My first solo tank, 180 gallon build thread

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TARHEEL78

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Last update for the night. I did a home made recalibration job on the apex probe and got it close enough that it would at least stop sending alerts. I also started working with the canopy so I can get a material list together. I snapped a quick pic while it was above the tank for some measurements. It only has the T5s in it at the moment, I haven't mounted the Hydras yet.
20190628_204047.jpg
 

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So my apex is still stuck and I can't figure out why. I calibrated the probe and everything went fine but it's still reading around 29. Any ideas? Should I just go to the neptune forums and bug them? Lol

Get rid of that apex thing. Real reefers taste the water for salinity. :)

Now waters in how bout a fts?

Edit, and I learned how thread work today. Disregard
 
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Anyone following along want to help me out? I dosed ammonia to 4ppm and added my bio-spira om Saturday morning. As of this morning I had 0 ammonia, my nitrite was around 2ppm and my nitrate was around 10ppm. Does this seem to be on target as far as progression goes? My nitrite hasn't changed in a couple days. Is there anything else I need to do? As far as I know I just need to let it keep going on it's own.
 

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Anyone following along want to help me out? I dosed ammonia to 4ppm and added my bio-spira om Saturday morning. As of this morning I had 0 ammonia, my nitrite was around 2ppm and my nitrate was around 10ppm. Does this seem to be on target as far as progression goes? My nitrite hasn't changed in a couple days. Is there anything else I need to do? As far as I know I just need to let it keep going on it's own.

It’s all heading the right way.

I only dose to 2 ppm ammonia when starting FWIW.

I dose to 2 ppm, let it go to zero 2 times and then do my first WC and add my first fish.
 
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It’s all heading the right way.

I only dose to 2 ppm ammonia when starting FWIW.

I dose to 2 ppm, let it go to zero 2 times and then do my first WC and add my first fish.

Gotcha, I probably should have went with less but everything I read was different so I just went with 4. When the nitrite is cleared up I'm just dosing to 1 and if it's gone in 24 hours I'll do the wc and start adding.
 

mta_morrow

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Gotcha, I probably should have went with less but everything I read was different so I just went with 4. When the nitrite is cleared up I'm just dosing to 1 and if it's gone in 24 hours I'll do the wc and start adding.

That’s good!

Looking forward to what all your putting in!
 

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I found these cheap led light strips on amazon for $17 and I can actually see inside the stand now!
20190630_175735.jpg
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Don't mind the mess of cords, I should have that cleaned up soon too.

God your skimmer and sump are so clean looking! I mean your set up is tight but I remember before I used my stuff and how clean everything looked before the funk starts hitting it. Love the room you have under there. I have to play Tetris in my sump just to get the skimmer out to clean it. Looks very nice
 
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Well, ammonia is getting cleaned in 24 hours now but my nitrites are not. Nitrates are starting to get pretty high too. I'm not sure if I should dose more ammonia today or just do a wc. What do you think @mta_morrow ?
15622422284296099354845825854914.jpg
 

mta_morrow

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I would do your water change. Don’t do ammonia again.

I would expect you nitrites to be zero with 24 hours of your ammonia being zero.

Then as soon as nitrites hit zero, add your first fish!
 

mta_morrow

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You’ve cycled thru some serious ammonia dosing, so you have a good population of bacteria.

I have done my tanks exactly how you did this one.
 
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Thanks! Water change will happen as soon as I get back to the house. How much of a change do you recommend?
 
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Canopy is complete and I did a 50 gallon water change. Apex is giving me an alert saying salinity is low though so I probably got some bubbles in the probe. I'll post some pics shortly, just need to get some decent light in the room.
 
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Here are a few pictures with the canopy on(opened and closed) and no ambient light.
20190703_202712.jpg
20190703_214515.jpg


If it looks odd there's a reason. The T5s are off in the pics and my middle hydra was still on my QT tank at the time. It's actually still on it but I'm going to move it over soon. I have some corals in there that are growing on rocks that I don't want to transfer to the big tank. I guess I'm going to have to chisel the rock around the corals to be bald to move them over.
 
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