My New Setup

[Dominic Cook]

Ok guys , heres a chance for you to bash or praise what ive done so far.

My Tank is a 30 gallon bow front. not reef ready but nice lookin.

My filtration is a 3000 lph powerhead from hidom (works but a bit growly)
a Dolphin 550 lph HOB skimmer
25 kilos of dry rock (hoping it will become live with cycle ect)
a 600lph Hob filter (has sponges and floss for now but was gonns put Activated carbo ect in it later)


Well ive set it all up with plenty of space in my rocks for flow the skimmer is running but with air turned off as are the hob and powerhead.

i fell for the dr tims stuff and added it to the tank along will 2ppm of Ammonia.

then next couple of days scared the hell out of me as the ammonia went up to 8ppm so i started a graph to follow what happens.

day 1 ammonia 8ppm nitrite 0 nitrate 0 ph8.2 salinaty 1.024

day 2 ammonia 4ppm nitrite 0 nitrate 0 ph8.2 salinaty 1.024

day 3 ammonia 2ppm nitrite 0.25 nitrate 5 ph8.2 salinaty 1.024

day 4 ammonia 2ppm nitrite 0.5 nitrate 10 ph8.2 salinaty 1.024

is this sort of ok

 

[rostervandross]

So far so good man. I'm just a few days ahead of you with my ammonia dropping, I'm beginning to run a light for a while each day and going to add a few snails as algae develops

 

[Dominic Cook]

So far so good man. I'm just a few days ahead of you with my ammonia dropping, I'm beginning to run a light for a while each day and going to add a few snails as algae develops

Im not gonna run my lights for a while yet. With the expected nitrate eruption i dont wanna encourage algea at all. Im gonna give this little fowlr a chance at making some anearobic bacteria befor i light it up.

 

[Dominic Cook]

day 5 ammonia 2ppm nitrite 0.5 nitrate 10 ph8.2 salinaty 1.024

was hoping for another drop in ammonia and rise in others but it stayed the same today

 

[Dominic Cook]

Just put 1kg of live rock from LFS to kick start things

 

[rostervandross]

That's a good call there , I wonder myself how dry rock would really become seeded with life without adding some existingly live rock in.

 

[Dominic Cook]

It was supposed to be seeded by that Dr Tims One and Only hmmm me thinks its B.S. lol. look him up on youtube. he says his One and Only will cycle dry rock in 5 days hmmmm

 

[Dominic Cook]

this is what it looks like

 

[Dominic Cook]

day 6 ammonia 2ppm nitrite 0.5 nitrate 10 ph8.2 salinaty 1.024

this si a bit dismaying. Should i be worried or is this normal ?

 

[mr_tap_water]

Everything looks perfectly fine you just need to be patient now sometimes these things can take weeks if not months just keep your pumps and filters running and try to forget about it for a week or two and hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised.[emoji846]


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[Dominic Cook]

ok thankyou

 

[Dominic Cook]

i wake in the morning and look at this beautifully crystal clear tank thinking to myself, is it still a killer lol. its so hard not testing but ill be a good patient boy lol

 

[rostervandross]

Looks really good dude, reminds me of my 75 gallon with lots of new dry rock when I first set it up. I'll find a link to my thread.. I need to update it

By seeded with life "live rock" I meant like Copepods and spaghetti worms/feather dusters and serpent stats etc , and other little creatures besides just bacteria life.

 

[Oxylebius]

Ok guys , heres a chance for you to bash or praise what ive done so far.

This is a nice forum. Sometimes you get passionate debate and discussion, but hopefully it ends on a positive note. On this forum we try to limit the bashing, as there are a lot of kids on here. Helpful suggestions are always more useful then bashing.

My Tank is a 30 gallon bow front. not reef ready but nice lookin.

My filtration is a 3000 lph powerhead from hidom (works but a bit growly)
a Dolphin 550 lph HOB skimmer
25 kilos of dry rock (hoping it will become live with cycle ect)
a 600lph Hob filter (has sponges and floss for now but was gonns put Activated carbo ect in it later)

HOB filters aren't used that often in coral reef tanks. As long as you keep on top of making sure that hob filter is cleaned on a regular basis and the cartridge is replaced, it can work well enough. Hob filters can be used with fish only marine tanks w/o much issue.

I am one who will always use a skimmer in marine tanks. One of the best filtration pieces to have IMHO.

Well ive set it all up with plenty of space in my rocks for flow the skimmer is running but with air turned off as are the hob and powerhead.

Having a lot of flow around the rocks is always useful in making sure you don't have areas of stagnate water. While you are cycling you really don't have to run the skimmer. If you also have the hob and powerhead turned off are you getting flow through the tank? I'm confused by your post, no commas or periods, not sure what you are really saying. When cycling you need water flow. I hope you have this happening.

 

[Dominic Cook]

Thanks for for the reply Oxylebius. I have the powerhead running as well as the HOB . the skimmer was running without any bubble being produced as the instructions said to do so to start it breaking in.

Todays test test results are a bit more exciting

Ammonia 0ppm the nitrite and nitrate are off the scale high though . but at least the process has started

 

[Dominic Cook]

this may sound like a silly question but how does a reef tank's water stay polished without mechanical filtration, i have always used socks or floss to polish water in fresh water tanks so i am a little confused

 

[Dominic Cook]

ok guys and gals , as things stand my little tank can go from 4ppm ammonia to 0 in 24 hours this leaves .5 nitrite until 48 hours when this drops to 0 and the nitrate is holding steady at 20ppm.

 

[Oxylebius]

@Dominic Cook
How's it going? It has been awhile and your tank should have cycled by now.

 

[Dominic Cook]

Hi Oxy.

I wouldn't say it's cycled yet cos I'm probably a bit paranoid lol. I don't want to kill any fish etc when I put them in. The filtration deals with ammonia real fast but is still really taking its time with nitrite. I would rather be patient at this stage. What would you say.

 

[mr_tap_water]

You're right to be patient as some systems take longer than others[emoji846]


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