Martin's RSM C-130

[melvis]

Well, popped into my LFS on the way home today to make sure all ok for collecting my live rock and water in the morning (just over 12 hours away now...aaargh!).

They'd taken a delivery of a mountain of uncured live rock but thankfully, the guy I've been dealing with had separated out my cured stuff ready for me to collect. Unfortunately, there's only about 12.5kg of the 15kg I'd ordered ready, with the rest due in about 1-2 weeks. I've read about kick starting a mini cycle if added after the initial amount, is this right?

If so, would I be best waiting until this is ready before embarking on the Red Sea Reef Starter programme or could I get away with adding the extra 3kg (maybe a tad more if any nice bits catch my eye)?

As always, any help gratefully received. Cheers

 

[Joeys Tank]

You should be fine with adding a little more rock later on. The majority of your rock will be going in and while a little more ammonia/nitrites may occur, it will be very small compared to your initial cycle.

 

[melvis]

Thanks Joeys Tank!

That's a relief. Hopefully will start the Red Sea Reef kit on the weekend then.

Cheers

 

[melvis]

So today's the day...and the early morning trip to the LFS for the live rock and saltwater is done. I've done some quick aquascaping (missus gonna hopefully turn her artistic hand to it when water has cleared, and once the other bits are collected);

[/URL]

Looking down;

[/URL]

And from the front with the water in;

[/URL]

I've turned the skimmer off as it was going ballistic, spitting out foamy water from the overflow. Should I leave this off for a while or continue?

Will add the ATO at some point too.

 

[Aearin]

No need to have the skimmer on really there's nothing to skim. I'd turn it on nearing end of your cycle to break it in though.

Have you got you circulation pump on? I made that mistake and my sump is full of sand now!

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Nice looking LR

on the skimmer, you don't need to run it while cycling, but it won't hurt either... what I always do, is run it a few hours a day for the 1st couple of weeks to allow it to break in. Until you have a lot of bioload it may not due much, they wet skim, so it will require some tweaking... but should settle in as it breaks in. If you want you can dump what it skims back in the tank... if you have a good ammonia source this may not be needed though...

some of my thoughts... see what others think

 

[Joeys Tank]

^+1 Nano.

One of the things I found odd when I started on this journey was that I actually do want some things to die in the tank during the cycle. At this early phase of the game, healthy bacterial growth is your main concern. Some of the horror stories I have read were when a person would add in livestock (fish/coral) right off the bat before the tank has had time to cycle. Other techniques for cycling a tank are required if one was to take this approach (running a skimmer plays into it). However, if you are cycling with rock/sand and are patient, then a skimmer wouldn't be needed.

Thoughts on a circulation pump .... I agree that you may want to be cautious running it (may pull sand down into the sump), but water circulation will also help benefit bacterial growth. I wouldn't run the pump while your water is cloudy from the soot in suspension, but once it settles down, I would turn on the pump and watch carefully. If a lot of sediment is kicked up, then play with the nozzle. If not, then you should be good to go.

I always viewed the cycling process as nature's way of giving you time to settle in while your tank is doing the same

 

[Mark9]

If it was me, i'd run the skimmer.
Turn it way down to start, get some bubbles going in there.
Slowly increase the bubbles.
By slowly, I mean do an adjustment in an hour or 2.
If you do not know how a venturi skimmer works, here's something to read.
Skimming Basics 101
The sooner you learn how it works, the sooner you'll be able to "dial it in".
Keep your hands out of the tank when adjusting, as you'll cause a bubble collapse.

Basically, the dial is going to increase/decrease the amount of air going to the venturi.
More air, more bubbles.
Not enough bubbles, no skimming.
Too many bubbles, over skimming.
Simple in theory, difficult to master, as there are so many variables it will take time (weeks?) to get it right.
Things like water level, feeding, bio-load, etc all affect the skimmer.
It's not a set and forget piece of equipment.
But over time, you will become the skimmer whisperer.

 

[melvis]

Thanks very much guys! Must admit, I am quite pleased with the LR, although I need to get it a bit more stable as worried it'll get knocked over by an over zealous member of CUC.

Mark, cheers for the link on skimming basics, will have a read of that shortly. All the comments on skimming are interesting, the different view points etc. I've got a lot to get my head round on that, so in the meantime I think I'll leave it off.

Got the blue LEDs on at the mo to see what they look like and I must say, they ain't particularly bright. Looks like another purchase is in order - more than likely the stick on LEDs from AquaRay. Not bad at under £30.

Well chuffed and spent most of afternoon just staring at it! Thanks everyone for all the advice and guidance, much appreciated.

 

[Joeys Tank]

Well chuffed and spent most of afternoon just staring at it! Thanks everyone for all the advice and guidance, much appreciated.

My wife has come down and caught me just staring at equipment on the tank and always says "what the hell are you doing?"

Me: "just wrapping my head around a few things"

 

[melvis]

Lol Joeys Tank, my missus just snatched the torch from me as she wanted to have a nose around...spotting something running about in the LR got her all excited, in fact it was bloody hard getting it back for myself.

Quick pics;

With the super bright blue LEDs on...

[/URL]

With one of the T5's on...(the replacement from Red Sea just arrived but tbh, just realised in all the excitement earlier, I forgot to install it lmfao.

[/URL]

LOVING THIS!!!!!!

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Our mates across the pond - when they grab a torch are not grabbing a Euphyllia torch, but a flashlight

Scape looking great - rock watching is lots of fun !

nice to hear the wife is enjoying the tank too !

Happy wife Happy life

 

[Aearin]

Looking good mate. Exciting stuff isn't it. Me and my girlfriend spotted multiple hairy legs poking out of the the holes in the rock, I shone my iPhone torch and it buggered off... Quick! I'm starting to worry it might be a gorilla crab but we havent seen it since.

Have you started the reef mature kit yet? It's a bit tedious but only a 10 day wait for CUC ;D

Any idea what CUC your putting in yet?

 

[melvis]

Just spent the last hour with the missus rock watching and OMG, what a blast! So far, we've spotted a crab's leg of some description - looked a light pale pink, but was staying hidden.

Spotted this...

[/URL]

And a snail? Just below the light and to the right.

[/URL]

An absolutely tiny feather duster...to right of light in the middle

[/URL]

Not heard of a gorilla crab Aearin, hope you catch it or it turns out to be harmless. Gonna be starting the reef kit on Saturday and in terms of CUC, not 100% sure yet on whether I want crabs (lol), but definitely some turbo snails, shrimps (dancing, sexy and blood red, according to the missus, as well as her heart now being set on some bumblebee snails. Who's tank was it again??? :LOL:

Any suggestions mate?

Thanks nano - I think she's loving it!!!

 

[Aearin]

I love marine crabs and prefer them over snails. My favourite are blue leg hermits and Halloween hermit. I've opted for red leg this time round as I've got a couple in my orb I'm yet to transfer over.

I've had bumblebee snails in the past they are really good but I find them one of the most likely to get eaten by crabs if you have them in the tank. Turbo snails are amazing and are always looking round the tank for algae etc, sand rocks glass you name it. Nassarius snails are great, live under the sand and rarely come up until you feed the fish and they just emerge! Great fun TL watch. First time I've had a conch snail but it's hoovering the diatoms up like no ones business. Really impressed

Shrimps are my favourites! Can never have enough they're great to watch. Blood shrimps look amazing but tend to sit at the back of the tank in my experience and only come out for feeding. Cleaner shrimps are great to watch too and good inhabitants. Sexy shrimp are great, my girlfriend loves them. They just sit around waving their ass in the air, they come and go every so often so it's exciting spotting them as they are so small and can be anywhere in the tank. Pistol shrimp are a new favourite, once paired up with a goby they are very entertaining but constantly messing up your sand/scape.

Starfish are good to have aswell, I've had red and sandsifters in the past.

There's so many options to choose from!

Not really clean up crew as such but feather duster worms are great and look brilliant in the tank also. Worth a look

 

[melvis]

Might have to reconsider crabs then....as I've just been for sneaky look (which didn't turn out to be that sneaky, as falling down the stairs in the dark only served to wake the missus and leave me with carpet burns to the elbows, a sore arse and headache lol) and spotted another crab. He's very pale in colour and minus a shell by looks of it.

I can see the tv becoming redundant at this rate...

Might have to rethink the bumblebees then, and the nassarius snails could be very interesting. Wasn't originally planning on a goby, but more I see of them the more I like them. What's your max number of fish you're gonna go for mate?

Definitely looking at a red star fish too and was planning on a feather duster worm until I found one, or four as it might just be!

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Rock watching - lots of fun - 1st pic stomatella snail a great hh member of the cuc

 

[melvis]

Cheers Glenn, just checked him out. Seems like a good HH.

Cheers for the ID.

 

[melvis]

The missus is well and truly hooked, she's not happy that I'm off work today with the tank but is glad she's only doing half a day today. She spotted these earlier whilst eating her breakfast in front of the tank lol...

A crab of some description;

Snail/slug;

And from the top;

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

on your crab... might take a go at an id here...

http://www.chucksaddiction.com/hitchcrabs.html

if I were to guess... I would say maybe in the Xanthidae class - there are so many crabs, most are not reef safe, but pretty easy to catch

the stomatella snails, I have a few & wish I had a 100

and if you really want an exact id on the crab, you can find him in the link here... but there are hundreds & hundreds to sort
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums...glenns-if-interested-thread-4.html#post990293