75g rimless build

[reefkeep66]

Got the sand in, most the water in. I'm going to have to buy 15+ gallons of distilled water. The production rate my ro units giving me during the cold is quite annoying.

 

[reefkeep66]

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[redstang]

ReefKeep66;996910 wrote: Got the sand in, most the water in. I'm going to have to buy 15+ gallons of distilled water. The production rate my ro units giving me during the cold is quite annoying.

Yeah, it sucks lol! I'm going to have to start making some tomorrow.

Looks like things are coming along nicely though.

By they way. Key reason to NOT rely on super glue is when the rock falls it WILL scratch the glass. Better safe than sorry. Might be a little harder to change the scape but you'll be thankful for the first time your elbow accidentally bumps into something and you bleed instead of scratching your glass

 

[reefkeep66]

Yeah I did some research on aquascaping with acrylic rods and such and decided for right now I'm going to get some putty to help hold the bigger peices together. Believe it or not, the rock work is actually pretty sturdy but your right, I'd rather go the extra mile than stare at a remorseful scratch lol

 

[reefkeep66]

The tank cleared up pretty rapidly but is still pretty hazy. I'm also getting a bunch of white foam I'm assuming from the sand?

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[jrhunter0000]

My next tank will be rimless great deal!

 

[reefkeep66]

When I first saw a couple rimless tanks in person I knew my next tank would be a rimless one lol Maybe my next build will be a braced tank with a nice canopy but as of right now I still love the rimless tanks

 

[reefkeep66]

Finally got my reefkeeper elite set up today. I calibrated the ph probe according to the directions and my ph shows 7.8-8.1 when I got 8.0-8.2 from my api test. So it's a little off. Still trying to configure everything

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alt="" /> I'm going to mess around with the settings and get all the wires cleaned up cause it's a cluster

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[reefkeep66]

First batch of test results in,
PH: 8.2 (7.96 according to my rke) Sl: 1.026, Ammonia:0-0.25ppm
Nitrite: 0-0.25ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm
I though I would've seen a spike in ammoina, atleast 5ppm or higher. According to the api chart their pretty close to zero,

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[redstang]

Did you use anything for an ammonia source?

 

[reefkeep66]

I used bio spira and threw a couple flakes of food in there.

 

[reefkeep66]

I also seeded the tank with a couple peices of live rock, I'm going to add a few more but their currently in my other tank. I'll throw up a picture when the tank clears out.

 

[redstang]

ReefKeep66;997505 wrote: I used bio spira and threw a couple flakes of food in there.

Yeah, if you're using one of the insta-cycle products it'll take more than a few flakes to get ammonia to register. The whole idea of cycle in a bottle is that it's supposed to be able to process ammonia and nitrite from day one. To see if it's truly working you need to dose a fairly specific amount of ammonia, test right away to make sure it registers, and then test 24 hours later to see if a drop has occurred and if so how much.

Once the tank can process ammonia within 24 hours, meaning you see it go from ammonia, to the nitrite, then to nitrate, then you're good to go.

Be careful with the insta-cycle stuff. I used it too but I never, and I mean never, got a nitrate spike. To this day with three different test kits I consistently get 0 nitrates. Not a bad thing necessarily except when you can't really explain why lol!

 

[redstang]

ReefKeep66;997507 wrote: I also seeded the tank with a couple peices of live rock, I'm going to add a few more but their currently in my other tank. I'll throw up a picture when the tank clears out.

Ahh, that makes more sense. Yes, even a fairly small amount of established LR will effectively process small amounts of ammonia. I actually just dosed ammonia to get the cycle started on my cube.

 

[reefkeep66]

RedStang;997509 wrote: Yeah, if you're using one of the insta-cycle products it'll take more than a few flakes to get ammonia to register. The whole idea of cycle in a bottle is that it's supposed to be able to process ammonia and nitrite from day one. To see if it's truly working you need to dose a fairly specific amount of ammonia, test right away to make sure it registers, and then test 24 hours later to see if a drop has occurred and if so how much.

Once the tank can process ammonia within 24 hours, meaning you see it go from ammonia, to the nitrite, then to nitrate, then you're good to go.

Be careful with the insta-cycle stuff. I used it too but I never, and I mean never, got a nitrate spike. To this day with three different test kits I consistently get 0 nitrates. Not a bad thing necessarily except when you can't really explain why lol!

Wow that's crazy. I decided to be very patient with this tank as I wanted to see long term success,and my very first tank I moved quick and made lots of mistakes. I've been more patient with my past few, but still rushed things. I'm going to continue to test and try that.

 

[reefkeep66]

RedStang;997510 wrote: Ahh, that makes more sense. Yes, even a fairly small amount of established LR will effectively process small amounts of ammonia. I actually just dosed ammonia to get the cycle started on my cube.

And I actually like the scape with the extra peices of lr. Seems like a win win.

 

[reefkeep66]

Here's a updated pics of the aquascape. Nothing really changed too much.

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alt="" /> still subject to change when I add a few more peices of live rock. I also noticed a lot of shells in the sand bed. I ordered 40lbs of fine oolite, and 40lbs of regular grade caribsea. Didn't think there would've been so many shells lol. Here's a few big ones I found,

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[reefkeep66]

Did some more test today, Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate still testing 0ppm.

alt="" /> I thought ammonia looked borderline 0.25ppm so I tested my other tank which has long been established and got the same result. 20gl tank ammonia, 75g nitrate test result

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[KrisDeitz]

Get better test kits man. API is worthless

 

[reefkeep66]

PFCDeitz;997745 wrote: Get better test kits man. API is worthless

Any recommendations? My buddy's got the salifert test I'm going to try and compare to the API. I had red sea line of test kits but the regeants went bad.