bje's 75gal reef (finally)

thanks! also finished the shelf just now above the 37gal mix tank which will hold any dose jugs i need.

i either missed the cycle or it hasnt fully occurred or my test kits broken. few days ago i was at 0.25/ppm ammonia, ~10 nitrite and 0 nitrate. it never went higher than 10 nitrites and everythings at 0 now. how BIG of a spike of nitrites should i have seen? ammonia spiked on 12/19 its now the 30th. i dont see how thats enough time for the cycle to be done.

my base rock arrives thursday. i will be ringing in the new year with rock scaping.... woot. ill also be adding in ~25lbs more live rock that i wont bother curing and let it cure in the DT and let it all cycle through again before i put corals/fish in. (i dont consider my kamikaze-cycling damsels fish? lol) perhaps ill see a bigger cycle when theres more porous rock for bacteria to grow upon.

 

Good plan. I think you will be fine. Sounds like the tank is stabilizing already.

 

im at work right now so i cant actually see them, but my marco rocks were delivered. cant wait to get home from new years eve party bash to work on my aquascape lol

 

alright here it is... the rock arrival and me messing with it for a few minutes on my bench

 

more rock pics of the first 'scape'. i dunked all the rock in a bucket of ro/di water, then into another bucket of ro/di water and then threw into the tank.

i picked up 8.5lbs of live rock (one piece of nice tonga) from the LFS today making a total now of 24lbs of live rock plus the 50lbs of base rock im adding putting me at 74lbs. im going to get 12-20lbs more for the left side of the tank to make a tall tower.

also got some chaeto today. the 3 LARGE bristle worms were donated to me from my friend. as you can see i still have the condy nem in the tank. its doing quite well actually.

 

im not too happy with a few of the rock placements which im going to be moving shortly. i got sidetracked with the salt-mix reservoir tank.

 

modified the scape already. happier with this layout

 

and more...

 

and more... with just the night lights on

 

im going to get another 12-20 lbs for the left for sure. i think im going to go with one of the drsfosters packages. dunno yet.. really need to get my working vortech mp40w. (blew up the mp20 lol)