noahrhuskey
New Member
Greetings!
Hello, I'm new to reefing and wanted to post a thread on my tank.
From the title you can see it's not much but I'm a loving this new hobby. Due to the whole covid 19 thing I have been out of work from Disney. Without working my usual 6-7 day work shifts I'm going a little crazy. I have had freshwater tanks my whole life and even have a 55g in my current house. I wanted to do something a little different to work my brain out instead of sitting in my house in depression. So after about a month and a half this is what I'm currently sitting with.
Specs:
Tank- 80g (5'x20"x14'')
Sump - 29g (30"x12"x18") Using around 14g
Return Pump- Jebao MDC-3500 (flow set to 85)
Skimmer- Aquatop xyclone
Filtration- 15inch Felt Filter Sock
Lighting- (2) AI PrimeHD reef (third on its way in mail)
Reactor- BRS Carbon/GFO single reactor (only using carbon rn) with Vivosun 800gph pump
Dosing- Jebao Doser 3.4 (ME Coral 2 part alk,cal)
Power Head- SunSun JVP wavemakers (cheep from amazon till i can save up for couple Nero5)
Parameters:
Po4- 0
Ca2 - 400
Ph- 8.2
Kh- 8.5
Nh3/4- 0
No2- 0
No3- 2
Temp- 77.6F
Sal- 1.024
Lighting scheduled:
Again I'm new to salt water and reef life so if my parameters aren't the best right now i would love to hear feedback.
In the tank i have 2 live rock from World Wide Coral in Orlando, 4 dead rock and crushed coral for the sub strain. Cycling took about 2 and a half weeks by using turbo start and phantom feeding once a day. I let the tank run for a week, testing every day making sure the Ammonia did not show back up on tests. During this week the Nitires were shifting from 0.05 and 0 and the Nitrates were in the 10-20 area. Asking around at WWC they told me to pick up some inverts and maybe a couple frags and do a water change. On week 3 and a half the Nitrites were reading 0 and Nitrates were around 5 and ammonia still at 0.
FISH:
Seeing that the test were coming back good I took a water sample to WWC and they said i was good to introduce fish (FInalyyyyy).
I picked up 2 small clownish and asked if they needed to be quarantined and they said not really since they treat all their tanks with copper and will be the first fish in the tank (duh).... A week went by and still testing everyday (because I'm a control freak when it comes to stuff like this) and i introduced a small Yellow Tang.
I Got Scared:
During the week of having the 2 clown fish in the tank alone, DIATOM showed up on the crushed coral. I freaked out and went to my local fish store panicking. I was informed that this was normal (ugly stage) and gets worse if lights are running (whoops). I was also told this would cloud up the water after it starts to come off the rocks and crushed coral. So being the control freak I am, I went out and got a carbon reactor...
It WORKED.. Maybe to well?..
After running the the carbon for a couple days the water cleared up about 60ish%. So i was happy and went out to WWC and started looking at coral since the my Zoanthids and Polyp were doing well. So I asked what is a nice hardy coral. I was shown a neon green spotted hammer head colony. It was $150 but getting my government pay day check i was like screw it and got it. I let it acclimate for 30 minutes and put it in and after a few more minutes it opened up a good about. Not as good as it was in the store but i was pleased. There was still some Diatom hanging on the crushed coral so i looked at my filter sock and it was dark brown and about to over flow so i went and bought a new sock while I washed the old one. Later that night i noticed the hammer head closed up. Again i freaked out tested every parameter I could and noticed the Nitrate was at 0 which i thought was fine and normal but after talking to WWC they said there needs to be some Nitrate since they like the water (dirty). Well dang, water is tooooo clean..
Past Two Day Stress:
Well now my water is to clean. I shut off the skimmer (not like it was doing much anyways fot the new tank. I started to feed twice a day instead of once to build up some good bacteria. After watching 20+ hours on BRS youtube channel, I learned about calcium and alk. Looking over the readings I've been recording i notice the Calcium was dropping about 20 each day and my Alk was dropping slowly as well. Due to the small amount of coral and even less rocky coral i did not need to be dosing just yet and a water change would work. Again with that nice looking check sitting in my bank and had nothing else to do i got a doser. I tuned the doser to dose 40ml of Cal over the period of 2 hours and 6ml of Alk over a 2 hour period each day (different times )and this had been keeping my Alk around 8.5 and Cal at 400.
Still Figuring Out and More Stress LOL..:
The Zoanthids and Polyps are looking great and full with bright colors but the hammer head is still mostly closed up. Moving it to a place with moderate flow and light has opened it up but still very very short and small looking. The only thing I could think of was checking the Nitrate again. I read 0% and so checked the Ammonia and it read out 0.2 but very very low. Again i freaked out and got some Fritz Zhyme 9 Live Bacteria. After using the bottle over the day (treats 20g a bottle) I tested 0 Ammonia the next morning but Nitrate were still at 0..... (ughhhhh) but guess this is what hobby is all about, figuting out what works and doesn't because I'm not marine biologist.
Today..
Well I'm still reading 0s in all Ammonia, Nitrate and Nitrite and scared I washed all my good bacteria away from my dirty filter sock... 150 dollar hammer still looking sad but It still hasn't given up on me and I will not give up on it.
Again this Is my first time with Salt water and reefing so I will take all the feedback and knowledge this forum can give. Hope you stuck through reading all this and forgive me on my grammar.
Have a great day!
Hello, I'm new to reefing and wanted to post a thread on my tank.
From the title you can see it's not much but I'm a loving this new hobby. Due to the whole covid 19 thing I have been out of work from Disney. Without working my usual 6-7 day work shifts I'm going a little crazy. I have had freshwater tanks my whole life and even have a 55g in my current house. I wanted to do something a little different to work my brain out instead of sitting in my house in depression. So after about a month and a half this is what I'm currently sitting with.
Specs:
Tank- 80g (5'x20"x14'')
Sump - 29g (30"x12"x18") Using around 14g
Return Pump- Jebao MDC-3500 (flow set to 85)
Skimmer- Aquatop xyclone
Filtration- 15inch Felt Filter Sock
Lighting- (2) AI PrimeHD reef (third on its way in mail)
Reactor- BRS Carbon/GFO single reactor (only using carbon rn) with Vivosun 800gph pump
Dosing- Jebao Doser 3.4 (ME Coral 2 part alk,cal)
Power Head- SunSun JVP wavemakers (cheep from amazon till i can save up for couple Nero5)
Parameters:
Po4- 0
Ca2 - 400
Ph- 8.2
Kh- 8.5
Nh3/4- 0
No2- 0
No3- 2
Temp- 77.6F
Sal- 1.024
Lighting scheduled:
Again I'm new to salt water and reef life so if my parameters aren't the best right now i would love to hear feedback.
In the tank i have 2 live rock from World Wide Coral in Orlando, 4 dead rock and crushed coral for the sub strain. Cycling took about 2 and a half weeks by using turbo start and phantom feeding once a day. I let the tank run for a week, testing every day making sure the Ammonia did not show back up on tests. During this week the Nitires were shifting from 0.05 and 0 and the Nitrates were in the 10-20 area. Asking around at WWC they told me to pick up some inverts and maybe a couple frags and do a water change. On week 3 and a half the Nitrites were reading 0 and Nitrates were around 5 and ammonia still at 0.
FISH:
Seeing that the test were coming back good I took a water sample to WWC and they said i was good to introduce fish (FInalyyyyy).
I picked up 2 small clownish and asked if they needed to be quarantined and they said not really since they treat all their tanks with copper and will be the first fish in the tank (duh).... A week went by and still testing everyday (because I'm a control freak when it comes to stuff like this) and i introduced a small Yellow Tang.
I Got Scared:
During the week of having the 2 clown fish in the tank alone, DIATOM showed up on the crushed coral. I freaked out and went to my local fish store panicking. I was informed that this was normal (ugly stage) and gets worse if lights are running (whoops). I was also told this would cloud up the water after it starts to come off the rocks and crushed coral. So being the control freak I am, I went out and got a carbon reactor...
It WORKED.. Maybe to well?..
After running the the carbon for a couple days the water cleared up about 60ish%. So i was happy and went out to WWC and started looking at coral since the my Zoanthids and Polyp were doing well. So I asked what is a nice hardy coral. I was shown a neon green spotted hammer head colony. It was $150 but getting my government pay day check i was like screw it and got it. I let it acclimate for 30 minutes and put it in and after a few more minutes it opened up a good about. Not as good as it was in the store but i was pleased. There was still some Diatom hanging on the crushed coral so i looked at my filter sock and it was dark brown and about to over flow so i went and bought a new sock while I washed the old one. Later that night i noticed the hammer head closed up. Again i freaked out tested every parameter I could and noticed the Nitrate was at 0 which i thought was fine and normal but after talking to WWC they said there needs to be some Nitrate since they like the water (dirty). Well dang, water is tooooo clean..
Past Two Day Stress:
Well now my water is to clean. I shut off the skimmer (not like it was doing much anyways fot the new tank. I started to feed twice a day instead of once to build up some good bacteria. After watching 20+ hours on BRS youtube channel, I learned about calcium and alk. Looking over the readings I've been recording i notice the Calcium was dropping about 20 each day and my Alk was dropping slowly as well. Due to the small amount of coral and even less rocky coral i did not need to be dosing just yet and a water change would work. Again with that nice looking check sitting in my bank and had nothing else to do i got a doser. I tuned the doser to dose 40ml of Cal over the period of 2 hours and 6ml of Alk over a 2 hour period each day (different times )and this had been keeping my Alk around 8.5 and Cal at 400.
Still Figuring Out and More Stress LOL..:
The Zoanthids and Polyps are looking great and full with bright colors but the hammer head is still mostly closed up. Moving it to a place with moderate flow and light has opened it up but still very very short and small looking. The only thing I could think of was checking the Nitrate again. I read 0% and so checked the Ammonia and it read out 0.2 but very very low. Again i freaked out and got some Fritz Zhyme 9 Live Bacteria. After using the bottle over the day (treats 20g a bottle) I tested 0 Ammonia the next morning but Nitrate were still at 0..... (ughhhhh) but guess this is what hobby is all about, figuting out what works and doesn't because I'm not marine biologist.
Today..
Well I'm still reading 0s in all Ammonia, Nitrate and Nitrite and scared I washed all my good bacteria away from my dirty filter sock... 150 dollar hammer still looking sad but It still hasn't given up on me and I will not give up on it.
Again this Is my first time with Salt water and reefing so I will take all the feedback and knowledge this forum can give. Hope you stuck through reading all this and forgive me on my grammar.
Have a great day!
