Tyler's 75g Journey

Took Steve's advice:

New scape tonight:

 

somebody told me once, when you are stacking your rocks, get a general idea where the piece is going and then turn your head and not actually look at what you are doing. this way, you have to keep moving it ever so slightly til you feel its most secure. I am all about a cool looking scape, but I would not want to drill/fasten/glue anything permanently. I change my mind too much, and you never know what coral/rock is gonna be shaped like.

 

Got the rest of my supplies in the mail today. Waiting for enough RO/DI water to fill up the sump then in goes the sale. Preparing to do 1/2 cup of IO Salt per 1 gallon of water.

Questions on the cycling:

Should I run my protein skimmer from the start?

What should I do light wise during my cycle?

 

Just some basic updates. Today my order came from Premium Aquatics. Shipped out yesterday, so I was very impressed with how quick it came. I didn't order enough salt so I had to run to the LFS to grab some more. I ended up going with the 48 lb bucket so I have some for down the road with water changes.

Received my Tropic Eden Miniflakes. I will be putting those in a bucket tomorrow with RO/DI water so it has the chance to "rinse"

Now for the pictures:

My testing equipment that came today:



Added the salt:


Will be picking up 15 lbs of live rock tomorrow from a local person.

 

Well after day three of adding salt I got my salinity down to 1.026. I was at 1.030, just took out some saltwater a couple times a day and replaced with fresh RO/DI water.

Will see that I added 15 lbs of live rock to help the tank cycle and to seed the dry rock.

Some pictures of everything











Also you will notice I added 1/2 of my sand to the tank. The other half is rinsing over night

Hope to get some more people following this but its a slow patient process with me

As always suggestions always welcomed

 

Looks good, sounds like you have a great plan, congrats

 

Some more updates. Saturday I put the rest of the sand in the tank.

Took some readings as well:

March 25, 2010 - Day 3

pH 8.4
Nitrite 0.1
Nitrate 0
Ammonia 0.25

March 28, 2011 - Day 5:

pH 8.4
Nitrite 0.5
Nitrate 5
Ammonia 0.5

I also added the raw shrimp today as well.

Pictures from 3/28/11:

 

Awesome! Love the scape!
Good work!
JJL

 

Looks like I picked up some snails with my live rock. Also starting to get some green algae on the rocks, can see some purple coming through on the live rocks as well.

March 31, 2011 - Day 8

pH 8.4
Nitrite 0.5
Nitrate 10
Ammonia between .25-.5

Pictures from tonight:

 

April 4, 2011 - Day 12

pH 8.4
Nitrite 0.2
Nitrate 10
Ammonia 0.25

Getting some growth on the live rock again. Can see some green spots and purple spots. I included pictures to show what the progress has been.