New 10 Gallon, (Recurring Theme)

[lordroad]

live sand, cool, that should be great for your cyling process. I believe mine didn't even actually cycle, my rock was so good... however, my sand is still colonizing with bacteria and critters, so you're ahead of the game with that live stuff.

you see anything cool coming out yet? My friend had a chocolate chip star come out of his rock (probably uncured), and I saw a little pod my first night. Per hitchhikers, all I got were pods, a feather worm, and that's all I can see so far.

 

[OCCFan023]

well, I ran out of water from my LFS, and am weary about mixxing any tonight so im gonna head back tommorow and get 10 gallons. THe tank is very cloudy but not nearly as bad as one water change so I can wait to get back to work tommorow. The water level is very low right now since I ran out. I had to tilt my heater so that I could turn everything back on.

The sand is pretty evenly spread, I still need to move some around which Ill do later, and theres a foam on the top of the water (like on the edges and heater not the water itself), im not gonna take a reading till I get the water clear and nice.

I was looking at some clean up crew options and wrote down some names. Ill find that paper and write down the snails and crabs I found and see what you think,

 

[1979camaro]

sounds like you are making great progress...if your rock is cured it is entirely possible there will be no cycle as the bacteria is already present. to be sure, however, i would run the tank for a couple weeks with just the LR...as far as hitchikers, often they don't show up for months and then "bam" something weird pops out

 

[lordroad]

Yeah, definitely wait 2 weeks before adding crabs. Spikes can happen even with rock that seems cured. then 2 weeks more for fish is a good number.

 

[OCCFan023]

hey, well my tank is clearing up very nicely, its very clear now. After one more water change, smooth positioning of the powerheads and heater, and maybe one small peice of lr to finish of my aquascape Ill be done and then I can wait about two weeks for crabs.
Ill check out the live rock tommorow when Im getting my salt water.

Some of the crabs I was looking at where cool, the one I liked the most were the scarlet hermits. Do you know anything about scarlet hermits, I was reading up that there good little critters to have. Also I say these real small crabs called blue rick crabs (nothing came up on them online though) but there extremly small and I think ill just get alot of scarlet hermits instead of any of the blue rick's. Ive seen many people have astrea snails and plan on getting osme of them. And finally turban snails, any one heard of these or no? I was thinking of getting like.

Could I get away with just scarlet hermits and astrea snails or do you reccomend a more complicated clean up crew.

And to end on a very good note, the skunk shrimps I found out today were only 21 bucks (for small ones) these large skunk shrimp was 34! lol Ill post my readings and my trip to the lfs (if I can go) tommorow.

Pictures will be up as soon as I get my light setup!

 

[1979camaro]

are the blue guys hermits? probably just dwarf blue legged hermits. liveaquaria has a pic for your reference. scarlet reef hermits will do a good job for you...as will the dwarf blue legs. probably won't need more than 7 or 8 little hermits total. "turban snail" is a common name for a few snails, most notabley trochus and turbo. trochus would be ok in your ten a turbo would not. i think a cleanup crew consisting of 8 hermits and 5 astreas or trochus would be just fine and dandy

 

[OCCFan023]

well I went back out today to get 10 more gallons of salt water to finish off the tank and be able to clean the sides of my tank from the dust form the sand, and be able to have water for water chnages and such. While I was there I got a peice of live rockfor aquascaping purposes. It was 3 lbs, wasnt too elaborate but gave my tanks some nice height in the middle instead of just horizontal across my tank (I know have 13lbs of live rock, and 20 pounds of arga-live reef sand, which should be more than adequite for 16 gallon tank)

When I got the rock home I noticed something interesting, a coral like looking thing on the the peice of rock. Im almost positive it was dead or on its way their, but Im not to sure Ill see how it goes, and since I dont have al ight for it it probably has no chance (even with the light I doubt it would lol) but still I found it cool and worth mentioning.

Im gonna go clean the sides of my tank from dust and put some water and in take a hydromter reading to see where im at. Ill post back tonight. And once again pics soon!

 

[1979camaro]

coolio foolio

 

[OCCFan023]

well my last reading (which was on 4/20 my readings were exactly the same as they are tonight) my salinity is just under 30, and the specific gravity is between 1.021-1.022. It seems to be steady but Ill keep a close eye on it. Are these readings ok for my fish? Should I be worried and add some salt mix to the tank and get it up to more around 1.024? I could just add a little salt at a time till it dissolves and the sg goes up.

Two questions I have are, 1) how long does it take for the salt from the mixes to dissolve in the water until I can take a reading to see if the sg went up, and 2) ealier I was cleaning the top of the tank with a papertowel and it fell in, is that a problem, paper towels dont have anything bad on them, but I just wanna make sure and not like have my friggen tank die because Im a moron

I was thinking of getting this Book: "New Marine Aquarium" by Paletta. I know some people have read it around here, I am interested in learning from it, but I would also like to read up on some lights. Is this a good book for lights. I really wanna get crackin on studying for the future of not only my nano but bigger ones. thanks.

 

[1979camaro]

your SG is fine for your fish...if you do decide to raise it to 1.024 do not add the salt to your main tank and let it mix in there...that is just asking for trouble. instead, I would remove a small volume of your tank water into a bucket and mix in some additional salt there...then re-add that to the tank. as far as mixing time that varries by water temperature and aggitation. if your water is tank temp and you are running a good sized power head in there probably 30min to an hour but it would be best to let it sit longer. what i would reccomend is that you measure how much salt it takes to get your water to the correct SG in whatever bucket you are going to use for w/c. then, every time you do a water change you can measure that amount out and you will at least be very close initially

the paper towel shouldn't cause you any major problems unless it had soap or bleach or something built into it which I don't think they do with paper towels but some sponges do

 

[1979camaro]

alrighty, i flipped through paletta and the section on lighting doesn't cover much about reef lighting but i would still reccomend the book...the information it provides is very solid and there are a lot of good checklists which will prove valuable when setting up a new tank or when planning a visit to the LFS...

honestly, i can't think of a book which gives really good information on lighting...i think the problem is that there are so many possible variations and combinations that it is difficult to write about them all

 

[OCCFan023]

Im pretty sure they have "The New Marine Aquarium" at my lfs, so next time I get out there I will be sure to try and pick up a copy of it, I was looking at some exerpts of it online and looks like a good book to have.

Well the tank is all setup (just waiting for that darn light, but it should be comming any day now) I think Ill leave the salinity as is because for water changes I use my lfs's water so I dont think Ill need to mix my own water (but I do have salt mix incase I need some.

Now that my tank is all setup, should I take some test kit readings today? my test kit has ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph. Im relativley unclear on the cycling aspect of this tank. From reading of Lordroads thread Im pretty sure about letting it sit and the live rock and sand should take care of the cycle and after its stable for a good amount of time Ill add the scavengers. THen wait another time and fish! anyway Ill just jumpp the gun and take some readsing . I have alot more to say but Ill save it for my next post... *crazysmil

 

[1979camaro]

reading is good.

the cycle thing works this way: the LR is full of beneficial bacteria. if it is cured live rock almost all (if not all) the stuff which will die off has already done so and what remains will survive in your aquarium. the bacteria which does the ammonia->nitrite->nitrate thing is alread there and so your tank is, in essence, cycled once that little remaining die off occurs (if it does). The thing is, there may still be occasional ammonia/nitrite spikes in the first few weeks even with cured rock because sometiems stuff is in there and it dies. this is why it is important to wait even with cured rock.

if it is uncured then there is still a good deal of stuff which might die. as it dies it will produce ammonia which will kick start that cycle. again, the beneficial bacteria is present, but probably not in the amount necessary to deal with the die off so you get bigger ammonia/nitrite spikes. uncured live rock takes a bit longer to cycle a tank with because everything has to die off that will die before you stop getting big spikes.

not sure when you put your LR in but if its been a day or two I would do ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate tests just to see where everything is

 

[1979camaro]

oh yah, test pH too just to make sure it is where it should be

 

[OCCFan023]

well I took my first test kit readings today to see where my tank was at.


Here Are The Results: **Keep in mind (if it matters) the live rock was added yesterday and friday for a total of 13 pounds, and 20 pounds of Live Sand)

Ammonia: .50ppm
nitrate: 3ppm
nitrite: .25ppm
pH- Between 7.9 and 8

Ill continue to take readings everyother day. But these readings are pretty normal for this early on right?

 

[1979camaro]

sounds pretty normal...you need to get that pH up to 8.2-8.3 though

looks like you are having a little cycle so probably some stuff on the LR is dying

 

[OCCFan023]

will the pH go up on its own, or do I have to adjust it myself, if so how would I go about adjusting my pH? chemical additives?

 

[lordroad]

What salt brand are you using? sorry, don't remember if you had posted that earlier...

I use Instant Ocean with R/O water. However, I've found I need a tad bit more to get my salinity up to 1.0225ish than the half cup called for per gallon of water.

You live in Jersey, so I'm assuming there are vending machines that sell R/O water, like we have in here in the backwards south... we only got electricy ten years ago! lol

My tank has been running for exactly four weeks now. I water change once a week, and today I checked the pH... still at 8.4.

 

[1979camaro]

he is buying his SW at the LFS. there are a variety of products you can buy which will raise your pH...your LFS should carry one

 

[OCCFan023]

well the salt mix I have is KENT marine, but I havent used it for my tank. I use store bought water. I would mix it, but the water my lfs sells is RO/DI water so I figured why not. Im not quite sure where I could go to get RO water like a vending machine. Do you get yours at a store?