Patrick's RSM C-250

Pat24601

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
Patrick's RSM C-250

I hope I'm starting this thread correctly. :)

I just started a new RSM C-250 on July 2, 2014. Hopefully, the photo below is day 1. :)

I have NO idea what I'm doing. I've done freshwater for years, but saltwater is a whole new ball game.

To make matters worse, I'm starting it when I have 9 month old twin boys at home. Hopefully, I have time to keep up with it! That's one of the reasons I'm doing it, though. My father always had a lot of aquariums and I want them to grow up with one around too.

My impressions so far are:
(1) The temperature thus far doesn't appear to be anywhere near the problem I was reading about with the old version of max 250. My tank is hovering around 76 most of the time.
(2) Evaporation is higher than I would have thought with the cooling fans running etc. Not a big deal, but I expected less evaporation (and higher temps) from reading reviews of the old max 250.
(3) Learning to do all my tests and readings. My refractor had my salinity reading at 1.028, which seems high considering I bought my salt water from LFS. But, I'm wondering if that's because I calibrated it with distilled water. Need to redo.
(4) I'm doing this without any type of a detailed plan (unlike Roy). So, counting on LFS a lot. They are really good, though. Hopefully it turns out OK. :)

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DianaKay

DianaKay

Princess Diana
RS STAFF
Looks Great! :yehoo: Cheers for starting a tank thread :yehoo:
Having the patience to go SLOW until the tank matures will pay off. But it's not easy to not want to rush & add life to the tank faster than it will be ready for it. Post all you thoughts & ??'s here as there will be all the :help: you need from "been there done it" good reefer members here.
Are you testing your ammonia & nitrite daily? At the moment those are the main two.
Log your test results here through your cycle time, it will help with your wait.
Looking forward to sharing your journey :thumbup:
 
Pat24601

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
Thanks DianaKay and Goma.

Those are great links to cycling! I definitely have a case of "what do I do next". So, aside from making my head explode a bit, those do help. I'm not 100% sure I really understand it all yet! but I'm trying. :). I'm getting a lot if help from LFS too.

I see the deli shrimp thing often. I wasn't really planning on doing that with the (theoretically) cured live rock. Should I?

I'm definitely in no hurry. I'm more worried I'll wait too long to do something (like add CuC) and mess things up than go too fast.
 
goma

goma

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
PREMIUM
Adding a deli shrimp as your ammonia source is one of the best ways to get your cycle started. Once added the important thing to look for is the rise and fall to zero of ammonia and then the rise and fall to zero of Nitrites. Once that is done, the cycle is complete and you can do a large water change or a series of water changes to reduce Nitrates and add a CUC. Don't worry about they days across the bottom as many factors can affect the timing (condition of live rock).

goma-albums-cycle-picture24873-cycle.jpg
 
Oxylebius

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
+1 to add deli shrimp to kick start your cycle. If you have cured rock the amount of bacteria may not be enough to break down fish waste. You will want to build up your bacteria population so that when you do begin to add fish you won't have a mini cycle.

There is a whole list of beginner guides on this Advance Aquarist web page - very helpful: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/sort/beginner
Scroll down the page to see where you can click to go to the second page of listed articles.
 
Pat24601

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
I'm not sure if this is good, bad, or indifferent, but readings on day 3 are:

Ammonia: 0.25
NO2: 0
NO3: 20
PH: 8

Assuming I can test and match colors correctly, which may not be true.

Thanks again for the further help, Greg. I'm researching your material now. :)
 
DianaKay

DianaKay

Princess Diana
RS STAFF
Good that you recorded....the UP & down pattern is key to watch so that you will know that your tank is progressing with the nitrogen cycle. So post more test results as you do them (daily or every other day is good) :)
 
DianaKay

DianaKay

Princess Diana
RS STAFF
It might not be "bad" but the deli-shrimp is "natural decomposition" releasing a slow steady feeding and challenge for your good bacteria (this is all IMO). LFS make more money if you buy products so that is what they recommend.
Most likely either way will work....I had some hitchhiker CUC come out of my LR to eat shrimp...was fun to watch!
 
Roy Page

Roy Page

Active Member
Pat24601 said:
I'm not sure if this is good, bad, or indifferent, but readings on day 3 are:

Ammonia: 0.25
NO2: 0
NO3: 20
PH: 8

Assuming I can test and match colors correctly, which may not be true.

Thanks again for the further help, Greg. I'm researching your material now. :)
Click to expand...

Hello Patrick,

Looks like you are doing ok. Matching colors when doing the tests was and still is difficult for us.
But after a lot of tests it seems a bit easier and you will start to see a pattern.
Your ammonia is up so your cycle has started.
There are at least 4 of us with new C-250's so plenty of comparisons can be easily made.
Just make sure that when the GHA starts growing you get some big Mexican Turbo Snails in there.
We still have not managed to find them at the our LFS's but have finally ordered some online.

Have fun,

Roy
 
nanoreefing4fun

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
welcomefish.gif

to ReefSanctuary and the RSM Club, a real Sanctuary of reef forums, with lots of very nice members
745.gif
 

Cheers for starting a new tank thread & sharing your tank with us so we can follow along - we love pics :)

Scape & rock looks really nice !

One tip that will serve you well.... when LFS tells you anything, post about it on RS before buying ;) a lesson we all have learned.

on your salinity calibration, pick up some 1.026 calibration fluid $9 investment that you can count on...

http://www.marinedepot.com/American...arine_Pinpoint_Monitors-AM1437-FITECL-vi.html
 
Pat24601

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
Thanks, Glenn!

Your tank is also one of the ones I read through in detail. :) It is interesting to see so many different tanks and examine what experiences they have which are similar and which ones are different.

I ordered the salinity calibration. So, hopefully that helps. From reading, I think it really should. :) I doubt I really have a salinity problem since i bought my water from LFS. But, it will be nice to read it correctly.

Readings today (assuming I can read colors, which is questionable--but it's probably a rough ballpark): PH: 8.1 Ammonia: 0.5 NO2: 0 NO3: 40

I am developing a series of questions, but I'm going to research a bit and see what I kind find out before asking on the forum.

Although, one is people seem to get much better pictures than me. Maybe I just need to switch to my better camera...
 
Pat24601

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
I haven't had time to do the deli shrimp idea, but I'm sitting set day 7 with readings that appear nearly identical to my day 3 readings. I'm not even positive I'm reading the ammonia test well. On some days the color looks like 0 on others it looks like 0.5. I'm pretty sure my nitrites are stuck at 0.

Does that all seem normal or do I really need to find time for the deli shrimp?


I also wonder about Roys Red Sea reef starter kit. That seemed pretty organized (although he did have to fight GHA).
 
goma

goma

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
PREMIUM
It is always best to introduce an ammonia source to get things going.


Here is your typical cycle. Don't worry about they days across the bottom as many factors can affect the timing (condition of live rock). The important thing to look for is the rise and fall to zero of ammonia and then the rise and fall to zero of Nitrites. Once that is done, the cycle is complete and you can do a large water change or a series of water changes to reduce Nitrates and add a CUC.

goma-albums-cycle-picture24873-cycle.jpg
 
Roy Page

Roy Page

Active Member
Pat24601 said:
I haven't had time to do the deli shrimp idea, but I'm sitting set day 7 with readings that appear nearly identical to my day 3 readings. I'm not even positive I'm reading the ammonia test well. On some days the color looks like 0 on others it looks like 0.5. I'm pretty sure my nitrites are stuck at 0.

Does that all seem normal or do I really need to find time for the deli shrimp?


I also wonder about Roys Red Sea reef starter kit. That seemed pretty organized (although he did have to fight GHA).
Click to expand...

Patrick, although I am very much a newbie it seems that you are not creating an ammonia cycle in your tank.

The purpose of the cycle is to populate your live rock with nitrifying bacteria needed to ensure all future waste is converted from Ammonia to Nitrite and finally to Nitrate which can be tolerated in very small amounts.
The deli shrimp provides the Ammonia source which is needed to generate the bacteria on the live rock , the RS Reef Mature Kit does it similar and ensures you get the Ammonia spike which also confirms that you are cycling the tank.
My understanding is that the basic cycle is complete when the Ammonia and Nitrite levels fall to 0, and in my case leaving Nitrate at approx 2 ppm, after the weekly water change.

With the great help on this forum, I have learnt that diatoms, GHA, green algae are all part of the tank very slowly maturing.
Tonight at Day 59, my C-250 is looking rather pristine, faint suggestions of GHA and green algae on some rocks and the sand, but mostly clean LR with quite a lot of coralline algae slowly growing.

The suggestion from this newbie is to you get that deli shrimp in the tank asap and get the cycle started.

Roy
 
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