Tori's First Marine Expedition!! nano style!

[leahski]

alright, the move is complete! my rocks are in generally the right place, but i'll be fidgiting with them more tomorrow to be sure!
my camera's batteries are dead, but tomorrow i'll get some pics of the new stand and the fancy pants all-cords-lead-to-one timer/surge protector thing that my dad built me. it's sweet.

one bit of bad news, my peppermint shrimp appears not to be with us anymore. poor baby must have died in the rocks and been devoured by my diligent CUC and i never knew! but he's definatly no where to be found in the rocks or tank.

we stopped by the LFS today for the biocube 14 stand and i found a LR branch of fire and ice zoas that i'm drooling over. but i need to make sure my move didn't trigger a mini-cycle first...

[jadefox]

Originally Posted by leahski

alright, quick question.
i've been turning my lights off at night and turning them on in the morning, like i was told. but i heard that i should put them on a timer and i was wondering what kind of schedule to set? does it matter more what time it turns on and off or how many hours its on? and what does it harm if they're on too long?

i'm thinking right now i don't have a whole lot to mess with, but i'd like to get it figured out. i'm thinking of getting a cheap damsel soon to help cycling. is that a good idea?

I'm soooo glad you're soooo excited. Isn't this a great hobby? Regarding cycling--it's generally considered bad form to cycle with fish (even tough lil damsels) these days. Here are some thoughts on live rock:

Live Rock: Using Live Rock in a Saltwater Aquarium

It really depends on what live rock you got? Is it so-called cured or uncured? While you can accelerate the cycle through adding a shrimp in a stocking or bumping up the temp (or any number of other ways people bump their cycle), nothing works like patience. Do your water tests and take your time, and then add your CUC!

Best Snails for the Saltwater Tank - Four Snails Species for the Marine Aquarium Clean-Up Crew


Keep us posted!

[jsindorf]

Good advice Jadefox, and from what I can tell, Leahski did those things. She filled the tank first with just the saltwater, live cured rock and live sand. The cycle seems to have happened, then put in CUC. Now she moved it to her dorm room at college and put things back with the same water. Now she's checking to see if it makes a spike before adding some zoos.

Good advice, but she has done all that, it seems from reading the entire thread.

Leahski -- pictures please!

[jadefox]

Originally Posted by leahski

alright, the move is complete! my rocks are in generally the right place, but i'll be fidgiting with them more tomorrow to be sure!
my camera's batteries are dead, but tomorrow i'll get some pics of the new stand and the fancy pants all-cords-lead-to-one timer/surge protector thing that my dad built me. it's sweet.

one bit of bad news, my peppermint shrimp appears not to be with us anymore. poor baby must have died in the rocks and been devoured by my diligent CUC and i never knew! but he's definatly no where to be found in the rocks or tank.

we stopped by the LFS today for the biocube 14 stand and i found a LR branch of fire and ice zoas that i'm drooling over. but i need to make sure my move didn't trigger a mini-cycle first...

Sorry about the pepp :-(

[leahski]

haha thanks jadefox, people here did talk me out of cycling with a fish, so i threw in a deli shrimp and waited. the people at my lfs were always telling me to use a damsel, so i thought that was the correct way to do things. good thing i found RS!

i just did a dip test a few minutes ago and i don't have an ammonia test, but my nitrites are 0 which would tend to imply that my ammonia is also 0. nitrates have been hanging around 20ppm for quite awhile now, i'm hoping my comming-soon fuge will take care of that. otherwise, nothing seems ary. i was a little afraid that the move would stir up the sand and trigger a slight spike, but so far, so good!
jsindorf, i promise, pics by this evening! i need to buy batteries first!

[jsindorf]

You know, I bet the person who built you that spiffy power panel might have a box of AA batteries you could get. Save your money to buy an ammonia tester.

[jadefox]

Originally Posted by leahski

haha thanks jadefox, people here did talk me out of cycling with a fish, so i threw in a deli shrimp and waited. the people at my lfs were always telling me to use a damsel, so i thought that was the correct way to do things. good thing i found RS!

i just did a dip test a few minutes ago and i don't have an ammonia test, but my nitrites are 0 which would tend to imply that my ammonia is also 0. nitrates have been hanging around 20ppm for quite awhile now, i'm hoping my comming-soon fuge will take care of that. otherwise, nothing seems ary. i was a little afraid that the move would stir up the sand and trigger a slight spike, but so far, so good!
jsindorf, i promise, pics by this evening! i need to buy batteries first!

Sorry I was behind on your thread...lol. Regarding the fuge, what are you thinking of in terms of set-up?

[leahski]

no problem jadefox! and thanks for your sympathy for my shrimp!
well, i have a biocube, so there are three chambers in the back. origionally the first had a filter cartridge, the second had bioballs, and the third was the pump. i removed the filter and the bioballs, and replaced them with LRR and filter floss. i'm planning on moving about half of the LRR to the first chamber and putting the chaeto in the 2nd with some LRR and a submerssible light that is on its way. if it fits with the power cord, i'd love to keep the drip tray and filterfloss on top of chamber 2. we'll see.

[jadefox]

Originally Posted by leahski

no problem jadefox! and thanks for your sympathy for my shrimp!
well, i have a biocube, so there are three chambers in the back. origionally the first had a filter cartridge, the second had bioballs, and the third was the pump. i removed the filter and the bioballs, and replaced them with LRR and filter floss. i'm planning on moving about half of the LRR to the first chamber and putting the chaeto in the 2nd with some LRR and a submerssible light that is on its way. if it fits with the power cord, i'd love to keep the drip tray and filterfloss on top of chamber 2. we'll see.

Nice--sounds like a good lil set-up. Regarding your nitrates, you say:

Originally Posted by leahski

nitrates have been hanging around 20ppm for quite awhile now, i'm hoping my comming-soon fuge will take care of that.

While I am a big fuge fan, I would try to address the nitrate issue sans fuge before installing it. With your current bioload, you should be able to drop those nitrates w/out NEEDING a fuge (although I think you should still have one). I would do a few large water changes (like up to 50%) and then be religous about future water changes (I'm doing a 10% water change on my 135 as I type!).

Then practice really good husbandry, especially with a nano (the smaller the tank, the harder it is to get stability). Also, increasing flow can help. Low flow areas trop waste that decomposes and leads to higher nitrate. Do you have accumulated detritus on your LR? You probably already said this, but I assume you are using RO/DI water and not tap.

You may also want to make sure the filter floss is not full of detritus--organic waste stuck in the filter floss gets broken down aerobicly and will produce nitrate.

Having said all of this nitrates, out of all of the toxins, are fairly low on the toxicity scale compared to nitrite and ammonia. Nonetheless, you should not need a fuge on that tank with your current bioload to get the nitrates to zero.

Does any of that make sense? I need more coffee.

[jsindorf]

Good advice Jadefox.

Leahski, do you still have the filter that seperates chamber 2 from the pump in chamber 3? That might be where some of this stuff is hiding that is raising the nitrates.

Since you don't have any bioload to speak of -- just crabs and snails -- the nitrates should be very low just on its own.

I do agree you should add the fuge.

Wondering if sucking out the bottoms of the three chambers is a good idea... just thinking out loud. Not suggesting it, kinda just looking for non flaming feedback!

you're off to a great start... keep going... it's going to be beautiful soon

[jadefox]

Originally Posted by jsindorf

Good advice Jadefox.

Leahski, do you still have the filter that seperates chamber 2 from the pump in chamber 3? That might be where some of this stuff is hiding that is raising the nitrates.

Since you don't have any bioload to speak of -- just crabs and snails -- the nitrates should be very low just on its own.

I do agree you should add the fuge.

Wondering if sucking out the bottoms of the three chambers is a good idea... just thinking out loud. Not suggesting it, kinda just looking for non flaming feedback!

you're off to a great start... keep going... it's going to be beautiful soon

I agree--I'd want to vacuum those chambers.

[leahski]

oh, i do still have the "sponge" between chambers 2+3, that i was meaning to remove, i'll do that. and maybe it'd be a good idea for me to scrub/rinse my LRR in the filter, to make sure that's not trapping anything.
i've been pretty regular about changing the filter floss (a couple of times a week) and i've done 2 50% water changes to date, but i'm going to do another today or tomorrow. i'll do all of that and see what happens!
and i am using RO/DI water, not tap. speaking of which, i need to go get some more...

btw, is vaccuming substrate a good idea? i know all the good stuff lives there, but all sorts of bad stuff lives there too, right?

[jadefox]

Originally Posted by leahski

oh, i do still have the "sponge" between chambers 2+3, that i was meaning to remove, i'll do that. and maybe it'd be a good idea for me to scrub/rinse my LRR in the filter, to make sure that's not trapping anything.
i've been pretty regular about changing the filter floss (a couple of times a week) and i've done 2 50% water changes to date, but i'm going to do another today or tomorrow. i'll do all of that and see what happens!
and i am using RO/DI water, not tap. speaking of which, i need to go get some more...

btw, is vaccuming substrate a good idea? i know all the good stuff lives there, but all sorts of bad stuff lives there too, right?

vaccuming the substrate is a good idea depending on if it's a deep sand bed or shallow sand bed. You don't want to disturb the anaerobic part of a DSB, but it's good to get a shallow sand bed cleaned IMO. You should have sand sifters too.

By the way, do you like kayaking?

[leahski]

haha ,yeah, i love kayaking. the ocean/flatwater stuff is fun, but i LOVE whitewater! (i'm guessing your going off of my pic!)
btw, jsindorf, i love your new picture!

and, speaking of pictures! (i'm so good at segueing!) i took some of my new setup (and my new peppermint shrimp!) that will be up momentarily!

[leahski]

alright! it's time! pictures of my aquarium in its new home and the spiffy power thing my dad built!




and a pretty bad picture of my new peppermint shrimp, Pepperoncini! (pepper for short!)


one of my red legs was just doing handstands, but he stopped as soon as i took my camera out, unfortunately! he's quite the gymnist!