New to the hobby

[mannyo_09]

looking like you are off to a good start. With you bringing your ammonia so high, you'll want to be ready for a large water change after the cycle is complete to bring down what I'm assuming is going to be very high nitrate levels. Also, your PH is fine. Not sure how you plan to bring that up to 8, but fish will be fine where it is, and any additive that increases PH will only do so temporarily, but cause huge changes in Alkalinity. Basically never dose anything to change PH.

And go easy on the CUC when you do add one, you won't need much for that tank. My 65 gallon tank really only has an urchin, blood shrimp, a scarlet hermit and the odd snail as the CUC. I added a lot of snails at the start, they all ended up dead. Shrimps do very little to clean the tank also. Mostly they are just cool to have. The best CUC is you and your water changes.

Any reason you want to add more sand? From the pictures it looks like you have enough.

Thanks for the input on PH, to my knowledge from what I've read it should be between 8.1-8.4. But if it's only temporary and 7.8 will be fine then I'll just leave it be.

As far as clean up crew I plan to add 1 or 2 turbo snails, 2 - 4 Astrea snails, and 4 - 6 hermit crabs. But that also depends on how much algae build up I get, if it's less than what I expect then I'll add less and wait a week to see how efficient they are, and add more as I need them. I do want a Peppermint shrimp but once the tank is established and I have a few fish. I have a friend who has two and it's pretty cool to see them set up a cleaning station for your fish and have them mount on your fish to clean lol.

The sand bed looks fine in the front but that's because I moved some from the back to the front to add that inch or so, but towards the back there's very little sand. If I would spread it out evenly then the sand would not have a noticeable thickness to it. But then again if I add new sand would I have to start the cycle all over again?


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[sde1500]

Ideally PH could be a bit higher but you'll probably be fine. Honestly my tanks been up a year and I've yet to open the PH test kit I have. As for sand you're good to add more. It won't mess with the cycle really

 

[mannyo_09]

Ideally PH could be a bit higher but you'll probably be fine. Honestly my tanks been up a year and I've yet to open the PH test kit I have. As for sand you're good to add more. It won't mess with the cycle really

If I add live rock for the purpose of the beneficial bacteria. And more dry rock to complete my aqua scape will it affect the cycle?

Also, when could I run the skimmer or some chemi pure elite? There's a layer of something on the surface that I noticed today.

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[sde1500]

Add everything now while you're cycling. Then just keep testing.

Aim a power head at the surface to agitate it. It will break up the protein film at the top.

 

[mannyo_09]

Add everything now while you're cycling. Then just keep testing.

Aim a power head at the surface to agitate it. It will break up the protein film at the top.

Afternoon everyone!

Today I ran a test for ammonia and nitrites, current readings are:

Ammonia - 0ppm
Nitrites - 5ppm (that's what it looks like to me)

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[Coralfuture]

That looks like about .5 Ammonia to me but I would say with the nitrite where it is you have about 1 week before I would run another test. Ammonia should be 0 at that time...I tried to learn what 0 was on that API test by testing my RODI water. Either way looking good!

 

[mannyo_09]

That looks like about .5 Ammonia to me but I would say with the nitrite where it is you have about 1 week before I would run another test. Ammonia should be 0 at that time...I tried to learn what 0 was on that API test by testing my RODI water. Either way looking good!

Good to know, I can almost never tell with these tests lol. I'm headed to the lfs on Saturday, so I'll be picking up some RO water along with some more dry rock and at least 1 good sized live rock, some more sand and saltwater to get ready for a water change once nitrites and ammonia are at 0.


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[mannyo_09]

At 7:00 pm today I tested the water and these were the results:

Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 40

Went to the LFS today and got 10lbs more of live sand since I wanted a little bit more sand for the goby I have planned to add can nest itself, also purchased 10 gallons of saltwater to do a water change and 16lbs of dry rock. Will post pics of the new aqua scape once it's done


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[mannyo_09]

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[mannyo_09]

The nitrate test is lighter in person. And it looks a lot closer to 40ppm


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[Coralfuture]

Excellent cycle progression not too far off now!

 

[mannyo_09]

Well the cycle was complete yesterday afternoon before adding 16 more pounds of dry rock and 10 pounds of live sand. I also added a bag of chemi pure elite. After finishing with the aqua scape and doing a 5 gallon water change due to the higher level in nitrates. I dosed 5 drops of ammonia bringing it .5 ppm. And let the sand settle overnight and let the cycle do its work.

This morning the tank is crystal clear! Chemi pure elite works like a charm! I ran another test to see how the cycle was going with the added dry rock.

Ammonia - .5 (still the same)
Nitrite - 2.0

I'll run another test tomorrow morning giving it over 24 hours since I added the ammonia and see where the levels are.


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[mannyo_09]

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[Stolireef]

You're right where you should be at this point in the cycle. Nice job!!! We love seeing a newbie do this the right way.

As far as pH is concerned, I wouldn't even bother testing for it. Rather, make sure your kH (Carbonate) level is at or above 8. That represents your buffer in the tank against low pH. If that is where it needs to be, your pH will be fine. I can tell you that on my tank, although I have an Apex controller that continuously monitors pH, I can't remember the last time I looked at it.

 

[mannyo_09]

You're right where you should be at this point in the cycle. Nice job!!! We love seeing a newbie do this the right way.



As far as pH is concerned, I wouldn't even bother testing for it. Rather, make sure your kH (Carbonate) level is at or above 8. That represents your buffer in the tank against low pH. If that is where it needs to be, your pH will be fine. I can tell you that on my tank, although I have an Apex controller that continuously monitors pH, I can't remember the last time I looked at it.

Thanks! I gotta thank the community in this forum for all the great Information I read weeks before even getting the tank.

I'll make sure to buy a kH test kit pretty soon then [emoji51]


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[JoeyH08]

I always wonder how long it will take someone that starts off with one of these cubes to feel the itch to upgrade. Whoever decided to make these affordable cubes was a genius. Get someones foot in the door enough to enjoy the success of proper tank keeping but make them feel left out when they go to the fish store and see the beautiful fish they cant get. It took me about 3 months until I upgraded.

 

[Stolireef]

I always wonder how long it will take someone that starts off with one of these cubes to feel the itch to upgrade. Whoever decided to make these affordable cubes was a genius. Get someones foot in the door enough to enjoy the success of proper tank keeping but make them feel left out when they go to the fish store and see the beautiful fish they cant get. It took me about 3 months until I upgraded.

Funny you should say that. I agree about future upgrades but I also hate that they sell these tanks to newbies. Small tanks are much less stable than larger volumes and, IMO, require either an experienced reef keeper or someone really dedicated to learning the skills and monitoring the tank closely.

 

[JoeyH08]

Funny you should say that. I agree about future upgrades but I also hate that they sell these tanks to newbies. Small tanks are much less stable than larger volumes and, IMO, require either an experienced reef keeper or someone really dedicated to learning the skills and monitoring the tank closely.

I spent weeks reading stuff one these forums before I bought my cube. I never had a problem with it. I kept my inhabitants light, though. Two clowns, a firefish, a couple shrimp and a CUC. Some button polyps and some zoas, too.

 

[highlite2nice]

awesome looking good so far.

 

[mannyo_09]

Hey everyone, so this week has pretty much been a waiting game since I went through another cycle because of the new dry rock I added. Ammonia had come down but nitrites were maintained at about 2.0 for a few days.

On Thursday nitrite finally zeroed out and I noticed some diatoms building in certain spots of the sand (nothing on the rocks yet) so I went and got 4 Astrea snails and 8 blue legged hermit crabs. They're super active scavenging every part of the sand bed and a few of snails have made it to the rim of the tank. Definitely gotta do a diy screen for the tank.

Going to head to the LFS tomorrow since they have their annual anniversary sale and see what goodies they have on sale.

Hoping to walk out of the LFS with a goby, and emerald crab, and a few more hermit crabs and who knows, maybe a zoa or two.

Question:
Should I purchase an anemone before a clownfish since I would like for the clownfish to host it? (LFS store has some gorgeous Picasso clownfish)




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