DKOSDROS's 75 GAL REEF BUILD
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dkosdros
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Today's results .
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 1+
The highest my test kit goes is 1 so that's why you see 1+ because it's more than 1.
Hoping everything is going the way it should be. I'm wondering if right when I added Dr Tims if I should of added fish like people have said to do. Maybe that would have made the cycle keep going and complete. I don't now. Nonetheless I sit and wait. I'm at a loss on what to do. Now that my ammonia is at zero do I keep adding ammonium chloride every day? Do I ghost feed? I guess I'm confused on how my nitrates can be so high already when my nitrites never seemed to dip below 1. I feel like I'm missing something. I thought ammonia spiked, then it lowered and nitrite spiked and then that lowered and then nitrate spiked. In my tank all 3 seemed to take off close to the beginning and the only one that has come down is ammonia. Is this all going the way it should be?
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 1+
The highest my test kit goes is 1 so that's why you see 1+ because it's more than 1.
Hoping everything is going the way it should be. I'm wondering if right when I added Dr Tims if I should of added fish like people have said to do. Maybe that would have made the cycle keep going and complete. I don't now. Nonetheless I sit and wait. I'm at a loss on what to do. Now that my ammonia is at zero do I keep adding ammonium chloride every day? Do I ghost feed? I guess I'm confused on how my nitrates can be so high already when my nitrites never seemed to dip below 1. I feel like I'm missing something. I thought ammonia spiked, then it lowered and nitrite spiked and then that lowered and then nitrate spiked. In my tank all 3 seemed to take off close to the beginning and the only one that has come down is ammonia. Is this all going the way it should be?
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dkosdros
Community Member
Today's results:
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 1+
Today I decided to get two Cardinal fish. I brought them home and gave them a freshwater bath for 5 minutes, half way through I added PraziPro. It was a scary process but they are fine and happily enjoying the tank. I fed a few pellets and mysis shrimp and they ate so that's a good sign. I also made up a batch of saltwater so I am ready for a water change.
The next fish I am adding is the blue spot watchman goby. I am also going to add a small cleanup crew. I'm thinking of getting clean up crew tomorrow, and then mid week getting the goby.
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 1+
Today I decided to get two Cardinal fish. I brought them home and gave them a freshwater bath for 5 minutes, half way through I added PraziPro. It was a scary process but they are fine and happily enjoying the tank. I fed a few pellets and mysis shrimp and they ate so that's a good sign. I also made up a batch of saltwater so I am ready for a water change.
The next fish I am adding is the blue spot watchman goby. I am also going to add a small cleanup crew. I'm thinking of getting clean up crew tomorrow, and then mid week getting the goby.
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dkosdros
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Late last night I lost one of the cardinal fish. Not sure if it was the tank parameters or the stress from the fresh water bath and PraziPro. The other one seems happy and ate again for me today. I also did a 25-30 gallon water change to see if I could bring nitrates down. As well as sucked up diatoms off the sand and scrubbed the rocks a little while siphoning and cleaned the sump area as well.
I also took the plunge and ordered the Apex Gold System, the magnetic probe holder, and a breakout box. It's a big expense but one that I feel is important to the success of my tank. We travel a lot and it will give me peace of mind while away as well as being somewhat new back into the hobby it will be nice to have a system of back ups and a way to chart and graph what's going on so I can see trends and problems before they are a major issue. I feel it will be well worth expense especially since it could save my tank from a crash with something like a malfunctioning heater. I kept thinking with all the time and expense going into building a reef its a no brainier to have a system like the Apex. I have a feeling it's going to be one of those things I smack myself for and say why did I ever attempt a reef tank without one.
I also took the plunge and ordered the Apex Gold System, the magnetic probe holder, and a breakout box. It's a big expense but one that I feel is important to the success of my tank. We travel a lot and it will give me peace of mind while away as well as being somewhat new back into the hobby it will be nice to have a system of back ups and a way to chart and graph what's going on so I can see trends and problems before they are a major issue. I feel it will be well worth expense especially since it could save my tank from a crash with something like a malfunctioning heater. I kept thinking with all the time and expense going into building a reef its a no brainier to have a system like the Apex. I have a feeling it's going to be one of those things I smack myself for and say why did I ever attempt a reef tank without one.
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dkosdros
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Test results today.
Nitrite 1+ didn't test anything else. Bought a bunch of frozen foods like blood worms, baby shrimp, cyclops and krill to go with the mysis I already had. I put a little squirt in and my Cardinal is swimming around eating something. He looks fat and healthy so we shall see. I plan on getting another Cardinal tomorrow but want to hold off on any inverts for a clean up crew until my nitrites go to zero. Had to empty skimmer again. Had a nasty smelling dark green liquid in it almost full.
Nitrite 1+ didn't test anything else. Bought a bunch of frozen foods like blood worms, baby shrimp, cyclops and krill to go with the mysis I already had. I put a little squirt in and my Cardinal is swimming around eating something. He looks fat and healthy so we shall see. I plan on getting another Cardinal tomorrow but want to hold off on any inverts for a clean up crew until my nitrites go to zero. Had to empty skimmer again. Had a nasty smelling dark green liquid in it almost full.
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dkosdros
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Update: Nitrites tested at 1+ yesterday and today.
Yesterday I picked up another Cardinal at the LFS. A scarlet cleaner shrimp, 5 hermits, and 3 turbo snails. I fresh water bathed the cardinal and then a bath in PraziPro while I drip acclimated him. Man is that rough in the fish. It sucks to watch them go through it and then they take a while to recover but I feel it's important to get the parasites off them and get them medicated before going in the DT. It recovered just fine. He ate yesterday and again today for me. I thought he would immediately bond with the other one but they are at opposite sides of the tank. LOL. Oh well maybe it's shy and needs to warm up to the other. The hermits went to town in the rocks and sand and have plenty more to go. The turbo snails are denting the algae on the back and side glass. I didn't realize how much was back there until they started cleaning their way through it. Skimmer cup is filling up every day. A green liquid so today I started trying to fine tune it to not get such a wet skim. I thought with nitrites at 1+ I would have issues with keeping live stock.
Next time I go into LFS I'm gonna have them test nitrites and see what they read. Maybe my test is off. I want to order the Black Ice Clownfish but don't want to until I can confirm my nitrites are at zero. They are to expensive to risk.
The apex should be here Friday so I'm really excited to get that hooked up this weekend. I think I've watched every apex video I can find.
Yesterday I picked up another Cardinal at the LFS. A scarlet cleaner shrimp, 5 hermits, and 3 turbo snails. I fresh water bathed the cardinal and then a bath in PraziPro while I drip acclimated him. Man is that rough in the fish. It sucks to watch them go through it and then they take a while to recover but I feel it's important to get the parasites off them and get them medicated before going in the DT. It recovered just fine. He ate yesterday and again today for me. I thought he would immediately bond with the other one but they are at opposite sides of the tank. LOL. Oh well maybe it's shy and needs to warm up to the other. The hermits went to town in the rocks and sand and have plenty more to go. The turbo snails are denting the algae on the back and side glass. I didn't realize how much was back there until they started cleaning their way through it. Skimmer cup is filling up every day. A green liquid so today I started trying to fine tune it to not get such a wet skim. I thought with nitrites at 1+ I would have issues with keeping live stock.
Next time I go into LFS I'm gonna have them test nitrites and see what they read. Maybe my test is off. I want to order the Black Ice Clownfish but don't want to until I can confirm my nitrites are at zero. They are to expensive to risk.
The apex should be here Friday so I'm really excited to get that hooked up this weekend. I think I've watched every apex video I can find.
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dkosdros
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Tested water again today. Nitrites are still 1+. I tested ammonia as well and that was zero.
All fish and inverts are doing great. I fine tuned skimmer and I'm pulling out a thicker darker green skimmate. Ive been feeding the mix of frozen food I have. Everything is eating bits and pieces of it. I feed a small amount once per day.
I should be picking up controller tomorrow. Pretty excited bout it.
All fish and inverts are doing great. I fine tuned skimmer and I'm pulling out a thicker darker green skimmate. Ive been feeding the mix of frozen food I have. Everything is eating bits and pieces of it. I feed a small amount once per day.
I should be picking up controller tomorrow. Pretty excited bout it.
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dkosdros
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Both cardinals are doing great. They are all over the tank. Both eating great and have bulked up and just look healthy and full and their color seems bright white and dark black. They just look healthier than they did at the LFS. So I feel like I'm doing something right.
Cleaner shrimp is doing good. He found his perch and he's been eating good. The snails and hermits have been cleaning away.
Today the Apex arrived. I drove around with it in my truck all day and it was killing me to not just stop working and rush home and hook it up. So after I put my son to bed I ran past my wife as she said go play with your fish tank and was like a kid on Christmas. Got all the probes calibrated. It's up and running. Tomorrow I will add the connectors to the Ethernet cable in the fish tank room and pick up a hub so I can hook it up to the Internet in my home. It's so cool to see the PH and salinity and temp without having to test or so anything other than glance at the screen. I also picked up a board to mount it all to with some cable cord holders. I'll post pics of that when I'm done.
Cleaner shrimp is doing good. He found his perch and he's been eating good. The snails and hermits have been cleaning away.
Today the Apex arrived. I drove around with it in my truck all day and it was killing me to not just stop working and rush home and hook it up. So after I put my son to bed I ran past my wife as she said go play with your fish tank and was like a kid on Christmas. Got all the probes calibrated. It's up and running. Tomorrow I will add the connectors to the Ethernet cable in the fish tank room and pick up a hub so I can hook it up to the Internet in my home. It's so cool to see the PH and salinity and temp without having to test or so anything other than glance at the screen. I also picked up a board to mount it all to with some cable cord holders. I'll post pics of that when I'm done.
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dkosdros
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Today was a fun day. I got the board all mounted up nice. It was over whelming at first but as I went on it got easier and easier and made more sense. Lots and lots of wires but when I got done it was nice and tidy.
Then I slowly switched over each outlet from my old power bar to the new one on the Apex. I then pulled up my laptop and then one by one programmed each outlet. Set up some alarms to text me (which I'm still tweaking and figuring out), set up the feed cycle. I then had to test it and it was so nice hitting feed on my phone and bam everything that needed to go off went off. And then one by one they all went back on according to the times I programmed them to. It was pretty cool I must say.
I love the ability to be able to check in the tanks parameters like temp, salinity and PH, as well as seeing what equipment is functioning or having issues from anywhere in the world. Very nice peace of mind. Soon I'll be hooking up a webcam so I can check in on the tank we well.
Then I slowly switched over each outlet from my old power bar to the new one on the Apex. I then pulled up my laptop and then one by one programmed each outlet. Set up some alarms to text me (which I'm still tweaking and figuring out), set up the feed cycle. I then had to test it and it was so nice hitting feed on my phone and bam everything that needed to go off went off. And then one by one they all went back on according to the times I programmed them to. It was pretty cool I must say.
I love the ability to be able to check in the tanks parameters like temp, salinity and PH, as well as seeing what equipment is functioning or having issues from anywhere in the world. Very nice peace of mind. Soon I'll be hooking up a webcam so I can check in on the tank we well.
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dkosdros
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Thanks everyone for the kind words.
Today I took my son to the LFS. We purchased a Blue Hippo Tang because it was on our list as well as the one they had was so tiny. I've never seen them locally so small and I know how fast they grow because my last tank had one and it grew big so fast.
I also picked up a few corals. I got s bright green Zoa's, and a reddish pink zoa's. I also got a bright orange Florida Ricordia. That had a few babies with it. And I met up with my buddy and he gave me the Acans I got at an auction a few weeks ago that he's been holding on in his tank for me.
Rushed home and did my fresh water dip on the tang. Once again scary as heck but he did great. I did the acclimation a little different this time. Previously I would fresh water dip and then drop the fish back in the LFS bag with PraziPro that I put in it and then drip tank water.
Today I fresh water dipped and then put the fish back into the LFS water bag, then I dripped a bucket of tank water that had a few drops of PraziPro. This seemed to be a lot gentler on the fish so I'll be doing this going forward.
I also dipped all the corals in a bath of Coral Rx I believe it's called. So many critters, worms and nasties game off them. I then dripped tank water into the same bucket they were doing the coral dip bath in. I'll post pics of the corals as they were opening up in tank
Today I took my son to the LFS. We purchased a Blue Hippo Tang because it was on our list as well as the one they had was so tiny. I've never seen them locally so small and I know how fast they grow because my last tank had one and it grew big so fast.
I also picked up a few corals. I got s bright green Zoa's, and a reddish pink zoa's. I also got a bright orange Florida Ricordia. That had a few babies with it. And I met up with my buddy and he gave me the Acans I got at an auction a few weeks ago that he's been holding on in his tank for me.
Rushed home and did my fresh water dip on the tang. Once again scary as heck but he did great. I did the acclimation a little different this time. Previously I would fresh water dip and then drop the fish back in the LFS bag with PraziPro that I put in it and then drip tank water.
Today I fresh water dipped and then put the fish back into the LFS water bag, then I dripped a bucket of tank water that had a few drops of PraziPro. This seemed to be a lot gentler on the fish so I'll be doing this going forward.
I also dipped all the corals in a bath of Coral Rx I believe it's called. So many critters, worms and nasties game off them. I then dripped tank water into the same bucket they were doing the coral dip bath in. I'll post pics of the corals as they were opening up in tank
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