Fishmonger70's 75 Gal Reef Journal

[Lorna]

I wouldn't worry too much about the nitrate reading during cycling. I would worry more later if it continued to climb after your water change. As Tre said, wait until both are reading zero for a few days, then do a large water change and you should be good to install a cleanup crew at that time.....then gradually add your fish so you don't overload the system....it will need to adjust to each addition to the bioload.

 

[Fishmonger70]

Sounds good. Maybe I'm just a little paranoid and even impatient

 

[Joe Fish]

It can be tough to wait for a cycle to complete, but just give it time. I normally do small water changes during the cycle to help keep parameters from getting too high. I read this somewhere can't remember where though.

 

[Fishmonger70]

Well, it's getting close now.
SG: 1.024
Temp: 78
pH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0.25
Nitrate: 40

My nitrites have been stable at it's current reading for 2 days. I think a few more days and it should be at zero and by next Friday I sould be able to get the clean-up crew in. Time to start thinking about what and how many of what I want to buy and how much I should put in at once. I don't want to overload the system by putting the entire clean-up crew at once. I will post pics after nitrites stabilize at zero and I perform a water change.

 

[TRe]

sounds about right! id start of with a mix of snails ie. 10 nass, 10 turbo, 10 cerith or what evr you could get locally really but just to give u an idea u want a mix since some snails clean glass, some clean sand, some clean rocks, ect... personally im not a fan of hermit crabs since they disrupt my corals but if its a fish only tank i say why not.. just be careful which crabs u add... remeber before u add anything be sure to do your homework first and come online and do a little research! i kno it can be tempting when u find a neat new critter at the lfs and evn tho they may say it safe u should still at least come here and check first to be safe (most lfs are just out to make a buck!) i try not to buy a fish the first time i see it at the lfs that way i can check n be sure its healthy and eating, no white spots ect. ( i always ask to see him eat before i buy!) i may go back to the lfs 2 or 3 times through out the week just to check on a certain fish but than again im lucky to have alot of lfs very close to me oh yea and before u buy any fish u wanna plan out every fish u wanna add that way u can start with the least aggressive and work your way up
HTH

 

[Fishmonger70]

Yeah, I figured I would get a mix of dif. snails and maybe some scarlet hermit crabs or something reef safe. Would you think its safe to add 30 snails all at once? I don't want to overload my tank right away. As far as fish are concerned, I am going to first transplant my two clowns and everything else from my 20 into the new tank. It's got the two clowns, a peppermint shrimp, some blue legged hermits, and a couple astrea snails. Also have my zoo I need to transplant too. After I get those all in, I'm going to get a Tang down the road, either a yellow or blue. Either one of those should be ok in my tank with the clowns. After that, I'm going to focus mainly on corals. Lots of zoos, maybe some shrooms and leathers, and maybe some hard corals down the road. I've got it planned out quite a bit.

 

[Lorna]

Sounds good....oh and 30 snails isn't too much at once. I would add them, then wait a few days to add the livestock from the 20. You have a good plan, and just remember you may want to leave the 20 up as a qt for new additions. Just my advice

 

[Fishmonger70]

Yeah, i've been thinking about keeping the 20 up for a qt. I don't really have any other room around to keep one. But I probably should pull some of the stuff out of it before I turn it into a qt. What do you think? Substrate, 20lbs of rock, skimmer, 2x65 deluxe aqualight. I was going to try to sell some of that stuff and put it back into my 75.

 

[TRe]

normally u go bare bottom and no rock in the quarentine incase u have to treat... instead u could put a few pieces of pvc or something for the fish to hide in, no need for any fancy lighting so id sell that and evn the skimmer id sell that too!

 

[Fishmonger70]

When I get my livestock out of the 20 I will clean it up, pull out the rock, substrate, skimmer. I'll pretty much overhaul it. I have an Aquaclear HOB filter on it I'll keep for filtration. I'm going to keep a couple pieces of the nicer looking LR and put it my 75. It's got nice coraline growing on it so it will be nice for starting coraline growth in the new tank.

 

[Fishmonger70]

Well nitrites finally gone down to zero. Been there for three days. Did a 20% water change tonight. I'll check my levels tomorrow to see if the nitrates are going down any. If not, i'll change some more water.

 

[Joe Fish]

Sounds like your just about ready to start the fun part....

 

[TRe]

time for a CUC!

 

[Fishmonger70]

Cant really get a cuc until my nitrates are gone. Not sure if I want to get one. Also I haven't gotten too much diatoms yet on my substrate. I have a little bit maybe in the back of my tank behind my LR, but there's not much there either.

 

[TRe]

um how high are your nitrates? they dont have to be at zero lol

 

[Fishmonger70]

pH 8.2
SG 1.024
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 40

That water change I did last night didn't do a dang thing to my nitrate level

 

[TRe]

how large of a WC did u do? and btw its fine to add a CUC now!

 

[Fishmonger70]

oh. sorry, by cuc I thought you meant cucumber. It's been a long weekend so my mind isn't really at it's best. I didn't connect CUC with clean up crew. Of coarse I'm going to add my clean up crew but it will have to wait till tuesday when the LFS opens back up. I only did a 20% water change. I suppose that wasn't enough.

 

[Fishmonger70]

Found a LFS that was open today. Picked up ten turbos, eight ceriths, and 2 astreas. Thats about all he had. I will stop later this week at a different LFS where I actually have some store credit and see what he has. Maybe some nassarius or some more astreas. I might get some hermitt crabs too. We'll see. Now if I can just get these snails from clinging to one another and get to work.

 

[TRe]

nice! dont worry they get to work soon or later.... some nassarius and youll be set! you got your stocking list as far as fish together yet?