Bat21's RSM 250

[Bat21]

Hello everyone. I won't be starting from the beginning here, but I'm only a few months in. I decided on a RSM 250 instead of the 130 because my LFS was selling the old model (with the rounded glass) for $1100. So even though I had planned on the 130, I could not resist getting a tank double the size for basically the same price.

I live in a one bedroom apartment in New York City, so I am limited in what I can do with equipment, plumbing, mods, etc. I convinced my landlord to let me have the tank, but any mishap, like a malfunctioning ATO, would end this adventure in a hurry.

Since I am a complete novice, I have decided to just do a FOWLR. Plus, fish are the reason I got into this. I don't have a love of corals just yet, but surely can imagine the desire growing inside me once I have reached the tank's fish limit. But for now, no reef, just fish. Here it is now, about 10 weeks in:

 

[Bat21]

The backstory:

I decided to add the fake coral pieces for some color in the tank. Plus I thought my clowns would want something to call home, and I was right about that. Currently I have an orange and misbar darwin occelaris pair as you can see to the left in their coral home. A pair of skunk cleaner shrimp who are already spawning. About a dozen hermit crabs, which have also spawned a few times. And 3 nessarius snails.

The rock is all CaribSea Life Rock that came dry. Did not start with live rock. I was nervous about dealing with bad hitchhikers and whatnot, and when my LFS showed me this stuff, I was sold. They also said that a few days in I could get a fish or two. Now, I did not plan on cycling with fish, but what they told me made sense. Since the rock will have zero die off, and it is just one fish creating waste in 66 gallons, the ammonia and nitrite will not reach toxic levels, so it won't be hard on the fish. It made sense to me, and it allowed me to instantly have a fish in there. They ended up being right, so it's all good.

A yellowtail damsel started it off. The cycle took about 5 weeks. During the process I was dosing Dr. Tim's Special Blend bacteria. Ammonia levels spiked to about .5ppm before dropping. Nitrite got to about 2ppm before dropping. And that was that. Damsel and new cleaning crew happy as can be.

The only thing I was confused about was I could not detect any nitrates (a tiny bit which then dropped to zero). My LFS said not to worry, that if Ammonia and Nitrite spiked and zeroed out, it is cycled and I can add more fish. I was skeptical so I gave it another 2 weeks, but everything remained at zero, so I added the pair of clowns. I ended up taking the damsel back because he thought he owned the entire tank and I did not want him torturing every fish I added.

Anyway, 3 more weeks and here we are, still zero everything, including nitrates. I did one 20% water change before adding the clowns. Have not turned on the skimmer yet. No carbon or purigen. Just a poly filter which I change every few days.

Everything is perfect, but maybe a little too perfect? The only thing I can think of is that the bacteria I added included denitrifying bacteria that found a low oxygen area to hang out and reproduce and are eating my nitrates.

Anyone have any idea how I would have zero nitrates (and zero everything else) with 10 weeks of feeding and fish poop?

 

[akejan]

Nice tank! I think you should add som live corals. Most of them are easy to care for.

 

[TEA]

Nice scape! What sand did you use? Dry or live? I ask that because I went with completely dry rock as well but I used a 50/50 mix of dry/live sand. Like you, I also saw very little ammonia (mine only got up to .5ppm as well). I saw 0 nitrites the entire time and only saw less than 5ppm on the nitrates once. I kicked my cycle off by adding in a few frozen silversides and letting them rot. My readings have been 0 across the board for a week now and that is after adding a small amount of CUC and feeding the tank every couple of days, a small amount of sinking pellets. I do have a fairly deep sand bed which I am attributing to my lack of nitrates as you mention with the low oxygen area. My tank is 21 days old as of today. I struggled the first couple weeks to understand why I was not seeing the test readings I read about in EVERYONE ELSES posts!!! Now I'm just going with the understanding that my tank truly did cycle, the live sand must have assisted in a very quick cycle, and I'll slowly add in livestock here and there over the next few months.

 

[ziggy]

The backstory:

I decided to add the fake coral pieces for some color in the tank. Plus I thought my clowns would want something to call home, and I was right about that. Currently I have an orange and misbar darwin occelaris pair as you can see to the left in their coral home. A pair of skunk cleaner shrimp who are already spawning. About a dozen hermit crabs, which have also spawned a few times. And 3 nessarius snails.

The rock is all CaribSea Life Rock that came dry. Did not start with live rock. I was nervous about dealing with bad hitchhikers and whatnot, and when my LFS showed me this stuff, I was sold. They also said that a few days in I could get a fish or two. Now, I did not plan on cycling with fish, but what they told me made sense. Since the rock will have zero die off, and it is just one fish creating waste in 66 gallons, the ammonia and nitrite will not reach toxic levels, so it won't be hard on the fish. It made sense to me, and it allowed me to instantly have a fish in there. They ended up being right, so it's all good.

A yellowtail damsel started it off. The cycle took about 5 weeks. During the process I was dosing Dr. Tim's Special Blend bacteria. Ammonia levels spiked to about .5ppm before dropping. Nitrite got to about 2ppm before dropping. And that was that. Damsel and new cleaning crew happy as can be.

The only thing I was confused about was I could not detect any nitrates (a tiny bit which then dropped to zero). My LFS said not to worry, that if Ammonia and Nitrite spiked and zeroed out, it is cycled and I can add more fish. I was skeptical so I gave it another 2 weeks, but everything remained at zero, so I added the pair of clowns. I ended up taking the damsel back because he thought he owned the entire tank and I did not want him torturing every fish I added.

Anyway, 3 more weeks and here we are, still zero everything, including nitrates. I did one 20% water change before adding the clowns. Have not turned on the skimmer yet. No carbon or purigen. Just a poly filter which I change every few days.

Everything is perfect, but maybe a little too perfect? The only thing I can think of is that the bacteria I added included denitrifying bacteria that found a low oxygen area to hang out and reproduce and are eating my nitrates.

Anyone have any idea how I would have zero nitrates (and zero everything else) with 10 weeks of feeding and fish poop?

Your clowns might love a 3" terractta clay pot, same as Diana has and most take to it quickly and even spawn inside it. I would love to see you add that to the tank.

Your tank looks excellent. please keep sending pics

 

[DianaKay]

Your tank looks really good! LVE your rockscape

I stand by your decision to stay FOWLR....but I think that decision will get harder to stick with as time goes by
If you change your mind, Everyone will certainly understand .
I'm looking forward to your thread updates, keep 'em posting

 

[Bat21]

My tank is 21 days old as of today. I struggled the first couple weeks to understand why I was not seeing the test readings I read about in EVERYONE ELSES posts!!! Now I'm just going with the understanding that my tank truly did cycle, the live sand must have assisted in a very quick cycle, and I'll slowly add in livestock here and there over the next few months.

I didn't see nitrite until after three weeks. Then once I saw it, it took at least a week to get back down to zero. I would give it more time if I were you. Mine took about 5 weeks to cycle.

 

[Salty150]

Nice looking!

How much sand did you add?

60 lbs?

 

[Bat21]

Nice looking!

How much sand did you add?

60 lbs?

Exactly right. 3 20lb bags.

 

[Bat21]

New inhabitants! A royal gramma and a yellow banded possum wrasse. Doubled my fish population from 2 to 4.

Both enjoying their new surroundings. The wrasse just keeps to himself cruising around the rocks. Very cool to watch. He just sorta flutters around very smoothly. The gramma seems to like hanging with the clowns when he's not in his hole. Obviously adds a ton a color to the tank.