Sara’s IM 25g Lagoon

saramachen · Jan 20, 2022

So I am just going with the fact that Brandon said the tank would be cycled on the 18th at this point LOL.

Tested tonight:
Ammonia 0.2 on my Redsea (which I don't believe will ever read 0)
Nitrite >1ppm
Nitrate 19.3ppm.

I changed 6 gallons (30%) yesterday so Nitrates must have been pretty high. I'll change the filter floss and prep another 5 gallons.

I did another thing:

A little Micky D Zoa Frag. It was 1/2 price (From $60 to $30). I don't even know if thats a good price. I was buying some Chaeto, so I was already paying overnight shipping anyway. It opened up (i don't think this is fully open, but still) within an hour of putting in the tank (yesterday at noon) and I think closed up a bit at night, but its stayed open today, I'm taking that as a good sign.

And my mini CUC is doing well. The shrimp has learned that the feeding "baster" means food, and he comes right up to it. There is not really much algae for the emerald crab, so i am making sure he gets some frozen food to. Don't want to overfeed and contribute to Nitrates, but don't want to starve the poor things.

saramachen · Jan 21, 2022

Spent some time today attempting to fix the mess of cords in my stand. I have a feeling there is no good way!

saramachen · Jan 22, 2022

I purchased the aquamaxx nf-1 skimmer, it fits (JUST FITS) in the second chamber of the tank. Currently its doing a day in some water/vinegar t
o help speed up the break in process - so many microbubbles yesterday when i was messing with it. The skimmer itself is super quiet, but the water from the return pouring into the tank is noisy. wondering about diy'ing some sort of return tube/with sponge on the end to soften the noise and reduce the bubbes.

But in more exciting news, my clowns came home today!

They seem happy to be out of the bag and then the drip bucket

Also my RO/DI system arrived today - i wasn't expecting it on a saturday. Im gonna need to make a home depot order for setting it up. So thats a project for next week.

saramachen · Jan 22, 2022

Get a RO/DI they said, it’s better they said… lol. I am not a plumber. Good thing hubby is handy.

Sleeping Giant · Jan 22, 2022

Welcome to R2R fellow Canadian, Ontarian lol setup looks great.

saramachen · Jan 22, 2022

Sleeping Giant said:
Welcome to R2R fellow Canadian, Ontarian lol setup looks great.

Thank you

saramachen · Jan 22, 2022

I will also note, I have failed on taking it slow lol. Now I have some life in there, I hope to just sit back and watch them, and take it easy. I have NO room for any more equipment in the sump, I picked up a couple more Hanna checkers. So I just wait for the tank to stabilize before adding anything else.

saramachen · Jan 23, 2022

gotta figure out the taking photos with my iPhone with the blue lights.

Also I am already wishing I had went with tank & external sump. I love the footprint of this tank, I just want a bit more water volume and I wish I could put the heater and skimmer somewhere else.

saramachen · Jan 24, 2022

My cleaner shrimp melted last night, I am taking that as a good sign

Sleeping Giant · Jan 24, 2022

saramachen said:
My cleaner shrimp melted last night, I am taking that as a good sign

Well that's good, hopefully you ment molted, lol

saramachen · Jan 24, 2022

Sleeping Giant said:
Well that's good, hopefully you ment molted, lol

Hahaha yes! Molted. I didn’t catch that error or autocorrect!

Came home at lunch to feed my husband and pets. I noticed the spots on the rocks. They were not there yesterday, but I didn’t notice them this morning. I assume this is the start of the ugly phase!

AnotherReefHobbyist · Jan 24, 2022

Great start, The ugly phase just means that your tanks "4 month cycle" is coming along nicely!

Sleeping Giant · Jan 24, 2022

It's positive

JoshH · Jan 24, 2022

saramachen said:
Just ordered an RODI system. It was $350, and replacing membranes every 6 months is $150. Im paying $12 a week for Distilled, so the system will definitely pay for itself.

My membranes typically last 2-3 years with 3-400+ TDS water. Yours should last quite some time. However replacing your sediment, carbon and DI resin is a different story and are based on roughly how much you produce and what the carbon filters capacity is

saramachen · Jan 24, 2022

JoshH said:
My membranes typically last 2-3 years with 3-400+ TDS water. Yours should last quite some time. However replacing your sediment, carbon and DI resin is a different story and are based on roughly how much you produce and what the carbon filters capacity is

I screwed up when I said membranes. The $150 was for the membrane and all the “cartridge’s”. I put a TDS meter on my water In, and from my 3 stage to my membrane, then out of the membrane to the D/I canister, and finally Out of the DI canisters. Hoping by monitoring it at different spot I will be able to “guess” what needs changed, when.
The only hiccup I have with the RO/DI is the tap I planned on using is old and leaking. So now I gotta run to home depot to grab a SharkBite Tee to tap into my cold water line to the washing machine. No biggie, but gotta wait for hubby to get home or go tomorrow after I do the school run, before I head into work.

did some water testing tonight:
Nitrite - 0 FINALLY!!!!!!
Nitrate - 10.9ppm
Phosphate - 0.04ppm
Ordered a Hanna PH probe, so it’s sitting in some buffer solution as per the instructions.

Also read a 20pg thread about Topic Marine Pro salt (of which I am using a 25kg tub of). Came home and wiped out my Brite with a paper towel, a little tiny bit of brown residue. But nothing like what’s being shown in that thread.

JoshH · Jan 24, 2022

saramachen said:
I screwed up when I said membranes. The $150 was for the membrane and all the “cartridge’s”. I put a TDS meter on my water In, and from my 3 stage to my membrane, then out of the membrane to the D/I canister, and finally Out of the DI canisters. Hoping by monitoring it at different spot I will be able to “guess” what needs changed, when.
The only hiccup I have with the RO/DI is the tap I planned on using is old and leaking. So now I gotta run to home depot to grab a SharkBite Tee to tap into my cold water line to the washing machine. No biggie, but gotta wait for hubby to get home or go tomorrow after I do the school run, before I head into work.

did some water testing tonight:
Nitrite - 0 FINALLY!!!!!!
Nitrate - 10.9ppm
Phosphate - 0.04ppm
Ordered a Hanna PH probe, so it’s sitting in some buffer solution as per the instructions.

Also read a 20pg thread about Topic Marine Pro salt (of which I am using a 25kg tub of). Came home and wiped out my Brite with a paper towel, a little tiny bit of brown residue. But nothing like what’s being shown in that thread.

So TDS meters will really only tell you two things when it comes to filter management. When to change your membrane and when to change you DI Resin. Chorine/Choramine test strips will tell you when your carbon is exhausted and I typically swap the sediment filter at the same time for convience. You can roughly guage when your sediment filter is clogged by using a PSI guage and paying attention to when your incoming PSI drops significantly. This usually means a clogged sediment filter if it is a gradual decrease.

I was reading through that same thread and I can't fathom why someone would spend that much on salt lol And if I was paying that much, there better be no residue. But that is me

JoshH · Jan 24, 2022

Oh and those clowns are a beautiful addition to the reef! Where did you get them from if I missed it earlier?

saramachen · Jan 25, 2022

JoshH said:
Oh and those clowns are a beautiful addition to the reef! Where did you get them from if I missed it earlier?

I got them from a guy named Kevin in Burlington. . Sounds like some street corner fish dealer LOL. But he has really nice clownfish - that’s all he does.

I have PTSD from my old Tank days where I really half done a lot of it, and I’m actually embarrassed by some of my poor husbandry. I lost a lot of fish, and I have a lot of guilt over it now. I had 2 clowns, a yellow tang, a flame hawk fish and a diamond goby that all lived many years with me, but all the other new inhabitants never lasted long.

Every morning since Saturday I have dreaded coming downstairs to see thy have not made it through the night. But so far so good.

I got my RO/DI unit hooked up today! I did it all by myself . I usually rely on my husband to help me with that sort of thing. So it’s flushing now. The TDS meter is reading 524 TDS going in, and 24 TDS out of the RO Membrane and 5TDS out of the DI canisters after 30 mins of flushing the system.