So, in setting up my latest endeavor... I decided to cycle with Bio-spira. I've seen it come up a few times as a beneficial way to go, but honestly didn't think much more of it than that. I thought, if anything, it would just give me a solid cycle.
Now I am starting to think it's a miracle cycle.
About my setup:
75 gallon w/ 29gal sump
80lbs of dry live rock
40lbs each of Fiji Pink and Special Grade Aragonite
Protein Skimmer (breaking in- not producing much if anything most days)
Refugium with 12lbs of rubble
ATS
Ice Cap 3000 Gyre
I haven't been running lights on the display tank at all.
I dropped a whole shrimp cut in half, into the refugium and main tank- and a full, large bottle of Bio-spira last week. The sump piece of shrimp is under some rubble somewhere. The other piece is... well... This is where it gets interesting.
I honestly can't tell you the beginning parameters of the last week, because I didn't care. I knew there would be a spike here, drop there, spike here... et cetera. I was just going to wait until the shrimp dissolved, and do my first test. The shrimp piece in the MT, didn't do much of anything at first, other than start to look like it was cooked. Expected that. Maybe 4 days later it developed some yellowish areas.
I had also started putting in a few algae based food pellets, to get plant matter into the system and going through a breakdown process. I wasn't running my gyre at this point so the flow wasn't high, and these pellets would dissolve a bit and leave a sediment which immediately started turning yellow. So I knew the bacteria was in there doing it's thing.
The shrimp, a few days ago, started losing it's exoskeleton. Then I noticed it was getting smaller. Like it was whittling away, but still looking like a fresh piece of shrimp. I started the gyre up yesterday, and after the dust settled, things were looking nice and boring, except for the shrimp floating around. Today, it was stuck in the gyre, and I reached in and pulled it off. It's definitely a third of the size that it was, and not at all dense. I smelled my fingers afterwards, because that's what you do after you touch something disgusting, and I didn't smell anything. That kind of made me curious.
So I pull it out completely the next time it gets caught up, and smell it for real this time. It's got an odor, but not totally putrid. So I taste it. Doesn't taste good at all.
I'm kidding. It's almost April first. Definitely didn't taste it. Anyway, the slight smell, and diminished size tell me this thing is definitely breaking down. Meanwhile, I have been turning on my lights in the sump, all week. I noticed some brown stuff accumulating on the ATS screen, and thought maybe it was just crud from the pellets. Now, I am thinking it's diatoms. So I break down and run a test. All other parameters are optimal, but Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate are all 0ppm-.25ppm. The only thing I see wrong is that my Nitrates aren't higher, but for now, I am attributing that to the algae growing in the turf scrubber.
Thoughts?
Now I am starting to think it's a miracle cycle.
About my setup:
75 gallon w/ 29gal sump
80lbs of dry live rock
40lbs each of Fiji Pink and Special Grade Aragonite
Protein Skimmer (breaking in- not producing much if anything most days)
Refugium with 12lbs of rubble
ATS
Ice Cap 3000 Gyre
I haven't been running lights on the display tank at all.
I dropped a whole shrimp cut in half, into the refugium and main tank- and a full, large bottle of Bio-spira last week. The sump piece of shrimp is under some rubble somewhere. The other piece is... well... This is where it gets interesting.
I honestly can't tell you the beginning parameters of the last week, because I didn't care. I knew there would be a spike here, drop there, spike here... et cetera. I was just going to wait until the shrimp dissolved, and do my first test. The shrimp piece in the MT, didn't do much of anything at first, other than start to look like it was cooked. Expected that. Maybe 4 days later it developed some yellowish areas.
I had also started putting in a few algae based food pellets, to get plant matter into the system and going through a breakdown process. I wasn't running my gyre at this point so the flow wasn't high, and these pellets would dissolve a bit and leave a sediment which immediately started turning yellow. So I knew the bacteria was in there doing it's thing.
The shrimp, a few days ago, started losing it's exoskeleton. Then I noticed it was getting smaller. Like it was whittling away, but still looking like a fresh piece of shrimp. I started the gyre up yesterday, and after the dust settled, things were looking nice and boring, except for the shrimp floating around. Today, it was stuck in the gyre, and I reached in and pulled it off. It's definitely a third of the size that it was, and not at all dense. I smelled my fingers afterwards, because that's what you do after you touch something disgusting, and I didn't smell anything. That kind of made me curious.
So I pull it out completely the next time it gets caught up, and smell it for real this time. It's got an odor, but not totally putrid. So I taste it. Doesn't taste good at all.
I'm kidding. It's almost April first. Definitely didn't taste it. Anyway, the slight smell, and diminished size tell me this thing is definitely breaking down. Meanwhile, I have been turning on my lights in the sump, all week. I noticed some brown stuff accumulating on the ATS screen, and thought maybe it was just crud from the pellets. Now, I am thinking it's diatoms. So I break down and run a test. All other parameters are optimal, but Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate are all 0ppm-.25ppm. The only thing I see wrong is that my Nitrates aren't higher, but for now, I am attributing that to the algae growing in the turf scrubber.
Thoughts?
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