Rachelle's 180 gal build

[RandJ]

I'm not totally sure how much is still in the 75 because I never weighed it when we started that tank. I'm estimating there is at least 100 lbs more to put in and that's probably a low guess. That would bring it up to 250 Lbs of live rock in the DT plus 30 Lbs in the sump.

 

[kurtyboh]

Yeah with thatuch lr you may not see a cycle at all

 

[RandJ]

Put the lights on today just to see what it's going to look like. Here are a few shots. First with all the lights on. 2nd is just the actinics and LED moon lights. Last one just the LED.

And ammonia is up to .5 tonight so looks like finally cycling.

 

[Henry405]

The first pictures looks REALLY bright. Hopefully that is just the camera though

 

[RandJ]

I took a couple more pics. Hope these are better. The last time I posted one made it look a little spot lightish. Thing is this light has 3 HID 10000K lamps which are in fact kinda set up like spotlights. All post a pic of it before we sat it on the tank.

 

[RandJ]

Forgot to post todays water parameters.

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0-0.25 (had just a tinge of purple)
Nitrate 5

Using API saltwater master kit.

Where do I go from here?

 

[Henry405]

hmm, seems like you need an ammonia source. You can do the shrimp method or the ammonia dosing method (I recommend this more)

 

[hackteck]

i like your aqua scaping

 

[RandJ]

I've had several people tell me I may only have a very small spike with the amount of live rock I added. Is .5 enough? Nitrates went to 5 so I know something got converted.

 

[kurtyboh]

Didi you see any trites?

 

[Hubert90]

That looks amazing!!

 

[RandJ]

Kurt- there was just a tinge of purple for nitrites so not exactly zero but didn't look enough to qualify as .25

 

[kurtyboh]

Sorry i just went back a bit further and saw you had a small amount of trites.

 

[carey]

Do you have any straight ammonia? When I did my first 29g I had rock and sand from an established tank and used ammonia for a week to get the numbers to move.

When I moved the 29g to the 55g I didn't have any cycle so didn't need ammonia.

On my cube I also went with regular LR from lfs, some of my own from the 55g and some base rock.

I had it all in a bucket for a week while I waited for my new cube to arrive. In that time I didn't have a nitrite spike but I did see ammonia and now nitrates.

I'm just assuming I missed the trites.

 

[kurtyboh]

Are you using any kind of ammonia source?

 

[kurtyboh]

Oh and are you running the skimmer?

 

[RandJ]

I haven't used any kind of ammonia source as of yet, but can go get some today.

We are running an in-sump skimmer. I honestly don't remember the brand off the top of my head.

 

[kurtyboh]

Some people say it doesn't matter if you run the skimmer or not, I'm in the other camp. I just can't see how removing proteins which become ammmonia nitrite and nitrate will help the process at all. I would shut it off and if your ammonia doesnt go up from that tomorrow add some shrimp or dose. If you want to dose Ill send you the equation to find out how much to use

 

[Henry405]

You could also be close to the end of your cycle. I would do as kurtyboh and dose ammonia a bit and see how fast it takes your tank to clear it up. If it's in a day, your tank is close to being finish, but if it sits there, you'll know that your starting your cycle again

 

[RandJ]

I'm going to dose with ammonia later. I would rather be safe than sorry. I'll turn the skimmer off as well