My 55 gallon reef build

[starcutter]

I had a DSB with finely grained white aragonite sand in my first tank...it looked great and I do think it helped with giving my bristleworms a place to hide as well as bacteria some more substrate to live on. I think my next tank will be with just fine grained crushed coral or shell. It's heavier and tends to not get disturbed as much. As for your ammonia...I would just let it be and measure until it's gone then introduce pods however you choose.

 

[Mg4life0331]

I used a sand we get at work. It's screened to 16/48 size. So it will match scoop able cat litter. It's not very fine but it ain't course either.

 

[starcutter]

I used a sand we get at work. It's screened to 16/48 size. So it will match scoop able cat litter. It's not very fine but it ain't course either.

That sounds just about the right size. Glad to hear you're going to give it more time to introduce the mandarin...the longer the better. I think that was one of my early mistakes...introduced fish after the first month...wish I had waited another month or more.

 

[E.Y.]

Looks like a great start! Good luck! Will be following!

 

[Mg4life0331]

That sounds just about the right size. Glad to hear you're going to give it more time to introduce the mandarin...the longer the better. I think that was one of my early mistakes...introduced fish after the first month...wish I had waited another month or more.

Seems to be okay so far. But I really need to aquascape and point my power heads better. Going to play with it some tomorrow

 

[Mg4life0331]

Looks like a great start! Good luck! Will be following!

Thanks!

 

[Bd670]

I like the aquascape you have. When I set my tank up I must have tried about 50 combinations and ended up with the very first way I tried

 

[Mg4life0331]

I like the aquascape you have. When I set my tank up I must have tried about 50 combinations and ended up with the very first way I tried

Thanks, I tried something else last night before iI went to bed. I woke up and I had a huge mound of sand in the middle. I'm going to rework it after I look at some stuff.

 

[robotman]

Thanks, I tried something else last night before iI went to bed. I woke up and I had a huge mound of sand in the middle. I'm going to rework it after I look at some stuff.

my first tank is 55 gal, I have a dragon net, not as difficult as people think they are to keep, but I have 90+ lbs of live rock easily. and a 10 gal fuge which is really 5 gal. but my fuge has 1" of sand and my display has about 1 1/2". I have had my dragon net easily for 2+ months now and hes fat and healthy, makes 4-5 hits every min. i bought tigger pods from local lfs several times to dose and seed the tank. then i started buying pods from reefs2go.com buy 1000 get 1000 free. you can start out semi fast if it was all live rock you bought and live sand. if your parameters are right you could start adding fish, but i would deff stay away from the dragon net until your tank is a little more mature.

 

[Mg4life0331]

my first tank is 55 gal, I have a dragon net, not as difficult as people think they are to keep, but I have 90+ lbs of live rock easily. and a 10 gal fuge which is really 5 gal. but my fuge has 1" of sand and my display has about 1 1/2". I have had my dragon net easily for 2+ months now and hes fat and healthy, makes 4-5 hits every min. i bought tigger pods from local lfs several times to dose and seed the tank. then i started buying pods from reefs2go.com buy 1000 get 1000 free. you can start out semi fast if it was all live rock you bought and live sand. if your parameters are right you could start adding fish, but i would deff stay away from the dragon net until your tank is a little more mature.

Thanks for commenting. Perhaps ill go get more live rock. Hell I aint even show nitrites yet. I aint gotta worry about a spike or anything. I guess the pods live in the rocks?

 

[Mg4life0331]

Moved rocks around, water still a bit cloudy.

 

[Mg4life0331]

This is odd? SG was at 1.024 this morning. Did'nt do a pH.

 

[robotman]

This is odd? SG was at 1.024 this morning. Did'nt do a pH.

are you doing water changes with salt water?, also more live rock gives you more bacteria filtration, when you start adding fish you could experience spikes in nutrients, looks like your ammonia has traces. pods are everywhere in your tank but they need places to hide and reproduce, you could created a rock rubble structure in your fuge, but if you have chaeto then they should grow fine there.

 

[Mg4life0331]

are you doing water changes with salt water?, also more live rock gives you more bacteria filtration, when you start adding fish you could experience spikes in nutrients, looks like your ammonia has traces. pods are everywhere in your tank but they need places to hide and reproduce, you could created a rock rubble structure in your fuge, but if you have chaeto then they should grow fine there.

I haven't done a water change. It's only been a week. I have some rock and sand in my fuge and planned on chaeto as well.

Im confused in my tests cause I've never shown nitrites and I'm a week old.

 

[Mg4life0331]

Anyone know why I Ammonia goes down even though I add and nitrites nor nitrates wont go up?

 

[Mg4life0331]

bump. where's my ammonia going? should I stop dosing?

 

[Mg4life0331]

I've been dosing ammonia since the start of the cycle every couple of days. I can see them appear in the Nitrates but not a single time have I seen a Nitrite.

What the fresh hell is going on?

 

[Mg4life0331]

Guess I'll wait and see on tests. Got a film going on now. Like clear snot in some places.

 

[Mg4life0331]

So I ran a skimmer for about 5 days. Last night I got this bright idea to get it to skim just a bit wetter. The precise measurement of the air cut off was around a mosquitos genitalia stretched across a rain barrel. Anyhow wife texts me at work saying I got the floor wet. She unplugged it and I got a massive snot storm in the tank.

Glad this happened with nothing in it. Ima wait till this clears up before I test again.

 

[acabgd]

I've been dosing ammonia since the start of the cycle every couple of days. I can see them appear in the Nitrates but not a single time have I seen a Nitrite.

What the fresh hell is going on?

This would actually mean your natural LR filtration works efficiently, converting quickly ammonia to nitrite, then to nitrate which is the end product. Don't add anymore ammonia, you can ghostfeed the tank until you introduce some fish.