A Saga: Nikki's 120 gallon

[big t]

Well Nikki, how is you cycle going?

 

[NaH2O]

It is going well. I finally finished "the cycle" and am now experiencing a swamp tank. I did put in a cleaner crew to help, and the flow is great at picking up the snail's waste and running it down to the filter sock. I hope to get my skimmer back to full efficiency soon. I'll post a picture of my embarassing swamp later today.

 

[Scooterman]

Nikki are you running a Phosphate remover at this time?

 

[NaH2O]

Scott - not at this time. I did test my phosphates and they are currently between 0.5 and 1.0. I plan on placing an order for an Iron based Phosphate remover....hopefully will get that done this week. The rock is still shedding detritus - I blasted them this evening. Tons of junk. I can definately see where the phosphates are coming from.

Here is a picture from the front corner:

 

[NaH2O]

LOL - for some reason things don't look so bad in that picture....

 

[NaH2O]

Last one.....this is of the right half of the tank....things are definately worse on this side:

 

[Dr B]

Wow,
can I get a frag of that green stuff Niki? Its pretty sweet. What kinda coral is that? >

 

[Maxx]

I see what you mean. You can see Zip ties all over the place in that last one!

Nick

 

[Elmo18]

I swore I saw 'finger-lickin good' on that patch! :lol:

ok ok j/k

It will be gone soon nikki, it is a new tank.

- Elmo

 

[CarlaW]

Let it ride nikki, sooner than later you will be lookin at coralline algae. I didn't use anything besides cleanup critters when mine cycled, I just didn't want to use any chemicals. HTH

 

[big t]

Lookin Good Nikki, it won't be long now

 

[wrightme43]

Wow Nikki, that is going to be awesome. I would love to see more pictures of your stand. I really like the way you set up your rock. Thanks for sharing your tank. Steve

 

[kevinpo]

Nikki,
It's going just fine It just takes time and extrodinary patience on your part You might try a couple of large water changes to reduce the phosphates quickly.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[mojoreef]

LOL man thats not an algae bloom. When mine went through it, everything thing in the tank was covered by a carpet of green hair. Jerel sent me the black horde though and they cleaned it up in a hurry. Just picture a mass of 700 astreas and cerinth snails starting at one end of the tank and devoiring everything in their path.

Mike

 

[CarlaW]

Yeah, Just wait until they all spawn, then all you can think about is a milk commercial.

 

[NaH2O]

My Swamp

Since I am having trouble uploading photos in my gallery...I will post these here.

Well, I grew my algae to provide a natural phosphate remover and harvested it yesterday.

I spent somewhere around 6 hours yesterday removing the hair algae manually. I also installed a fluidized reactor yesterday to help with the phosphates still coming from the live rock.

Here are the before and after shots of my hair algae:

 

[NaH2O]

Here is a picture of my fluidized reactor. I am running Rowaphos in it. My PO4 prior to algae harvest yesterday was 0.1 ppm...this morning with the reactor running PO4 = 0.03.

 

[NaH2O]

I've also been having some major chemistry issues, and I am in the process of trying to correct them. I'm trying to bring my Alk up to help with Ca and Mg that is way too high. Despite the skewed chemistry and high phosphates...I am seeing some coralline algae growth (this is just one area, but the coralline is spread throughout the rock surface).

 

[Curtswearing]

WOW!!! Now that is quite a before and after shot!!! Congrats on the coralline.

 

[Scooterman]

YES I AGREE THAT IS AWESOME. This is good shots of all the cycles your tank is experiencing, so next time you see a newbie wanting everything over night, point him here!