Dnorton's 125 gallon assemble project.

[Nautilus1]

The bacteria living on the bioballs will be very different than the nitrifying bacteria living inside live rock. The environment is different, the rocks are submerged and have anaerobic areas where as the bioballs do not.
Your parameters are normal for a 6 day old tank especially if you have nothing producing waste. Your cycle has not yet begun and depending on the condition of the rock you may only see a quick cycle. The nitrate reading s you are getting could be from the water that you have used. I agree with ur LFs, get somethign in there to produce waste. I dont agree about moving all the live rock from ur old tank into the new tank. WHat will sustain the corals as the new tank cycles. It is best to not rush into anything and jeopardizing your old tank. It would be ok to move some of the rocks to the new tank. DOes the old tank have DSB?
I always thought water changes should be avoided during the cycle as well but there are different opinions about that.

 

[dnorton1978]

Thank you Nautilus. The old tank only has about 2'' sand bed. I do understand that it is a different type of bacteria, and to be honest I do for see myself moving to a larger sump/ refugium in the next 3 - 6 months or so. I see the added benefits to the refugium, and will just work my way there basically.

What about taking more crabs, or a sand sifting starfish from the old tank? Or perhaps some sand sifting snails? I personally would like to avoid the damsels because of the un needed stress caused to them.

 

[Nautilus1]

moving some crabs and stuff will be fine. You going to have to feed them cos im sure u dont have much alage in there for them to eat. SInce you are just hooking up your new tank you may want to use a remote deep sand bucket. Im currently setting one up and looking fwd to the results. ALl it is a 5 gal bucket filled with sand and about 1-2 inches of water on top of it. Water flows in and out rapidly to prevent any detritus from settling. Water enters from the top of the bucket and leaves from the top of the bucket. The bucket would need at least one bulkhead about 1 inch down from the top to drain water out or you could just let the bucket overflow into the sump. The bucket can be fed by a small pump or gravity feed. The bucket will have many good anaerobic areas deep inside. Replace the bucket of sand about every 2 years. Its easy and cheap to do and very effective at reducing nitrates. You can tell im excited about this bucket thing and just like to spread the idea around. I read about it on another forum and they were having good results.

 

[dnorton1978]

Sounds cool. Again that also shows the ever changing part of the hobby. If indeed that is a new thing that is. Tomorrow I will add some of my old rocks and a few more crabs and snails. Thanks.
Nautilus your right about the nitrate I am seeing.

The nitrate I am seeing problaby is due to the water I used. I did the initial fill with my tap water. I did treat with amquel(worthless though). I am doing my top offs with ro/di, and any future water changes of course will be RO/di as well.

 

[dnorton1978]

Today I moved the bulk of my rock to the new tank. I left a few pieces in the old tank for hiding places.

I had a small piece of xenia that went into the new tank, and about 5 min. later it was open and pulsing. I guess that is a good sign. Tomorrow I need to do some more aqua scaping, and I will post some pics by the weekend if anyone is interested.

I have also moved several hermit crabs, and 2 feather dusters, all doing well so far to.

Fish will be in by the weekend.

 

[trido]

Dont forget to test daily right now.

 

[bleedingthought]

Yeah, we love pics!

 

[dnorton1978]

Yes, cant wait to get up in the am and test both tanks actually. I am a bit concerned that I may have stirred up a bunch of gunk in the old tank. Besides that there is not very much LR in there to help the tank. Another issue is the fish are getting pretty agressive with each other do to the lack of structure.

Oh, and Trido, you are so right about needing a much larger sump. I am working that into a quicker plan that initially thought.

 

[dnorton1978]

Came home tested tank, Amonia 0 trite 0 trate 5- 10.

Strange thing happened though. The free xenia piece looks terrible(not that strange), but a free piece of green star that had been closed for about 5 days is now open and very green IN THE NEW TANK.... Perhaps better light.. not sure any ideas??

 

[bleedingthought]

Oh, and Trido, you are so right about needing a much larger sump. I am working that into a quicker plan that initially thought.

Which skimmer did you end up replacing the ASM with again?

 

[dnorton1978]

I am kind of sorta borrowing one from the LFS until I get the sump thing figured out. It is made by a comapny out of Jacksonville FL called sea life systems. I could not find any info online about it, but supposedly it is rated for a 250 gallon tank. It has a 690 gph pump on it.

Just my observation, but the ASM is a monster compared to this one, and I believe G3 is rated for 260 ish. No comparison between the two. It is tall and somewhat fat, but again nothing that I have seen in person compares in size to the G3.

Perhaps the LFS is hoping I will just like this skimmer and purchase at a discount or something. Will see, not skimming anything out yet. I just put it on yesterday, and I can imagine there is much in there.

 

[dnorton1978]

On another note, the UGLY stage is starting to kick in. I noticed some brown algae on the sand when I came home from work today.


This is the part I hate most about a new tank. On my last set up it took about 1 month to 6 weeks to clear up. Geesh. Hopefully this one will not be longer due to the much larger size(fingers crossed)

 

[bleedingthought]

I love the ugly phase! Seriously! Makes me feel like things are really happening and going well!

I'm very happy with the G3. You might want to consider this one, though: http://www.marinesolutionsinc.com/catal ... ucts_id=48 . Out of stock right now, but just a thought. :wink:

 

[dnorton1978]

I love the ugly phase! Seriously! Makes me feel like things are really happening and going well!

I'm very happy with the G3. You might want to consider this one, though: http://www.marinesolutionsinc.com/catal ... ucts_id=48 . Out of stock right now, but just a thought. :wink:

Really!! That is a different way to look at it. I guess I should be proud that things are happening. 8O

That octopus looks pretty cool. The one I have is similar in size perhaps just a tad bigger.

 

[dnorton1978]

Okay, so today I moved a few more pieces of rock to the new tank. I also removed my coral banded shrimp, and my flame angel. I took those back to the fish store. I gave up trying to catch the damsels. When I was done I was cleaning the water mess on the old tank and couldnt find a damsel..


GUESS WHAT??


The little EFFer somehow snuck into a rock and made it into the new tank.. D OH... Now it is death do us part.. Luckily He is a yellow tailed damsel and labeled as less aggressive. So I got a little lucky.

The brown algae is on the rocks now..

 

[trido]

The little EFFer somehow snuck into a rock and made it into the new tank.. D OH... Now it is death do us part.. Luckily He is a yellow tailed damsel and labeled as less aggressive. So I got a little lucky.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[dnorton1978]

Is it safe to assume that where I notice the most brown algae growing means that part gets the least amount of flow??

If so I need to re- arange my power heads.

 

[dnorton1978]

Some updated pics with almost all the rocks. The pics dont give you the full idea, it has lots of caves and stuff.

 

[dnorton1978]

Another one

 

[dnorton1978]

Just added last night.

I am going to take a better one tonight. With the light coming through the window it is hard to see. I went with a dark blue. I took poster board and painted it the color I wanted, and then cut and slid into place.