My 10g Reef

Thanks!

I took care of the sand issue last night. Other than that I haven't been able to do much other than wait. I will test the water tonight to see what the parameters are just for kicks. The live sand I bought actually says, "Instant Cycling" and "No waiting... Just add fish."

That slightly disturbs me when I think of how many people probably just follow that advice. I am actually waiting a few days and doing tests just to see exactly how accurate that is. I'm willing to bet, and I'm sure others will agree, it isn't going to be true. As skeptical as I am, I suppose I'm willing to at least run the water tests and see what the results are tonight when I get back home.

Until then here is a shot of the tank without all of the extra sand.

 

I was curious about my live sand. So I thought I would test it. I threw in a catalyst to start the Nitrogen Cycle. After 2 days I had 2.0 ppm of Ammonia, 0 ppm of Nitrite and Nitrate. One thing that did bother me a bit was my pH was a tad low around 8.0.

The bag clearly said "Instant Cycle" and touted how you could add fish right away. This is clearly not the case. I will be testing my water again probably In a day or two. I would love for a fast cycle but I am also not getting my hopes up because I want to take my time and let everything go slow.

Hopefully my lights will come in this week and I will be able to also think of the first frag I want to get. Someone I know offered me a small Zoa frag after my cycle. I really like Zoa's I'm just afraid of them taking over.

 

The lights came in. They are very focused as I was afraid of, yet they still look quite stunning. I can't wait to get some corals under them. Too bad to me that will be a while yet. I want to get my FOWLR working first then I will consider a coral.

What is driving me bonkers though is the halo of light you see around my rocks in the pic with all of the LEDs on is actually there. It is very fine sand particles suspended in my water and even my filter isn't getting them out. I could try and maybe see about different filter media type but the stuff is so fine that it just creates a film on everything.

Either way, here are my new LED lights.

 

is that a double bright marineland led fixture? will those grow corals?

 

It's actually a Double Power BeamsWork LED system from aquatraders. It claims it will support corals, I just want a few softies, and from what I researched it should at least support softies. I would think I could maybe get away with a sps on higher points of rocks.

 

nice build!nice leds!

 

Thanks!

I will do a water test tomorrow to see how the cycle is doing on day 5. I don't expect much of a change but I will be curious how everything turns out. My live sand, as stated above, claims to be so great I am curious how it is fairing so far. I would be shocked if I had nitrites and nitrates really. I figure my ammonia is probably higher than 2.0ppm.

 

pH 8.2
Ammonia somewhere around 8ppm
Nitrite 0ppm ... :-/
Nitrate 2-5ppm

I'm thinking I was just tired and got sloppy with the testing... I guess I will see in a few days when I test again how much different it is.

I'm also thinking of buying a bacterial supplement. I will admit I am already tired of waiting.

 

Tank stand added today.

Construction of top and legs. The top is sort of an "H" design. You can see how the legs are attached by the one leg shown.


The bottom of the tank stand has these adjustable feet and support brackets.


This is what the tank first looked like on the stand. Notice the wire mess? I couldn't deal with that so I'll show you how I fixed that next


In this pic you can see the eye hooks I put down one of the legs. Also up close with all the wires.


This was the finished product after the zip ties were used. I also put everything on a surge protector and put it under the bottom shelf.


Finally, the almost finished stand. I want to add trim around the top, fill the holes with wood filler, then stain it. I can do this while it is set up as long as I am careful. ;D Also the light is on so you can tell it is actually plugged in.

 

After a three days of bacterial dosing it is like a bacterial nuclear bomb blew up in my tank. The dosing has definitely worked by getting all of the bacteria in the tank.

pH: 8.1
Ammonia: >8.0 ppm
Nitrites: >5.0 ppm
Nitrates: 40 ppm