New 20 gal reef

[mr_X]

I would hate to not be able to look through the side of my tank!

 

[jjh302]

I would hate to not be able to look through the side of my tank!

That was kind of my train of thought. It was an idea I was throwing out there.

 

[carey]

I thought about painting the sides, BUT then you cant see in from an angle. lol You dont wanna miss anything so i would just leave the back painted and call it good.

 

[jjh302]

So on my 92g, my blue green mushrooms are still shriveled and so is my cespituria but everything else looks great. Did a water change last night.

My Duncan, acan, gonipora, colt, red mushrooms, and orange mushrooms and zoas all look good.

 

[jjh302]

My Duncan that wouldn't fit in the last post

 

[jjh302]

So 20g is ready to be built. Just gotta rinse the sand (with garden hose/tap water?) and add it to the tank with saltwater.

I do have mostly dry rock and a couple pieces of live rock to go in the tank. Do I just rinse the dry rock in ro/di water then add dry and live rock at the same time to the tank? Any special placement?

The only thing I haven't recieved yet is my led's and my jebao wp10. Do I need both of these before I can add water, sand, rock etc. and get this month and a half of waiting started?

 

[carey]

You wont need the lights for the cycle anyways and if you have some flow then you should be able to start it up!

If you have easy access to ro/di water then i would rinse in that, if you are buying it then I might go with the tap water. Did you get live sand? If so you arent supposed to rinse it anyway.

 

[jjh302]

You wont need the lights for the cycle anyways and if you have some flow then you should be able to start it up!

If you have easy access to ro/di water then i would rinse in that, if you are buying it then I might go with the tap water. Did you get live sand? If so you arent supposed to rinse it anyway.

No I got 20lbs of fine white sand from TFP last Saturday. I have the BRS 5 stage rodi system. How exactly do I rinse the sand with the rodi?

I have an aquaclear 70 ready to go. With that be enough flow to get the cycle started? My jebao should be here next week.

 

[carey]

The aquaclear should be fine, you just need water movement.

As for rinsing the sand, when I did it I used an old pillowcase and did small batches. Just rinse til it runs clear, or clearer lol. So fill like a 5g bucket and pour it into the pillowcase with the sand and swirl around. I did it in my driveway so the water had someplace to go.

 

[jjh302]

Is it actually better to use this sand?

http://www.thatpetplace.com/bio-activ-live-aragonite-samoa-pink-reef-sand-20lb

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

IMHO no, it's not really live sand it's just wet. If the $10 extra is worth not rinsing the sand then get it, if not just get the dry version

 

[jjh302]

I have 20 lbs of fine white dry sand that I had already bought. But I just seen this and didn't know if it was beneficial?

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

I don't think it is, if it was really live sand then they wouldn't put a packet of "good bacteria" in with it

 

[carey]

"live" sand is a bunch of hooey in my opinion. LOL

Just use what you have.

 

[jjh302]

Will 20lbs be enough?

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

That's up to you, it depends on how deep of a look you like.
Edit: 2 inches all the way around should be about 30-35 lbs

 

[jjh302]

Not too deep. 1-1.5 inches.

 

[jjh302]

So I bought a reef octopus ns80 skimmer. Hope it works well. Had good reviews

 

[jjh302]

Got my jebao wp10 today and my led lights. I'm ready to start rinsing sand and get some water into this tank finally!

 

[jjh302]

So I haven't posted lately so I figured i owed an update! lol I put my shrimp in my tank to get my cycle going on 4/06. On 4/13 i went to look for it to pull it out and it was gone. Had some family issues arise so I had to back away from the tank for a few days. Tonight I still can't locate the shrimp and my water tests came out as:

Ammonia - .25ppm
Nitrite - .25ppm
Nitrate - 5ppm

Seems to me either my tank fully cycled in a week and four days, which doesn't seem possible, or something is seriously wrong.... Any ideas on what i should do from here?