20 gallon K.I.S.S. tank slow build

[Donaldf973]

20 tall
Wavepoint 4x39 t5
Wavepoint t5 bulbs
Eshopp psk100h
Aquaclear 50 filter
Aquaclear 50 pump (Tunze 6015 later on)
Eheim 75w heater
20-30lbs Gulf view rock acid washed (9 years old)
Seaflor special grade sand
Reef crystals to start Aquaforest later on

I decided to give my daughter my 20 long for a crested/eyelash gecko and my wife brought home a 20 high from a garage sale as a replacement(past a month long water test). This will be a slow build as I have done in the past with monthly stocking, small size fish/inverts and fish. Also, my first go at a sps, lps and softy tank. Hopefully today she'll be wet and start cycling.

 

[DeniseAndy]

Love those rocks. T5s are a great choice too. IMO Looking good so far!

 

[Donaldf973]

Thank you. My best tanks were t5 and halide tanks. I'm not doing great with led unless it's softies because I can't for the life of me dial them in. So, I figured go back to what worked for me with sps/lps.

 

[Donaldf973]

Got bored so said screw it and mixed the last of my Aquaforest reef salt 30 minutes ago. Tank is now wet so time to play the waiting game and speed cycle with MB7 and let it sit throwing a pinch of flake every other day while I plan out what fish I want to add. Tank got darker in this pic after adding water. I've never had that happen before...weird lol.

 

[Kamden Uelton]

Will be following along! What do you plan to put in this system?

 

[Donaldf973]

The obligatory clown or 3 for my wife since I can get babies 1/3 the size of my pinky locally and cheap. Some sort of goby/blenny, maybe a shrimp and possibly a pair pj cardinals. Also, the typical clean up crew of snails but no hermits I hate those dang things with a passion.

For coral I'm definitely doing 1 or 2 montis, 1 torch coral, 3-4 acros max and around 3-4 softies max. Im going back to the mindset of be specific and let everything grow out and mature not have a million frags everywhere and no room for growth.

 

[woodguy]

like your approach, simple tank, few corals and let them mature, what bulbs are you going to run?

 

[Donaldf973]

4x39 wavepoint t5 fixture with 1 ultra growth wave and 3 super blue 460 wavepoint bulbs. On a 20 high i get 100-120 on sand and around 250-275 top of the rocks. Wish I had a computer to overlap the spectrums from Wavepoint's website i feel this combo covers a nice amount of spectrum for growth and coloration.

 

[Donaldf973]

These are the spectrums for the bulbs. If you put them together they seem like a good spectrum output.

 

[Donaldf973]

Lights finally burned in and the red color balanced out with the blue.

 

[Donaldf973]

Tank got wet Nov 28th and still no cycle 12 days later. So, gonna try the ammonia and bacteria cycle so i can snag some baby clowns hopefully by Christmas for the wife.

 

[skiergd011013]

I too have the wavepoint fixture. So far so good. Its seems solidly built compared to the old odyssea ebay light i used to have.

 

[Donaldf973]

When I first got the fixture it fell face down with bulbs inside and nothing broke not even a scratch. I just cleaned silicone residue with a razor and plugged it in without a hiccup. The ballast in it is pretty solid also about 95-97% efficiency and can run different lamp combinations including cpfl/t5 configurations without problems...which I've tried and nothing exploded lol.

 

[Donaldf973]

So need a little help. Api salwater test is this color which isn't green it's an off grayish with a slight hint of green in it. Can anyone figure this one out? 3rd test gonna do a 4th with different container in case of contamination.

 

[Donaldf973]

Different container and syringe to test water and now this. I think the test kit died.

 

[Donaldf973]

Since i don't have anymore ammonia to add I dumped 1ml/gram of reef chili to see how much ammonia I get and how much phosphate and nitrate I end up with. Just a little experiment to keep me entertained since the tank's not ready for fish or coral.

 

[Donaldf973]

So, 21 hours later and 1 gram of Reef Chili gave me 1ppm ammonia. If I recall something from my freshwater days every gram of food converts to around I think 3-4 ppm of nitrates...gotta find that info I remember it from freshwater fish hatchery paperwork I found online.

If coral food or food in general converts this high in nitrates I can see why we/I have so much trouble with nutrients especially with liquid supplements for fatty acids and stuff added to the mix. I'm a heavy feeder that always ends up with nitrates around 30-80ppm in a reef tank and some form of undesirable.

 

[Donaldf973]

I was close it's an old question answered on reefcentral by Randy Holmes-Farley, Boomer and a guy named Habib back in 2006:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=864197

Can't find article that expressed the same conclusion...oh well lol. So, every 1ppm ammonia converts to 3.6ppm nitrate. I'm going to assume the same for liquid coral food/boosters. For every 5ml/gram dosed its about 15-20ppm nitrates end result which is about right based on certain products I've used in the past when it comes to nitrate and nuisance algae growth from too much nitrate and phosphate.

I'm going to run an experiment and see if I can turn marinepure spheres into a nitrate reduction media since I have some lying around.

 

[Donaldf973]

Well cycles done going to add more food to see how long ammonia takes to drop off again. So far nitrates through the roof so doi g 2 water changea this week to drop them to around 30-40ppm down from 160ppm and manage from there which will be a heck of a lot easier. Found out my well in the winter nitrates are 80ppm. First pick tank and second pic well test.

 

[Donaldf973]

So turned on lights and found diatom spots forming on the sand and rock so cycles officially done. 17 days with no MB7 cause I forgot to add it isn't that bad. But, since I'm fishless and don't have a clean up crew yet I started dosing vinegar today at 10ml first dose and 5ml every day after until my 160-200ppm nitrate reading hits around 5-15ppm. This phase I'll be adding MB7 every other day like I used to do with Aquaforest's bac product and should drop it within the next 2 weeks.I'm running an Eshopp psk100h (old faithful 5 years now) so hopefully this will get nice and gunky like last time and I can start my budget for fish clean-up crew and hopefully corals by middle of January.