Go salt or go home. First ever tank! 29G

[howaboutme]

I decided to start a new thread to document my first ever tank build. Thanks to everyone who has helped and have given support. I'm super excited and can't wait to get this ball rolling! My ultimate goal is to have a reef tank (probably LPS or soft) but am very patient. I'm thinking 6 months at least after introducing the first livestock. I also plan on upgrading as I need, such as the light. So sit back and enjoy the ride!

Here's my equipment list:
29G Aqueon
1 cheap 17W T8 light that came w/ the kit (will get upgraded when adding corals) 1 Evergrow D120
CPR Bak Pak 2 HOB skimmer (thanks Tracy G!)
2 100W Aqueon heater (1 is for making salt water only)
2 Hydor Koralia Nano 425 gph
33 lbs of base rock
5.5 lbs of live rock from LFS
Approx. 15 to 20 lbs of reef grade aragonite sand bed to create about 1.5" depth for aesthetics only (actually bought 40 lbs thinking I'd need it all)

Avast ATO with Avast Diaphragm Pump

1 WP-25

Reef Angel Plus Controller

Water:
Purely H2O Optima Vision RO/DI 75 gpd system
20G Brute trash can
Many 5G home depot buckets

Livestock Wishes (Definite):
2 Occ clowns
1 Watchman Goby
1 Pistol Shrimp
CUC package (w/ red legged hermit crab)
Chalk Bass-Jumped

Livestock Wishes (Not sure):
Yellowstriped and/or Spotted and/or Longspine Cardinal
Firefish
Royal Gramma Basslet

Wrasse
A starfish (but know its unlikely) Got red fromia

Lawnmower Blenny - Not sure..maybe starved?

I've attached a couple of pictures. The tank is cycling w/ just live rock and waiting to see if I should drop a shrimp in. The first picture was taken right after I turned on the skimmer. You can see a lot of microbubbles. The second is about 48 hours afterwards and the microbubbles have dropped significantly. I think it had to break in again since it had been out of water for a while. I'm going to work on a mod to make it quieter by playing w/ the airline this weekend.

I'll most likely need help w/ livestock suggestions when the time comes but I'm taking that slowly too, maybe 1 fish (or in the case of the clowns 2) at a time. I'm thinking the goby and shrimp first, then the clowns. Thoughts?

I did a series of (API) tests tonight. This is what I got...Atleast that's what I think since it's super hard to tell the color!

Ammonia: .25 ppm (I think)
Nitrite: 0.00 ppm (very light blue)
Nitrate: 10 ppm (I think)

I'm thinking if I don't see a larger ammonia spike by this weekend, I'll seed it w/ shrimp. What do you all think?

Hope you all enjoy this as much as I do talking about it. Thanks in advance for looking.

Edited May 12, 2014 by howaboutme

[Tracy G]

Following! Nice Scape looking really great!

[08can-am]

Very nice start.

[Tracy G]

You can do as they recommend (I never have lol) but just pee in the tank. I have heard a few people say that gets it going for Ammonia pretty quick. I never liked the shrimp idea because it can get pretty nasty and really their are a ton of other options. You can even use fish food to toss in the tank daily like you were feeding imaginary fish. Should get it kick started pretty well and cycle within 4 weeks. As for livestock I love Gobies and if you get a Sleeper Goby then they help keep sand clean. When I get Livestock my goal is that every fish I add serves a purpose to the habitat. Thats why my first 2 fish were Goby's and 1 is a Sleeper and the other is similar to a Watchman so it can pair with a Pistol. When they are paired you will almost never see them as they spend most of their time under the sand.

 

The Red Legged Hermits im not sure about but from what I have seen they can get big. All hermits are opportunistic eaters and if it gets big enough it may eat things you dont want them to like your fish or corals. The Blue Legged hermits tend to stay smaller from what I have noticed (and heard from others).

 

Im really excited to watch your tank progress!

Edited February 27, 2013 by Tracy G

[Smorf]

 

The Red Legged Hermits im not sure about but from what I have seen they can get big. All hermits are opportunistic eaters and if it gets big enough it may eat things you dont want them to like your fish or corals. The Blue Legged hermits tend to stay smaller from what I have noticed (and heard from others).

 

 

 

+1

 

I bought some red leg hermits and all they do is kill each other and my snails. Every day I see hermit legs floating around in the flow. I probably lean more towards overfeeding too, so I know they get some leftover food. I recommend buying the tiniest blue legs that you can find. Their shells should be about a centimeter long.

[jimlin]

looking good so far.

[howaboutme]

Thank you all!

 

Also, thanks for the red legged crab warning. It's weird because all of the research I have read says the blue legged ones are the aggressive eaters and kill snails for their shells when they outgrow their own...I'll have to think a bit more than.

 

And..can't seem to convince my wife that peeing in the tank is good. Might try the food idea since I'll need some airline this weekend so can pick that up too. Any food would you recommend? I prefer something that I can actually use for livestock later on.

Edited February 27, 2013 by howaboutme

[jimlin]

i had a bunch of blue legged crabs kill snails for their shells. they also fought among themselves for shells. my next build will be crabless.

[jimlin]

ocean nutrition prime flake food is what i started out with before going towards frozen food. i had clowns, cleaner shrimp, chromis and wrasse. all of them ate it.

[howaboutme]

ocean nutrition prime flake food is what i started out with before going towards frozen food. i had clowns, cleaner shrimp, chromis and wrasse. all of them ate it.

 

thank you. I'll look into it.

[howaboutme]

Did a mod to the Bak Pak 2 skimmer this weekend. This is to put a muffler on the end of the air line. While I did that, I also extended it. I've heard that helps silence the air line as well. I just took an empty pill bottle, drilled a hole on either end, stuffed some cotton balls and inserted 1 airline from the pump on one end and a smaller air line on the other end. This way, the air valve is not needed as the skimmer is now run at full steam. I've already experienced an improvement in skimming, some nice green stuff even w/ no livestock. See the picture. (By the way, I've heard this concept is how the bigger in sump skimmers like Reef Octopus, stay quiet.) This has also helped lesson the micro bubbles even more to almost a negligible point.

 

After about a week of cycling and some ghost feeding, I still haven't seen a huge spike (not more than .25ppm) of ammonia or nitrite while nitrates have been around 10. Hopefully I'll get a spike soon. I doubt only 5.5 lbs of live and cured rock is enough to have my tank not need to be cycled. Either way, I'll be patient.

 

Thanks for reading.

[Tracy G]

Very nice! Looking great!

[howaboutme]

So the tank has been cycling for about 9 days. I've been checking the main parameters every night since the 3rd day. The only 2 things that are affecting the cycle is a 5.5 lbs fully cured live rock from LFS and some fish flake food. My ammonia has been steady between 0 and 0.25ppm (I used API) throughout with the exception of .25 to .50ppm 3 days ago. My nitrites was 0 on the first night of testing and raised to somewhere between 0 and 0.25ppm ever since then. My nitrates have been between 5 to 10ppm with the exception of the last few nights which are at between 10 to 20ppm.

 

Knowing these numbers, what is the analysis? Because of the fully cured rock, is my tank going through more of a mini cycling then a full cycle where ammonia is above 2ppm or more? I know since neither ammonia nor nitrites are at zero that the tank has not finished cycling but wanted to get some feedback on what the tank is doing? Being new, I'm not 100% sure what's going on exactly. In the meantime, I am continuing to feed the tank a bit each night.

 

The LR has started to grow some nice coralline (or I think) and has some interesting green things growing on it as well as some red fuzzy stuff. I'll try to post a pic next time.

 

Any thoughts from other members about what's going on?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Tracy G]

So the tank has been cycling for about 9 days. I've been checking the main parameters every night since the 3rd day. The only 2 things that are affecting the cycle is a 5.5 lbs fully cured live rock from LFS and some fish flake food. My ammonia has been steady between 0 and 0.25ppm (I used API) throughout with the exception of .25 to .50ppm 3 days ago. My nitrites was 0 on the first night of testing and raised to somewhere between 0 and 0.25ppm ever since then. My nitrates have been between 5 to 10ppm with the exception of the last few nights which are at between 10 to 20ppm.

 

Knowing these numbers, what is the analysis? Because of the fully cured rock, is my tank going through more of a mini cycling then a full cycle where ammonia is above 2ppm or more? I know since neither ammonia nor nitrites are at zero that the tank has not finished cycling but wanted to get some feedback on what the tank is doing? Being new, I'm not 100% sure what's going on exactly. In the meantime, I am continuing to feed the tank a bit each night.

 

The LR has started to grow some nice coralline (or I think) and has some interesting green things growing on it as well as some red fuzzy stuff. I'll try to post a pic next time.

 

Any thoughts from other members about what's going on?

 

Thanks in advance.

if your ammonia is showing up the cycle is not complete. The algae is a good sign but I would still wait until you feed the imaginary fish and you show 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite. Patience will save you time and money. Any traces of ammonia is poison for a fish.

[howaboutme]

Thanks Tracy. Yeah, I know the key is getting zero's on ammonia and nitrite but was just wondering about the cycle in general. Thank you.

[Origami]

Yes, your cycle is progressing well. I would not expect the ammonia in your case to rapidly spike up as you had biological filtration already in place from the live rock, unless you had a lot of die-off from the rock (which can happen if there were sponges and such on the rock that were disrupted from the transfer). As long as you're ghost feeding the tank, you'll have an source for the ammonia that feeds the bacteria and helps that population grow. If you're ghost feeding is enough to sustain other life, then once things settle, you can slowly introduce that other life into the tank: CUC, fish, etc.You're probably very close to that now. Just wait for your ammonia and nitrites to zero out and add slowly to your bioload. It's not unusual for a system that uses 100% fully cured and well-handled live rock/sand to be available for stocking immediately or nearly so. If the rock is shipped in (under water), then it's best to wait a few days and monitor ammonia levels before committing fish and such to the tank (just to make sure there's no substantial die-off that can disrupt things).

[howaboutme]

Yes, your cycle is progressing well. I would not expect the ammonia in your case to rapidly spike up as you had biological filtration already in place from the live rock, unless you had a lot of die-off from the rock (which can happen if there were sponges and such on the rock that were disrupted from the transfer). As long as you're ghost feeding the tank, you'll have an source for the ammonia that feeds the bacteria and helps that population grow. If you're ghost feeding is enough to sustain other life, then once things settle, you can slowly introduce that other life into the tank: CUC, fish, etc.You're probably very close to that now. Just wait for your ammonia and nitrites to zero out and add slowly to your bioload. It's not unusual for a system that uses 100% fully cured and well-handled live rock/sand to be available for stocking immediately or nearly so. If the rock is shipped in (under water), then it's best to wait a few days and monitor ammonia levels before committing fish and such to the tank (just to make sure there's no substantial die-off that can disrupt things).

 

Thanks for the analysis, Tom. It's very helpful. The LR was out of water for about 30 minutes (the time it took to buy it, get it home and into the tank). It already had a lot of good color on it. My plan is to wait for it to finish cycling, continue feeding it for a bit afterwards and then add a few CUC to get things going. Then a couple of weeks later, the first fish. This is getting exciting!

[Origami]

The "out of the water" part can be devastating to some sponges (because of air entrapment), and can trigger its die-off. That's why I mentioned monitoring in these cases.

[howaboutme]

The "out of the water" part can be devastating to some sponges (because of air entrapment), and can trigger its die-off. That's why I mentioned monitoring in these cases.

 

Yeah, I was wondering about that too. Should I have asked for it to be packaged w/ some water? The guy asked how far I was driving and said if I was driving any furthur, he would have packaged it differently.

 

Also, I've attached some photos of the LR and wondering if anyone can help identify a few things.

 

Labeled #1 on all pictures is a green sponge looking thing, keeps growing.

Labeled #2 on all pictures is a fuzzy red thing and it's on a few spots

 

Sorry if the pictures aren't clear, still trying to figure out the best way to photograph through glass.

 

Thanks

[Origami]

No. It looks like it did just fine.

 

I can't tell from the photos what you're talking about. My guess is the "sponge-like thing" is sponge given that it's sponge-like.

[howaboutme]

Ha ha, got it! Thanks.

[howaboutme]

Well...Checked out Pristine Aquarium this morning and brought a water sample. They confirmed what I have been getting the last 2 days, 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrate and about 20 Nitrate. Doing a 5G "practice" water change today and will see where I am at. Was going to wait another week to do CUC but am getting a bit antsy....

[trockafella]

Youre good to add a CUC.. What are you planning to add for a CUC.?

[howaboutme]

Youre good to add a CUC.. What are you planning to add for a CUC.?

 

Thanks. I was originally planning on a full complement from reefcleaners but I've talked myself out of it because my tank probaby cannot sustain a full complement (not even bioload). I think what I'll do is get 5 to 6 snails (ceriths, nass,neriths) from LFS, maybe tomorrow and then add as I need.

 

So I just did my water change and it was harder than I thought. I'm glad I did a run through w/o livestock. I learned that using the caribsea araganite reef sand (the courser one) means that I don't need a "gravel cleaner" siphon as that sand won't be sucked up too easily. What the gravel cleaner actually did was prevent some of the detritus from going through the "net". I think I'll get a regular siphon, should have used the KISS method. I have to also figure out a good way to dump my water change amount (5G) into the tank w/o a huge water fall from the pitcher that I've been using. What do other's do w/ a smaller tank? I know you larger tank people use pumps.

 

Now that I've turned the skimmer and ph's back on, some of the microbubbles came back. I'm assuming they will eventually go away like the first time and this is something I will have to deal with with each wc.

 

Thanks for reading and providing suggestions.

[zygote2k]

all crabs are omnivores and will eat anything they can. If you get tiny (1/2") blue legged reef hermits, they take quite a while to grow into a snail threat.