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01/17/2018, 10:57 PM | #1 |
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Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: Chicago
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First Time 20 Gallon Tall Build
Hey Everyone
New to the Hobby. First Tank and first post. Just aquascaped and dry fit everything I purchased. 20 gal tall Hydoe Koralia Nano 425 Eheim Jager 150W Aquamaxx Nemolight 24-36" 36W 25# Aquamaxx Eco-Dry Live Rock 20# CaribSea Ocean Direct Live Sand I am going to go purchase some RO/DI water tomorrow pour in the sand and water, get the cycle going. Any constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated. |
01/17/2018, 11:53 PM | #2 |
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Location: Antioch,CALIFORNIA
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Hello & welcome Looks good, add the water & let the cycle begin
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01/18/2018, 04:34 PM | #3 |
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Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: Chicago
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Did not buy water today, after going and looking at the price of containers and how much the water is per gallon decided to by an RO/DI unit. Will update once I get that up and running.
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01/25/2018, 05:43 PM | #4 |
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Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: Chicago
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Got the tank filled a couple hours ago. Purchaced an RO Buddie + DI, it took almost 24 hours to make enough water to fill the tank. Redid the rockscape, added sand and filled the tank. Purchased some more equipment as well
Aqua Clear 50 Chemi-pure blue Two Little Fishes Phosban Polyfilter Hydor Koralia Nano 425 (for a total of two) Right now in the filter I'm running what came with the filter to clear the water up. When I start the cycle I'm planning on removing the carbon and keeping the lights off. Starting the cycle off with a shrimp. Once again any advise or constructive criticism will be greatly appreciated |
01/25/2018, 09:40 PM | #5 |
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Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: Chicago
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Crystal clear water, shrimp is in there, wish me luck!
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01/26/2018, 07:11 AM | #6 |
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: SINY
Posts: 625
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Hi! Smart move buying the ro/di unit, last thing you want to do is have to go buy water on a regular basis.
Only advice I have right now is to enjoy the little things with the tank, and stay in the now. Don't focus on getting that fish or coral you always wanted, instead get into the nuances of the cycle. Look forward to the green film algae, the pod explosion, your clean up crew etc. Big thing that helped me when I started SW was going to a couple local reef club meetings and being invited to see some of their tanks. Seeing things actually running and being able to ask questions on the fly is really helpful. Have fun, your tank looks like it's off to a great start.
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- Pete Current Tank Info: 60 gal Deep Blue cube, AquaC EV180, Kessil H80 fuge, A360WE TB |
01/26/2018, 11:23 AM | #7 |
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Location: Chicago
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Thanks for the advise Rjukan! I can't wait to have fish but I do not plan on buying any live stock for a least a 6 weeks. I want to sent up a quarantine system before I buy anything.
I have started a journal for Water Parameters. Right now I'm only recording Tempature, Salinity, Ammonia, and PH. TEMP 77.6 SALT 1.024 Ammonia 0 PH 8 I plan on only testing those until I see ammonia spike, then start testing for Nitrite. As for the reef club thing. I'm a cook so I usually for nights and weekends, so it is hard for me to participate in things like that, c'est la vie... Is it normal for the water to go cloudy when cycling with a shrimp? I was assuming that since there is something rotting at the bottom of my tank it is probably going to get a little dirty. It never hurts to ask though. |
01/27/2018, 09:20 AM | #8 |
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: SINY
Posts: 625
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I'm planning on starting up a reef system again soon too, it's been a while since I went through a cycle. I guess it is over 7 years ago now, so my advice in that area would be a bit foggy lol. Imo one shrimp probably wouldn't be enough to cloud up the water that much.
I would have to check my first build threads here, but I was in a different situation pretty quickly when I started... I went to a long island reef association meeting and met some really cool guys, one of them was getting out of the hobby and I bought something like 75lbs of cured LR from him. Put that in a 30gal system and bam, no cycle lol. Problem was the rock was covered not only in coral bases and coraline, it had all sorts of pests. Hydroids, bubble algae, aptstasia, a type of sps eating nudi, and flatworms. A seasoned hobbyist would have been able to handle it, but I was in over my head. But I digress, here is a link for a club in Chicago, they seem to be very active and I bet if you introduce yourself there someone will offer to give you some help if needed. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/fo...play.php?f=180
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- Pete Current Tank Info: 60 gal Deep Blue cube, AquaC EV180, Kessil H80 fuge, A360WE TB |
02/02/2018, 12:49 PM | #9 |
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Location: Orange Park, Florida
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Looks good. I like the rockscape.
A background on the tank will really make it look nice so you can't see the wires/filter.
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75 Gallon Mixed Reef |
02/13/2018, 11:09 PM | #10 |
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Join Date: Feb 2018
Location: Rancho cucamonga
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Looks cool.
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02/28/2018, 03:10 PM | #11 |
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Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: Chicago
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Hey everyone!
It has been awhile but I finally found some time to post an update. I now have 2 clown fish, 1 Skunk cleaner shrimp, and a clean up crew of 5 snails and 5 hermits. I also bought a ATO and some calibration fluid for my refractometer, it was off by .003. That was upsetting but I used the ATO to get my salinity up to 1.026 over the last week. The ATO has helped a lot in keeping salinity stable. It is the Tunze Osmolator. The only complaint I have is that the mount is huge and I had to lower the water level in my tank to accommodate it. That is causing my filter waterfall to create bubbles, not into that. All the parameters I have test kits for are Temp 77.2 Salinity 1.026 PH 7.7 Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 7 Redid the rockscape very happy with what I came up with. Once again let me know what you guys think. |
03/01/2018, 06:21 PM | #12 |
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Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: New Kent, VA
Posts: 52
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I like it, good job aquascaping it.
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03/04/2018, 08:21 AM | #13 |
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Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: Springfield, PA
Posts: 60
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The redo looks great.
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03/04/2018, 07:09 PM | #14 |
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Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Ontario Canada
Posts: 304
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Looks good!
try the tune nano ATO. I went this route on my bio cube 29. A HOB skimmer might be worth looking at, or even a HOB refugium. it will help with reducing the need for water changes. |
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