125 gallons of nature

[amado]

It’s the best thing,, all the crap people buy to cycle a tank makes me belly laugh hard. Dr. Dummy’s quick cycle bacteria in a bottle for only 29.99 for 8oz bottle of snake oil n spluge, haha haha not me Mother Nature already made the perfect mix of life and it’s FREE. I will admit I’m a reef virgin as my tank is only 10 months old now,, she cycled fully in 8-9 days. I did nothing special and know absolutely nothing about chemicals and dosing,, I’ve never done either. Only difference is I use 100% pure Ocean Water in my tank and sump. I think my tanks is looking awesome for my first try

Bacteria is not snake oil it’s natural. It exist every where. I wouldn’t never get ocean water from NJ. Corals are not growing in our coast. Corals are dying in the ocean.
From disease. You can introduce those pathogens to your tank by using ocean water. We don’t use ocean rocks anymore because it doesn’t make sense to do that.
We can add bacteria and cycle a tank in days. The corals we keep in our tanks are in better shape than the ocean. The reason why we make salt water at home is to have the same consistency and convenience. Even if you own a boat and are able to go out 20-30 miles out you shouldn’t. It’s not worth it. The water from the ocean is not clean.
You will spend $100 in gas for the boat and waste 5hrs of your life to get a $50 bag of salt. Not worth it for your average person. Paulie069 it makes sense because he is already going out there.

Our systems are closed system some of the corals and fish we have today have never seen the ocean.

I just started a new build and I used fritz turbo start and I was able to add fish right away. 4 fat huge tangs

 

[Paulie 069]

Bacteria is not snake oil it’s natural. It exist every where. I wouldn’t never get ocean water from NJ. Corals are not growing in our coast. Corals are dying in the ocean.
From disease. You can introduce those pathogens to your tank by using ocean water. We don’t use ocean rocks anymore because it doesn’t make sense to do that.
We can add bacteria and cycle a tank in days. The corals we keep in our tanks are in better shape than the ocean. The reason why we make salt water at home is to have the same consistency and convenience. Even if you own a boat and are able to go out 20-30 miles out you shouldn’t. It’s not worth it. The water from the ocean is not clean.
You will spend $100 in gas for the boat and waste 5hrs of your life to get a $50 bag of salt. Not worth it for your average person. Paulie069 it makes sense because he is already going out there.

Our systems are closed system some of the corals and fish we have today have never seen the ocean.

I just started a new build and I used fritz turbo start and I was able to add fish right away. 4 fat huge tangs

You can write all the paragraphs you want ,, but I’m here to tell you ,, your wrong and still don’t understand what letting Mother Nature do her thing. I’ve got rock solid proof Ocean Water is the best thing to use
You say there is no coral in Jersey Wrong and that not good to use the rocks from ocean Wrong again. I have a incrusting type coral I got Straight out of the Jersey ocean along with 3 beautiful rocks that are in my tank right now

Stop believing everything you Read and listen to someone that actually has proof that your more wrong than right just have open mind before you spout off paragraphs of things you’ve read
Next you’ll tell me that nothing will survive in temps lower than 77-80. I’ve proved that wrong also. My tank is steady 72.5-73

 

[Jamie S]

I would add fish right away. Fishless cycles are not needed. If you add bacteria your tank will be fully cycle in days.
This is how I see it adding food like a shrimp and waiting for that to decay is not good. It’s better to add two clowns that will eat and poop slowly and will add food for the bacteria slowly. Instead of all at once.

I get nervous for the fish in a fish less cycle because of the ammonia spikes. Have you had any difficulty adding fish in the beginning? Maybe I’ll bring the salinity up tonight and get a few chromis tomorrow. I was planning on going down to TSM tomorrow anyway to check out their selection.

It’s the best thing,, all the crap people buy to cycle a tank makes me belly laugh hard. Dr. Dummy’s quick cycle bacteria in a bottle for only 29.99 for 8oz bottle of snake oil n spluge, haha haha not me Mother Nature already made the perfect mix of life and it’s FREE. I will admit I’m a reef virgin as my tank is only 10 months old now,, she cycled fully in 8-9 days. I did nothing special and know absolutely nothing about chemicals and dosing,, I’ve never done either. Only difference is I use 100% pure Ocean Water in my tank and sump. I think my tanks is looking awesome for my first try

Paul you’re tanks are looking really awesome and would love to put ocean water in it if I had access to clean water, not shore water

 

[Jamie S]

After a lot of sanding and painting the cabinet doors and canopy are finally finished thanks to my little helper. I have only the aquatic life 60” t5 on currently and I was able to find my old black box led’s to at least get the tank started. The tank is still on a fishless cycle and will be adding the first fish in the next few weeks. The lights are going off for about another 3 months and then assuming all is well then I’ll start adding a few soft corals here and there. I’m not normally this patient lol.

 

[Jamie S]

Good evening Reefers. I started the cycling process almost 3 weeks ago by adding Microbacter7 only to the tank with dry live rock (it was out of the past tank for about a year) and threw some food pellets in here and there. I also threw in a few marine blocks that I had in the biocube for about a month. Then I read that Microbacter7 alone wouldn’t cycle a tank well some I bought the Brightwell Aquatics starter kit which included the ammonia, live bacteria, and Microbacter clean. I dosed that 5 days ago and just tested. Ammonia was 0 and Nitrites and Nitrates were off the charts. I don’t remember ever seeing numbers like that, is this normal? Also I’d like to get a good pod population in the tank so how soon do you think that I can seed the tank? Looking to add the cleanup crew in about a month with first fish. Lights are only on a few hours each night just so I can enjoy it a little for now. What are your suggestions? Oh and the skimmer is off and no filter socks at the moment. No other filtration either. Thanks!

 

[Jamie S]

It’s been a while since I’ve posted about the tank. I’ve moved most of the fish and coral from the biocube over and getting ready to add a few anemone and clowns to that tank. I’ve gotten some awesome looking corals from fellow Reefers that are slowly showing some growth. I’ve recently added a gfo reactor and a bag of carbon. There are 3 Hydra26’s along with the aquatic life t5 hybrid fixture and love the colors in the tank so far. The only 2 corals that aren’t thriving are the hammer coral and frogspawn. Water parameters have been pretty consistent although my alk did drop to 6.8 and I’m slowly raising it to around the 8 range. I’m dosing the BRS alk and have the calcium but that hasn’t seemed to budge so I haven’t been dosing. I was using the Hannah calcium checker and was getting a lot of different readings mostly in the 500’s so I bought the salifert and now it’s consistently around 440. I have the 2 Jaebo powerheads and will be adding another power head pointing down in the back of the tank to stir up the detritus. Attached are pics of the tank and the euphyllia coral. Maybe the flow isn’t quite right under the pumps. Any ideas would be appreciated to help get them to open up more.

 

[Jamie S]

Here are a few pics of the coral I picked up recently

 

[Jamie S]

I was finally able to fish my saltwater mixing station. So much easier to transfer the water now into the drums. The rodi line goes into the top 55 gallon drum and then I can open a valve to drop the water into the 30 gallon drum with a powerhead in it to mix the saltwater. Maybe one day I’ll add a pump to it to be able to pump the water directly to my tank with a hose real. Excuse the messy garage.

 

[amado]

It looks great sure makes water changes easy

 

[Jamie S]

When I set the tank up I the hybrid fixture had bulbs in it that the previous owner said had only been used a few months so I kept them because I really liked the color combo. I never took any par readings which I know was a mistake. Fast forward about 6 months and I was able to rent a par meter finally. Excuse my crappy drawing but the main numbers are with the old bulbs and the numbers in parentheses are with the bulb replacement. It’s about a 25% increase and I’m going to guess the bulbs were at most a year old. I also noticed that the right side of the tank have higher par readings indicating that the right Hydra26 is throwing off a bit more par than the other 2 even though they are all on the same program. I’m going to wait a few months before I change the lenses on the led’s because I noticed slight burning. I don’t want to shock the coral with too much light change at once. Do others find that their T5 bulbs decrease intensity in a year?

 

[amado]

I find that corals like ranges in par. So if they are happy in 150 par would they be less happy in 125 par?
Changing bulbs is cheap and if you replace them as needed it’s not a big deal. If you are on a budget or your corals are happy I would leave it alone. I run my t5 for 5hrs everyday so I should get few years from my bulbs.

 

[Jamie S]

I find that corals like ranges in par. So if they are happy in 150 par would they be less happy in 125 par?
Changing bulbs is cheap and if you replace them as needed it’s not a big deal. If you are on a budget or your corals are happy I would leave it alone. I run my t5 for 5hrs everyday so I should get few years from my bulbs.

Unfortunately corals aren’t doing to good at the moment. I dosed Maracyn oxy to battle my clownfish’s popeye last week for 2 days and turned the skimmer off and all of my sps have bleached since then and the euphyllia are stressed. Even some of the zoa’s have been closed. I’ve done a few 15% water changes since but not getting much better. I plan on another big wc today and another tomorrow. I’m super bummed

 

[Jamie S]

It’s been a while since I’ve posted because I went through a lot of ups and downs (mostly downs) over the last few years. I do blame it on the dry rock and bare bottom setup however after a few adjustments last summer (added sand, ATS, and new ReeFi lights to go with the T5 hybrid) things have settled in nicely. Coral are not only just surviving but some seem to be thriving. This past Monday I had a stapedectomy done on my right ear and was told to take it easy so I concentrated on the tank. I received a few new fish, added to my cleanup crew, and received my SBB delivery from the live sale last month. Oh and with the delivery I’m a winner, of what yet I’m not sure because the 5 winners get to pick prizes (I’m #2 so I get second choice when the time comes). Anyway here are some pics of the tank and I promise to update more. And before I forget, a new IM 200EXT should be here the end of next month so that is going to be a crazy time pulling up the old floor and replacing the tank sometime this summer.

 

[Jamie S]

I picked up these 2 from @JerseyCorals yesterday. They’re eating pellets right away and looking good. They’re in the biocube for now until the tank upgrade then I’m putting all fish from the biocube and 125 in together to help reduce aggression.

 

[mnat]

Did you go up to Jersey corals or have them shipped? Corals look awesome.

 

[Jamie S]

I drove up there. He showed me his systems and new systems he’s planning. The corals look awesome in person as well.

 

[mnat]

We need some new fish and I was thinking about taking the drive up.

 

[Jamie S]

He can get whatever fish you want and he quarantined all fish as well.