my new 215

[shaggy14]

finished cycling the rock and adding the water yesterday. added one small frag of birdsnest today as my "test" subject. the parameters are very close to the ones in my 90g. just waiting on my sump so i can move the halides and equipment over, followed by the corals and fish. here you go:
right side

middle

left

FTS

first test coral

 

[shaggy14]

i still need a little more rock to help cover the rock stand. ill get that out of my display tank when i get ready to finish moving everything over. the lighting on it is just an 8 bulb tek light that will be used for my frag tank when i move over the halides from my 90g.
equipment will be:
lights- 3x250 phoenix halides in lumenmax elite pendants with lumatek ballasts
flow- 3x modded 6025, 1x 6085, 2x mp40w, couple modded koralias, mag 12 return
filtration- alpha cone 250 skimmer, mr1 phosban reactor, midwest aquatics sulfur denitrator
dosing- mrc dual chamber cal reactor, tunze osmolator with mag added to the top off water

 

[shaggy14]

Well the test subject lived and looks to be doing great. Full pe and color. Added a few acans and favias lastnight and if all goes well will add a few more frags today

 

[shaggy14]

Well the test subject lived and looks to be doing great. Full pe and color. Added a few acans and favias lastnight and if all goes well will add a few more frags today

 

[LifeAquatic]

Looks good bro.

 

[shaggy14]

added a few more frags from my frag rack yesterday. also added one of my picasso clowns so there would be a little bit of a bio-load. sump will be finished within the next week so then everything else will get moved over. some more pics:
the next few are about an hour after moving them. already looking happy

a few others added before work yesterday

 

[shaggy14]

the lone fish in this tank.

 

[29reef]

You might want to slow down a bit more. The rock doesn't look like it's cured completely and the tank for sure hasn't even gotten close. I don't even see any signs of life other than what you've added. IMO your asking for some issues and adding corals and livesock will just make your life harder. I'd suggest you just run the tank for a few months and then break down your other tank. I know it's hard to do but IMO your just going to cause yourself frustration.

If it were me I'd remove about 30% of the rock and just let the tank run for 4-5 months. There's no harm sense you already have another established tank. Are the tiny frags just testers or did you actually buy them; seem tiny to me.

 

[shaggy14]

The totoka rock came out of my friends fish only tank that has been running since last December and the other rock I bought fully cured but it had about 13hours worth of die off during the air shipping. I had all the rock in a rubber maid tub so it could fully cycle. Ammonia was off the charts at first. Then I did a full water change to get it down to 3ppm. Letit run until ammonia hit 0. Then I let the nitrite go from 1ppm until it hit zero. When I pulled the rock from the tub to put in the tank ammonia and nitrite were zero and I had 5ppm of nitrate.

 

[CorkPullerPHL]

Shaggy, You look like you're on the right track.

Good luck!

 

[29reef]

The totoka rock came out of my friends fish only tank that has been running since last December and the other rock I bought fully cured but it had about 13hours worth of die off during the air shipping. I had all the rock in a rubber maid tub so it could fully cycle. Ammonia was off the charts at first. Then I did a full water change to get it down to 3ppm. Letit run until ammonia hit 0. Then I let the nitrite go from 1ppm until it hit zero. When I pulled the rock from the tub to put in the tank ammonia and nitrite were zero and I had 5ppm of nitrate.

You still don't have a properly operating ecosystem. You might be able to get away with a little less time if you were using zeovit or neozeo approach, I am just advocating that you hold off for a while sense it won't hurt anything but your electric and aquarium maintence bills. :spin1:

 

[shaggy14]

All I know is I don't have 4-5 months to wait. Lol.
The main problem is the equipment I need to use on the big tank is still running the little tank. So until I move it over the big tank has no skimmer, denitrator, and very little flow. I'll probably move over some of my live rock from my display to help seed some life in there. I have about 50lbs more of the totoka that has been in my other tank for 3-4 months now and it should have lots of little pods and stuff on it.

 

[shaggy14]

I did catch the Picasso and put him/her back in my 90g. I wasgoing to order a pair of rhomboids to put in but guess I'll hold off. I can't put them in my 90g cause it doesn't have a canopy. I also added a few pieces of lr from my current tank and will add some more this weekend when I have some time to rearrange a little in my old tank. What all do I need to look for to know it is ready to be going full blast?

 

[29reef]

Coraline algae, after you have a algae bloom and pod bloom, also when pH becomes stable if it isn't already.

 

[shaggy14]

tested my parameters yesterday and they are:
alk- 11.5
ph- 8.0
calcium- 440
magnesium- 1290( havent dosed anything yet. RC seems to be low in mag for me)
nitrate- 0-5ppm
nitrite- 0(undetectable)
ammonia- 0(undetectable)
phosphate- undetectable
salinity- 1.026

saw my first pods all over the glass tonight, too. cant wait till sunday so i can pick up my sump and frag tank so i can plumb it all in. should be ready to move the skimmer, denitrator, return pump, calcium reactor, and phosban reactor over monday or tuesday follwed by the corals and livestock the next couple days.

 

[shaggy14]

i also saw one piece of evil green hair algae that must have come in on one of the pieces of LR i ordered. will be pulling that piece of rock out and letting it dry out for a week or so. also going to move over my foxface or order a rainsford goby to make sure no algae grows. that one little spot scares me

 

[Nemo Niblets]

We need updates!