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kevyg
Active Member
It is reefcleaner cleaned dry live rock
Starting my cycle, few questions.
- Thread starter kevyg
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Got it. Thanks.
It is kinda funny it’s sold to us as “live rock”when it’s dry. And dead. Lol.
Zagreus
Active Member
I feel you on the 4 year old dilemma. I have a 2 and 4 year old. Having a kid and trying to have self discipline and patience in this hobby is double difficult lol. The Dr. Tims at least will help you improve your knowledge no matter what path you take to cycle without buying anything and possible if you do purchase speed up your cycle. Mr. Saltwater Tank did a video on Dr. Tims using fish in a cycle. If you decide to use fish get the Chromis Damsel Variety as the other damsels are way to aggressive and will annoy you and there tank mates later. I am excited to see your progress and you have some great people on this thread, excluding me, giving you excelent feedback. Cheers
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kevyg
Active Member
Definitely.... It's funny you say that because green chromis were my idea. I will be doing a massive dose of bio spira on setup. I like the idea of ghost feeding what will be fed to colonize specific bacteria. Now I understand this is a theory, but it makes sense to me. I'm way too on the fence on this. I was talking to a buddy and he related chromis to the danio of saltwater.
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kevyg
Active Member
Lol, right?!
Having chaeto in actually caused me problems when I was cycling my tank. I’d strongly recommend waiting until the cycle completes to add the chaeto or the chaeto will eat the excesses ammonia before it gets broken down to create the bio filter.
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kevyg
Active Member
Thanks for that, I have decided against all fitration except for floss during the cycle.
40B Knasty
Valuable Member
You want a biological filtration in your filter so when your tank comes up to a balance. Everything is stable.
If you add say the marine pure. That could cause a mini cycle trying to build more beneficial bacteria.
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kevyg
Active Member
I was planning on putting some Live Rock rubble left over from my scape in there and like I said some filter floss as well. Biological filtration comes from the Live rock if I am not mistaken? The other stuff I plan on putting in the filter is Chemi-Pure Blue, Purigen, Chaeto. But that will all be added once tank is cycled.
Is that an appropriate approach? (keep in mind this is like 4" of space)
Do I need to add anything else?
40B Knasty
Valuable Member
You said it yourself,"Keep in mind it is only 4" of spaces."
I already told you about porosity, the benefit of having anaerobic bacteria in your biological filtration, numbers for surface area and which is the worst to the best for it.
The flow on live rock bacteria will take care of what settles on them.
You are looking at what takes care of the water column. With limited spaces. Do you want something that is at 380-780 or 2400 with Marine Pure. Since your not looking to spend money I am going to guess your rocks are in the 500 range. It is up to you if you want something almost 5 times better or 5 times worse. Since you probably do not have a protein skimmer. Start of with what will benefit the water filtration the best, because we don't take care of fish. We take care of water. Fish just live in it. The worse the water. The worse the chance of surviving and more headaches like algae. The bonus to knowing and doing this. You can have a max for your tank size stocking list with a tank that can handle all your ideas.
For what it is worth. All my HOB filters have 4" of space.
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kevyg
Active Member
Hey, I appreciate the info, but there are a couple assumptions here...... I feel some clarification might be necessary.
A. I have no problem getting marinepure, I didn't get into this hobby being skittish about spending money.
B. I do have a protein skimmer, it may just be the coralife nano, but I do have one.
C. I am going to ask, challenge and even contradict what is being said because that's what I do. I almost never take an answer at face value, I like picking it apart. To some, this can drive them crazy, to others they enjoy the mental challenge. I am sorry if I seem to be wasting your time. You have by far been one of the most helpful people on here thus far and I would not want to burn any bridges by asking stupidly redundant questions.
It is nice seeing the figures of how the rock vs the marinepure performs. After this I am going to get some marinepure and pop it in the bottom of the back filtration.
From what I'm seeing the 2" blocks look like they will be a good fit.
Again thank you very much for your time and patience. You are incredibly helpful and I value your opinion greatly.
So far I am going to do your suggestions of:
-shrimp and ghost feed.
- Add marinepure
- no pods/Chaeto until cycled
Those are three game changers in my opinion.
40B Knasty
Valuable Member
Yeah man it is cool. I just leave what I can for you take in on the table. Trust me I wish I had these words of advice. I have shopped at a Petco and Petsmart, don't have a sump or refugium, delt with ich, velvet, & brooklynella and how to live with it. Like I said it is up to you what you want to do. I honestly have no problem with answering "unknown questions" on your part or filling in some blanks. No question or idea is stupid in this hobby or this forum wouldn't exist. You are not waisting my time. I am happy you take the time to think about what people say and pick it apart or otherwise you might as well click on every live stock on live aquaria read all the "basic" info and be convinced everything will work.
One thing to add to all this hugging it out. You have a protein skimmer. Now here is the thing with those. Yes they all work. How efficient is it is always a different story. To get a really good skim starts with the wheel on the inside and air intake. A needle wheel is way more efficient to chopping up air bubbles finer from the intake to scrub the water clean better. You most likely have a paddle wheel. Having what you have now will be good for a low amount of live stock and help putting more O² back in the tank, pulling some skim out, plus gas exchange. I have had a Seaclone that has a paddle wheel and now a REEF OCTOPUS HOB BH1000. What a HUGE difference. Better dwell time in the chamber to really scrub the water and pull out all the nasties and finer bubbles doing it.
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kevyg
Active Member
I can already say my skimmer will not be very good. The coralife is a catch cup with a limewood airstone.. [emoji19] soooo I am planning on getting the HOB reef octopus because all of the skimmers that claim to fit don't seem like they are that great. That or the Tunze nano skimmer. The reef octopus seems like it would be overkill, and that's what I want. Way more filtration than is required for the 32g cube.
Thanks a ton for the help!
40B Knasty
Valuable Member
Honestly I am getting the same pull that I had from a 20g, 40B, and 65g with the same Reef Octopus BH 1000. Do I wish I had the BH2000 absolutely! Just make sure you get the footprint for The Reef Octopus that you decide to purchase and make sure you have enough room from the back of your tank to the wall. I had that issue with my 20g. I had to drain the tank down and move it out a few inches while it was fully stocked with 6 fish. Planned it out right for the 40B. The 40B has the same footprint as the 65g. So I had bought a solid 65g stand for the 40B. When it cracked. Time for an upgrade!
Aside of the Reef Octopus adding an extra amount of water to your total water volume and how much better it cleans the water compared to other skimmers. The motor is outside of the tank and also out of the water column. The motor produces heat for the water. The BH 1000 or 2000 does not. Plus it will not get covered with algae and block the air intake.
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kevyg
Active Member
Reviving the dead a little bit here but I just got the marinepure in the mail today and went to put it in the rear chambers to come to a realization that I really have no idea where I should put these spheres (cubes were not available).
I am hesitant to just put it at the bottom of the main chamber because that is my Chaeto refugium. There is the main overflow chamber that is nice and deep, slow flow at the bottom and a possibility, but I'm wondering if it is practical to put it in here before the water is cleaned in the filtration chamber or will it be a detritus factory?
The marinepure will most likely come up just under the bottom intake. If filled in here.
Other options:
In this main chamber I could remove the middle shelf and put it in the bottom and grow the Chaeto above. Will the lights cause issues with the marinepure?
3rd option is to put it in with my return pump and heater.
I was hoping I could throw this out to the minds here at r2r.
(Or do I just need to make myself a quick reactor for it, I can make one for about $20-30 with a little 120gph pump to keep flow low)
I am hesitant to just put it at the bottom of the main chamber because that is my Chaeto refugium. There is the main overflow chamber that is nice and deep, slow flow at the bottom and a possibility, but I'm wondering if it is practical to put it in here before the water is cleaned in the filtration chamber or will it be a detritus factory?
The marinepure will most likely come up just under the bottom intake. If filled in here.
Other options:
In this main chamber I could remove the middle shelf and put it in the bottom and grow the Chaeto above. Will the lights cause issues with the marinepure?
3rd option is to put it in with my return pump and heater.
I was hoping I could throw this out to the minds here at r2r.
(Or do I just need to make myself a quick reactor for it, I can make one for about $20-30 with a little 120gph pump to keep flow low)
40B Knasty
Valuable Member
Put a sponge/filter floss in the first chamber.
Put the spheres in a bag(s) (not a fine mesh bag). Put them in the 2nd chamber where there is flow coming down through the sponge/filter floss. (If there is detritus build up. Pull the bag(s) out when doing a water change. Dip or swish the bags filled will spheres in the bucket of old tank water.)
Put the cheato in the bottom chamber. Good to go
Put the spheres in a bag(s) (not a fine mesh bag). Put them in the 2nd chamber where there is flow coming down through the sponge/filter floss. (If there is detritus build up. Pull the bag(s) out when doing a water change. Dip or swish the bags filled will spheres in the bucket of old tank water.)
Put the cheato in the bottom chamber. Good to go
40B Knasty
Valuable Member
Are you finding the need for a cheato reactor that important?
I have one and it work(ed) at first for dropping phosphates, but they came right back up.
I run it on the opposite time as my day lights. The only thing I find it doing is keeping the pH more balanced at 8.0-8.3, but not wow this is the greatest idea I ever had. Where before it was 7.9 or 8.0 - 8.1 or 8.2.
Just know. Do not run the lights on the cheato 24hrs a day. It will turn the cheato asexual. This will cause it to constantly absorb O² and expel CO² if it does turn asexual. You want it to have an O² releasing period time of the day.
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kevyg
Active Member
I have just done a lot of reading and found the idea appealing to have Chaeto. The idea of something to munch on the nitrates seemed like a good idea to me.
I was planning on getting a multi colored PAR38 LED bulb and lighting it opposite of my tanks light cycle.
You thinking I may be trying to pull off a little too much for not really having a sump? (The thought has crossed my mind more than once)
(I love the idea of making the best of the space given which is why the marinepure is a definite, per your suggestion)
I was planning on getting a multi colored PAR38 LED bulb and lighting it opposite of my tanks light cycle.
You thinking I may be trying to pull off a little too much for not really having a sump? (The thought has crossed my mind more than once)
(I love the idea of making the best of the space given which is why the marinepure is a definite, per your suggestion)
40B Knasty
Valuable Member
I just don't know the ratio of what is a good amount of cheato to how many gallons of water and livestock to actually make an impact that a person would find it not working, sub par, or the greatest thing since sliced bread. I think you might find it in the sub par area, but it is one of those things you never know till you try it kind of things. Maybe there is something online for the sum of cheato to water/livestock ratio.
Otherwise I would say just do filter floss(pillow stuffing roll not sprayed down with chemicals that you can find at a Michaels craft store. Cut to size and placed in that first chamber. Replace every 3 days if you have GHA(green hair algae). Bag of Purigen in the second chamber. Bag(s) of MP spheres at the bottom. That way the only thing you have to replace is the floss when gunked up and Purigen every 6 months or when exhausted.
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