Jordan's 55 Gallon Reef!

[jmay33]

Hey guys. Look what I did tonight. Getting water in the next few days!!!

 

[jmay33]

T5s are so much brighter than any of my other lights! Lol. Well, plus, there's no water.

 

[Beengirl]

T5s are so much brighter than any of my other lights! Lol. Well, plus, there's no water.

That's quite the collection of tanks you have there!!

 

[jmay33]

That's quite the collection of tanks you have there!!

Why, thank you! I spend most of my spare time doing water changes. Lol.

 

[Crystal A]

Fish room me likey.

 

[jmay33]

Thank you! It's the most relaxing room in my apartment....most of the time. Lol.

The red thing in the box is a puffer fish that I'm going to hang from the ceiling.

 

[jmay33]

I think tomorrow is the big day! Water in the tank! I'll post pictures when it's done.

 

[jmay33]

What's the most competitive online dry and live rock distributor? Cheap is the word. I only have about 35-40 lbs of rock to start cycling my tank with. Looking into buying more really soon. I want to end up with about 65 or 70 lbs.

 

[bavass]

Marcorocks or Bulkreefsupply

 

[jmay33]

Marcorocks or Bulkreefsupply

Thank you!!

 

[jmay33]

Got half of my water tonight! the rest tomorrow.

 

[jmay33]

Here's a shot with all the water. I'm just waiting for the water to clear now. I have the canister filter running and the extra HOB filter for some extra water movement until I get a power head. I also want to upgrade to a protein skimmer sooner rather than later. I have both a 300 w and a 200 w heater running at the moment. Waiting for accurate temp readings. I will post my parameters tomorrow. I don't have much live rock yet, so that's still to come. Update tomorrow!

 

[jmay33]

I'm about to test my parameters, then I will post them.

The water cleared a little bit, here's a picture. I'm waiting to aquascape when I have more rock. Will moving the rocks around during my cycle affect anything?

Edit, I forgot to add that I have an aerator to add surface movement.

 

[jmay33]

Ammonia: 1.0 ppm
Nitrite: between 0 and .25 ppm. I couldn't get an exact reading for some reason.
Nitrates: 5 ppm

Is this normal? The ammonia is from dead bristle worms.

This is my first time cycling a SW aquarium.

 

[jmay33]

Anyone know about my parameters?

 

[jmay33]

Anyone?

 

[bavass]

How long has it been cycling?

 

[jmay33]

How long has it been cycling?

That test was taken the morning after I put water in and turned everything on. I figure I have another month-month and a half left, right? I just want to make sure i'm not slowing down the process anyway (other than not having much live rock.)

 

[bavass]

Yes its normal. Takes about 6-8 weeks to cycle

 

[jmay33]

Okay. Great! Thank you! Do you think I need to add more ammonia for bacteria to feed on?