far ammonia is 0 tested with strips and API. Don't see nitrites on my test strips but I may want to get better test for that don't have one. I like a fish I forget the LFS I going to go to that looks like they have healthier fish offers rental damsels . Wonder if that be good idea or not.
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No need for a cycling fish, just keep feeding the hermits, with your rock from old tank bacteria will colonize in just a couple weeks and you "could" add a fish sooner if you really wanted. I just like to go slow and let the pods and other micro fauna/algea get a good start before adding a fish since they tend to be pretty stressed and may take a few days or more to start eating the food you give them, just makes the transition easier on the new fish if they have stuff to graze on at their leisure while adjusting to their new home. I'd wait at least until the pod population clears up the initial diatom bloom you'll start seeing shortly.
 
lol I don't remember for sure. I not sure if the lady there said they give you store credit if you bring it back. I have to ask them when I go back there. I guess in general I don't know if that's a good idea or not. lol
 
I would recommend against a temporary damsel too. It's really not necessary with the Rock and such from your old setup. You should be turn key. I would only add one if you plan on having them as permanent residents. Looking good BTW
 
Yeah that sounds good to me guys thanks. :) I just wait a while and see how it goes here. Hopefully things in there stay OK with what I got.

BTW I'm not dosing anything yet do you think I should be? I suppose I should be putting something in my ATO water.. :worried: I did add some purple up cause my calcium was on the lower end anyways and wanted to help out the coraline. I had 8dKh with API test yesterday and I just measured it went down to 7dKH. So I put some reef buffer in just the small (3g/40g) amount for now. I had about 8.2 PH before that. So far I don't see any obvious amounts of ammonia or nitrites on my test strips.
 
All you really need to be doing right now is normal tank stuff, start your water change regimen and maintain CA, Alk, pH, etc. Get the ATO up and going, and then sit back and enjoy the holiday season! Things should be looking good by January with a good start on coraline growth and the dry rock starting to color up nicely with a variety of algea from the old tank rocks.
 
This is probably a bad time to mention this if I didn't before.. :( I was going to be gone a couple weeks for Christmas. I was going to have someone come in and feed my cat so she can do some basic stuff with the tank. So I need it to be as automatic as possible so maybe I can put some small amount of kalk in my ATO and hope I keep reasonably maintained.

I change my water before I leave of course and I was hoping I don't have a huge load on the tank. I can leave some stuff for the lady taking care of my tank if there is anything that needs to be added etc. Oh well we see if it be ok its not a huge loss if things go south I guess.. :( I got a good chance I can get at least one doser working before I leave so I could do something for CA if need be maybe I just don't have a good idea of how much to dose yet.

Anyways on a side note diatom bloom starting lol.. I going to get my media reactor done this weekend that shouldn't take too long.
 
It'll be fine, some Kalk in the ATO will suffice, not much load on the tank for uptake of minerals. Just have her give the hermits a few pellets (stress the importants of just a few, tell her exactly how many and how often so it doesn't get over fed) better under fed than over at this stage.
 
Wow, your tank is moving right along! And nice work on being able to check the tank via your controller. The emergency stop for the overflow looked good and did exactly as designed.

Right now you want to let the tank go on its own and tweak your ATO so its maintaining at your current evaporation rate. Skip the kalk for now as water changes will maintain your Ca levels. (Have you tested your salt for the levels of Ca?) I would just do normal RO/DI water for now - start the kalk when you get back. Also make sure your temps are staying stable.

Don't do any 'rental' fish as you may also get a 'rental' disease - and that your LFS won't give you credit for! Any fish you put in your tank should be permanent residents when that time comes. So don't be in a big hurry to put fish in your tank.

May want to get that cam working so you can visually check your tank while your away - more piece of mind than anything else.

You might want to cut up a few thin slices of raw shrimp for your hermits, and feed just before you leave and then no more until you get back. The shrimp should be enough for them. You don't need a bacterial bloom while your gone if the tank should get overfed.

Now get ready for some nice brown color for your tank as the diatom cycle starts! :D
 
wholy moly. I put in my media reactor I got from BRS and the Mir-Locs leak like there is no tomorrow.. So what the heck is going on I can't figure out if those things are just the worst thing since canned spam or what.. I cut back the pipes and tried again and it didn't help much it seems to get better once they run a while but still I can't trust these things and soon as I bump them they start leaking again. :angryfire:
 
I made a separate thread for the problem by the way I thought maybe that be better.. lol. anyways.

Aframomum.. I haven't checked calcium recently but it was a bit on the low side (18 drops on API test I think 20-21 is max you want. I forget what that means for ppm) last time I checked and I put some purple up in then.

You don't think it wouldn't hurt to put a bit of kalk in ATO.. It looked like I was losing about .25 meg/L a day here but that was just a couple days worth of measurement. I just know that is how much I added and how much I must have aprox. lost in a day based on my dKH reading.

As far as a camera I should at least try to put up a camera I just got to buy one.. got a good one in mind for cheap? hehe..

And of course more diatoms..
 
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