20L Nano Reef Build

[Nytelighter]

Thanks Beengirl. Should I start using it now or should I wait till after it cycles to bring the pH up?

 

[Beengirl]

Do you have PHs that cause a ripple or any disturbance to the top of the water? That will help to bring up pH. And you can go ahead and use the buffer if you want to.

 

[iadubber]

What light do you have?

 

[pairenoid]

i have a 20 long too, im in a month long process of refunding my broken fixture i got from current which has halted much of my progress on my tank. I have a clownfish/midas blenny and next will be a goby . 3 months in but yours still looks nicer cuz of that light!

 

[Nytelighter]

@Beengirl: I have to PHs (Koralia 425), one on each side. The Aquaclear 50 cascades and creates ripples on the top which I figured would be enough to bring the pH up.

@iadubber: Lights are Coralife Lunar Aqualight High Output T5 Fixtures: : 30" Fixture - 124 Watts - (30"L x 9.5"W x 2.5"H). Got it off Petmountain.

 

[Nytelighter]

Sorry to hear about that broken unit...sucks that it's got you in a holding pattern. I can't wait to have something alive in my tank. I'm still in the cycling process but patient as can be. I'm looking to stock mine with a pair of occellaris clowns, a goby/pistol shrimp combo, and a cleanup crew.

 

[Nytelighter]

Looks like I'm a smidging away from zero. What do you guys think?

 

[Earlgrey23]

That's is either zero or almost zero. How are you nitrites? That was the longest part of my cycle.

 

[Nytelighter]

Trites are at 5 ppm and Trates are at 40 ppm. I have been testing every other day and two days ago my Ammo had dropped from 8 ppm to 5 ppm and then today they dropped down to what you see in the last post. Now it's just wait till Trites get to zero right?

 

[Earlgrey23]

Yep. Although keep an eye on the Nitrates too. Mine have been up and down. When trites are zero I've gotten a lot of advice to do 50-100 percent water change..... Not sure which to go with. But my trates are only 5ppm and I just finished my cycle.

 

[Nytelighter]

Yeah once my ammo and nitrites get to zero I'm gonna go with a 50 percent water change and then test to see where my nitrates are and go from there.

 

[Nytelighter]

FTS. Thinking about adding a couple more rocks to the aquascape.


Cave


Crevice.

 

[Beengirl]

The rocks look good. Nice places for fish to hide. That one rock on the left looks huge!!

 

[Nytelighter]

Thanks. That huge one on left is actually two rocks that I epoxied together. The tall structure, I hacksawed the bottom so it would stand upright and then that little leg at the bottom to the right was joined with JB Waterweld. I liked the way it turned out, plus it helps hide my heater a bit.

 

[Beengirl]

Thanks. That huge one on left is actually two rocks that I epoxied together. The tall structure, I hacksawed the bottom so it would stand upright and then that little leg at the bottom to the right was joined with JB Waterweld. I liked the way it turned out, plus it helps hide my heater a bit.

It sure dies hide it, I didn't even notice the heater! now that you pointed that out, I do see the top of it, but didn't even see it before. good idea!!

 

[Nytelighter]

Thanks, I figured since I don't have a sump, I need to hide some of this stuff so it doesn't look super cluttered.

Also had a question; I'm still testing low on pH (7.8), so I was looking at Kent Marine Probuffer and Kent Mariine Superbuffer-dKH. Can someone shed some light on the differences between the two?

 

[Nytelighter]

Nitrites at .25ppm. Zero here we come!!!! Looks like I need to prep my water for a 50% pwc and get some Kent Probuffer to bring my pH up. It's still testing at 7.8.

 

[Beengirl]

Exciting times!!!

 

[Pufferlove]

Bet ya Cant wait for cycle to finish ooh the suspense when my cycle was done I was sooooo relieved it didn't take too Long like other people's yours didn't seem to take too long either

 

[Nytelighter]

Yep!!!!! Moved along pretty quickly like you said. I started cycling around November 22, with 30lbs of live sand, 7lbs of live rock, 15 lbs of base rock and 1 shrimp. Kept the lights off the whole time to keep algae at bay. Only thing I'm worried about is the pH is at 7.8 consistently (which may not be a bad thing), but I eventually want to put some corals in there and my research has been showing 8.2 to 8.5 to be more favorable. Been researching all the remedies but I'm gun shy on putting chemicals in the tank like Kent Superbuffer or Seachem Marine Buffer. My Alk is testing at 4.5-5.0 consistently. Any thoughts?