Leftfooted Jedi’s IM 20G Peninsula

LeftFootedJedi

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And the journey officially begins. Inventory is as follows:

Tank:
Innovative Marine NUVO Fusion Peninsula 20

Filtration:
  • MightyJet Desktop Return Pump
  • IM Media Caddy
  • Heating: EHeim Jager 75watt
  • Auto Aqua Smart ATO
Flow:
  • Jebao SLW 10
  • Accel Aquatics Wide Vortex Flow Accelerator - model VA
Lighting:
Current USA Orbit Marine IC LED Bluetooth

Substrate:
  • 20lbs CaribSea Aragalive in Fiji Pink
  • 15lbs dry rock

Day 1- I’ve started the cycle process with Seachem Stability & even though lights are off w/o stock I did a dry run of the parameters. Considering some light ghost feeds to help the bacteria get a strong foothold.

Parameters:
  • PH - 8.0
  • Ammonia: 0
  • Nitrite: 0 ppm
  • Nitrate: 0 ppm
Water Temp:
80.6 (according to thermometer that came with lights) I have it in my 3rd chamber with my pump.

Thoughts:

1) I don’t trust electronic thermometers but considering how reliable EHeim supposedly is, I’m surprised the orange light has yet to turn off & tank is reading 2 degrees above the 78 degree setting several hours later. I’ve set it to 76 about an hour ago & the orange light is still on & temp is unchanged. Any thoughts on this?

2) I read a lot of good things about the Vortex flow randomizes but I might have bought the wrong one, it seems big. Not sure if I’ll keep it or go back to the stock for better aesthetics.

3) I’ve left the lights at factory settings so please excuse the quality of my pictures. I’ll do more research on this over the next month.

Looking ahead, I will let the tank cycle 30 days, or however long it takes, and then start adding livestock little by little. Nothing unusual, a pair of clowns, yellow watchman goby, purple dottyback, CUC & then.... assuming I can add one fish I’d open to suggestions. If I can avoid killing all of my fish & see reasonable success I might add a few soft & very beginner safe corals.

I’m notoriously impatient but I’m going to take this very slow & steady.

40E44200-B327-4F7C-922C-B2791D588605.jpeg A17A636A-D1F3-4E1C-A310-8FFD62577545.jpeg E91187F6-24C1-45A2-A801-B8EC44067B35.jpeg 0DCBB7BC-D794-40D8-B652-572AAD169B76.jpeg
 
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LeftFootedJedi

LeftFootedJedi

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Wk 2 results are in. I took another picture, but no noticeable changes. Looks like I’m starting to see the ammonia spike, although I’m not sure exactly how high it’ll go, hopefully someone can tell me. I ghost fed on Tues & Friday, based on the ammonia reading it looks like that is doing the trick so I’ll stick with that schedule for now or should I stop?

I finally got the heater set & water is at 78.8 degrees. This week I’ll do some research on the light settings. I won’t add corals for quite a while but want to get that all set.

Parameters:
  • PH - 8.0
  • Ammonia: 1 ppm
  • Nitrite: 0 ppm
  • Nitrate: 0 ppm

579AB72B-1B97-4DB4-A4B6-1DAFA34F5A98.jpeg F4362B24-423D-4EB8-AEF4-10FA132A78F5.jpeg
 
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LeftFootedJedi

LeftFootedJedi

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Day 10 testing happened yesterday. Ammonia dropped but nitrites & nitrates are flat. Any thoughts on that?

Parameters:
  • PH - 8.0
  • Ammonia: .125ppm??
  • Nitrite: 0 ppm
  • Nitrate: 0 ppm

B335A678-8096-415A-83A3-CFE56A00FFB6.jpeg
 
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LeftFootedJedi

LeftFootedJedi

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Haven’t posted anything in quite a while so i thought an update was needed. Going on 4 months, things have been good by and large, a few losses but aside from that and a mild, but steady case of algae, I can’t complain. I thought I had the uglies but that came & went but I still see some algae from time to time.

Livestock is steady, 2 clowns, RG & YWG + CUC. Things were good so I added a few coral frags (Xenia, Zola, GSP & ??? Orange/yellow one that i cannot for the life of me recall its name). Ive isolated each frag to its own rock to try and help control is spreading so rampantly.. we’ll see how that goes.

I also changed my scape around, just didn’t feel natural & while I was hesitant I’m much happier with it & it appears to RG & YWG are too. Moved my powerhead too due to aesthetics & noticed a lot more flow in the tank.

Parameters have been steady until today when my nitrates spiked to 40 ppm. Not sure what caused that but I did lose a trochus snail that my hermit crabs quickly devoured. I also lost AC in my house for 2 days (I live in Dallas), but question if higher temps caused that. I’m up to date on my tank maintenance and will retest after a 20% water change this weekend.

Sorry for the poor pics, but I haven’t bought a lens/filter for my phone & still struggling to find an app that does the work for me.

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Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

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