87G AGA Eventual reef

[ludachris]

[/IMG]


I decided to buy a refractometer since I am new to the saltwater hobby and did not want to take any chances. I read some good reviews about this one so I went ahead and bought it.

 

[ludachris]

[/IMG]

This is my skimmer.. 9010

 

[ludachris]

[/IMG]


I decided to go with Tunze 6060 Powerhead since they have a nice broad flow and are fairly quiet (and fairly expensive!!). I bought Tunze products since the have a good reputation and are stocked by almost all LFS here just in case I need some spare parts during an emergency.

 

[ludachris]

[/IMG]


After about a week or so this white stuff started to appear everywhere on my setup! It’s white and powdery. It settled on all the aquarium glass the bottom, sides, sump just everywhere and was kind of tuff to remove from the submerged glass.

The truth is I haven’t tested the tap water since my 5 Stage RO should be arriving next week. I suppose I have really hard water. Any idea what it could be? If I were to guess I would say it is some kind of marble residue since there are mountains around my area that are mined for marble….

 

[ludachris]

[/IMG]

I drained the tank cleaned the white residue and filled the tank with water from a 5 Stage RO Unit. Then I added salt waited about a week and added 21kgs (46 pounds) of live rock. The rock is in the tank 34 days.

My water parameters during these 34 days are as follows:
Ammonia 0.25mg/L from Day 3 until today
Nitrate started out 0.7 - 0.5 - 0.3 – 2.0 – 0.1 – 2.0 and today 1.1mg/L
Nitrite started out 0 – 0.015 – 0.01 – and today 0
pH around 8.1 - 8.2
Temp 24 degrees C
Salinity 1.025

Things I have found in my tank:
Fanworms
Crabs (2 died)
Snail
Pods (haven’t seen them in a while)
Different worms
Tiny pinhead sized white organisms all over glass



I use Salifert test kits.
If you have any other questions about the tank please don’t hesitate to ask.

Do you think that this is a normal cycle? When should I expect the cycle to complete? Do you think things are ok?

 

[ludachris]

[/IMG]

 

[rebekwl]

Nice tank, can't wait to see it stocked!!

 

[lcstorc]

Your cycle is not finished until you have 0 amonia and 0 nitrites and can keep them there for at least a couple of days. A week would be a lot better to be sure the cycle is done.
IMO you need some more LR in there unless you have it in your sump or fuge. Generally people recomment 1-2 lbs of LR per gallon. The difference is how porus the LR is. More openings means more room for the beneficial bacteria and therefore less rock.

 

[ludachris]

Nice tank, can't wait to see it stocked!!

thanks

 

[ludachris]

Livestock

Hello everybody how are you doing? Since I’ve last posted I installed lights (4) Ardadia 54w T5. (2) Actinic and (2) white. Soon after the lights were installed brown algae started to grow and then it was replaced by green velvet looking algae. I will post pictures soon. As I have probably posted earlier in the future I would like to keep some soft corals, inverts etc. Here is a list of the fish and inverts I have in mind so far. Any input would be great concerning compatibility and what goes in first.

Thanks

• Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp (Lysmata amboinensis)
• Sexy Anemone Shrimp (Thor amboinensis)
• Camel Shrimp (Rhynchocinetes durbanensis


• Wheeler's Watchman Goby (Amblyeleotris wheeleri)
• Sailfin/Algae Blenny (Salarias fasciatus)
• Kaudern's Cardinal (Pterapogon kauderni)
• Green Mandarin (Synchiropus splendidus)
• Yellow Tang (Zebrasoma flavescens)

 

[rebekwl]

Hi! Glad to see you back I'm no expert but here is what I've heard:

Sexy shrimp- very small, will most likely be eaten by your fish.
Camel shrimp- not reef safe
Madarin goby-must have tank of at least 100 gal set up for a year or more because they rely soley on copepods for food.

Everything else looks fine as far as I can tell. Have you purchased any clean up crew yet? (i.e. snails, hermits, etc.) They should be able to help you out with the algae a bit.

Good luck! Let us know when you get some life in there!!

 

[lcstorc]

Rebekwl you have obviously been doing your homework.
The only think I will add is that the tang should be the last added and the tank is borderline for a tang to begin with. I would go with a school of smaller fish like chromis instead.

 

[ludachris]

Hi! Glad to see you back I'm no expert but here is what I've heard:

Sexy shrimp- very small, will most likely be eaten by your fish.
Camel shrimp- not reef safe
Madarin goby-must have tank of at least 100 gal set up for a year or more because they rely soley on copepods for food.

Everything else looks fine as far as I can tell. Have you purchased any clean up crew yet? (i.e. snails, hermits, etc.) They should be able to help you out with the algae a bit.

Good luck! Let us know when you get some life in there!!

Too bad for teh Sexy Shrimp, I kind of liked those....

Iv read that about the Madarin mabey I'll give him a shot after a few months.

I have 5 Astrea snails in my tank but they are not very mobile, they only move around on one pice of live rock.

Can you recommend any other snails I can add or hernits that are reef safe?

 

[ludachris]

Full tank shot

This is what my tank looks like now.

[/IMG]

 

[lcstorc]

Looks like things are up and running. The first thing I would get would be some more LR. Then I would get some turbo snails for the glass. Another good choice would be a queen conch or two. They love to clear the glass as well. The best thing would be a sea-hare but they are a bit delicate and I don't think I would get one with this new of a set-up. Perhaps someone who knows more about them can speak up there. I know that in the week mine has been in the tank he has eaten almost everything green including cleaning the overflow. Not sure how he got in there but he found my hair algae and it is gone. Now I just gotta get him back into the tank.

 

[rebekwl]

Rebekwl you have obviously been doing your homework.QUOTE]

Thanks! I learned from the best

Like Lynn said, the turbos are great for the glass. As far as hermits, I have some blue legs, but have heard that the scarlets are the most reef safe out of the bunch. I just lost a Sea Hare They are great, but are pretty delicate, as I have just unfortunately learned the hard way.

Good luck with everything!

 

[lcstorc]

Oh no! What happened to your sea hare? Mine is doing great but I have to admit I worry about him and am always looking to see where he is now.

 

[ludachris]

Looks like things are up and running. The first thing I would get would be some more LR. Then I would get some turbo snails for the glass. Another good choice would be a queen conch or two. They love to clear the glass as well. The best thing would be a sea-hare but they are a bit delicate and I don't think I would get one with this new of a set-up. Perhaps someone who knows more about them can speak up there. I know that in the week mine has been in the tank he has eaten almost everything green including cleaning the overflow. Not sure how he got in there but he found my hair algae and it is gone. Now I just gotta get him back into the tank.

Thanks for the info lcstorc. LR is my next item on my shopping list, I will probably put some LR in my sump too.

Id love to get a sea-hare but i agree ti is quite soon.

 

[ludachris]

Rebekwl you have obviously been doing your homework.QUOTE]

Thanks! I learned from the best

Like Lynn said, the turbos are great for the glass. As far as hermits, I have some blue legs, but have heard that the scarlets are the most reef safe out of the bunch. I just lost a Sea Hare They are great, but are pretty delicate, as I have just unfortunately learned the hard way.

Good luck with everything!

Sorry to hear about you Hare...

Ill also look into those scarlets, seems like I have lots of reading to do...

 

[rebekwl]

Oh no! What happened to your sea hare? Mine is doing great but I have to admit I worry about him and am always looking to see where he is now.

It just died one day I thought he was fine and our favorite new game was "find the Sea Hare". I noticed that he hadn't moved for 24 hours and I pulled him out to check on him. He was hard and stinky. Poor little guy, I feel horrible.