What am I doing wrong besides spending TON O MONEY

[Shawn O]

The only thing I can suggest is to run the center Radeon front-to-back and the two end Radeons length-wise. Also, as someone else mentioned, open up your rockwork a little to allow flow through it. You can put whatever you take out into your sump. That puffer may also nip the fins of the other fish. My concern with this is that the Jawfish are listed as "peaceful" and may be too intimidated by the puffer to come out to eat as often as they would normally. Something to keep an eye on. Good luck and please post some more pics of your tank when you get it stabilized.

 

[Sk8r]

y'know, I'm just a little suspicious of that Aquaripure filter. That thing is supposed to remove nitrate/nitrite, whichever. That MIGHT be a problem. In a regular reef, there are NO filters, and the rock and sand bacteria take care of the nitrate---they eat it, live on it, thrive on it, and the measurable amount is very low once they've done their job. Are you actually starving the bacteria down to levels where the process can't work as it should---including the fact that your softies are themselves ALL living filters that sop up the nutrient in water?
I'm also concerned that you're showing ANYTHING but 0 TDS in your ro/di. I use a 4-stage, and get 0 TDS. Dunno. Maybe you've got a more sensitive tester and there's a dot in there somewhere, but I wonder what the dissolved solid is that is going into your tank with every topoff and not leaving...

 

[Windyman55]

"The other thing i would do is have a bigger sump, i like a sump to be big enough for a refugium, rubble, chaeto ( to help with Ph overnight) and a deep sand bed crawling with clean up crew (snails and crabs). The CUC in the sump is really the work horse they do nothing but work all day and all night eating detritis and managing the crap... Plus in the sump i son't have to look at them, they are totally happy in there working away."

All very good ideas. I like the idea of having a much larger sump. I'm having a hard time maneuvering all the pumps and hoses around in the sump because of it's size. And, having a second clean up crew in there sounds like sound advice and save unsightly snails all over everything.
Thanks

 

[Windyman55]

I'm probobly going to sound like an idiot.

I'm probobly going to sound like an idiot.

y'know, I'm just a little suspicious of that Aquaripure filter. That thing is supposed to remove nitrate/nitrite, whichever. That MIGHT be a problem. In a regular reef, there are NO filters, and the rock and sand bacteria take care of the nitrate---they eat it, live on it, thrive on it, and the measurable amount is very low once they've done their job. Are you actually starving the bacteria down to levels where the process can't work as it should---including the fact that your softies are themselves ALL living filters that sop up the nutrient in water?
I'm also concerned that you're showing ANYTHING but 0 TDS in your ro/di. I use a 4-stage, and get 0 TDS. Dunno. Maybe you've got a more sensitive tester and there's a dot in there somewhere, but I wonder what the dissolved solid is that is going into your tank with every topoff and not leaving...

Well I was under the impression that I had to have something in the system to help create the needed bacteria i.e. bio wheel, bio balls or something. The Aquarapure seemed to be the ideal solution. Reduce nitrates, AND create or feed bacteria. Ok, so let the bashing begin. :hammer: LOL
Thanks
Greg

 

[JammyBirch]

First of all your tank is going to be awesome. .

To sk8r's point you need to establish a bio filter which luckily does it all by itself. Take out any filtration you have that is specific to the nitrogen cycle, ammonia. Nitrite and nitrate. If you measure you water parameters and get nitrate then you have all of the bacteria needed. You can't get it without the right stuff. If you don't have any of it then you didn't have a complete cycle.

At this point is measure every day and just watch it. . With all filtration removed it will happen. My concern is that you already have great fish and a ton invested. Not sure how much loss you could have. Maybe some off guys have a suggestion on how to control the cycle to minimize the loss of live stock. .. I'm to new and have no ideas for this.

For me I think I'd put the fish in a QT and let DT do it's thing.

 

[JammyBirch]

I had a non traditional cycle experience. .. used the dead shrimp method for generating an ammonia source from decay. .. the problem was I never saw nitrite. . Ever. .

So I dosed the bacteria watched it cycle again. ..bought the ammonia chloride and increased the ammonia level manually and watched it turn into nitrate in a matter of days. BOOM... CYCLED

The ammonia chloride was just top make sure I had a cycled tank.