Howdy!
I've had a frustrating start into the hobby, marred by a few mistakes, and thought I'd post about my journey here. It is now into week 7 trying to get the cycle going, which feels a bit egregious given what I've read here over the last few months. I thought by posting here I might not only introduce myself, but possibly help other newbies who have found themselves tripping down the same path to find some solace.
Bio:
I'm a semi-retired nerd who has recently relocated to and settled down in Fort Collins, Colorado. Back in the '90s I kept a freshwater aquarium for several years until a structural failure while I was at work caused the loss of my livestock, a giant mess, and a sudden fear of keeping 40 gallons of water in a glass tank in my living room. Over the last few years, mostly triggered by envy over a friend's beautiful reef setup, I've been more and more keen on setting up my first saltwater tank. Now that I finally have my own place, the time felt right to give it a go. I lurked for months in these forums reading, learning and waiting for the right moment to get started in the hobby. Somewhat unfortunately, I made things harder on myself by going bare-bottom (I really do like the look in smaller tanks) and nano (I only have room for a smaller tank) and trying to cycle using fish food as an ammonia source.
Initial setup:
Innovative Marine 14g AIO w/ aluminum pedestal
MightyJet 236gph DC return pump (stock)
Bulk Reef Supply "Reef Saver" dry rock (15 pounds)
Fluval 50-Watt Heater
Knock-Off Brand LED lighting
IM NuvoSkim AIO Protein Skimmer
AQUATICLIFE 4-Stage RO/DI
Refractometer
Microbacter7
Seachem "Ammonia Alert" hanging tag thingy
API Saltwater "Master Test Kit"
The Journey So far:
November 9 - Set the tank up on the kitchen counter and filled with conditioned (Seachem Prime) fresh water for 24-hour leak test. Started making and mixing RO/DI saltwater in a new Rubbermaid using the heater and a spare return pump to keep it moving. Rinsed and then soaked the dry rock in RO/DI saltwater.
November 10 - Emptied the tank, let it dry, then wiped down everything (except the very bottom of the AIO which I couldn't reach) with RO/DI water. Started a new batch of RO/DI saltwater mixing overnight.
November 11 - Moved the aquarium into place, added the rock, filled with saltwater, and started everything. Added IM "Fiber balls" to the top of the IM AIO caddy. My intention was to wait another 24 hours, but I got super impatient and once the tank got up to temp (80 degrees) I shut off the lights and skimmer and added .5 grams of Bulk Reef Supply food pellets. I continued to add another .1 grams every other day for the next week.
November 18 - Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates all measure zero. PH holding steady around 7.5 although it does sometimes read closer to 8. I dosed with Microbacter7 following the instructions, and continued to do so every day.
November 24 - Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates all measure zero. The food I had added has accumulated on the bottom of the tank and is just hanging out there, and does not appear to be breaking down at all. Suspicious, I checked the tank temperature with an infrared and found it was running at 72 degrees. Well, that's something I should have checked before -- and no matter where I set the Fluval's gauge, the temperature of the water remained at 72. As a stop-gap I ordered a cheap Chinese heater overnight from Amazon. As my friend then said, I will now forever be suspicious of all of my equipment. Sure enough, I took a water sample and refractometer over to a friend's house and we confirmed it was way, way off. Calibrating with RO/DI or her known good water made no difference -- I had over-salinized to the tune of 1.035 and immediately ordered a new, this time more than $15 refractometer.
November 26 - Very, very happy with the cheap heater and ordered a second one as a backup. The Fluval will live in the mixing trash can as supplemental heat. Bad Fluval, bad.
December 1 - I did not perform a full water change, but did clean out the food, bought calibration solution, calibrated the new refractometer and confirmed against my friend's tank water, and cycled in RO/DI freshwater slowly (allowing up to 24 hours for mixing) over several days. At this point, everything looks really good and I dosed with Dr. Tim's Ammonium Chloride, following the instructions to get to 2ppm and started dosing again with Microbacter7.
December 4 - I had been adding at least daily (usually twice) RO/DI freshwater to deal with evaporation. But at this point, I added a little gravity ATO and covered the top of the display with a suspiciously thin piece of Lexan. Both have been doing swimmingly, and the evaporation is about 10% of where it was.
December 11 - Ammonia hasn't budged. Nitrites and Nitrates are zero.
December 12 - I stopped by my LFS and bought the last bottle of Fritz Aquatics Turbostart, and dosed half the bottle following the instructions.
December 13 - I dosed the other half of the Turbostart, figuring it wouldn't last forever anyway. The more the merrier!
December 14 - Trace Nitrites! Glory and Joy! Something is happening!
December 21 - Ammonia is about half of where it was, nitrites are rising (strangely high) and trace nitrates. It's happening! It's happening! I moved half of the fiber balls to the two lower sections of the AIO caddy, added more fiber balls to the top of the caddy, and a piece of poly fiber filter pad (from BRS) just to add more surface area to the filters.
December 29 - Ammonia is down to a trace. Nitrites are still high, and nitrates are still rising around 40-50ppm.
Conclusion:
As I started this now seemingly long post, this has been a frustrating journey, mostly self-inflicted. Choosing to go bare-bottom for a nano tank, not properly verifying the efficacy of my cheapo refractometer, not testing the heater for consistency, trying to start a cycle using dry food, and possibly trying to supplement the cycle with a bad bottle of Microbacter7 were all questionable choices for sure, even for a novice. But I feel like lessons have been learned, and we're close to adding livestock.
That's my journey so far. The Lexan is doing a great job and I'm electing to just leave the condensation unless I need to remove the top as this seems to keep the salinity consistent. The aluminum base may seem superficial or superfluous, but the stand is made of wood so it will hopefully serve as a preventive measure against any warping that might happen and -- God forbid - a repeat of the great living room flood of '96.
Hopefully somebody found this interesting and/or helpful. If I had to do this again, I'd probably go a similar route but start off with the Fritz Turbostart and Ammonium Chloride, rather than try to cycle with food and use the inert Microbacter7.
Oh, and by the way, my name is Michael. Glad to be here!
I've had a frustrating start into the hobby, marred by a few mistakes, and thought I'd post about my journey here. It is now into week 7 trying to get the cycle going, which feels a bit egregious given what I've read here over the last few months. I thought by posting here I might not only introduce myself, but possibly help other newbies who have found themselves tripping down the same path to find some solace.
Bio:
I'm a semi-retired nerd who has recently relocated to and settled down in Fort Collins, Colorado. Back in the '90s I kept a freshwater aquarium for several years until a structural failure while I was at work caused the loss of my livestock, a giant mess, and a sudden fear of keeping 40 gallons of water in a glass tank in my living room. Over the last few years, mostly triggered by envy over a friend's beautiful reef setup, I've been more and more keen on setting up my first saltwater tank. Now that I finally have my own place, the time felt right to give it a go. I lurked for months in these forums reading, learning and waiting for the right moment to get started in the hobby. Somewhat unfortunately, I made things harder on myself by going bare-bottom (I really do like the look in smaller tanks) and nano (I only have room for a smaller tank) and trying to cycle using fish food as an ammonia source.
Initial setup:
Innovative Marine 14g AIO w/ aluminum pedestal
MightyJet 236gph DC return pump (stock)
Bulk Reef Supply "Reef Saver" dry rock (15 pounds)
Fluval 50-Watt Heater
Knock-Off Brand LED lighting
IM NuvoSkim AIO Protein Skimmer
AQUATICLIFE 4-Stage RO/DI
Refractometer
Microbacter7
Seachem "Ammonia Alert" hanging tag thingy
API Saltwater "Master Test Kit"
The Journey So far:
November 9 - Set the tank up on the kitchen counter and filled with conditioned (Seachem Prime) fresh water for 24-hour leak test. Started making and mixing RO/DI saltwater in a new Rubbermaid using the heater and a spare return pump to keep it moving. Rinsed and then soaked the dry rock in RO/DI saltwater.
November 10 - Emptied the tank, let it dry, then wiped down everything (except the very bottom of the AIO which I couldn't reach) with RO/DI water. Started a new batch of RO/DI saltwater mixing overnight.
November 11 - Moved the aquarium into place, added the rock, filled with saltwater, and started everything. Added IM "Fiber balls" to the top of the IM AIO caddy. My intention was to wait another 24 hours, but I got super impatient and once the tank got up to temp (80 degrees) I shut off the lights and skimmer and added .5 grams of Bulk Reef Supply food pellets. I continued to add another .1 grams every other day for the next week.
November 18 - Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates all measure zero. PH holding steady around 7.5 although it does sometimes read closer to 8. I dosed with Microbacter7 following the instructions, and continued to do so every day.
November 24 - Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates all measure zero. The food I had added has accumulated on the bottom of the tank and is just hanging out there, and does not appear to be breaking down at all. Suspicious, I checked the tank temperature with an infrared and found it was running at 72 degrees. Well, that's something I should have checked before -- and no matter where I set the Fluval's gauge, the temperature of the water remained at 72. As a stop-gap I ordered a cheap Chinese heater overnight from Amazon. As my friend then said, I will now forever be suspicious of all of my equipment. Sure enough, I took a water sample and refractometer over to a friend's house and we confirmed it was way, way off. Calibrating with RO/DI or her known good water made no difference -- I had over-salinized to the tune of 1.035 and immediately ordered a new, this time more than $15 refractometer.
November 26 - Very, very happy with the cheap heater and ordered a second one as a backup. The Fluval will live in the mixing trash can as supplemental heat. Bad Fluval, bad.
December 1 - I did not perform a full water change, but did clean out the food, bought calibration solution, calibrated the new refractometer and confirmed against my friend's tank water, and cycled in RO/DI freshwater slowly (allowing up to 24 hours for mixing) over several days. At this point, everything looks really good and I dosed with Dr. Tim's Ammonium Chloride, following the instructions to get to 2ppm and started dosing again with Microbacter7.
December 4 - I had been adding at least daily (usually twice) RO/DI freshwater to deal with evaporation. But at this point, I added a little gravity ATO and covered the top of the display with a suspiciously thin piece of Lexan. Both have been doing swimmingly, and the evaporation is about 10% of where it was.
December 11 - Ammonia hasn't budged. Nitrites and Nitrates are zero.
December 12 - I stopped by my LFS and bought the last bottle of Fritz Aquatics Turbostart, and dosed half the bottle following the instructions.
December 13 - I dosed the other half of the Turbostart, figuring it wouldn't last forever anyway. The more the merrier!
December 14 - Trace Nitrites! Glory and Joy! Something is happening!
December 21 - Ammonia is about half of where it was, nitrites are rising (strangely high) and trace nitrates. It's happening! It's happening! I moved half of the fiber balls to the two lower sections of the AIO caddy, added more fiber balls to the top of the caddy, and a piece of poly fiber filter pad (from BRS) just to add more surface area to the filters.
December 29 - Ammonia is down to a trace. Nitrites are still high, and nitrates are still rising around 40-50ppm.
Conclusion:
As I started this now seemingly long post, this has been a frustrating journey, mostly self-inflicted. Choosing to go bare-bottom for a nano tank, not properly verifying the efficacy of my cheapo refractometer, not testing the heater for consistency, trying to start a cycle using dry food, and possibly trying to supplement the cycle with a bad bottle of Microbacter7 were all questionable choices for sure, even for a novice. But I feel like lessons have been learned, and we're close to adding livestock.
That's my journey so far. The Lexan is doing a great job and I'm electing to just leave the condensation unless I need to remove the top as this seems to keep the salinity consistent. The aluminum base may seem superficial or superfluous, but the stand is made of wood so it will hopefully serve as a preventive measure against any warping that might happen and -- God forbid - a repeat of the great living room flood of '96.
Hopefully somebody found this interesting and/or helpful. If I had to do this again, I'd probably go a similar route but start off with the Fritz Turbostart and Ammonium Chloride, rather than try to cycle with food and use the inert Microbacter7.
Oh, and by the way, my name is Michael. Glad to be here!
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