I Almost Grew Two Feet

[simonas]

oh well one for the upgrade when I manage it

 

[-Nemo-]

Bigger tank Simon!

I don't really have much use for the biopellets from what i've read Morri. Since I dose vitamin C, my phosphates and nitRATes are always 0. It cured my hair algae problem completely and I have seen 0 negative impact from using it daily for the past 6 months. I have no plans to stop dosing it for the next tank. It seems that vit. c and the pellets chemically work almost identically, oddly enough.


Ammonia is now decreasing 4.0ppm every twelve hours-- yay!
Now I just have to wait for the nitRITes to start coming down.
A couple of asterina stars made it into the tank when I added the mature media in and I still see them crawling around the glass; amazed the ammonia hasn't killed them.

The rock I made shot up dramatically in pH for some reason, it was sitting at 8.8 and is now up to 10.8
Not sure why. I'm tempted to put some vinegar in with it, but I'm worried it will erode too much of the rock. I may end up just picking up more base rock

 

[seffieuk]

Reaaly interesting to hear that the vit c dosing is going well - how and how are you dosing?

Seffie x

 

[-Nemo-]

I dose 1/4 tsp twice a day (which If I remember correctly equals 8ppm) of buffered sodium ascorbate powder. I simply pour the powder into my pump chamber in the sump and it dissolves almost immediately.

 

[Morri]

I can only guess that the Vit C is a carbon source the same as the pellets the beauty of the pellets is you cannot overdose and you just let them run away in a reactor I have got to the stage where I can no longer get phos readings and Nitrates are dropping off nicely

Double checked with the D&D test kit and showing zero there as well

 

[-Nemo-]

Yep, vit. c acts as a carbon source as well. Do you have macro on your system morri? Vit. c kills off macro within a couple weeks because it depletes the nutrients in the water so much.

 

[Morri]

Nope still have chaeto on my system at the moment but the pellets take a while to settle in

 

[-Nemo-]

Cycle nearly done now!!!

Within 12 hours,'
NH3 goes to 0ppm
NO2 goes to 0.25 ppm


My nitRATes are well above 160ppm now though!!! I'm hoping the cycle will be done by sunday. I'm going to buy a new bucket of salt tomorrow so I can do a large waterchange once completed. Then, I'm going to buy some CUC and add them and go from there.

 

[-Nemo-]

Light is finally up

Don't know why is looks so blue, it really is no where near that blue.

White PVC on either sides is temporary btw.

 

[bae1994]

very nice looks profesional

tho does look blue strange if its not like you said

it looks like you have a netbook mini laptop in there on the right but

 

[-Nemo-]

very nice looks profesional

tho does look blue strange if its not like you said

it looks like you have a netbook mini laptop in there on the right but

haha it does! Those are two filter pads I used for mature media. They'll be moved down to the sump soon. I put them in there when the sump wasn't being used yet.


Tank is officially cycled! Woooo! Cheer!!!!
NitrATEs are still well over 160ppm though

Going to do a humongous water change this week (hopefully tomorrow as I have nearly the whole day off). Bought lots of salt yesterday for it. If all goes well, I'll start throwing in some critters this weekend

 

[-Nemo-]

Had quite the adventure yesterday!

I changed out 50G of water, took two hours doing it ALONE , and when I tested the nitRATes were STILL at around 100ppm!!
So, sat around. Complained on the chat, complained to other people and decided to recruit some family to help with a second large water change

Did a 70G change the second time, only took an hour with TWO helpers , and the nitRATes fell to 15ppm. I estimate that the nitRATes were originally around 220ppm before the first water change
I put in some ammonia to make the bacteria was still OK, and it was but caused the nitRATes to go up to 20ppm .

Anyways, tonight I added the first things in there! Bought two fire shrimp (I miss having shrimp), 3 turbo snails and two emerald crabs. I didn't want to get any algae eaters because I literally have NO algae in that tank... at all. But, I threw in 3 pieces of LR (only pieces not with coral) from the 29G so they can graze on it.

Everybody looks happy after being acclimated. I'm hoping to stop and get more base rock tomorrow after work. Will post a picture then

 

[ben1987]

looking good, lights are really bright! did look like you had bought your fish a laptop aswel maybe they could have updated your thread for you

 

[-Nemo-]

looking good, lights are really bright! did look like you had bought your fish a laptop aswel maybe they could have updated your thread for you

haha. That would save on some work!


Alright, Worked all weekend so couldn't update.

I did go and pick up more rock, 27 lbs of it. So there's now about 47 lbs in there, I have about 15lbs in the 29g, so at some point I want to pick up at least 15lbs more.


Spent a good portion arranging the rocks, some epoxy putty got involved... But i'm rather happy with the scape at the time being.

All of the inverts I added are still doing well, shrimp molted last night. I also picked up a fish yesterday, sort of an impulse buy ( ). But now would have been about the only time I could put this fish in because they are so docile and I have the sixline. She roamed around the tank last night and disappeared into the sand, scaring me half to death when I couldn't find her because I had yet to put the top on the tank. But this morning about 30 mins after I turned the lights on, she came on out and ate very well, and the tops are on the tank now

So here are the little guys roaming around

And without further ado, miss. fishy

And a fts

Those white pvc eye sores will be gone shortly now that I have a top.

 

[-Nemo-]

Everyone is still well. Love that wrasse

Water stats today:
ph: 8.1
dkH: 9
NH3: 0ppm
NO2: 0ppm
NO3: 20ppm
Density: 1.024

Seems like Vit. C is starting to kick in, nitRATes have fallen 5ppm from it so far.


Mamma and Daddy clownfish laid eggs tonight so that means I'll be moving them over soon, maybe saturday. I have tomorrow off, so I think I'll start moving some of the inverts and coral over tomorrow afternoon.