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Reefer5640

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I have a 6 stage rodi filter, and I’ll manually add it for now. Bought it to filter water for my wife’s kidney stone issue as here they add a lot of calcium to the tap water, and it’s helped. She was getting about 60 a year and now we are down to about 2-3, but that’s another story haha.
60 kidney stones a year!!!! oh man I’m so sorry for your wife! My wife has had 4-5 in the 15 years we’ve been together and I thought that was a lot for someone to go through.

As far as the water top off, you’re off to a good start. Sounds like you’ve got a plan but I’ll say it anyway. Having an automatic top off once you put coral in the tank will increase your chances for success substantially, unless you are religious about adding water constantly. Also, your water parameters look good enough for cycling the tank and I know someone mentioned it already but I’ll reiterate, you might want to consider bumping up the salinity to 1.026/35ppt. And your heat could go up a touch as well. 77-78. Leaving it 76 isn’t going to kill anything but coral will do better a couple degrees warmer.

As you mentioned, everyone has their way of doing things. Here’s one I use if you’re looking for a common method to cycle the tank. Im sure you’ve read about it. Put a chunk of frozen shrimp (or fish food as mentioned) in the tank with some bacteria boost. Which you’ve done the bacteria already. Test a few days later, write down the ammonia level. Test a few days later, write down ammonia level. Repeat... And then as soon as you show no ammonia test for nitrites and nitrates (though I don’t really see the need for a nitrite test kit. It starts as ammonia and ends as nitrate so there’s really very little need to know nitrite). Once you test 0 ammonia and can show a nitrate reading. Throw another chunk of shrimp or fish food in and test for ammonia and nitrates the next day. Once you’re there you’re pretty much cycled. Should take 2-4 weeks. Be careful not to get hung up on low ammonia readings not showing 0. I see people post all the time about their cycle getting stuck because their ammonia is at 0.5-1ppm. Ammonia test kits are finicky and sometimes won’t test at zero. That’s why it’s important to test along the way and to test for nitrates. Once you can prove that it goes from ammonia to nitrates. It’s cycling. How fast it can do that is why it’s important to wait before you add fish. Some people will add fish as soon as they see proof of the cycle and then they end up with an ammonia spike because the tank hasn’t matured enough. That’s why I say 2-4 weeks. 2 weeks it should be cycled and another 2 weeks to let it mature a bit.
 
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60 kidney stones a year!!!! oh man I’m so sorry for your wife! My wife has had 4-5 in the 15 years we’ve been together and I thought that was a lot for someone to go through.

As far as the water top off, you’re off to a good start. Sounds like you’ve got a plan but I’ll say it anyway. Having an automatic top off once you put coral in the tank will increase your chances for success substantially, unless you are religious about adding water constantly. Also, your water parameters look good enough for cycling the tank and I know someone mentioned it already but I’ll reiterate, you might want to consider bumping up the salinity to 1.026/35ppt. And your heat could go up a touch as well. 77-78. Leaving it 76 isn’t going to kill anything but coral will do better a couple degrees warmer.

As you mentioned, everyone has their way of doing things. Here’s one I use if you’re looking for a common method to cycle the tank. Im sure you’ve read about it. Put a chunk of frozen shrimp (or fish food as mentioned) in the tank with some bacteria boost. Which you’ve done the bacteria already. Test a few days later, write down the ammonia level. Test a few days later, write down ammonia level. Repeat... And then as soon as you show no ammonia test for nitrites and nitrates (though I don’t really see the need for a nitrite test kit. It starts as ammonia and ends as nitrate so there’s really very little need to know nitrite). Once you test 0 ammonia and can show a nitrate reading. Throw another chunk of shrimp or fish food in and test for ammonia and nitrates the next day. Once you’re there you’re pretty much cycled. Should take 2-4 weeks. Be careful not to get hung up on low ammonia readings not showing 0. I see people post all the time about their cycle getting stuck because their ammonia is at 0.5-1ppm. Ammonia test kits are finicky and sometimes won’t test at zero. That’s why it’s important to test along the way and to test for nitrates. Once you can prove that it goes from ammonia to nitrates. It’s cycling. How fast it can do that is why it’s important to wait before you add fish. Some people will add fish as soon as they see proof of the cycle and then they end up with an ammonia spike because the tank hasn’t matured enough. That’s why I say 2-4 weeks. 2 weeks it should be cycled and another 2 weeks to let it mature a bit.
Im slowly raising the salinity now, over the course of the last hour and a half, taking some water from tank, adding salt, mixing, add it back little by little. Test, repeat. Im almost at 1.025. And yeah eventually I would like to get a auto top off, I just don’t want to scare the wife with buying a bunch of stuff. I didn’t know about the shrimp method, I will read into that. . You All are amazing. I am keeping record of the testing in a notebook. But as stated above, I will invest in better testing equipment. Slow and steady wins the race. I can’t tell you enough how many times I say patience at work, it’s definitely in my head. Thank you all so much and I will definitely be updating as I go. I did add 20lbs more of inoculated rock. Once I get the salinity to at least 1.025 I’m going to let it just sit while I read up on the shrimp method. (I don’t eat shrimp so I don’t have any haha)
 

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60 kidney stones a year!!!! oh man I’m so sorry for your wife! My wife has had 4-5 in the 15 years we’ve been together and I thought that was a lot for someone to go through.

As far as the water top off, you’re off to a good start. Sounds like you’ve got a plan but I’ll say it anyway. Having an automatic top off once you put coral in the tank will increase your chances for success substantially, unless you are religious about adding water constantly. Also, your water parameters look good enough for cycling the tank and I know someone mentioned it already but I’ll reiterate, you might want to consider bumping up the salinity to 1.026/35ppt. And your heat could go up a touch as well. 77-78. Leaving it 76 isn’t going to kill anything but coral will do better a couple degrees warmer.

As you mentioned, everyone has their way of doing things. Here’s one I use if you’re looking for a common method to cycle the tank. Im sure you’ve read about it. Put a chunk of frozen shrimp (or fish food as mentioned) in the tank with some bacteria boost. Which you’ve done the bacteria already. Test a few days later, write down the ammonia level. Test a few days later, write down ammonia level. Repeat... And then as soon as you show no ammonia test for nitrites and nitrates (though I don’t really see the need for a nitrite test kit. It starts as ammonia and ends as nitrate so there’s really very little need to know nitrite). Once you test 0 ammonia and can show a nitrate reading. Throw another chunk of shrimp or fish food in and test for ammonia and nitrates the next day. Once you’re there you’re pretty much cycled. Should take 2-4 weeks. Be careful not to get hung up on low ammonia readings not showing 0. I see people post all the time about their cycle getting stuck because their ammonia is at 0.5-1ppm. Ammonia test kits are finicky and sometimes won’t test at zero. That’s why it’s important to test along the way and to test for nitrates. Once you can prove that it goes from ammonia to nitrates. It’s cycling. How fast it can do that is why it’s important to wait before you add fish. Some people will add fish as soon as they see proof of the cycle and then they end up with an ammonia spike because the tank hasn’t matured enough. That’s why I say 2-4 weeks. 2 weeks it should be cycled and another 2 weeks to let it mature a bit.
Oh and I did raise the temp up to 78
 

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Nice, you’re on your way! Changing temp and salinity was not of vital importance until you add some fish, and even then it probably wasn’t very important until you want to add corals. But better now than later I guess. Keeping records is never a bad idea. What are you hoping to keep in the tank as far as fish, corals, inverts?
 
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Nice, you’re on your way! Changing temp and salinity was not of vital importance until you add some fish, and even then it probably wasn’t very important until you want to add corals. But better now than later I guess. Keeping records is never a bad idea. What are you hoping to keep in the tank as far as fish, corals, inverts?
Hey Thank you!
I’d like to have a couple clowns, a six line wrasse, maybe a watchman goby, definitely some corals but later on. The family is set on clowns for sure. I still need to do some research, and what I can put together for the tank size and compatibility. Working out a CUC list but this is what I’ve come up with so far for fish. I want to put together a decent CUC. Research research research. I have a pretty successful koi pond that is for the most part self sustaining (minus feeding) that I use for aquaponics (5 years old). I love challenges.
 

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Welcome to hte hobby and R2R! Keep in mind the microbial processes on reef ecosystems are very complex and only a few percent can be cultured and stuck in a bottle. Wild or a quality maricultured live rock is the best source for this stuff. Aquabiomic's article is a good start to understand how live rock will help establish a healthy microbiome


And here's some links by scientists studying reef ecosystems you might find informative:

"Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas" This video compliments Rohwer's book of the same title (Paper back is ~$20, Kindle is ~$10), both deal with the conflicting roles of the different types of DOC in reef ecosystems. While there is overlap bewteen his book and the video both have information not covered by the other and together give a broader view of the complex relationships found in reef ecosystems


Changing Seas - Mysterious Microbes


Nitrogen cycling in hte coral holobiont


BActeria and Sponges


Maintenance of Coral Reef Health (refferences at the end)


Optical Feedback Loop in Colorful Coral Bleaching


Richard Ross What's up with phosphate"
 
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So as I was reading on the shrimp cycling technique, it says to not have filtration going? Just circulation. I’m curious on why you don’t want the bacteria to go on the filter media? I only have a penguin 375 HOB. It’s not going but I’m curious as it didn’t go into explanation.
 

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It’s Caribsea LifeRock, which I think is a man made calcium carbonate rock that’s coated with some purple and green stuff and inoculated with bacteria spores. You could, that’s a “fish-in” cycle. Not something I do personally. Usually people buy a small cheap fish, because I think they tend to have a high mortality rate. The point of doing it, is to add ammonia to the system to feed the beneficial bacteria so they can begin the nitrogen cycle and establish themselves. You can do the same thing with fish food, so I don’t see the need to add a fish.
I decided to use the shrimp method, I added one raw shrimp to the tank, keep it in for three days while testing everyday. Should be fine. I did turn the filter off but am keeping the circulation going and I read. Still don’t understand why I have to not filter while doing this as I would think I’d want the bacteria to grow on the filter floss along with the growing on the sand substrate and rock.
 

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Hey everyone, I’ve been doing some research for some time. A while back I had 10 freshwater tanks for many years going successfully when I was single haha (12 years ago). I’ve always wanted a saltwater reef tank. The family is pretty excited to get into it now. So we are starting with a 40 gallon breeder, rodi filtration to have great water. Mixed the salt to 1.021 salinity. Caribsea live sand 1” depth and 20lbs Carib sea life rock with spores. Temp about 76 degrees F. I added biological booster to get the cycle going. PH 8.1 ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 0. I do have a small circulator pump in there as well as a penguin 375. Will upgrade over time (not the best course I know).
image.jpg
Congrats -and I like that filter. It should work well for a fish only system. I would be cautious about adding 'sensitive' coral. In any case - I would add bottled bacteria - to the dose recommended on the bottle - and then - add some fish (assuming you have not added outside ammonia, etc)
 
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Congrats -and I like that filter. It should work well for a fish only system. I would be cautious about adding 'sensitive' coral. In any case - I would add bottled bacteria - to the dose recommended on the bottle - and then - add some fish (assuming you have not added outside ammonia, etc)
I have added bottled bacteria when I filled the tank, to the dose recommended. Friday night. Someone recommended the shrimp method which I put one raw big shrimp in to keep in for 3 days. But I read to not filter the tank while doing this, seems odd to me what do you think. I love those filters too but only used them on fresh water in the past with success. I plan to upgrade later on within the year ( don’t want to scare the wife with cost)
 
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60 kidney stones a year!!!! oh man I’m so sorry for your wife! My wife has had 4-5 in the 15 years we’ve been together and I thought that was a lot for someone to go through.

As far as the water top off, you’re off to a good start. Sounds like you’ve got a plan but I’ll say it anyway. Having an automatic top off once you put coral in the tank will increase your chances for success substantially, unless you are religious about adding water constantly. Also, your water parameters look good enough for cycling the tank and I know someone mentioned it already but I’ll reiterate, you might want to consider bumping up the salinity to 1.026/35ppt. And your heat could go up a touch as well. 77-78. Leaving it 76 isn’t going to kill anything but coral will do better a couple degrees warmer.

As you mentioned, everyone has their way of doing things. Here’s one I use if you’re looking for a common method to cycle the tank. Im sure you’ve read about it. Put a chunk of frozen shrimp (or fish food as mentioned) in the tank with some bacteria boost. Which you’ve done the bacteria already. Test a few days later, write down the ammonia level. Test a few days later, write down ammonia level. Repeat... And then as soon as you show no ammonia test for nitrites and nitrates (though I don’t really see the need for a nitrite test kit. It starts as ammonia and ends as nitrate so there’s really very little need to know nitrite). Once you test 0 ammonia and can show a nitrate reading. Throw another chunk of shrimp or fish food in and test for ammonia and nitrates the next day. Once you’re there you’re pretty much cycled. Should take 2-4 weeks. Be careful not to get hung up on low ammonia readings not showing 0. I see people post all the time about their cycle getting stuck because their ammonia is at 0.5-1ppm. Ammonia test kits are finicky and sometimes won’t test at zero. That’s why it’s important to test along the way and to test for nitrates. Once you can prove that it goes from ammonia to nitrates. It’s cycling. How fast it can do that is why it’s important to wait before you add fish. Some people will add fish as soon as they see proof of the cycle and then they end up with an ammonia spike because the tank hasn’t matured enough. That’s why I say 2-4 weeks. 2 weeks it should be cycled and another 2 weeks to let it mature a bit.
I added the shrimp today, but what I read was to not run my filter while doing this but keep the circulation power head going, does this seem right? In my head I would think I’d want the bacteria to grow on the filter floss too, am I wrong? What do you suggest? Filter on or off?
 

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I added the shrimp today, but what I read was to not run my filter while doing this but keep the circulation power head going, does this seem right? In my head I would think I’d want the bacteria to grow on the filter floss too, am I wrong? What do you suggest? Filter on or off?
I don’t imagine it’s going to make a big difference either way, unless you’re using something to remove ammonia.
 

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The filter you are running is not going to make a difference with the shrimp method. I think they might be referring to protein skimmers/media reactors/refugiums. Anything that could take away from the effects of the shrimp decomposing and taking away from the bacteria doing it’s work. Running those other types of aggressive filtration could give you false representation of how matured your biological colony has become. Mechanical filtration isn’t going to effect that unless it pulls the shrimp out of the water.
 

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Cool! Also maybe bump up your salinity a bit, maybe around 1.024.
 

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Hey Thank you for the welcome. I’m very new to saltwater. Tank is 2 days running. Really new. First reef tank. I know patience is key. I’m a bit confused on when to put a cleaner crew member in (and feed because there isn’t anything for them to eat now). Some say to put something in in the beginning and some say wait until after cycle. If I read correctly, adding bacteria booster should help cycle in days rather than weeks. I always do research in anything I do, but when it comes to saltwater tanks I find that everyone has their own way.
Throw 1 frozen shrimp in there. You need ammonia to start the cycling process. Food breaking down will give you this.
 
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Throw 1 frozen shrimp in there. You need ammonia to start the cycling process. Food breaking down will give you this.
I did yesterday, I’ve read not to run filter while doing so, I do have a circulation head going. Is this true or should I be running filter too? Thanks for the reply
 

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I did yesterday, I’ve read not to run filter while doing so, I do have a circulation head going. Is this true or should I be running filter too? Thanks for the reply
With an HOB filter (I run one on.my 55gal) you are able to leave it on if you want. The biggest issues with these filters is they get dirty super quickly. So, you won't have an issue with it being on for this.

With this type of filter I cannot stress enough how important it is to take out and clean the filter weekly. I take about 5 mins you rinse off and replace filters monthly. HOB is cheaper for the system but higher cost in maintenance, in my opinion.
 
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With an HOB filter (I run one on.my 55gal) you are able to leave it on if you want. The biggest issues with these filters is they get dirty super quickly. So, you won't have an issue with it being on for this.

With this type of filter I cannot stress enough how important it is to take out and clean the filter weekly. I take about 5 mins you rinse off and replace filters monthly. HOB is cheaper for the system but higher cost in maintenance, in my opinion.
Perfect explaination, I appreciate it. I do plan on upgrading in the near future. I ordered filter foam to replace the cartridges with and add a bag with carbon , this way the foam is easy to clean with hodi water and keep good bacteria on it. Does this sound feasible? At least to get me through 6 months? Again thank you for the response
 

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Perfect explaination, I appreciate it. I do plan on upgrading in the near future. I ordered filter foam to replace the cartridges with and add a bag with carbon , this way the foam is easy to clean with hodi water and keep good bacteria on it. Does this sound feasible? At least to get me through 6 months? Again thank you for the response
Yeah for sure feasible.The good bacteria will be on/in your rock mainly.

Look up what other people say about carbon and how to use it. I am no expert in the area and frankly curious myself. From what I read, if i remember correctly, it's not good to use all the time? Again not sure on this.
 
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Yeah for sure feasible.The good bacteria will be on/in your rock mainly.

Look up what other people say about carbon and how to use it. I am no expert in the area and frankly curious myself. From what I read, if i remember correctly, it's not good to use all the time? Again not sure on this.
Yeah I will look into that, although the cartridges for the penguin 375 do have carbon in them already… maybe I’ll stick with the foam and maybe add some carbon later after more research
 

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