My tank so far

[Shark888]

Hello,

I would like to share with you guys a pic of my 20G tank so far after 3 days since start.

Can someone tell me if everything looks okay ?

After adding liverock to the tank I got a lot of ammonia and not much of nitrites and nitrates, I added also nitrifying bacteria on the first day and third day.

Today the tank got very little ammonia and a lot of nitrites and nitrates.

The PH is low with 7.8 or maybe less, the color is a little bit difficult to read (using Chinese brand tester).

The tank is running a skimmer with normal filter and I used tap water that slept a week in a bucket to get ride of chlorine, that's all.

 

[Rover88]

So long as the PH is not swinging around, low is fine.

Keep watching until all the ammonia/nitrite is gone, and then do a large water change and your cycle is likely over.

What are you using for a powerhead/heater ?

Looks good so far, thats a huge hunk of rock though! Did you leave clearance between the glass and the rock to clean?

 

[Shark888]

So long as the PH is not swinging around, low is fine.

Keep watching until all the ammonia/nitrite is gone, and then do a large water change and your cycle is likely over.

What are you using for a powerhead/heater ?

Looks good so far, thats a huge hunk of rock though! Did you leave clearance between the glass and the rock to clean?

Hello,
thank for your answer, Im using a Chinese brand heater 300W stainless steel 304, I saw somewhere that its not good to keep it with saltwater right ?

The powerhead wavemaker is a simple one, it show Max 3000L/H 6W but I have some feeling that its much more less powerful...

Yes I did left space all around the liverock, nothing is touching the side glass.

But what is worrying me is all these white cream stuff growing all over the rocks, is that normal ?

 

[mcgyvr]

Looks good.. from the sound of it you may/seem to be having a very short cycle..
that rock was in water/wet when you got it right?
If so it likely already had a decent bacterial population on it already and is doing quick work of any ammonia..

enjoy the tank..

I'm not sure what heater you are using but stainless steel is really not suitable in a reef tank for long. Most heaters for this hobby are glass or some sort of plastic/ceramic that is saltwater safe...

and yes.. just throw your PH tester away.. The PH will be just fine whatever it is and you should just let it be what it will be..
Don't test for it again..

 

[Shark888]

Looks good.. from the sound of it you may/seem to be having a very short cycle..
that rock was in water/wet when you got it right?
If so it likely already had a decent bacterial population on it already and is doing quick work of any ammonia..

enjoy the tank..

I'm not sure what heater you are using but stainless steel is really not suitable in a reef tank for long. Most heaters for this hobby are glass or some sort of plastic/ceramic that is saltwater safe...

and yes.. just throw your PH tester away.. The PH will be just fine whatever it is and you should just let it be what it will be..
Don't test for it again..

Hello, the liverock were shipped from an online seller in a isothermal polystyrene box, I got them after two days of shipping and it was a little wet wrapped in some newspaper.

So today there are some news with my tank, at the end of the day (here in China) the tank was getting a very huge numbers of air bubbles everywhere, it seems they are coming from the brown stuff on the liverock ?? I have uploaded some pictures.

 

[Shark888]

False alert the huge amount of bubbles were coming from the pump chamber that had a low level of water. The water dropping from the skimmer chamber were making bubbles and the pump was so sending the bubbles... :headwally:

 

[jlmawp]

Diatoms (the brown stuff) also produce bubbles. Totally normal and nothing to worry about. It’ll go away soon enough. You’re on the path to awesome, but unfortunately that includes things looking not-so-awesome for a bit.

 

[mako61]

False alert the huge amount of bubbles were coming from the pump chamber that had a low level of water. The water dropping from the skimmer chamber were making bubbles and the pump was so sending the bubbles... :headwally:

If you dont have one you should consider an ATO. They are pretty nice.