Wierd Cycle Dilemma & Updated Pics of my Biocube 29!!

[chemistmike]

I tested my water today because I have my cleaner's arriving tomorrow, and I was curious as to how bad the water chemistry was for their addition. All tests were at minimum levels, or were non-detectable, as the color was at the bottom of the color scale or lighter on ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. This seems a little strange to me, since the tank is almost two weeks old, so I should have at least a readable ammonia level with some expected die off from the live rock.

Is it possible that with the high temperature problems I was having, that the nitrobacter and nitrosomona were not able to grow? I'm not sure if i would be able to believe this, as I am having green algae grow back from the rock, and am seeing other soft polyps popping up from the rock as well (at least one pink mushroom, and various small feathers). This means that the water was not hot enough to kill off sensitive animals. What do you guys think????

By the way, my cleaner crew arriving tomorrow is:
10 Nassarius Snails
2 Tonga Nassarius Snails
2 Nerite Snails
3 Trochus Snails
8 Marshall Island Electric Blue Hermits
2 Sexy Shrimp
1 Cleaner Shrimp
All from MarineDepot.com

Here are some updated pics of the tank as well.
The first is the new aquascaping. The water is a little hazy since I had just rearranged the rock work about 20 minutes before the picture.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/507/145610New_Rock_Work.JPG
This is a pic of the light mod from nanotuners.com. It is the 144W upgrade from the stock 72W. It also has the larger fans.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/507/145610New_Lights.JPG
This pic is of my chamber setup. I have Chemipure in chamber 1, with a cut-out piece of course Fluval filter media, which the water seems to flow through pretty well. If you notice, I have the filter media placed at an angle before the spill over into chamber 2, rather than at the intake of the overflow. I have found that keeping it at an angle maximizes the water flow to chamber 2, while achieving desired filtration, since the water has to flow over the spillover. Chamber 2 has my new Sapphire Skimmer. It has been working really well so far.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/507/145610Chambers.JPG
Lastly, this is a pic of the Sapphire at work. This collection of crud is only after 20-30 minutes after kicking up a bunch of stuff from moving all of my rocks around.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/507/145610Saphire_Skimmer.JPG

[Illuminati]

If the rock was already cured at an LFS or wherever you got it you might not even see a detectable ammonia spike. Your crew (Which is pretty good, imo) should be fine. I added mine after a couple weeks w/o a problem and added my first fish a couple weeks after that with cured LR.

Off to a great start.

I also like the aquascaping :)

[gkelly]

I gotta ask as I've been having trouble keeping the tank under 81 degrees - with the stock lights and pumps.

What kind of temps are you seeing?

[chemistmike]

Thanks colinadam. I know that at least half of the rock added was from established tanks at one of my LFS. I actually got the pieces from a tank that they used to set frags on. The other half was from one of those large vats that fish store use to help cure it. I smelled it, and it did not smell like sulfur, so I'm not sure about that rock. If you had to choose between only one, which would you choose: Chemipure or Purigen??

gkelly - I was initially having problems with my temp reaching around 84F, but would also reach as high as 90F. I took the lid off the other day to add the light mod, and the temp. dropped to around 78. I think that the fans are not strong enough for this tight of an enclosure.

I'll keep you posted on the progress.

[chemistmike]

Forgot to mention gkelly that because of the temp problems, I decided to purchase a chiller, and will be adding it on tomorrow evening (1/10HP).

[gkelly]

Cool - well cooler anyway...

Let me know how the chiller goes. I'm getting ready to order the nanotuners light kit so there's probably one in my future.

[Illuminati]

Mike, why are you picking one? Is it a space concern?

If I had to pick I would pick Purigen but it's almost a toss up.

[chemistmike]

It is a space problem. My first chamber is not all that big. I find that my chemipure bag takes up almost the entire chamber. I tried placing the purigen bag in next to it, but then I look at completely filling the entire chamber with no room for my filter, and it really restricted the flow.