Claic's 30 Reef Revival: ~Growth Shots~ 1-3-2011

thats how i was, black and white clowns are so much better than the rest by the way, looking really good

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Alright so I haven't been home for about 4 days so sorry about not updating with tests and what not but the holidays will have me everywhere until Monday.

Day 8

So I honestly think my tank is done cycling now. My tests are all showing that I did cycle and there are just a very small amount of diatoms on my rocks. The reason I say this is because before I left my ammonia spiked, then started to lower, and then I had to leave.

Remember my rock was already cured from my old tank and left in a rubbermaid with a heater and two Koralias.

I'm still going to wait it out until I can get a sump on it before adding big livestock but I did go ahead and throw in my snails and a few blue legged hermits inside.

 

Tank Parameters

Salinity - 1.024
Temperature - 79.5
pH - 8.3
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - Very small amount, not exactly yellow but not the 5 ppm orange at all.
Calcium - 380
Phosphate - 0

 

Amen to this piece of advice....before i set mine up (im a newbie) i would often read these warnings on various forums I lurked on and it sounded sensible - but again I had no realtime experience to put it into context.

I made sure my rocks were on the bare bottom when i assembled everything and went about the cycling process, etc.

Well, having acquired a wonderful Randall's goby & Tiger pistol shrimp (the goby is Mrgl and the pistol is Tonka) was I ever GLAD i made sure the rock was firmly planted. Tonka has recreated the Big Dig in my 29 gallon and it changes every day (i come down to the tank each morning to see something new). Mrgl often helps out by not only being the guard-fish but also by sweeping sand around with his tail - especially if my damselfish decides to do a "swim-by" and try sweeping the new burrow door shut.

Now when we haven't seen Mrgl or Tonka for a day or two, my daughter or I will stick our head inside the tank stand, and shine the flashlight upwards to find Tonka (it literally looks like an ant farm from that vantage point). We then know where Mrgl is likely to be hiding as well.

Keep up the good work! I bet this tank will turn out wonderfully for you.

 

Day 11

Sorry no pictures, my gf has the camera at her parents, but it looks the same as Day 8! Nothing new at all really, I feel like my tank has cycled so if I could get some advice from you guys I'd appreciate it.

Tank Parameters

Temperature - 78.7
Salinity - 1.024
pH - 8.3
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Calcium - 340
dKH - I'm confused with this one, maybe I could get some help? I had to add about 20 drops using the API test to get it to turn from blue to yellow. Yet, it only gives readings up to 12 drops? Is something wrong?

Also, there is noting in my tank but snails that could be using the calcium so I am confused as to why it keeps going down so fast.

Help please?

 

Bump for help please?

 

i cant give you help on the calcium nd i am sorry for that but i can give you an idea for the HOB filter. i dont use mechanical filtration at all. i have a penguin 350 filter (for a 75 gallon i know) on my 29 gal. it holds my mangroves, chaeto and a 1 inch sand bed. it works very good for that. also when i do water changes i take some of the old water out and put it in a peanut butter jar with my chaeto to clean it. so far it has worked good for me.

 

about the dKH does it go from yellow to blue or blue to yellow?

edit: and if your dKH is way off this will mess with your calcium and magnesium levels

 

Blue to yellow.

How do fix dKH?

 

Day 15

Everything looking good. I started running carbon today.

The only bad thing is I am started to develop what looks to be like a film on the top of my tank. It bubbles and looks like an oil is on top. Now most will think soap but be assured that there has been no soap anywhere near my tank. This just started after I added some top off water a few days ago. But it was distilled from Wal-Mart and I had already used some before no problem.

What could this film be?

Also, sorry for the blurry pictures had to use a different camera and had to take some fast pics.