Jumping back into the hobby...few questions

[anthonyjmorale]

Hey guys....

After being out for a couple years I'm getting back in with a fluval evo 13.5 tank. Picked it up on my local Facebook marketplace for a nice price with a cobalt heater and an intank media basket for the first chamber. Other then that its stock.I ordered the second chamber media basket and some purigen and chemi pure.

I'm living in an apartment so I have no plans of buying an rodi system or mixing my own salt. I plan on using caribsea pure-sea to fill the tank and for water changes, and buying ro water from the local pet store. I know this may not be cost effective but its my only option at the point.

My question is do i put the chemipure and purigen in while cycling the tank.
I plan on using live sand also and for the first time i may use instant ocean bio-spira or toms one and only.

Anyways, any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Maxxumless]

I'm in almost the exact situation, apartment and all, except I went with 5g Evo due to management not allowing pets (had to get extra insurance on tank for them to allow it). I wouldn't bother putting in chemical media for most of the cycle due to it becoming exhausted quickly. Plus, in such a small tank nitrogenous waste needs to be managed more closely since bacteria will host there and when it's removed may change the dynamics too quickly.

Test the natural sea water. I'll wager it will be high in ALK. Mine was and I stopped using it as my corals really didn't like the low calcium high ALK mixture. Instead, I go to my parents home and use a RODI unit I installed for them .

Many will tell you to just cycle over weeks or even over a month the 'traditional' way, but I'm a Bio-Spira/Stability person myself. I dumped three cap-fulls of Bio-Spira, feed the tank for a week. Never saw ammonia rise, had trace nitrites on day three, and on day five nitrates spiked really high... 50ish I think. By day 7 nitrates were at 10 and I did a 70% water change with Reef Crystals and then added corals, couple of snails, and live pods for diversity. Diatoms started appearing but nitrates remained at zero so on day 15 I added two designer clowns and dosed Stability for a couple of days. Ammonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates never moved after day 8 - even with fish.

My media is floss changed every week, those tiny ChemiBlue packets, Purigen, and SeaChem Matrix at the bottom of the inTank media basket. I credit that and Bio-Spira/Stability for keeping my nitrates near zero. I dose a few drops of bacteria ever water change too.

I ordered from a big box coral/fish company and almost every thing was dead TWICE. Corals were bleaching and the tiny goby's were DOA. Never again. I just got the designer clowns from my LFS as they came out much cheaper in the long run and look good.

Oh, and I now use a cheap Amazon LED and gravity ATO. I think the ATO is key in such a tiny tank but have no clue how you'd implement one - or would even need to. Plus watch out for low pH! With COVID I've been working from home and my pH runs low in such a small area as my bedroom where I work.

Sorry for the long winded response.

TL;DR Forgo the chemical media for a few days while bacteria do their thing, reconsider using RODI unit hooked up to your faucet with an adapter, and watch the pH.