Hey everybody
So im going to detail here my first build and most of all my cycling process with the seneye sensor. Im at my first salwater experiment but have been for close to 20 years into freshwater. This is the 3rd time i am using ammonium chloride to start a cycle in a tank and as im getting used to it it make that one the easiest for me so far.
So lets start with a little look at the set up
I used a 72 gal bowfront marine land aquarium
To wich i added a sump of 20 gal
and refugium of 35 half full also used as my overflow backup.
I builded those out of lexan polycarbonate 1/4 thick, i used methylcetate to fuse it and than made a seal out of cyanoacrylane gel and baking soda, covered with GE silicone 1200 (i had the polycarbonate and wanted to make it work) it is really strong and my test in water and hot water showed the seal to be as strong and stiff as epoxy.
I think keeping the skimmer off is just the best during the cycle to be sure 100% of my bacteria stays into the water and im letting the socks get as dirty as they want
The ATO system is directly connected to the city water system wich is pumped underground in mountain and read a constant 0ppm for the past 4 years. It also explain why im running 12 freshwater tanks aside this new one and wanna go even bigger as we start breeding many species with my girlfriend.
Return pump flow at 800 GPH and i have a 1200 gph powerhead installed . The overflow is custom made out of glass by myself and help aerate my water (trying to lower PH slowly)
I have put 40 pound of arag alive pink fiji sand in my sump and 40 pound of arag alive black Hawaiian sand in the display tank. For the aquascape i've used around 50 pound of dry marco key largo rocks (10 were flat cut) and followed a lot of the BRStv trick to get a flow and different level for a multi species reef tank, hoping to be able to have SPS LPS and softies in one tank...
So the tanks was filled with water on the 23 april 2023, salinity set at 1.026 using instant ocean reef crystal.
Waited 2 days to dose my ammonium on the 25 april. I dose at 2 ppm according to redsea regeant test. i find it work faster by not reaching the limit bacteria can tolerate (in freshwater though) i dose faster later as you will see
got my seneye set up by april de 28 using a compac PC i found for 80$ on amazon, set with the probe on a different system for it so i can now use my cellphone app wich is a bit more annoying than on the pc itself as the app get one reading every 30 minutes where the PC is instant live reading all the time .
Using the seneye made me discover a new variation to the cycle wich is different reading to NH4 and NH3. The first stable reading i got were NH4 4.3 ppb (wich is 0.004 ppm) and 0.035 ppm of NH3 (note here that my red sea reagent test still test 2 ppm nh3/nh4)
I actually dose 20 ml of microbacter7 and 20ml of microbacterclean daily and today on 5 of may , 10 days after i dosed first ammonium, i got a seneye reading of 0.005 ppm of NH3 and the NH4 is still stable at 4 ppb. Red sea test is lower than 0.2 ppm. I have a high nitrite (over 1 ppm) and nitrate just started to show for the first day at a low 2ppm color wich mean all the beneficial bacteria started to grow .
At this point i need to dose again to feed them. So today on 5 of may i added a new 2ppm of ammonium regarding red sea test. I do get a really similar reading at 0.036 ppm NH3 and 4.31 ppb NH4 with seneye. I did crank up my heater a bit hoping to get 24°c tommorow
My PH is high but as everything seems to be in harmony i decided to let it be at least during cycle. The 90% water change at last day may make it better i hope.
No light during cycle to avoid bad algae growth. Only for picture and they are not well installed yet. The cabinet will also be covered after cycle
Tanks info :
72 bowfront display + 40 running under cabinet
Day :12
Red sea reagent test reading :
Dkh: 9
Cal: 400ppm
Mg: 1380 ppm
Sal: 1.026
PH: high 8.95 low 8.7
Nh3/Nh4 : 2 ppm
No3 : <1ppm
No2 : >2ppm
Thanks for pointing stuff i may not understand properly, there is so much to learn here . I honestly can feel that i may end up switching my monster freshwater tank to reef one day ... Even with a empty tank. The geek in me is just enjoying that complex ecosystem care
So im going to detail here my first build and most of all my cycling process with the seneye sensor. Im at my first salwater experiment but have been for close to 20 years into freshwater. This is the 3rd time i am using ammonium chloride to start a cycle in a tank and as im getting used to it it make that one the easiest for me so far.
So lets start with a little look at the set up
I used a 72 gal bowfront marine land aquarium
To wich i added a sump of 20 gal
I builded those out of lexan polycarbonate 1/4 thick, i used methylcetate to fuse it and than made a seal out of cyanoacrylane gel and baking soda, covered with GE silicone 1200 (i had the polycarbonate and wanted to make it work) it is really strong and my test in water and hot water showed the seal to be as strong and stiff as epoxy.
I think keeping the skimmer off is just the best during the cycle to be sure 100% of my bacteria stays into the water and im letting the socks get as dirty as they want
The ATO system is directly connected to the city water system wich is pumped underground in mountain and read a constant 0ppm for the past 4 years. It also explain why im running 12 freshwater tanks aside this new one and wanna go even bigger as we start breeding many species with my girlfriend.
Return pump flow at 800 GPH and i have a 1200 gph powerhead installed . The overflow is custom made out of glass by myself and help aerate my water (trying to lower PH slowly)
I have put 40 pound of arag alive pink fiji sand in my sump and 40 pound of arag alive black Hawaiian sand in the display tank. For the aquascape i've used around 50 pound of dry marco key largo rocks (10 were flat cut) and followed a lot of the BRStv trick to get a flow and different level for a multi species reef tank, hoping to be able to have SPS LPS and softies in one tank...
So the tanks was filled with water on the 23 april 2023, salinity set at 1.026 using instant ocean reef crystal.
Waited 2 days to dose my ammonium on the 25 april. I dose at 2 ppm according to redsea regeant test. i find it work faster by not reaching the limit bacteria can tolerate (in freshwater though) i dose faster later as you will see
got my seneye set up by april de 28 using a compac PC i found for 80$ on amazon, set with the probe on a different system for it so i can now use my cellphone app wich is a bit more annoying than on the pc itself as the app get one reading every 30 minutes where the PC is instant live reading all the time .
Using the seneye made me discover a new variation to the cycle wich is different reading to NH4 and NH3. The first stable reading i got were NH4 4.3 ppb (wich is 0.004 ppm) and 0.035 ppm of NH3 (note here that my red sea reagent test still test 2 ppm nh3/nh4)
I actually dose 20 ml of microbacter7 and 20ml of microbacterclean daily and today on 5 of may , 10 days after i dosed first ammonium, i got a seneye reading of 0.005 ppm of NH3 and the NH4 is still stable at 4 ppb. Red sea test is lower than 0.2 ppm. I have a high nitrite (over 1 ppm) and nitrate just started to show for the first day at a low 2ppm color wich mean all the beneficial bacteria started to grow .
At this point i need to dose again to feed them. So today on 5 of may i added a new 2ppm of ammonium regarding red sea test. I do get a really similar reading at 0.036 ppm NH3 and 4.31 ppb NH4 with seneye. I did crank up my heater a bit hoping to get 24°c tommorow
My PH is high but as everything seems to be in harmony i decided to let it be at least during cycle. The 90% water change at last day may make it better i hope.
No light during cycle to avoid bad algae growth. Only for picture and they are not well installed yet. The cabinet will also be covered after cycle
Tanks info :
72 bowfront display + 40 running under cabinet
Day :12
Red sea reagent test reading :
Dkh: 9
Cal: 400ppm
Mg: 1380 ppm
Sal: 1.026
PH: high 8.95 low 8.7
Nh3/Nh4 : 2 ppm
No3 : <1ppm
No2 : >2ppm
Thanks for pointing stuff i may not understand properly, there is so much to learn here . I honestly can feel that i may end up switching my monster freshwater tank to reef one day ... Even with a empty tank. The geek in me is just enjoying that complex ecosystem care
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