Jiddy's 220g MASTERPIECE!

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Jiddy - are you adding your snails before the cycle is complete?
 
try a coke bottle, with a small rock in it. That is an awesome way to catch a fish I used it numerous times.

Take the lable off the coke can (must be a clear container) then put a small rock in it or san to make it sink, and cut a hole in the side. I like to melt the hole with a lighter, so the edges aren't sharp. I usually tie a string to the cap to pull it out fast.

Then put some mysid (big fat honking ones) in there. Then wait for him to get hungary.

When he goes in there pull the string fast and get it out of the tank. The 'viola no more meanie fish.

This works awesome on tangs, they are really stupid. But Lunare (I know about thatone in particular) are hunters, they are really samrt, and can sense a trap.

I have used this to catch mean tangs, blue zoo eating Flame Angels, and a mean ass Flesh Eating Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse.

Works great! But use the lighter method to make the hole, and when you do it, go outside, it really stinks. I cut the hole once and whan I caught the Scopas he tried to escape and cut himself.
 
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NaH2O said:
Jiddy - are you adding your snails before the cycle is complete?
Click to expand...

Of course not, this was a buddies tank that looked like mine and he was with me and... okay fine, lol. No really thou, i thought my tank wasnt goin to cycle because i took someone elses cured rock and water, so.... explain this to me ;)


Wildreef, thanks for the help, im goin to go do that and catch the little bugger.

Now, on with the pictures

Just showin the path of the overflow

From over the tank down to the sump
 
Heres my sump that i dont know what do with, it needs some baffles

then my overflow boxes for TRAVIS

and my snails, i mean my buddies snails

-Jidz
 
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That is a big problem, two power strips below the overflows, big no no, fix that please big guy. Just because you got LR & water doesn't mean your not going to cycle, what about all that other rock?
 
Scooter, my power strips arent actually below the overflow, the overflow is in the middle and the strips on the side, but i will be movin them before i get my Mag's hooked up, thanks for the look out!

And on the cycle thing, i thought a cycle was the bacteria level being able to hold up to the ammonia levels in a nice equilibrium. And a sudden ammonia spike was caused by either decay or poop, which at first cant be "ate up" by nitrates? Please help me figure this out, i must of misinformed....

Jidz
 
One, mount your power strips on a wall or off the floor to make a drip loop, also if any water from anything can splash into one of those sockets there will be problems, the overflow are known to spring leaks at times so keep them clean & inspected regular.

A living reef in a tank will cycle for the entire life of the tank, that is life being processed one way or another, we have lots of good solid reading on the subject, get a through understanding of what is actually going on in there. Your tank has a ton of empty rocks, from the looks of it very dense, these rocks will take a long time to become fully live, some of the base rocks I had were two years old and still not as live as the real thing but yes it will start processing as it starts maturing. With such large water volume you have some major pluses on your side dude, so that there is a good thing, but you still need to vacuum often. You can't imagine what your looking at now and what your tank will look like down the road, load your tank up too fast right now & you will experience unnecessary losses but you still can keep a good bit of stock because your water volume. My point is don't get too excited, you went this far, keep going your doing great, do me a favor and do some searches way back and read the processes Mike has put so much time explaining these things so much better than I can. Hey man I'm not trying to be hard on you, I'm pushing you to the next level lol so please forgive me :D
 
Please Scooter, you arent hurtin my feelin's your doin me a favor, i dont think your bein to hard on me. I see where your comin from on this, but i wanted the snails for that crappy algae i got from the previous tank. I understand the basics of a cycle, my understandin is that my tank has the bioload for a 65 gal tank, not a 220. I wont be puttin corals in there for at least 2-3months, and i think if i can catch my wrasse and the dam damsels id put 3-4 Chromis in there and be happy until my bday (Dec.9) I guess my question is, does my tank have a bioload of a 65gal? or not

Thanks for all your help and im not easily offended
Jidrow
 
The bio-load of a 65 gallon? The simple answer is no, not a fully setup 65 gallon anyway. A cycle is something that needs to be ramped up, it's impossible to be fully cycled to mature levels in a short period of time. Just remember that what you're trying to do now is begin the process, not finish it. As ammonia levels increase the bacteria will multiply to consume the nutrients; but this takes time. The ammonia often builds at a rate the bacteria can't keep up with. Eventually it will catch up though, and at that point your ammonia levels will drop to nothing along with the nitrites; followed later by nitrates. It's at this period that your cycle has stabilized, but has still not matured. From this point on you have to add life slowly to your tank, otherwise you'll again put too much of a load on the system. This is true throughout the life of your reef. As life grows and spreads on it's own you don't have to worry, it will usually happen at a safe rate. About the only exceptions to that are breeding behaviors of certain animals; such as fish, clams, caulerpa, etc.

There's no doubt that your cured rock will help, the question is how much. That's something we won't know for a couple of weeks as the process moves along. Keep checking ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels to see how far the tank has come. If after a week or two you don't see any ammonia or nitrites, then by all means add some cleanup crew.

Clayton
 
Okay thanks clayton, i understand how the the cycle works, i guess i just dont get it for my tank specifically. What will make the Ammonia go up, sides fish poop which was already stabilized by the amount of Nit&Nat from the cured LR? Does that make sense? I understand the tank will continue to grow, thats obvious, its 4 times larger than the 65 i put in it, but at the very least it should be a very weak 65gal bioload? How can the Ammonia spike up if the bioload is the same as before and the Nit&Nat are still existant?
 
Scooter, good call on the "never ending cycle". I think this is something that is all too often overlooked by the vast majority of hobbyists. Most people think that after you've gone through the intial ammonia and nitrite spikes that you are good to go. Here is the best thread I've ever read on it that helped me understand it.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=249112&highlight=cycle
I highly recommend reading it to anyone. Eric Borneman has some great thought that he put into writing in this thread. I'm sure mojo has probably written some similar stuff as he is an amazing knowledgable person also, but this just happens to be a thread I've already read and KNOW is good so I'm throwing the link out there.

Jiddy, good... the overflow is not a CPR. It is a standard external overflow design. In fact, I even use one on my FOWLR and have been for over 5 years. However, I do have plans to drill this tank soon for overflow teeth in the back wall and an overflow box mounted on the back of the tank so it will have an internal overflow that is external, if that makes any sense. BTW, I wouldn't buy any more snails from that LFS. I don't buy turbos because they are so big and tend to knock frags and corals over but I thought the going rate for them was around 3-4 dollars at the LFS's around here. Also, I think your tank will be fine with the livestock you have in it at the moment. I wouldn't add anything else for the next 4 weeks though. And make sure you are not overfeeding, especially during the initial cycling. Make sure your fish have eaten everything you've put into the water within 3 minutes.
 
Thanks Scooter and Travis, dont worry i wont be addin anythin else for four weeks *scouts honor* I just wanted two bigen's to eat that crappy algae. I see now that coralline algae is startin to sprout up in some places, thats pretty sweet! Hopefully this weekend the flow and sump will be set up....

Can anyone help me out on the sump situation, its a little grey for me, plus my ASM Skimmer is on the way, how much water do they have to be submerged in

Ill check out that link Travis

Jiddy
 
Jiddy, what are the dimensions of that sump? It is acrylic so it would by very easy to DIY some baffles with some 1/4" acrylic from your local hardware store, a table saw, and some Weld-On 16 solvent.
 
Nitrate 10 = not good. This means your tank is cycling. I'm guessing the ammonia got processed fast as there was sufficient bacteria for it on the rocks. Then you probably had a small nitrite spike that may still be evident or not. Now you will need to wait for your rock to get bacteria on the insides of it that will process the nitrate. This is also where the skimmer comes into play.
 
I think 12"-12"-36" in the ballpark anyways, problem is it was one of those Amiracle sumps that had the bio-balls in it, well now that have "baffles" that come from the top
 
I thought anythin under 25 was fine for Nat?

My wife did the test for the first time, so ill do it again when i get home
 
The nitrates are good in some ways (in your case I mean), it means the initial cycle is partially through. That means you have a decent population of bacteria to process the ammonia and nitrites (great news for your fish). It is getting bad, however, for your Tang. They don't do so well with higher nitrate levels. The Damsels couldn't care less about 10ppm. Anything under 10 is usually fine for fish and most of your hardy or semi-hardy inverts.

You can't really say the load is the same as a 65 gallon, because that's not a good measurement. A newly setup 65 has less load than a fully setup 20 gallon. It also depends on the stocking level. Several fish will create far more waste than a tank full of coral, and so on. You have the live rock from a 65, and a few fish from it. Fully cured and cycled rock will help the load in a tank though, not really adding much to it. The fish will add to it of course, but at what point do you reach the limit of a 65? That depends on who you ask. The simple answer is you have some load on your tank; which is obvious from your nitrate levels already. The best advice I can give is to keep an eye on the nitrates, do water changes when they get high, and wait it out. With fish, inverts and rock in there it will find a balance eventually.

Clayton
 
Hi!Jiddy! Keep it coming!Just to let you know that we are following your enthusiastic blow by blow account of your tank development from the other side of the globe!More Power! :D :D :)

Joey
 
Well Joey you just made a big mean man (me) smile! I hope people dont mind and actually like my ramblin'!

There is a guy in HongKong that has orange&percs, how cool is that!

And clayton, let me explain my rationality... The 65 was a disaster, no water change in a 1 1/2 years, the salt content was throu the roof (literally) and it was a dirty brown sludge tank, with four happy fish. Now a super rookie (not me i have 800 post,lol) would of been discouraged at the "nasty" site of this tank, i was more than thrilled to see it in that state (my thought was that it was full of bacteria!) So i took the water and the rock, that system inside mine should be able to host the fish that we already in there? right?

I understand i cant go and get some AcanLords and 4 clowns tomorrow, i will wait for that. But i see people upgradin their tanks all the time, and they move everything in there, so how why cant my tank be happy? I see people buy more base rock too? I understand i dont have a cycled tank, but i guess i dont understand why it isnt safe for the 4 little guys in there and the 2 snails i bought for the crappy algae!

PS Thanks for all the help thus-far Clayton, you can be in my club anyday! LoL

-Jid-O-Rama
 
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