New 45 gallon rimless

[Klatuso]

Well it's time to fill the tank. I ordered this from glasscages and have been very pleased by how the order was handled and the tank was delivered by a nice guy, met the truck at the flying J truck stop, chatted a bit, and delivery by their truck is far cheaper than standard delivery. the tank is rimless 27 x 20 x 20 with starphire glass on the front panel. The light is an ice cap pendant with the Iwasaki spotlight (6500K 150W), but I wanted some bit of blue light so I rigged it with a dual R2 exteme and 2 icecap 1W LEDs. Wow. Pretty darn blue. The powerhead is the new vortech mp20 for smaller tanks. Went to my friendly reef specialty lfs this afternoon and bought a bunch of live sand and salt. Tonight I'll fill and shoot for live rock in the tank on Saturday. Oh yea, got the RO/DI unit from thefilterguys.biz and was extremely pleased with their service and ultra fast delivery --very good to do business with. I'm enjoying my new hobby!

 

[mfinn]

Thats going to be a nice looking tank.
What are you planning to put in it?

 

[Klatuso]

I'm thinking LPS and SPS, a few fish, cleaning crew. I'm going to take my time and follow the guidance of the local reef shop --they seem to know what they are doing and are very common sense guys and ladies. This is a custom tank and I'm very pleased with the depth. 20 inches will let me put light loving corals up on top and low light corals on the bottom and sides.

 

[Klatuso]

Well, it was a busy weekend. Bought 45 lbs of liverock for $250 at the lfs, a nice variety of tonga branch, tortuga, and fiji as well as 3 large pieces of base rock. Put it all together in the tank, filled it and then on Sunday the rock work collapsed. This was frustrating. I'll post pics as soon as I get some free time.

 

[Klatuso]

Well, I'll start with my rockwork --which ended up collapsing last night.

 

[Klatuso]

I filled the tank with fresh RO/DI water last Thursday, mixed the salt in the tank on Friday and filled it with sand and rock last Saturday. I was surprized how quickly the sandstorm died down (within an hour). The foam around the vortech acts as a good mechanical filter in this regard.

My protein skimmer is the Deltec MCE600 HOB. I made a few mods. I put my heater in the chemical filtration chamber but it's a big titanium heater. I cut out the corner of the shelf that holds chemical media in place so the heater can fit AND I can run carbon at the same time. I also cut out a corner on the top lid so the heater wires can come out. Then I painted the inflow and outflow pipes black to match the background of my tank --this makes them very stealthy. And I cut back the water deflection plate coming from the outflow pipe. It's a huge deflector and I cut it so it drops about 1/4 inch below the surface of the water. Here's some pics.

Also tested the water on Sunday:

salinity 1.023
PH 8.2
Alk 3.5
Phosphate .2 (or less)

Ammonia 0
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0

 

[Klatuso]

Did a quick water test and got

0 ammonia
0 nitrate
0 nitrite

There does not seem to be any cycling going on. Water is crystal clear, protein skimmer not skimming anything but clean soapy-like bubbles and clear liquid skimmate. I'm using Seachem's Stability as per lfs rec's. All is quiet in the tank.

 

[Klatuso]

Here's a couple of pics of my new rock arrangement. I tried to keep it as open as possible for good water flow, but also create some ledges for future coral placement. I gotta say I really like the look of the Indo-pacific black live sand from Caribsea. These shots are with the moonlight LED's and a cheap $12.00 halogen light I bought at office depot just so I can see into the tank in the late afternoon and evening. It is a pretty dim light. Does anyone know if this is a bad thing? Will it cause algae? My thought is that it's too weak to have much impact.

 

[Krish]

Nice tank! Looks great

 

[Klatuso]

It's the one week anniversary of my tank. Now I have a question. The water has become hazy. I suspect this is an algae bloom and part of the cycling process. I'm running the lights for 6 hours a day. Should I cut back on the lights? Should I do a water change now? Or, should I just do nothing and ride it out?

 

[Almondsaz]

Really nice setup. Have you tested the water for the amonia to keep track of the cycle?

 

[Klatuso]

Last test was on 8/20. Ammonia, nitrites & nitrates all tested zero. I'll test today and post later. The water cleared up a bit but still has some particles floating around. I think I had a bacteria bloom yesterday. Also noticed my live rock is getting darker, less chalky white and more um...brownish. Brownish patches are developing where the light is strongest. Also, I noticed tiny air bubbles on the rocks during the bloom yesterday. I'm still wondering about whether i should change the water or change the lighting to something other than 6 hours a day. Also, I'm running my very strong moonlights in the afternoon and evening with a bit of supplementation from a small halogen desk lamp I mounted. It is a weak light but maybe I should cut back for now. I'll post some pics of the brownish algea and water tests later today.

 

[Klatuso]

Here's some pics of what I'm talking about with the bubbles on the rocks and the brown stuff (which I assume is algae). they are a bit blurry but you can get the idea. My water tests are as follows:

Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 0
Phosphate = 0 or less than .2
PH = 8.2

I have been using seachem's Stability . I run the lights 6 hours per day. So it's been a week with no change in the test results. The rock probably had no die off because I took it from the curing tank of the lfs directly to my house (only out of the water an hour or so and kept wet).

Questions:

What is the next step?
Water change?
ready for a cleaning crew?
What do I do about that brown algae?
Do nothing and continue waiting? --I'm in no rush.

 

[NC2WA]

The live rock you add was it cured or just base rock? If base rock, you may want to get some cured live rock to help "seed" the tank. This will give the cycling process a jump start. But from the sound of it, the cycling process is doing its thing (indicated by the brownish algae on the rock). Cycling process varies from tank to tank, but the rule of thumb is 4 wks should be a target date. The minute you show a reading on nitrates means the tank has completed a cycle (that is, ammona to nitrite to nitrates).

I am going thru the same thing with a 40g tank I set up in my office. 20 lbs of dead rock plus 15lbs on nicely cured rock to seed the tank. Have 3 more weeks before cycling is complete.

Kirk

 

[Klatuso]

I have 20 lbs of basically dead base rock and 25 lbs of cured live rock to seed it with. Also the sand was caribsea "live sand" with also a cup of sand from their tanks to additionally seed it with (this is in addition to the stability from seachem which is a biological cocktail to jump start the cycling). the base rock was in a seperate tank with water feeding into it from the live rock tank. So...I'm fine with continuing to wait for a nitrate reading. But should I do a water change?

 

[NC2WA]

sounds like you are doing fine..with the cured rock and live sand, it does not sound like you really need Stability.

When is the last time you did a water change?? A 10% WC once every 2 wks should be sufficient IMO.

Kirk

 

[Klatuso]

Then I would do a water change in one week. I've stopped using the Stability Because the directions state it should be used only for 6 days. So I assume the brown algae bloom is a natural part of the cycling process. Full steam ahead.

 

[NC2WA]

So I assume the brown algae bloom is a natural part of the cycling process

Absolutley correct !!

Full steam ahead, your tank is doing exactly what it should be. I have seen the brown algae bloom last anywhere from 1-4 wks in a tank. My home tank (375g) had the brown algae bloom that lasted almost 2wks.

Good luck.
Kirk

 

[Klatuso]

Called my lfs today about the brown algae and they second what's been said. Wait, don't do a water change. This is all part of the cycling process. They advised that I don't do any water change until I start seeing nitrates show up on the test and that might not happen until I start putting livestock in. The algae is pretty ugly stuff all over the rock and on much of the sand. The skimmer isn't pulling much out at this point either. I keep tinkering with the height of the cup but all it gets is yellowish tea colored liquid.

 

[NC2WA]

I did a water test yesterday and my ammonia is 0.25 and nitrates are 10. I will do a water change one day this week, as I do not have a skimmer on this tank (yet). I plan on getting the new Octopus 1000SS the first week of Sept.

Kirk