You'll Never Reef Alone

[N3mo]

it seems the tank wasnt fully cycled and the bacteria wasnt fully established hence the new fish added caused the spike in ammonia as it couldnt run the full nitrogen cycle.

Great looking tank and scape. just keep pressing on.

 

[YNRA]

Looks like a 0ppm reading for api test to me.its a cloudy yellow ( from the salt mixture) rather than the lime green reading at 0.25.
Im new to saltwater and not used any other makers test just fyi.
Only api on freshwater for 9 years or so.
Api always gets a bashing for inconsistent results and ive been recommended to buy a seachem test for certain tests.but im on fence at moment whether to buy as it still a colour test and reading all hobby grade tests nowhere near as good as lab tests ovbiously but we shall see if i change to another hobby grade test kit or not.i not testing for other things other than amnonia/ nitrite/ nitrates/ ph at present.so we shall see what kits i buy when start testing the elements hey.
Tank/ rockscape looking great,keep up the good work.
Doctor tim suggests leaving skimmerrs/ uv off for first few days after using bacteria in a bottle as gives chance for them to attach to surfaces i believe he says

Edit : your nitrate test looks like yellow so 0ppm so bacteria not converting amnonia to nitrate unless you got some way of exporting the nitrate and it getting used up in other ways

I do have a bag of pond matrix and marine pure blocks in the sump, believe the pond matrix may be stripping the nitrates. Should I remove it ?

 

[ying yang]

Ok firstly im on first saltwater tank ( only 2 months in myself)
From what i can work out about may 2nd you added water to tank.so 2.5 weeks ago.
4 days ago on saturday you added fritz turbo start and added couple fish but sadly died.
Api test kits was reading 1- 4ppm amnonia.
I never used pond matrix or marine pure blocks.
Ive been reading alot of posts on cycling using bottles of bacteria in this forum.brandon been posting alot insightful studying he been doing over the years here.
He basically saying what the length of time it says on the bottle for cycling is just that so safe to add lifestock ( i think you added same time for what i can make out)
As for to take products out that could remove nitrate, for me i wanted to see amnonia start at 0 then rise up ,followed by nitrite rising up then wanted to see amnonia/nitrite start to drop then nitrate to rise and then i could see/ test the nitrogen cycle in action ( after joining this forum i realised/read nitrite in saltwater is very hard for fishes to uptake as the high chloride in the water so nitrite not important) ( not toxic) so in a new set up i would like to see the nitrate rise so if wouldnt want anything that would remove it,if causes any harm or not or slows anything down i doubt it but personally i would want to see.
So your choice.
I know fresh and salt different but when ive set up freshwater tanks.i wait and see/ test cycling then as got proof it converting amnonia- nitrate then i add plants which uptake the nitrate.
But just waiting a little more time wont harm to let things settle.
Im reading bottle bacteria 4-14 days to cycle
Ghost feeding roughly a month.
And if do nothing or add nothing then the bacteria in the air find their way into our tanks and establish themselves naturally in 60 days.
Good luck ^_^

 

[mattm]

Good start to the tank. I take particular happiness that while you support Liverpool, your tank will always glow Everton blue...COYB!

 

[ying yang]

Good start to the tank. I take particular happiness that while you support Liverpool, your tank will always glow Everton blue...COYB!

Ha ha good one.

 

[YNRA]

Good start to the tank. I take particular happiness that while you support Liverpool, your tank will always glow Everton blue...COYB!

Haha, you're right! Might have to turn the lights to red whenever posting pictures lol

Below are today's test results and they're looking a lot better..

Starting to think that we're getting there ?

Has anyone cycled with Fritz Turbo start before ? There's not too much documentation on it to be honest , I've seen in depth reviews on Dr Tims and to be honest only see mostly videos of people using Fritz.

Next step would be to await some diatoms and get a bit of clean up crew...

Additionally would wait a couple more weeks and add another clown fish & perhaps a goby. Thoughts ?


Question: In June I'll be going away for the weekend. Has anyone just heavy fed their fish and made sure their RODI water container is filled? Are there any precautions to take when going away? Is an Auto feeder something to look at or a must have ?

 

[Brit’s Fish]

Hello everyone,

My names Jake, currently located in Charlotte NC and I'm starting up my first saltwater tank. Creating this thread to share the positives and negatives that I face along my journey into the reefing hobby. As a massive Liverpool FC (soccer/football) supporter I chose the name You'll Never Reef Alone as a play on You'll Never Walk Alone ( Any football banter is welcome ). I've done my fair share of watching youtube videos and learning, but I'll most likely be asking for help / advice along the way! If you'd like to I'll also be posting on my Instagram page @YoullNeverReefAlone

Equipment:
Red Sea Reefer 250 ( purchased used from a local )
Lighting: Radion XR30s ( still looking for some mounts/arm ... so if you have any for sale LMK! )
Jebao DCP Return Pump
Reef Octopus Skimmer 150-SSS
Tunze ATO w. 5.5 Gallon Tank ( need to learn how to use this thing )
Jebao Dosing Pump w/ containers ( also need to learn how to use this )
Finnex Heater 150 Watt ( still coming in the mail )
Powerheads ( TBD but most likely purchasing 2X MP10s ~1 yr used )


Images below of the Red Sea Reefer 250

To clean it I saw a video that Citric Acid is god's gift and the best way to do it so I ordered some from Amazon and filled the tank with regular water from the shower with buckets.

I had the tank running for a couple days with citric acid, results below.. ( dog tax )

The citric acid did a great job, still think I'm going to get some water/vinegar solution and go through it a couple times just to get some of the spots that were missed.


As for the rocks / sand ... I ended up ordering caribsea dry aragonite ( 50 lbs ) and ordered STAX Rock ( 40 lbs ) from Marine Depot. I ordered these a couple days ago and they just came in today.

Here are the two boxes that came in ( I was expecting 1 big one but ended up finding the 2 boxes to be sufficient for my needs ) and had to do the cardboard trick that I see everyone else do for aquascaping.

I took some pictures of how it was package and how much came in 1 box for reference if anyone else is interested.

Packaging has individual sheets between the rock layers which is really well done, with little rubble from my own experience !

Second box had far more small / medium pieces which I actually ended up liking more than the massive pieces

Overall I'm pleased with what I received from STAX. The only thing I need to figure out now is what glue to potentially use once I figure out my final scape. I've read a lot that you can use regular superglue instead of the ones marketed by BRS and other sites. Also read cons that it eventually comes undone.... will need to read up a bit more on this.

During my lunch break, thankfully I work from home due to COVID, I was able to play around with the aquascaping that I initially envisioned.

Below are some images of my first pass at aquascaping, let me know your thoughts!

( Ended up fixing the uneven rock below because it was bothering me )

My initial thoughts was it would be cool to spell out LFC ( Liverpool Football Club ) from the top. I've included a big arch with a couple smaller ones with a few over hangs as well. This is my first go at it and the only thing that I'm trying to rethink would be to go from low to high from front to back to give it the depth feel. Also perhaps I can go a little smaller with the lettering of it to give that 2 inch on the side for maintenance.

Open to any advice!

Thanks for reading and hope you following along!

Next inline is to get an electrician to come in and install a GFCI outlet so I can sleep easy at night!

You are off to a great start! I’m really loving your aquascaping & the cool LFC idea! I can’t wait to see more updates.

 

[ying yang]

Type in brandon and you will see all brandons threads on cycling.im 100% positive some will be using fritz turbo start as it seems brandon been doing alot of work/ research on all aspects of cycling.
And yeah most fish will be ok without feed for 2 days no problem.
Maybe fish that need feeding few times a day like anthias for one example of fish like this then i think they need an auto feeder set up.but with a food they are used to and already eating.
With regards to protein skimmer it would all depend how often you usually empty it and if it broken in properley whether i would keep it running or not. If its in the sump then not that big a deal but if its a hang on back and being temperamental thwn worse case scenario it could take lots of wet skim out,therefore taking the saltwater out the system and then re- topping it off with rodi water ( thats if you got a auto top off device set up) and ovbiously if to much saltwater is removed if skimmer starts playing up and lots rodi water pumped back in as top off then the salinity going to drop.so as this is a new tank and only going away for the weekend.me personally i would turn skimmer off if hang on back ( sorry didnt familiarise myself again with your build thread to get all information.
And any advice i give in this forum since i joined recently and very new to saltwater i always say im new to saltwater so not much experience so is only my views and maybe wrong.but ovbiously i say my view on what i think and it like getting a quote for a new central heating system you should get few quotes then decide.( so same on this forum,get few peoples advice/ views/ experience then decide.

 

[ying yang]

Or type in " cycling with fritz" and threads similar to one im sharing below pops up

Cycling with fritz turbo start

Hi, back in September I set up a 10g nano and started the cycling with pure ammonia from Dr.Tim’s and Fritzzyme 9 ( idea from YouTube video). I was tracking ammonia and nitrite for almost 1 month but nothing happened. Ammonia stayed at 1-2ppm and nitrite at 0.5-2ppm - no nítrate every. I was...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[ying yang]

Is my quarantine tank cycled ?

Filter on right is another internal sponge filter with sponge and housing took out and using just for more flow Will either take out or just put housing back on when fish added so fish doesn't end up being diced fish from impellar

www.reef2reef.com

Above is me asking if my quarantine tank cycled and brandon answered and also talked a little about my display tank being cycled even though was showing 1- 2 ppm amnonia on a api test.he says cycled because the length oc time the tank had water in it and i ghost fed and added bottle bacteria to system and api often gives mis reads etc.
And again brandon been doing lots research/ giving advice and logging logs / threads of cycling questions on systems so all us newbies can get advise and help that we need

 

[YNRA]

@ying yang I've actually been reading a ton of these cycling posts on here haha but most of them pertain to fishless cycles where the ammonia is added by a solution instead of the fish.

Today (5/20) readings

Not sure if I'm going crazy chasing colors but it seems my ammonia may have gone up a bit ?

This cycling thing is driving me crazy ... does everyone constantly test for ammonia/nitrite/nitrates? or is this only done once the cycle is "complete" but I've read that a cycle is never actually complete.

 

[MnFish1]

@ying yang I've actually been reading a ton of these cycling posts on here haha but most of them pertain to fishless cycles where the ammonia is added by a solution instead of the fish.

Today (5/20) readings

Not sure if I'm going crazy chasing colors but it seems my ammonia may have gone up a bit ?

This cycling thing is driving me crazy ... does everyone constantly test for ammonia/nitrite/nitrates? or is this only done once the cycle is "complete" but I've read that a cycle is never actually complete.

I think you are chasing colors, but, what have you done recently? are you adding ammonia? are you adding more bacteria?

 

[YNRA]

I think you are chasing colors, but, what have you done recently? are you adding ammonia? are you adding more bacteria?

I have not been adding ammonia, I've added the 2 fish the 1st day with Fritz a while ago. When you saw the massive spike and when I lost my clown I added a new bottle of Fritz on (5/20). I also turned my skimmer off and had 1 clown in the tank and just been feeding him and these are the results.

 

[MnFish1]

I have not been adding ammonia, I've added the 2 fish the 1st day with Fritz a while ago. When you saw the massive spike and when I lost my clown I added a new bottle of Fritz on (5/20). I also turned my skimmer off and had 1 clown in the tank and just been feeding him and these are the results.

So - I guess - a couple questions. How long after the fish died, did the ammonia spike? Second - if you're not adding more ammonia, the ammonia, will stay at '0' (I don't think the color recently was above '0'.

 

[YNRA]

So - I guess - a couple questions. How long after the fish died, did the ammonia spike? Second - if you're not adding more ammonia, the ammonia, will stay at '0' (I don't think the color recently was above '0'.

Ok so in my previous post with the multiple pictures of test kits where it says

Woke up today ( 5/15 ) to the following test below ** this was the day that the fish died ( it did not die in the tank , I removed it and tried to add it to a new quart size container of new saltwater I made ) . That same day I ended up changing around 15 gallons of water and the picture RIGHT under that one is what the levels looked like. That same day after the water changes I went to LFS and bought Fritz and added it. Since then the following posts with test kits have been the results. I hope that kind of clears up the timeline

5/15
- Woke up to high ammonia / high nitrites / high nitrates
-Took Mocha clown out of tank and tried to save him ( other clown was doing fine )
-Did 15+ gallons of water change
-Went to LFS and got fritz turbo start and added it (turned off skimmer)

5/16 and on ... took test results and continued to feed the remaining clown fish.

 

[ying yang]

Not sure how often others test for amnonia, nitrite,nitrate in their tanks.
For me in my quarantine tank i tested daily as wanted to actually see the rise and fall of them to see the cycle in action.
With display tank was once or maybe twice a week at most as knew it be 2 months or so since qt tank cycled and fish finished in qt ready to move to dt.
Once display up and running and matured im probably only going test occasionally or if see a problem for amnonia. Nitrite im reading irrelevant so wont be testing.
Nitrate will be testing weekly just before a water change and just after and will have it noted down in a diary under stand so can track its progression.

 

[MnFish1]

One thing, if one is going to try using fish and bacteria - as Ying Yang said - its probably a good idea to keep an eye on ammonia - I don't measure nitrite or nitrate because - nitrite isn't toxic and nitrate shouldn't rise that quickly. But - A Seachem ammonia badge would not be a bad idea. If ammonia does start to go up, I would add more bacteria. If it gets to a 'dangerous' level, one can always add 'prime'. If you do, the future ammonia levels will not be accurate - depending on which test you use.