- Joined
- Jan 1, 2019
- Messages
- 120
- Reaction score
- 213
It all started out stopping by the local LFS to pick up food for my daughters Betta's on Black Friday. An all in one tank for almost half the normal price. Grab the tank and off to the office and set it up.
A few weeks later I pick up 20 pounds of CaribSea Live Rock and a bag of CaribSea Hawaiian Black Aragonite substrate.
After about 2 hours I decide on my scape.
I attempted to give plenty of room for any fish I may put in and lots of room for corals to sit and grow.
After my 7 stage RODI unit arrived and enough water was produced I dropped in 2" of substrate and added the water. One shrimp in the sump and a bottle of bacteria and I am on my way with the fishless cycle. I will not be turning on the lights until just before the corals go in to help prevent unwanted algae growth.
Current parameters are temp 78.5 to 79.4 F, salinity pretty dead level at 1.025 every day. At week two there was plenty of ammonia detected along with nitrite and nitrate. Protein skimmer is breaking in (boy talk about a wet skim) I have a secondary power head temporally installed until my gyre shows up in a week. The next hardware purchase will be an AI Prime light upgrade as the light that came with the tank would only support softies and not at the best levels.
Temp and salinity is checked daily with the ammonia and other such tests done weekly. The tank should be ready for fish at about the week 4 to 6 mark with the lights coming on with the addition of corals at the 3 to 4 month mark if the Nitrate and Phosphate levels are suitable for the corals but not create a explosion of algae. If needed nitrate and phosphate levels will be lowered or raise to appropriate levels. First corals will be softies like GSP and a few zoas. around the 10 or 12 month mark I hope to be butting in some LPS followed by SPS around the 18 month mark if all looks stable and existing corals are growing well. I like the slow and steady method so I can learn to listen to what my tank telling me what it needs or is doing, being more proactive then reactive to what the tanks needs.
A few weeks later I pick up 20 pounds of CaribSea Live Rock and a bag of CaribSea Hawaiian Black Aragonite substrate.
After about 2 hours I decide on my scape.
I attempted to give plenty of room for any fish I may put in and lots of room for corals to sit and grow.
After my 7 stage RODI unit arrived and enough water was produced I dropped in 2" of substrate and added the water. One shrimp in the sump and a bottle of bacteria and I am on my way with the fishless cycle. I will not be turning on the lights until just before the corals go in to help prevent unwanted algae growth.
Current parameters are temp 78.5 to 79.4 F, salinity pretty dead level at 1.025 every day. At week two there was plenty of ammonia detected along with nitrite and nitrate. Protein skimmer is breaking in (boy talk about a wet skim) I have a secondary power head temporally installed until my gyre shows up in a week. The next hardware purchase will be an AI Prime light upgrade as the light that came with the tank would only support softies and not at the best levels.
Temp and salinity is checked daily with the ammonia and other such tests done weekly. The tank should be ready for fish at about the week 4 to 6 mark with the lights coming on with the addition of corals at the 3 to 4 month mark if the Nitrate and Phosphate levels are suitable for the corals but not create a explosion of algae. If needed nitrate and phosphate levels will be lowered or raise to appropriate levels. First corals will be softies like GSP and a few zoas. around the 10 or 12 month mark I hope to be butting in some LPS followed by SPS around the 18 month mark if all looks stable and existing corals are growing well. I like the slow and steady method so I can learn to listen to what my tank telling me what it needs or is doing, being more proactive then reactive to what the tanks needs.