How's my setup going?

[fireman26m]

Setup on 27 Apr.

Today:

Salinity/SG: 36.5/1.027
Temp: 77F
pH: 8.0
Ammonia: Off the scale-cheap test kit
Nitrite: 10.6 ppm Seachem test kit
Nitrate: 10 ppm Seachem also

Is everything looking ok so far?

Also, I've got some very porous Tufa rock in there now and plan to add 25lbs of LR from LR.com (can't afford it just yet). How's my set up look so far?

TIA

 

[dinotrex]

I have 2 questions:

Where's the other Maxijet?

Is there Carbon in the Bio-Wheel?

 

[fireman26m]

The maxijets are ordered....(see sig) using a cheap aquaclear for now.

Yes, I've got carbon in the biowheel baskets, but I haven't put the wheels in yet. Should I go ahead and do that now?


PS. Sorry about the 3 identical pics....new to the site and haven't quite got the hang of how it works.

 

[24 hours? NE!]

The wheels should only be necessary till the lr is doing the job- which would help with your levels and good for cycling the tank. I would suggest having the ph pointed toward the middle of the tank, but it isn't terribly important till you have occupants, right now you just want some flow on the rock.

 

[fireman26m]

checked the water this evening.

1.026
pH 8
Amm. still off the scale
nitrite 7.5
nitrate 7

Does this sound right?

 

[BillyZ]

one week into a cycle.. sounds about right to me )

 

[fireman26m]

But the nitrites and nitrates are going down now....thought they would stay up until the ammonia went down. Somebody correct me please...lol.

 

[Brisc0]

Cycles are different for everybody. I didn't have hardly any ammonia or nitrate spike in my tank when it cyced, but I had high nitrates. You will find that after 2 - 6 weeks everything comes together.

 

[BillyZ]

yea, things can fluctuate some. in general the ammonia should come down soon, if it stays high, whatever is producing your ammonia may be producing it faster than your bacteria is growing. what are you using for an ammonia souce? (shrimp, LR?)