Luckki
Active Member
Hello Everyone,
I recently made a Hello post saying I am getting back in to the hobby. I was lucky to receive an WB AIO 25 Peninsula for Christmas, needless to say I have been pretty excited to get this tank up and running.
My first project started back in the first week of December. I have a wife that cannot keep gifts a secret so I knew what I was getting and if you are aware of WBs product line I needed to make a stand. I built a cheep but sturdy stand with hinged doors and two shelves to get me started. Since this is in a carpeted room of my small house I had to make sure that it was stable. I added some precision leveling feet to make sure that the tank is perfectly leveled and will not shift after it settled into the carpet pad. The leveling feet are adjusted by a 5mm hex key from the top which is nice. After leveling the tank the feet are hidden by the bottom board. I made sure that the tank was leveled side to side and front to back then corner to corner diagonally. When the bubble was perfectly centered I started to plan my aqua scape. It took me a few hours and I finally decided on a shape, I got it glued together and about two days later my live Fiji pink sand arrived along with my RODI system. Initially I thought that I would put my RODI system inside my cabinet so that I could set it up to feed my ATO system. I have since pulled it from the cabinet and added a 7 gallon temporary reserve tank ( trash can) to my stand as an ATO reservoir. After getting some RODI water made and adding my salt mix to it. I started to cycle my tank.
So far I have been cycling the tank for about 15 days. I started off using Fritz turbo start 900, with their fishless start. The tank was cloudy for about two days and then it was crystal clear. I took some baseline samples the day of to make sure my results were all zeros, and they were. After adding the bacteria and the ammonia I made sure that my ammonia was dose at 2 ppm. Day two the ammonia was at 1.5 ppm and nitrites were climbing. Day three testing was the same as day two. PH 8.3 Ammonia 1.5 ppm Nitrite 1.5 ppm Nitrate 5ppm ( probably a false positive). I noted in my log that my salinity was going up slightly ( this was before my ATO had been installed.) I topped off the tank with some fresh RODI and all the parameters were normal. Day four was weird. Ammonia was back to 4 ppm and Nitrite was at 2 ppm Nitrate was at 15 ppm. I started to think that the Test kit that I got to try out from Pet co their API rebrand was not working. I checked the dates and it was fine, however it seems that this test might be off. I ordered a Red sea test kit and the Salifert ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate kits. I started double testing and found that the Red sea and Salifert were agreeing with each other. For those out there looking to start a tank for me the Pet Co Imagitarium test kit has not been accurate enough. Day 5 the ammonia was through dropping to around .75 ppm nitrite was between 2-5ppm (I could not tell I just knew it was high) day six everything dropped and it looked like it was working then day seven arrived. I tested the tank and saw that it was actually over 5ppm according to Dr. Tims ( I should do a water change to keep the cycle from stalling out. I did two 50% water changes the first one made no noticeable dent to my Nitrite problem and the second brought it down to about 2.5-3 ppm. Normal testing returned and on Day 9 I finally had 0 ppm Ammonia. Nitrite was at 1 ppm and nitrate at 7ppm DKH 11 with a PH 8. I dosed .5 ppm ammonia back into the tank to ensure that the ammonia was being processed out and as you can imagine this increased my nitrites. I continued to monitor till I got to Day 13. My nitrites were back over 5ppm I conducted another 50% with no change, I ended up doing 3 50% water changes to get my nitrites and nitrates ( they were at 100 ppm) down to a lower amount after doing the water changes I ended up with PH 8.2, NH3/ NH4 .25-.5, NO2- 1 ppm, NO3- 25 ppm. This is where I currently am. I will conduct my tests at 8pm tonight to check if my ammonia stays at 0 ppm and my Nitrites are actually going down. I have a strong filling that my Nitrate readings are due to the high Nitrites, but we will see.
Tank specs:
WB AIO 25 Peninsula
20 lbs of dry rock
20 pounds of Carib sea Fiji Pink
Kessil A360X with wired controller set to 18" with 55 degree reflector
Nero 3 submersible pump
Duetto 2 ATO
Water specs:
BRS 100 four stage RODI system
TDS in 6 ppm TDS out 0
Pressure 40 psi w/o booster pump W/pump 95 psi
Salt mix Red Sea Coral Pro at first
I have decided to try out Nyos pure since they had a bigger bucket and it would work for me.
Light has been off the entire time I have been cycling with the exception of maintenance and pictures. The carbon filter has been removed, so has the sock filter. I added some extra ceramic rings to the the filtration to allow me to remove it should I want to start another tank.... (we all know how addictive this can be).
I am getting excited because it seems like I am just around the bend from being able to add some livestock. Some of my thoughts for that would be the good o'l faithful clowns. I really like the Snow Onxy clowns from Sea and Reef, but I have not decided except that there will be two. For corals I plan on a Zoa garden with a hammer coral that might act as host for the Clowns.
If you have some other ideas for clean up/ tank mates I am open to suggestions.
Thanks for reading attached are some pictures of the process
I recently made a Hello post saying I am getting back in to the hobby. I was lucky to receive an WB AIO 25 Peninsula for Christmas, needless to say I have been pretty excited to get this tank up and running.
My first project started back in the first week of December. I have a wife that cannot keep gifts a secret so I knew what I was getting and if you are aware of WBs product line I needed to make a stand. I built a cheep but sturdy stand with hinged doors and two shelves to get me started. Since this is in a carpeted room of my small house I had to make sure that it was stable. I added some precision leveling feet to make sure that the tank is perfectly leveled and will not shift after it settled into the carpet pad. The leveling feet are adjusted by a 5mm hex key from the top which is nice. After leveling the tank the feet are hidden by the bottom board. I made sure that the tank was leveled side to side and front to back then corner to corner diagonally. When the bubble was perfectly centered I started to plan my aqua scape. It took me a few hours and I finally decided on a shape, I got it glued together and about two days later my live Fiji pink sand arrived along with my RODI system. Initially I thought that I would put my RODI system inside my cabinet so that I could set it up to feed my ATO system. I have since pulled it from the cabinet and added a 7 gallon temporary reserve tank ( trash can) to my stand as an ATO reservoir. After getting some RODI water made and adding my salt mix to it. I started to cycle my tank.
So far I have been cycling the tank for about 15 days. I started off using Fritz turbo start 900, with their fishless start. The tank was cloudy for about two days and then it was crystal clear. I took some baseline samples the day of to make sure my results were all zeros, and they were. After adding the bacteria and the ammonia I made sure that my ammonia was dose at 2 ppm. Day two the ammonia was at 1.5 ppm and nitrites were climbing. Day three testing was the same as day two. PH 8.3 Ammonia 1.5 ppm Nitrite 1.5 ppm Nitrate 5ppm ( probably a false positive). I noted in my log that my salinity was going up slightly ( this was before my ATO had been installed.) I topped off the tank with some fresh RODI and all the parameters were normal. Day four was weird. Ammonia was back to 4 ppm and Nitrite was at 2 ppm Nitrate was at 15 ppm. I started to think that the Test kit that I got to try out from Pet co their API rebrand was not working. I checked the dates and it was fine, however it seems that this test might be off. I ordered a Red sea test kit and the Salifert ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate kits. I started double testing and found that the Red sea and Salifert were agreeing with each other. For those out there looking to start a tank for me the Pet Co Imagitarium test kit has not been accurate enough. Day 5 the ammonia was through dropping to around .75 ppm nitrite was between 2-5ppm (I could not tell I just knew it was high) day six everything dropped and it looked like it was working then day seven arrived. I tested the tank and saw that it was actually over 5ppm according to Dr. Tims ( I should do a water change to keep the cycle from stalling out. I did two 50% water changes the first one made no noticeable dent to my Nitrite problem and the second brought it down to about 2.5-3 ppm. Normal testing returned and on Day 9 I finally had 0 ppm Ammonia. Nitrite was at 1 ppm and nitrate at 7ppm DKH 11 with a PH 8. I dosed .5 ppm ammonia back into the tank to ensure that the ammonia was being processed out and as you can imagine this increased my nitrites. I continued to monitor till I got to Day 13. My nitrites were back over 5ppm I conducted another 50% with no change, I ended up doing 3 50% water changes to get my nitrites and nitrates ( they were at 100 ppm) down to a lower amount after doing the water changes I ended up with PH 8.2, NH3/ NH4 .25-.5, NO2- 1 ppm, NO3- 25 ppm. This is where I currently am. I will conduct my tests at 8pm tonight to check if my ammonia stays at 0 ppm and my Nitrites are actually going down. I have a strong filling that my Nitrate readings are due to the high Nitrites, but we will see.
Tank specs:
WB AIO 25 Peninsula
20 lbs of dry rock
20 pounds of Carib sea Fiji Pink
Kessil A360X with wired controller set to 18" with 55 degree reflector
Nero 3 submersible pump
Duetto 2 ATO
Water specs:
BRS 100 four stage RODI system
TDS in 6 ppm TDS out 0
Pressure 40 psi w/o booster pump W/pump 95 psi
Salt mix Red Sea Coral Pro at first
I have decided to try out Nyos pure since they had a bigger bucket and it would work for me.
Light has been off the entire time I have been cycling with the exception of maintenance and pictures. The carbon filter has been removed, so has the sock filter. I added some extra ceramic rings to the the filtration to allow me to remove it should I want to start another tank.... (we all know how addictive this can be).
I am getting excited because it seems like I am just around the bend from being able to add some livestock. Some of my thoughts for that would be the good o'l faithful clowns. I really like the Snow Onxy clowns from Sea and Reef, but I have not decided except that there will be two. For corals I plan on a Zoa garden with a hammer coral that might act as host for the Clowns.
If you have some other ideas for clean up/ tank mates I am open to suggestions.
Thanks for reading attached are some pictures of the process
