Idlefingers' Salty Journal

[idlefingers]

Okay, thanks. So does 12pm - 10pm for the T5s sound good? My LED moonlights should be getting delivered on monday.. Is it okay to run them throughout the entire "dark" period when the T5s are off or should I do a few hours before and after lights out and have complete darkness through the night?

Here's a of pic of it now I've added 22kg of live rock.

I wanted to see what this amount looks like to help decide how much more I want - I think I'm going to buy another 10kg tomorrow to fill 'er up a bit more (and burn a larger hole in my wallet!)

 

[SkiFletch]

Lol, looks great, and that lighting schedule sounds fine. Moonlights are really only for your own personal viewing so when you get them, set them on a schedule convenient for you.

 

[sophos9]

T5 10hr period works well for me. Moonlights are on at lights off to about 3am, apparently corals enjoy this low light at night although I have not seen any evidence to back this up

 

[idlefingers]

I went searching for hitchikers with a torch last night after the light's had been off in the room for a little while and found a couple of snails slowly moving around. They look really strange, kind-of like a nut shell which has been wedged open where it's soft foot comes out of (excuse the crap explanation - first thing in the morning). Anyway, here's a pic:

Any idea what it could be?

 

[idlefingers]

I bought 5.5kg more live rock today. I wanted 10 but it seems everyone wanted live rock yesterday and there wasn't many good pieces left so I'll have to get some more later.

I decided to rearrange it to house the new rock and am pretty pleased with how it looks now..

 

[idlefingers]

Just did the first load of tests since putting the LR in (also hooked up an eheim 2213 with floss, rowaphos and carbon in yesterday). I'm surprised to not see any ammonia or nitrite yet - I thought pretty much straight after putting the LR in it would start showing?

PH 8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Phosphate 0.25
SG 1.024

 

[idlefingers]

I've been doing more hitchhiker searching and found a couple of really small things hidden on the rocks..

Any ideas what these are? They're absolutely tiny (about 2mm) so excuse the crappy pic.

I think this may be a feather duster (?). It keeps retreating really quickly into it's "tube" then slowly emerging again. It's about 6-7mm (diameter) when out of it's tube.

 

[SkiFletch]

Cool lookin FDs. Tank's lookin great Idlefinger

 

[idlefingers]

Cheers skifletch!

I just finished doing the tests again and the PH has moved a bit, but still no ammonia and nitrite. It took me about 20 mins to bring the rock home from the lfs and it was kept in bags with water in in a polystyrene box.. could it be that there wasn't much (if any) die off after bringing it home and so no spikes? Do the spikes normally come instantly?

SG 1.024
PH 8.4
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, its very possible that you're not seeing a mini cycle. That's a very short transit time for rock. Usually the ammonia spike comes 12-48 hours after introduction IF it does happen. It's even less likely to get an ammonia spike when adding a small volume of rock to a tank with allready cured rock in it. More often than not, the rock in-place has enough bacteria on it to manage the added ammonia if there is any dieoff. For example, before I switched to my 65g, I bought 15lbs of rock so that I could fill the new tank out a bit. The tank had about 65lbs, and the new rock would bring it up 80lbs. The 15lbs of "new" rock was out of water for an hour before I got it in my tank... No ammonia spike at all. There was enough established bacteria in my 65lbs of old rock to account for the new additions.

 

[idlefingers]

Oh okay, cheers!.. that's good! So if the ammonia and nitrite continue to stay at 0 and once the PH settles, is it clean up crew time?

 

[SkiFletch]

 

[idlefingers]

Well, the stats have been stable for a few days so unless anything shifts I should be on for getting some of the clean up crew this weekend!

SG 1.024
PH 8.4
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0

 

[adam.crouch]

Well, the stats have been stable for a few days so unless anything shifts I should be on for getting some of the clean up crew this weekend!

SG 1.024
PH 8.4
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0

Tanks looking smart! Where abouts in Cheshire do you live?

 

[idlefingers]

Thanks. I'm in Congleton.. yourself?