Mike_Conn01s 10g Peninsula

M

mike_conn01

New member
Hello again all, time to track my build/progress.

So started with 10lbs of BRS Fuji dry rock, tons of nasty shells and what appeared to be some sort of dead mussels tucked in every little hole. After cutting all my rocks with flat bottoms I began plucking the shells out of every hole I could.

Dumped them in some salt water with a pump and heater and let them sit.


8 weeks and two water changes later. 0ppm Ammonia, 0ppm Nitrite, and 5ppm Nitrate. It was time to fill.



View attachment 19294

Upgraded the pump in the AIO unit to an Aqueon 160gph pump and using a Jager 50W.

Can anyone provide any input on cycling.

Should I ghost feed and check to ensure the cycle can convert or just go with a bottle of Dr. Tims one and only?

Stocking Plans: (constructive critique welcome)
2 Spiny Astreas
2 Trochus
1 hermit
1 Fighting Tonga Conch


1 Purple Pincushion Urchin
2 Midnight or Possibly Black Ice Clowns
1 yellow Watchman


Also thinking of perhaps some Dragons Breath and Purple Branching Macros only going to go with a torch in the right corner and many a blasto in the little cove to the left. ???

View attachment 19295
 
Seems like too much livestock to me. Isn't the rule something like 1 fish per 5 gallons?
 
The best advice I got was start slow and test often. I had 3 fish in my 12 gallon nano but I changed water every week, tested weekly and had alot of rock in there. That worked for me based on what I did to keep the water quality high.
 
Get fish that stay small like rainfordi gobies or even fire fish clowns get mean in small tanks plus unless u upgrade light u probably couldnt get a nem for them to host . Anyways good luck small tanks r a pia for me
 
Nice start [MENTION=3732]mike_conn01[/MENTION] The CUC looks good, but may want to wait to add the conch until you have enough to feed it. I'd think we'd all say to add the two clown first and give it some time before adding the watchman, if at all. see what water params are likw iwht 2 fish before jumping in with the thrid.
 
Codeman28 said:
Really like your aquascape you came up with.
Click to expand...

Thanks, it took a while, but it has since changed. I came home last night to a nice pile of sand covering the small foreground rock on the right. So ran some tests and salinity jumped up to 1.028, I guess evaporation was more than I thought. SO corrected that then got rid of small rock and reworked to hopefully prevent the sand blowing around a lot.

Water is still pretty cloudy. Picking up some filter floss and possibly some Seachem Clarity if it doesn't ease up a bit.

I have a strip of the white poly floss that the tank came with sitting in the filter area now to see if that helps, but its a very tiny piece of it.

Ran through the gammit of tests last night as well.

Ammonia - Showing signs of slightly rising, API test kit is pretty hard to read, is it yellow or green, very hard to tell.
Nitire - 0ppm
Nitrate - 0ppm
PH 8.2


Going to pick up the Salifert Ammonia test Friday if my frustrations continue with API test kit.


Any further thoughts on cycling, thinking of ghost feeding if ammonia test shows nothing again with better test kit?
 
Ok well a few developments.

12/09 - Water test
PH 8.2
Ammonia - .50ppm
Nitrite - .25ppm
Nitrate 1.00ppm

Did a quick aquascape reorg!
View attachment 19370

12/11 - Water Test
PH - 8.2
Ammonia - .5ppm
Nitrite - 1.00
Nitrate - 10ppm


Is cycle starting on its own? Or should I be introducing more ammonia?


Started with 10lbs Dry Fiji from BRS and using about 11lbs CaribSea Live Bahama Oolite.
 
If you are still getting readings w/out fish or phantom feedings; I think your rock still has organic materials still breaking down.
My experience with BRS Pukani was it took a LOOONG time for all the crap to break down. The rock just has so many places for dead organic matter to hide in every hole, nook and cranny.
It’s up to you, but if you have the patience, wait until the residual organic in the rock is completely exhausted and isn’t going to be a ready source of nutrients for unwanted algae, diatoms and cyano.
 
goatous said:
If you are still getting readings w/out fish or phantom feedings; I think your rock still has organic materials still breaking down.
My experience with BRS Pukani was it took a LOOONG time for all the crap to break down. The rock just has so many places for dead organic matter to hide in every hole, nook and cranny.
It’s up to you, but if you have the patience, wait until the residual organic in the rock is completely exhausted and isn’t going to be a ready source of nutrients for unwanted algae, diatoms and cyano.
Click to expand...

Yah there was a ton of dead stuff. Tons of what I think were dead mussels in tons of holes in the rock. I would find them buried deep when I was flat cutting bottoms of the rocks.

Would adding bacteria, like Microbacter7, at this point do anything to assist with the break down?

And I was thinking of doing a water change or should I just let it sit?
 
Adding bacterial boosters will always help with the colonization of the tank and the breakdown of the soluble nutrients, the nutrients that is trapped in all that dead stuff is the challenge.

Doing water changes does get rid of the soluble nutrients that are floating around but it won’t get rid of it from the dead crap that is still rotting. Water changes will also get rid of the bacteria that are breaking down soluble nutrients – though they do repopulate fairly quickly.

I would turn off the light, crank up the heater and max out the flow to help break down the remaining rotting crap. In a couple weeks, do a 100% water change and wait another week and test the water. If phosphates and nitrates are at or near 0 ppm, you are good. If not wait a couple more weeks and do another 100% water change and recheck in a week. If you don’t eliminate that easy source of nutrients, you will be battling other problems until they do break down.
It took nearly 4 months for cook out all the rotting debris for my rock.

Another option is to do an acid bath of your rock break it all down along with some of your rock. I wouldn’t do this unless I was in a big hurry.
 
Ok so a another update.

12/13 - Water Test
.25 PPM - Ammonia
.25 PPM - Nitrite
5-10 PPM - Nitrate

12/15 - Water Test
0 PPM - Ammonia
.25 PPM - Nitrite
5-10 PPM - Nitrate ( Looking like its in between 10-20 PPM)

12/15 - Water Test
0 PPM - Ammonia
0 PPM - Nitrite
20 PPM - Nitrate (Noticeable change in color towards 20- edging into red color zone of 40)

12/18 - Water Test
0 PPM - Ammonia
0 PPM - Nitrite
20 PPM - Nitrate (Noticeable change in color towards 20- edging into red color zone of 40**same thought**)


I had done as earlier recommended and cranked heat to 90 then started lowering it back down and its back at 78-79 degrees.


Also looking for some suggestions. I want to get a small piece of live Rock to perhaps seed the tank with coralline. and maybe kick things off a bit faster. Any thoughts on where to get a small piece of LR?? I check a local mega pet store and nothing really had any good growth, had a ton of brown algae all over it, looked like hair algae, or they had Real Reef Rock with the fake purple algae.
 
Anyone have any ideas besides hanging these lights to mount them? Only going to be using one of them. Saw a stand for a AIR Hydra that looked like it might work.
 
Ok so quite the update.

Im still looking for mounting options for my light besides custom( I hate the hanging kits, and I have like 12ft ceilings in my house)

Picked up two baby clowns at a Grand Opening at the end of January.

View attachment 20049View attachment 20050

Also picked up two banded Trochous Snails and two dwarf Hermits.
They had Nassarius and I should have picked them up then but alas.........I did not.

Im feeding my clowns twice a day, Omega One Mini Pellets with Garlic. I tried Frozen Mysis but they don't really like them at all. Started noticing a lot of detritus build up. So picked up a few nassarius from Bolingbrook Petland.
Acclimated them for 3 hours on drip and next morning one dead and now another two are not looking too good.


Also noticing my snails and hermits are doing an okay job but that tank has quite a bit of floating algae in it and just particulate matter.

Water tests have all showed zero except morning of snail death Ammonia rose to .5ppm - quick water change fixed that.

Ive got an old TOMS mini canister filter, thinking of packing it with floss and carbon and stirring up all the crap, then letting that run overnight. Thinking the stock filter chamber is really underperforming. (maybe swap our for a Fluval C series HOB or that new Seachem Tidal Power<- looks as though I can hide heater in the Seachem.


I know this is sort of all over the place but just wanted to get the update out there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top