jsdancer
New member
deff the one with shelves on the right
Ahhhh I see!
The Rebirth/Rebuild of my 180g sps thread
- Thread starter jsdancer
- Start date
Ahhhh I see!
jsdancer
New member
Thank you much stevedola! It will be awhile but I am ready to wait! Patience is a definitely a necessity in this hobby! And good things come to those who wait!
chrishayes
New member
Nice job on the mortar! I wish id have thought to do that. This is going into my memory bank for the next one for sure. Cant wait to see some water in there with the fishies swimming around. Just run a good amount of gfo and carbon for awhile to soak up the junk that those rocks and mortar are gonna put out.
jsdancer
New member
Yeah you are right chris on the gfo/carbon. As I fill the tank I am noticng that the water has a bit of cloudiness. I connnected two korallias pointing toward the back wall so that one, any excess debris is pushed toward the front where I can get at it, two, to provide water circulation, three, that circulation of water will disburse the benefical bacteria that is being added.
Do you think that the gfo/carbon will remove the benefical bacteria?
jsdancer
New member
Well by the time some of you guys read this it is already Thanksgiving. I certainly hope that everyone had a good day and got to spend it with their families and beloved reef tanks.
Here is my latest update:
I tried to plan in advance for as many things that I would need in order to do this rebuild. From the details of the star board to the bacteria in the bottle.
Time and effort were also on the list and so was Murphy's Law, lol! After waiting 48 hrs for the mortar to cure I started to add salt water.
One of the bridges was in the garage drying and curing so this pic pic does not show it but gives you a perspective of the depth of the aquascape.
It did take me a few days to fill the tank. You guys know mix salt wait, test, add either more RO water or more salt. I only have a 35 gallon garbage bin and it took awhile. I had no other storage container but have started to think about one. Any of you guys have one or can recommend a company that sells them. It would of made my life much easier.
I continued to work on the aquascape and really feel that I am happy with the following:
Voila tank is filled!
Left side
Right side
Middle
FTS with Actinics
Well looks like a few days more of just letting it run then I will start adding the green chromis' and a couple of other fish.
Till then Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!!!
Here is my latest update:
I tried to plan in advance for as many things that I would need in order to do this rebuild. From the details of the star board to the bacteria in the bottle.
Time and effort were also on the list and so was Murphy's Law, lol! After waiting 48 hrs for the mortar to cure I started to add salt water.
One of the bridges was in the garage drying and curing so this pic pic does not show it but gives you a perspective of the depth of the aquascape.
It did take me a few days to fill the tank. You guys know mix salt wait, test, add either more RO water or more salt. I only have a 35 gallon garbage bin and it took awhile. I had no other storage container but have started to think about one. Any of you guys have one or can recommend a company that sells them. It would of made my life much easier.
I continued to work on the aquascape and really feel that I am happy with the following:
Voila tank is filled!
Left side
Right side
Middle
FTS with Actinics
Well looks like a few days more of just letting it run then I will start adding the green chromis' and a couple of other fish.
Till then Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!!!
chrishayes
New member
Happy thanksgiving to you as well! I meant to ask how all the fish are dOing In their temp quarters?
The tank looks great also and
The tank looks great also and
chrishayes
New member
I'm pysced to see water flowing!
D' kingfisher
New member
Its looking good.
Dana42078
New member
Took the words out of my mouth but then again i dont know much so i wasnt going to say anything. Nice rockwork tho!
jsdancer
New member
jsdancer
New member
Thanks acronic!
jsdancer
New member
Thank you d'kingfisher!
jsdancer
New member
I agree guys. this pic was taken using the hose w the metal tip still attached. I cut that tip off with the subsequence water fillings. It was one of those duhhh moments!
jsdancer
New member
Update: Week one of cycling the tank
The 180g went officially "LIVE" last week!
Week Two
I tested water and the results were as follows:
0.00 Ammonia
0.00 Nitrites
0.10 Nitrates
Ph 8.2
I decided to add my 8 green chromis' and my three springer damselfish from the holding tank.
Of course the springer damsels went swimming immediately into the cover of the crevises and holes inside the rocks.
The green chromis' basically hovered tightly together.
I am amazed! Why? Well it has been such a long time since I cycled a tank that I actually got nervous and wanted to wait another week to add the damsels!
Something else that shows how time has changed since the last time I cycled a tank is that there are numerous more types of damsels coming into the hobby like the Springer damsel. What a beautiful fish!
Well now that the fish are being added slowly to the display tank it was time to get the monster Reef Octopus skimmer running.
Here is a quick video:
Man this thing was running at full blast. At the widest opened setting the skimmer was still overflowing! Wondering wether I should keep it at the widest setting till it subsides.........?
Well that is it for now. Till next week when I add a couple more fish from the holding 55g tank.
The 180g went officially "LIVE" last week!
Week Two
I tested water and the results were as follows:
0.00 Ammonia
0.00 Nitrites
0.10 Nitrates
Ph 8.2
I decided to add my 8 green chromis' and my three springer damselfish from the holding tank.
Of course the springer damsels went swimming immediately into the cover of the crevises and holes inside the rocks.
The green chromis' basically hovered tightly together.
I am amazed! Why? Well it has been such a long time since I cycled a tank that I actually got nervous and wanted to wait another week to add the damsels!
Something else that shows how time has changed since the last time I cycled a tank is that there are numerous more types of damsels coming into the hobby like the Springer damsel. What a beautiful fish!
Well now that the fish are being added slowly to the display tank it was time to get the monster Reef Octopus skimmer running.
Here is a quick video:
Man this thing was running at full blast. At the widest opened setting the skimmer was still overflowing! Wondering wether I should keep it at the widest setting till it subsides.........?
Well that is it for now. Till next week when I add a couple more fish from the holding 55g tank.
jsdancer
New member
Well week three update guys:
For starters the water has tested as follows:
Ph 8.0 a little less than where I would like to have it
Ammonia 0.0
Nitrite 0.15
Nitirate 0.10
Actinic lights come on at 6pm and off at 1am
Metal Halides come on from 10pm till 12 midnight.
I have started noticing that where the actinics light the reefscape, I started to get the infamous brown diatom algae. I feel that at this point things are coming along nicely. We are cycling as they say!
At the end of week two I added some of my seeded rock that has been in my holding tank. I have been also using Microbacter every other day since week one.
The green chromis and damsels are being fed every other day opposite the microbacter dosing. The fish seem to be happy full of color and eating well!
During week three I was testing daily to see if I could catch an ammonia spike but have not yet. Did see my Nitrites jump from 0.25 to 0.15 then 0.10 then back upto 0.15.
Something happening there.
At this point I know some heads are gonna turn but I am confident that I am ok. Since I will be adding some extra fish like, powder blue tang, blonde naso, foxface, etc. I have some fish that are more on the shy side. My swiss guard basslet and white possum wrasse and the pajama cardinals need to establish themselves so that they do not get bullied when the bigger guys come in.
So far 72 hrs and after a 1 and 1/2 hour acclimation the fish are all doing fine. The pajama cardinals are loving the caves, the swiss guard basslet comes out more than when I initially bought it 1 year ago!
The possum wrasse as always goes into complete hiding. Funny at around 8:30 or 9:00pm everyday he comes out over by the lower right side of the tank. Whats even weirder than that is he started doing it again in the tank even with a different aquascape!!!
Sorry about the pics. They were taken in a rush!
For starters the water has tested as follows:
Ph 8.0 a little less than where I would like to have it
Ammonia 0.0
Nitrite 0.15
Nitirate 0.10
Actinic lights come on at 6pm and off at 1am
Metal Halides come on from 10pm till 12 midnight.
I have started noticing that where the actinics light the reefscape, I started to get the infamous brown diatom algae. I feel that at this point things are coming along nicely. We are cycling as they say!
At the end of week two I added some of my seeded rock that has been in my holding tank. I have been also using Microbacter every other day since week one.
The green chromis and damsels are being fed every other day opposite the microbacter dosing. The fish seem to be happy full of color and eating well!
During week three I was testing daily to see if I could catch an ammonia spike but have not yet. Did see my Nitrites jump from 0.25 to 0.15 then 0.10 then back upto 0.15.
Something happening there.
At this point I know some heads are gonna turn but I am confident that I am ok. Since I will be adding some extra fish like, powder blue tang, blonde naso, foxface, etc. I have some fish that are more on the shy side. My swiss guard basslet and white possum wrasse and the pajama cardinals need to establish themselves so that they do not get bullied when the bigger guys come in.
So far 72 hrs and after a 1 and 1/2 hour acclimation the fish are all doing fine. The pajama cardinals are loving the caves, the swiss guard basslet comes out more than when I initially bought it 1 year ago!
The possum wrasse as always goes into complete hiding. Funny at around 8:30 or 9:00pm everyday he comes out over by the lower right side of the tank. Whats even weirder than that is he started doing it again in the tank even with a different aquascape!!!
Sorry about the pics. They were taken in a rush!
