homer1475's 80 gallon build

[soulpatch]

I would rather have 2 seperate feed lines that were controlled via gate valve then the small finicky ball valve both spectrapure and BRS put on their inlets. GFO is a pain to dial in to that slightest of tumble and the gate valve makes it fairly easy.

[homer1475]

Well either my API kit is bad(expiration date of 2017?), or the ammonia alert badge is bad.

API kit showing well over 8ppm ammonia(using an ammonia calc I should only have 3ppm), and the badge is still brown to show no ammonia. I think the badge is pretty worthless IMO. I used one in a QT one time too and it also showed 0 ammonia while the API kit always showed small amounts.

While the initial cycle did clear the ammonia, my stress test isn't even moving any ammonia. 48 hours later its actually gone up? No idea whats going on here, so I'm just going to let it ride for now.

Not 100% sure which to believe now.

[soulpatch]

I would trust the badge over the API personally. Though I have a hate for API test kits after they have failed me numerous times.

[homer1475]

The brand new badge didn't even show any ammonia when I added it either. So to the garbage it goes, and I will never waste my money on them again. Two failures on brand new badges, highly unlikely they have this kind of failure rate. So I will never trust them again.

Called up a friend who has a tank and they have a salifert ammonia test kit they are going to bring over. Then we will see whats going on for sure.

[soulpatch]

Badges take time to register. Odd you got a bad one or two. They typically align with my red sea and salifert kits pretty closely.

[homer1475]

Funny part, I just dropped a drop of pure ammonia on the badge and it instantly changed to a deep blue. Put it back in the tank, couple minutes later its back to brown. So now I'm really confused.

[champion6sigma]

The badge is supposed to read even the smallest amount of ammonia? I've never used one....where are you placing the badge?

[homer1475]

My friend came over and we tested, 3ppm just as the API registers.

The badge is hanging on the front glass about mid tank. Well it was, just threw it away as it was obviously not working properly.

[homer1475]

It's been roughly 60 hours and the tank has finally cleared 8PPM of ammonia, but now my nitrites are super high(as expected).

Anyone offer any advice on what to do next? I did complete a full cycle, then stress tested the system and this is where I'm at. I've never done a fishless cycle with no live material. I do understand that the cycle can take weeks. If the initial cycle completed(0 Ammonia, 0 nitrites), why would the stress test not complete in the 24 hours like it's suppose to?

[ReefWreak]

I would do water changes to get nitrates to a reasonable level, once reasonable (~20-30ppm) I would turn the lights on, and the minute you start seeing green fuzz, add the clean up crew. Same thing as the 'cubes, just larger scale.

[homer1475]

I plan on a huge water change(got 80G mixing and ready to go). It's just this whole cycle thing thats got me confused. Funny part is this isn't my first time cycling a tank, but it is the first time I've done it in this manner.

I do have copepods on the glass, and diatoms starting to show up. The couple of cups of sand from the cube have a few peanut worms, and brittle stars in it and they seem to be ok. So I think I'm just going to do my large water change today, and call it done.

[Gravis]

I have had salifert kits show to much amonia. Not much, but constant 0,25 when it really was 0 just saying. If you get into the he same problem as me. If you want a really accurate test kit, try JBL if you can get it in the States good luck!

[homer1475]

Small update....

I think I know what I did wrong with my cycle. When I stress tested the tank after the intial cycle completed, I put in the wrong info in the calc I used and dosed ammonia to nearly 8ppm(I know I have a decent biofilter established now). So the bacteria needed to multiply to compensate for the initial dosing of only 2ppm. At least that's what I'm thinking happened.

Anyways, I did a large water change and figured out I have a lot less water volume then I originally thought(could be why the calc was off). I was originally thinking I had around 100 gallons(80DT, and 30 sump minus displacement). I only had a measured 60G mixed up and I nearly emptied the tank for that 60. So with what I couldn't pump out, and the level left in the sump, I'm now thinking I have closer to only 70 or 80 gallons.

I'll let it run for a couple days, then start slowly transferring livestock over.

[homer1475]

Well I think tomorrow will be the big move day. I have some diatoms going and a little algae here and there so I ordered a CUC from reef cleaners as well as some pods to seed the fuge, and a ball of chaeto.

I think I have someone on the line for either just the hood with the aurora puck, or they might want the entire biocube setup. Hoping I can just sell the entire setup and put that money towards some more coral, or possibly an mp40.

[ReefWreak]

Good luck on the move! Sounds like there are still some minor maturity issues, but nothing that should impact the corals too much once they're moved over.

Be sure to check the chaeto ball for any nasties, like aiptasia or other pests. That's how 2 aiptasia got introduced into my tank. And then I killed them. And there are no more aiptasia.

[homer1475]

Yeah it's definitely a brand new tank, and going through the "uglies". I will move all my coral at one time, then slowly like 1 or 2 a week move my fish over. My only concern is I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to pull the rock to catch some fish, and I'm worried this might cause a small cycle in the cube. I did buy a couple bottles of prime, so I'm pretty confident I have this all thought out properly.

On a side note, my wife saw a flame fairy wrasse at the LFS the other day, there is no way in h*ll I'm dropping 300$ on a fish!! Checked live aquaria, same price for the same size fish so I guess my LFS is pretty close in their pricing.

[ReefWreak]

I've actually seen a lot of LFS spot-price their fishes to Liveaquaria, for better or worse.

If you want to do wrasses, you should watch LA's Divers Den to find a trio/harem of flasher or fairy wrasses. If I weren't so impatient, that's what I would have done.

[homer1475]

The problem being though, I already have 5 fish I need to move over, and the wife wants a mandy(only reason she let me upgrade) In my mind I can only do 1 or 2 more fish and a wrasse is definitely on my list, and the wife wants a yellow watchman goby. Any ideas on another fish? She's been trolling live aquaria but everything she likes is either to large to go in my tank, or way to stupidly priced for me to justify buying a fish that costs more then some of my equipment.

The wife is the fish head. If it were only me doing this tank, a pair of clowns is all I would have in it for fish.

[soulpatch]

melanarus wrasse... colorful and very active

I love mine and no issues with it and corals. It is a toss up for my shrimp though so we shall see...

[homer1475]

The wife doesn't like the melanarus, I however do like the McCoskers and she doesn't.

[ReefWreak]

I love leopard and possum wrasses. Beautiful smallish fishes. Might compete with mandarin a bit on food, but should be okay. Of course they're not flasher or fairy wrasses, but they're still beautiful and active (though the possum can be reclusive)

[homer1475]

While I was feeding my biocube, I decided to snag a couple things and move them over.

Finally snagged a fish, and its my warpaint goby. He's behind the rock next to the overflow.


Snagged a couple of the red leg hermits.


And the Xenia and Duncan. Only because the goby hides in them and figured it would lessen the stress of moving.

[BarryV]

Looking Good Homer
Barry

[homer1475]

Well I've been super busy all day. Between tearing apart the biocube to move all the equipment over, to installing it all on the new tank, its been an exhausting day.

The apex, mp10's, reactor, breakout box, etc, etc all hooked up on the new tank. The wiring is super messy but it all works. When I tidy a few things up tomorrow I'll post a couple pics.

[homer1475]

Got all my coral moved over, minus some zoas that I couldn't find the original frag plug for. Whatever had grown off the plugs I left on the rocks and just took the plug into the new tank. Everything went well, and I even snagged another fish while I was at it.






This morning everything looks happy and healthy. All corals open except the one zoa colony that I scrubbed the hell out of cause it had some pretty bad algae on the disk.

And I wanted to post the rats nest of wires I really need to clean up.