Pico Reef AIO lifegard 4.14

[brandon429]

That skip cycle was for bahura

That bio spira is just about as fast though, it's quick worker

 

[DDenny]

This is a close to zero you will get with API Ammonia test. Pretty sure I am at 10 with nitrates. Never tested nitrites first time I tested nitrates I was over 100 did 75% water change now down to 10. So for all practice purposes the cycle is complete.

 

[Bahura-Living]

A thread tracking pure skip cycle instant reefs, no bottle bac

THE GOLDEN EXAMPLE OF A SKIP CYCLE DAY 1 REEF https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/octo-high-end-sps-skip-cycle-build.713256/ read that entire thread before you read ours. that's the heart of skip cycling. Everything we do going forward in this thread reflects on that ability above, in the #1...

www.reef2reef.com

you don't have to have all live rock to meet that criterion.

any live rock meets it, because any live rock in a tiny pico is so powerful it would not matter if you didn't even have sand its enough surface area for your fish loading, immediately. welcome to skip cycling where no nine dollar test agrees with ya
b


regarding parameters: don't think you have to daily test a pico for calcium, alk, pH etc

that's only one way. another way is to not

and just change water weekly to some degree and feed it nicely, it all balances out and carries massive coral loading without dosing. its possible to run the whole reef fifteen years off salinity and temp alone, Im certain of that. whatever mix the lfs uses won't matter, even if they change just keep up the exchange.

any mix is fine to use, this rate of refreshment balances out issues quite easily. once you want to go more hands off, less water changes, then dose the calcium and monitor alk and pH. its not required though with water changes. we could grow 2 thousand dollars of corals in that container for years on the method alone. in fact four gallons is a volumous dance hall of a pico reef we could do it in half the gallonage.

This is great stuff you’ve been doing. Really learn a bit. But definitely go back read more since it has a lot of sub-threads. Interms now of the color of the rocks i believe my arc is from Realistic coraline coloring
However i also added about 1pound of live from my lfs forgot the name of the rock but its been in the water on their rocks area.

 

[brandon429]

All it means is your reef is ready, it means you can clean it one day really well, to prevent invasion, and that’s not going to unseat the bacteria

if you wanted to lift up a rock and scrape algae off, vs try and stare it by altering your water for months, you can and it won’t harm the cycle with this moderate cleaning action.

the surfaces that were dry have already taken on bacteria from the live portion of rocks, by mixing together in the water this many days. Collectively, the entire cycle is done but the test kit may not show it correctly, lots of minute changes set off their alarm readings.

 

[Bahura-Living]

Currently mixing RS blue bucket right now. I’ll be doing 1 gallon a week water change and will be putting fish starting next week after water change.

 

[Bahura-Living]

Using my ATO to transfer water.

 

[Bahura-Living]

ULNS on blue bucket is 33.0 ppt and
I accidentally made it 35.0 ppt.
tho i wont be putting corals anytime soon but is it ok to adjust later?

 

[DDenny]

34-35ppt is where you want to be. That is where I keep mine at.

 

[Bahura-Living]

Update:
Purchased a RedSea ammonia test kit outcome is 0
Also my Diffuser came last night.
First coral is in. A green leather coral that had been in my quarantine tank for quite sometime now.
My Ph is kinda low so i will do water change 2times this week.

 

[DDenny]

Looking good waiting another two weeks on mine. Will have another trip first week of April

 

[Bahura-Living]

Been awhile since my last update. Collected few zoas frag for the last 3 weeks. From 1 all the way multiple polyps.

White zombie
Scramble egg
Wwc nirvana
Vw bloodshot
Beauty and the beast
Burning ember
Dart maul
Hyper pheonix
Utter chaos
Gobstopper
Belladonna
Eagle eye
Playboy


Everythings looks perfect except for the playboy and one unknown zoa other than that everythings perfect even my neon green kenya i see some new polyps growing. So i hope it’ll continue. So far no algae problem . Im still looking for a randall’s pistol shrimp but no luck. I saw 1 yesterday at my lfs but they cannot catch it.

 

[Daniel92481]

Nice man!

 

[brandon429]

well done

 

[DDenny]

Looking good

 

[Bahura-Living]

Thank you everyone. Hopefully zoas take of those rocks eventually and evenly.

 

[Bahura-Living]

 

[revhtree]

Coral looking good!

 

[Bahura-Living]

Coral looking good!

Thank you.

 

[Bahura-Living]

Its been awhile since I updated my thread.
i have a small issue with gha 2weeks ago scrubs every gha that i could see then doing 1 gallon water change every week. So far i controlled the spread. Theres a little left on small areas that hard to get with my sausage fingers.
Added couple of more zoas but i think im done with the corals (atleast thats what i want to think. Lol)

my main character on the tank right now is a male mandarin dragonet(captive biota bred)
His eating frozen food after 1 week of him being in the tank but just to make sure a made a small copepods farm as a back up just in case his picky on frozen food.
Attached and image and videos of him eating frozen, copepods breeding jar and just few hours before lights off.
i hope everyone is having a fantastic day and always keep safe!

 

[KK's Reef]

Hows that overflow handling the added flow from the pump? read others that it couldn't handle the added flow of some pumps.

I have the Lifegard 3.8 and replaced the stuck pump with the Sicce Syncra Nano (110 GPH). I have it turned up all the way to Max and no issue with flooding the display tank.