Tonight I added some marco rock I picked up. I dont plan on keeping it like this forever but for right now I am going to leave it alone b/c I have a large peice of seed rock behind the set up. I also took a few cubes of frozen mysis shrimp and placed into a panty hose sock and dropped it into the drain. I think this should be enough as it starts to break down to kick off a good cycle and get the good stuff flowing...
Woke up this morning and the tank was cloudy as hell.... I guess the cycle is in full swing now... Ammonia is at about a .5
As we were pouring in the water gallon by gallon with nothing in it at all I think we got in 22 gallons or so before it started over flowing into the sump... I think when they say Neo Nano 32 its with the sump and everything.... Now as to how many gallons I have in the tank.. I dunno but its calculated out to be about 30 all the way around. I will use 25 gallons when ever I start to have to mix chemicals and play with the levels just to be safe.
Thanks, it looks so much bigger then my 24, because it is shallow and wide plus you get the benefit of the sump water to up the total gallons used and fiddle with with out sticking your hand in the display tank. Its going to be a show piece for sure. Good luck! Glen
Tank finally cleared up.... Ammonia has dropped to about a .35 or .4 Still nothing on the Nitrate Nitrite levels but its only been 4 days.... I have added all the necessary parts to make it a viable tank now. Still have plans to add a A.T.O on to it and a Calcium Reactor in a few weeks and change the 14k bulb out to a 20 and put a variety of T5s on it to replace the strait blues.
Looking Great !!! Thanks for sharing so we can follow along !!! What are you using for the water container for the ATO? Pretty !
I enjoy having a place to post the progression of my tanks... I also have my 75 progression shots from the time I put it up till now on my FB along with this one I just started. Makes it really easy to go back and look a month back and compare growth and look at it a month into the build compared to now....lol Helps me keep up with when I put something on or in the tank too like the ATO since it dates each post. And that is a Glass Vase that we picked up from Michaels for like 20 bucks... It works well and holds about 3 gallons.
Nitrate, Nitrites, and Ammonia all tested out at 0 again today.... I have made the executive decision to move the SPS into the tank. I was starting to see signs of the big green guy going down hill in the nutrient rich softy tank. The parameters are right now at 0 for all harmful chemicals including phosphates and although the calcium is a little higher (500) than what I need it to be after a few days and a water change I should be able to get it down around 480 or below. Alkalinity is also at about 7 to 7.5... I have heard the best color comes from having a very low alk... I dont know how they are getting it into the 3s though.... Temp seems to be steady enough.. I have the thermostat set at 80 and that is where it is when I wake up in the morning... at 5 when I come home after the lights have been on for 4 hours its only at 81 so I think I will be good in that department. Salinity in this tank is at 1.021 at the moment I keep reading different things... Some pages say 1.021 to 1.023 and others say 1.024 to 1.026 for stonies... As I have been reading it seems that at lower depths the salinity changes to the minus so I figured 1.021 to 1.023.... Anyone have any information on this that might be better than what I have? Also the glass of this thing is CRAWLING with pods... They are everywhere!....LOL Pretty neat though.
The two of the bottom were two of the algae burned ones from the last meeting.... first one is getting a florescent green body and the bottom one is starting to show shiney green polyps...
And if anyone has any advice please feel free to give it... I can do softies and have for a long while but this is my first real go at SPS... If I am doing something wrong or need to do something else please tell me....I love information!..LOL
Heres something you might want to think about- try to put any plating corals as low as you can in the tank and all the branching corals above them so the plating ones don't shade out the branching ones.
Thanks Grimmet.. I have my eyes open for some tabling pieces also... Oddly enough there are not that many locally...
I had to special order my red planet table. Your right the LFS just don't get that many in the store very often.
