Rookie game plan with a new tank

[bristleworm]

background:
IM 25 lagoon.
Scape is dry live rock.
Seeded with Gulf live sand and rubble last week.
Dosing with Microbacter 7 since day one.

Water parameters
Ammonia 0.38
Nitrate 75
Alk 6.6
Phos 0.12
pH 8.0
Salinity 1.025

Game plan:
Wait for ammonia to hit 0, based on it was 2.3 last night and .38 this morning the tank is cycling and should be at 0 tomorrow or the next day.
Once it hits 0 do a big water change to drop nitrates.
Wait 2-3 days and add my first fish and probably some blue legged crabs. (probably this weekend)
I don't want to add a full CUC as there is nothing for snails to eat. I figure the crabs will scavenge uneaten fish food, or I can hand feed them little treats until the tank has stuff for them to graze on.

Please critique my plan and give me advice.
Thanks in advance

 

[Tahoe61]

Hi and Welcome to R2R.

It sounds like good plan. Stocking slowly really helps when you start with dry rock.
I too have an IM 25 lagoon that I started with dry rock. In Oct my tank will be a yr old.

Congratulations on your new tank.

 

[bristleworm]

Hi and Welcome to R2R.

It sounds like good plan. Stocking slowly really helps when you start with dry rock.
I too have an IM 25 lagoon that I started with dry rock. In Oct my tank will be a yr old.

Congratulations on your new tank.

Thank you. Care to share a picture?

 

[BryanM]

Seems solid to me.

 

[Tahoe61]

Thank you. Care to share a picture?

 

[bristleworm]

Tank looks great!

 

[bristleworm]

What substrate is that?

 

[wiseball]

background:
IM 25 lagoon.
Scape is dry live rock.
Seeded with Gulf live sand and rubble last week.
Dosing with Microbacter 7 since day one.

Water parameters
Ammonia 0.38
Nitrate 75
Alk 6.6
Phos 0.12
pH 8.0
Salinity 1.025

Game plan:
Wait for ammonia to hit 0, based on it was 2.3 last night and .38 this morning the tank is cycling and should be at 0 tomorrow or the next day.
Once it hits 0 do a big water change to drop nitrates.
Wait 2-3 days and add my first fish and probably some blue legged crabs. (probably this weekend)
I don't want to add a full CUC as there is nothing for snails to eat. I figure the crabs will scavenge uneaten fish food, or I can hand feed them little treats until the tank has stuff for them to graze on.

Please critique my plan and give me advice.
Thanks in advance

That is a great plan to start, good parameters and nice set up. As long as you are running a light cycle the inverts should have *something* to graze on, but little treats are a good option too. I’m planning on starting a smaller tank too and this is exactly what I would do

 

[kevgib67]

Well thought out, good plan!

 

[bristleworm]

Is my alkalinity low?

 

[Fish Fan]

Is my alkalinity low?

Don't worry about your Alk until your system is cycled, it's normal for Alk to seem low during the nitrogen cycle.

I'd personally skip the large water change, but it doesn't hurt anything to do one. I'd skip it because your system almost certainly has nitrite at this point and just a little nitrite can cause an artificial high for nitrate. You nitrate is almost certainly not 75 ppm, and you won't know for sure what your nitrate concentration is until your nitrite zero out. For that reason, I'd personally wait on the water change

 

[bristleworm]

Don't worry about your Alk until your system is cycled, it's normal for Alk to seem low during the nitrogen cycle.

I'd personally skip the large water change, but it doesn't hurt anything to do one. I'd skip it because your system almost certainly has nitrite at this point and just a little nitrite can cause an artificial high for nitrate. You nitrate is almost certainly not 75 ppm, and you won't know for sure what your nitrate concentration is until your nitrite zero out. For that reason, I'd personally wait on the water change

Great tips thank you.
The 75 nitrates was with a hanna checker. I will use a salifert in the morning.
And wait for nitrite to drop.
I don't want to chase parameters especially at this point.

 

[Fish Fan]

Great tips thank you.
The 75 nitrates was with a hanna checker. I will use a salifert in the morning.
And wait for nitrite to drop.
I don't want to chase parameters especially at this point.

You can wait for the nitrite to drop to determine what your real nitrate concentration is, but no need to wait for the nitrite to drop before adding livestock. You can safely add some hardy livestock when your tank can process the ammonia down to nearly zero.

 

[bristleworm]

I'm thinking firefish goby as a first fish.

 

[bristleworm]

HA, tank is cycling as expected. Ammonia was 0.06 this morning and nitrate dropped to 64.3 down from 75.(I know that's not an inaccurate measure due to total N being tested.)

Now for the fun part.
Still making those ROOKIE mistakes!!!

I had a bad film on the surface and it wasn't going away. HMMM I have an AIO with surface skimmer slots, right!

Well, you could watch the film and it would break up from surface agitation, but never really went into the overflow due to surface tension.

Though about it for a hot minute then it hit me, if the water level in the sump is such that it doesn't cascade from one chamber to the next, ie. too full so all the levels in the chambers are equal, you will never break the surface tension because there is no "PULL". If that makes sense.

So World Wide Corals has a fantastic video on it, watched that, and said yep, gotta deal with that.
Took some water out of the tank so it lowered the level in the display and thus the sump and like a miracle, SURFACE FILM GONE IN AN INSTANT.

In short,
Tank success can be something as simple as the water level in your display tank and thus the sump.
Get it right from the start, don't overlook the simple things.
After adjusting the display tank water level, I had to redo my ATO and it was kind of a pain.
Now because the ATO ran a little bit while adjusting, my salinity is off so I gotta add a little salt to the tank.
I also had to remove some ceramic media in the main chamber so it was all submerged and that may affect my cycle a little.

Been in the hobby in one way or anther for 50+ years, and still making rookie mistakes!!!!