The Journey - Reboot of the 120

pdiehm · Oct 1, 2018

x2uranium said:
I have them everywhere too.. they really don't bother anything. Just a pain in the rear end.

possibly, my rocks were just covered in them, the back and bottom of the rocks especially. Given that there is only 1 coral (and an anemone), I'll just remove the rock, give it a bath, let it dry out, and use it for whatever (if I can't sell it).

pdiehm · Oct 1, 2018

120 lbs of reefcleaners rock! And a new bucket of salt. Now I get to do my least favorite thing...aquascape. Really wish more folks were local to help, I have zero creative ability.

pdiehm · Oct 4, 2018

Aquascaped. Fixing the return line a smidge. Then we are filling her up.

pdiehm · Oct 6, 2018

Getting wet!

pdiehm · Oct 7, 2018

And the cycle has started. Bottle of Dr. Tim’s, and 488 drops of ammonia chloride. Added a piece of rock from the biocube that is covered in coralline.

pdiehm · Oct 8, 2018

All lit up. Love the way it looks.

pdiehm · Oct 9, 2018

Ammonia 2
Nitrite 0

Waiting for the second phase to kickoff

DesertReefT4r · Oct 10, 2018

Save youself a lot of hassel and work and dont run the lighting for the first month, 2 would be better. Reduces the new tank algae cycle.

pdiehm · Oct 10, 2018

DesertReefT4r said:
Save youself a lot of hassel and work and dont run the lighting for the first month, 2 would be better. Reduces the new tank algae cycle.

I wasn't. I had that light on to break in a new T5 for 12 hours (and figured snap a picture). It's off the rest of the time.

pdiehm · Oct 13, 2018

Big day! We have nitrites on Day 5. Ammonia looks to be 1.5ppm. Nitrites...don’t care. It’s purple.

pdiehm · Oct 14, 2018

Now that the cycling is in full gear, am planning my next steps. My initial reboot was not well thought out, as my clean up crew was not very diverse. 10 nerites, 10 trochus.

This time, once I start to see diatoms, will be adding in Pods, and let them get established in the rockwork. I'll probably try to make my own Phytoplankton and dose 25ml twice a week. As for the cleanup crew, the plan is to start with 5 nerites, 5 trochus, 5 cerith snails....2 cleaner shrimp and 2 fire shrimp.

I know the fire shrimp are nocturnal and recluse. I'm ok with that. If I follow the @Bulk Reef Supply path with @WWC and let this tank just mature for a few months, we'll see if the results show.

Fish wise, I have 2 clowns, a midas blenny, yellow tang, tomini tang, and hippo tang in my 40 breeder. I know it's cramped quarters, but it's what I have at the moment. As far as tank maturing, not sure if that is just fishless or coral-less, but we'll see. If I can put in a few fish every 2-3 weeks once this is cycled initially, that will not only keep the maturing process going on in the 120, but would also free up some valuable real estate in the 40.

If adding 2 fish at the end of the cycle is good, it'll be the Tomini Tang and the Midas Blenny. The Tomini gets pushed around by the Yellow (he's a prick, and will without a doubt be the last fish added to the 120 that I currently have). This will (in theory) allow the fish byproducts to give nutrients to the tank for the pods, snails, shrimp, etc.

My fish stocking is about done, though I would like to add 1-2 more or a group. Anthias are out as I feed every other day. I would love a coral beauty angel, but my luck is, I'd get a prick who eats sps corals. What would be a good fish or 2 to finish my livestock stocking?

pdiehm · Oct 17, 2018

Ammonia is between 0.0 and 0.25ppm and Nitrites are at 5+.

We're humming along nicely.

Toying with swapping the Yellow Tang for another tang (yellow or other zebrasoma).

The algae scrubber is on the 40 breeder, just trying to get it seeded and ready to go. Going to put some encrusting sps on the bottom, such as a mystic sunset or monticaps...possibly some deep water branching frags.

pdiehm · Oct 18, 2018

Day 11:

0.25 ammonia
5+ ppm Nitrites

pdiehm · Oct 26, 2018

I've lost count of the days. We started on 10/7. As of 10/26, we have 0 ammonia, and 5+ nitrites.

We're cooking along just fine.

Crabby48 · Oct 26, 2018

Man you must be excited. Setup sounds to be going good.
When I get to fill my tank I will be starting out with dr.tims also.
Enjoying following along

pdiehm · Oct 26, 2018

Crabby48 said:
Man you must be excited. Setup sounds to be going good.
When I get to fill my tank I will be starting out with dr.tims also.
Enjoying following along

Thanks. I am excited. Not only do I like the aquascape better, I think I have a better grasp on things. there's a million things I would do over, and the 3 things for me would be...T5's instead of LED's, Reef Saver rock instead of Pukani (gorgeous but I had constant issues with it, some of the issues being my doing), and running an algae scrubber from day 1 after the initial cycle.

pdiehm · Oct 30, 2018

The end is near for phase 2. nitrites are falling

pdiehm · Oct 30, 2018

0 ppm nitrite.

added enough ammonia for 1 ppm. if it's at 0 tomorrow, I'm cycled. I'll do a 50% water change.

Question is....do I wait until my NO3 is below 5 before adding in the fish? Reason is, things are already at that point where any addition of gasoline could cause an explosion. Lower the NO3, or I can just add the algae scrubber, and let it start pulling out the nitrates.