My First Tank Build, 75g.

[.Marshall]

Had a rough morning so far, work up early to take the ro/di water that was made overnight, mixed the salt in, and started filling up the DT, sounds un-eventful right? WRONG! By this time when I was filling up the DT it was getting pretty close to the loc-line return and the overflow teeth, when I came back with a bucket of water to dump in the DT I heard water wooshing.. I almost died I thought the plumbing was leaking down the back of the aquarium, I put my hand back there and to my surprise nothing was wet but then I noticed an extremely noobish mistake I made in the plumbing.. the check valve was upside down! :swear:

I then proceeded to cut the check valve out, with no extra unions I had to run down to the hardware store in my pajamas and get a couple couplings to reverse the check valve. Problem fixed! But boy was I mad!! lol

Anyways the DT is filled up to the overflow teeth, I didn't want to fill it enough to let it overflow into the overflow box while I was away at work so i'm making another batch of ro/di as we speak and tonight water shall flow to the sump!

Here are some pictures of the final scape, first batch of water in, and the finished electrical/ATO box.
Sorry for the crappy cell phone pictures! once I get everything cleaned up around the tank I will start getting actual camera pictures!! Its a maze of tools and equipment scattered around the base of the tank right now!

 

[REEFKEEPER10]

Nice work so far.

 

[REEFKEEPER10]

I noticed your using a brute trash can. I read a post last week and it said they can leak phosphate into the water. I don't know how true it is but I thought you should know.

 

[.Marshall]

I noticed your using a brute trash can. I read a post last week and it said they can leak phosphate into the water. I don't know how true it is but I thought you should know.

Hmmm never heard that before, ahh well I am running GFO anyways. Shouln't be to much of a problem, seems everyone and their mother is using brute cans

 

[REEFKEEPER10]

Yeah until last week I had never heard that. Just thought I would let you know so if it does become a issue down the road you can pen point the problem.

 

[.Marshall]

Yeah until last week I had never heard that. Just thought I would let you know so if it does become a issue down the road you can pen point the problem.

Thanks for the heads up!

 

[gmoney243]

Looking good. Don't worry we all flood some floors at some point lol

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[REEFKEEPER10]

welcome

 

[nytegti]

Hows it coming along?

 

[.Marshall]

Pretty well actually! Update
Everything is up and running and very smoothly at that. I finally got the apex to work flawlessly on my wireless network, which took entirely too long.
But anyway enough talk, on to the pictures!!

I feel like a Canon DLR is in my future, the ol' point and shoot just wont cut it for fish/coral pictures I feel.
Start off with my first FTS! ..quite boring just hanging some raw shrimp to start my cycle.

Left side scape, on the right side of the rock there is a SWEET cave that goes a solid 3 inches vertical into the rock, whoever makes that cave his/her home will be the king of the castle.

Right Side scape, this is where most of the rock is, has a lot of nooks and crannies and a couple potential cool caves

And I will leave you with this.. Finished product, I think it turned out great! Exactly how I had envisioned!

 

[.Marshall]

Temp: 78.8
pH: 8.10
Salinity: 1.028
Phosphates: ----- Not sure didn't test, last test was .08 ppm
Ammonia: ~1.00 ppm
Nitrites: 0.00 ppm
Nitrates: 0.00 ppm

Is there anything I should be doing to start seeing Nitrite? Add a couple more raw shrimp to add more ammonia? Or will it run its course slowly but surely..

P.s. I am running GFO, should I not be doing this? What role do Phosphates play when cycling?

 

[BarbH]

How long has it been since you started cycling your tank. Looks like it hasn't been too long, at this point I would just wait and let it do it's thing since you are being an ammonia reading. Not sure but sg seems a little high, hopefully someone else can verify on that.

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[.Marshall]

How long has it been since you started cycling your tank. Looks like it hasn't been too long, at this point I would just wait and let it do it's thing since you are being an ammonia reading. Not sure but sg seems a little high, hopefully someone else can verify on that.

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Yeah I am working on lowering the salinity which will happen with the next water change. It has been cycling for about a week and a half now.

 

[nytegti]

Temp: 78.8
pH: 8.10
Salinity: 1.028
Phosphates: ----- Not sure didn't test, last test was .08 ppm
Ammonia: ~1.00 ppm
Nitrites: 0.00 ppm
Nitrates: 0.00 ppm

Is there anything I should be doing to start seeing Nitrite? Add a couple more raw shrimp to add more ammonia? Or will it run its course slowly but surely..

P.s. I am running GFO, should I not be doing this? What role do Phosphates play when cycling?

Most of my local reef club swear by either Dr. tims bacteria or IO's Biospira to get the cycle going. or you could grab a piece of live rock & put it in your sump if you're worried about pests.

The phosphates I can't answer on since I've never run GFO. I have some Chemipure elite in my nano & it's got some GFO in it so I guess I sorta have. I had that in there during my cycle too. I think just skim everything & you'll be fine.

 

[.Marshall]

I do have some Bio-Spira but I thought that was to be used late in the cycle, could I dump er' in right now?! Cause that would be awesome..

 

[nytegti]

I do have some Bio-Spira but I thought that was to be used late in the cycle, could I dump er' in right now?! Cause that would be awesome..

go for it, it can only help your cycle along & you technically can't overdose

 

[.Marshall]

Little update, just been working on the tank! things here and there, getting used to water changes, testing water etc. It's becoming routine to wake up and go straight down to the tank to test everything.


Yesterday I spent most of the day, cleaning and tinkering with things considering I was at work a lot last week and wasn't able to come back and do what I wanted so yesterday I got everything done. Rescaped the left side, cleaned up the glass and sand bed, got the tunze 6095 (which is for sale ) out and mounted the new mp10wes (love it, should have went vortech in the first place..) and little random outlet programming.


Here's a couple pictures of the new scape and fts, what do ya think?

Ammonia has been gone for a while but I still test <.25 ppm for nitrites.. not very happy about it but i've tried multiple big water changes with no avail, any comments?

 

[.Marshall]

The new scape has a couple little branches coming off the main rock in 2 directions, I really like how it turned out. and the purple rock putty will soon be covered by coralline (I hope)

 

[skinz78]

Looking real good!

 

[AsphaltPays]

Great job Looking good


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