Mynd's Aquapod - 01.07.07

[mynd]

Thanks for the kind words. I really mean it.. I am not playing the pity card, but as you get older you don't hear many compliments any more. lol. So for everyone and especially those that have commented so far here is a moonlight shot taken a few minutes ago.

I might as well enjoy the memory. Once the blooms come that is about it for awhile.

 

[mynd]

Hello there,

So here we are today 07.21.07 and we are 4 days from when the rock entered the tank. The only downside to buying cured rock is the lack of life on the rocks. Sure I have some snails and odds and ends, but nothing like buying uncured rock. That being said. As of today

Nitrates - 0
Ammonia - 0
Phosphates - 0
Nitrites - 0
Calcium - 460
PH 8.2
Magnesium - 1220
DKH - 10

A couple things need to go up and some need to come down just a itty bit. I am still going to do a water change in a couple days of 1 gallon and continue to change my filter floss every 2 days. I am going to test my parameters each day for the next week. If everything is ok by the 31st I am going to stick in a little CUC, just so I can get the ammonia eating bacteria to start to thrive. Ironic, you need to create ammonia in order to breed ammonia eating bacteria and you need to have nitrates in order to have nitrate eating bacteria and so on.

If all goes well I will then wait another two weeks with water changes on the 10th,20th and 30th of each month until I am ready to put in a few frags. Patience is my middle name.

Until then I will leave you with this photo of my tank so far with my whites on incrementally from 2 hours on starting today until I reach 8 hours. Actinics are on now for the full 10 and no moon lights yet. It's just my way of doing it.

Sure it looks like a bunch of rock now but by the time I am done with it, it will be a plethora of colors and life. Thanks for looking.

 

[CONSTANTNE]

Where did you end up getting your live rock from?

 

[mynd]

Hello there,

Actually someone else on the forums replied to me in another post. The club took a trip there last weekend in Maryland. The place is called Pacific East. The price is low at only 2.89lb and since we are in NJ the shipping no matter what you get is 15.99 + 10.00 for the box. Total Price was like 85.00, which when you think about it make the actual lb price like 4.20 cents ( with shipping ) I was able to tell them exactly what I wanted. The sizes I needed and if I wanted cured, uncured, semicured. I sent an email and a photo. I am very pleased. I would suggest them to anyone. However, there are some people in the club usually ( just not when I wanted it. Hope it was not me )that will sell rock at like 2.50lb and it would not cost you anything for shipping.

The rock is amazing.. I cannot say anything more. Well, just make sure you make a bucket like 2 gallons of water temperature at 78, with a specific gravity of like 1.030 - 1.035 with a power head. When you get the rock, wash each piece off in the bucket one at a time thoroughly. You will have soup at the end. The higher specific gravity will get rid of nuisance critters. Unless you like that sorta thing.

 

[twan]

Your doing everything right. Good move on bringing up the lighting cycle slowly.
CuC in another week and a half?

 

[mynd]

I actually started to have a problem with the tank and with some help from webwetmedia and a couple other friends found that the sponges on my rock are leeching silicates. I should really update the other post I have going, since it IS the rock that IS the source of my problem. However, it WILL go away in time. I just have to do my water changes and I have some phosguard 100ml packs coming in tomorrow.

http://www.njreefers.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=26&topic=4782.0

The one thing I am very happy about is my ability to keep the tank at 77 degrees with the chiller. I have a feeling that if I was having temperature swings with the amount of silicates I have in the water that the diatom bloom would be out of control. Currently it is not too bad.

I went ahead and put in 2 astrea snails and 1 nassarius snail and it seems like they are making quick work of the diatoms. I will be adding more later in about a week and a half as previously specified if these guys live.. lol which they should. You have no idea how much I hate silicates. I would not be as upset if they were at least on the test kit chart, but I am off the chart even after doing a 4.5 gallon water change. I will be doing another one tomorrow along with the phosguard addition. Hoping to see some good numbers late next week.

 

[Phyl]

Why not pull the rock out and scrub the bulk of the sponge off of the rock? That should speed up the process.

 

[mynd]

If the water changes and phosguard ( since there are no phosphate it is suppose to extract the silicates first and foremost ) don't work then I will have no choice. However, I was thinking that maybe if I can get rid of the silicates there might be a VERY SLIGHT possibility that the sponges may grow back. Not sure if there is any life left in them or not. But you are correct. If all else fails I will be doing that.

 

[blange3]

Nice rock and great aquascaping!

Did you just stack or is it supported or fastened in any way?

I've been avoiding the nan forum as I want to take my minibow down. Right now it's a rock-less frag tank. The electric bill is getting out of hand and I'm trying to eliminate all my "extra" little tanks.

Might just have to rethink that!

 

[mynd]

Thanks very much for the positive response.. Always a good thing when the tanks got you down.. The rock is actually stacked, but if I may say so, very well and secured. Nothing is moving anywhere. It is like they all just went together like a puzzle.

I can see if having multiple tanks or a large tank would impact your electricity bill. However, this tank running with the chiller / heater and everything else only cost me about $8.00 a month. That is why I opted to have a smaller tank. Also, the cost of support and limitation of corals I can have not to mention how many I can physically put in the tank limits my wants. Having limits is a pretty good thing in this hobby. If any losses occur it's not quite as expensive.

Good luck on whatever you decide to do

 

[AnDom1]

Mynd..Am Im right in assuming this is the Fiji rock from Pacisic East and not their new "Fusion" rock? Aquascape looks great!!!

Dom

 

[mynd]

Yes, this is the fiji rock and not the fusion rock. Thanks for the nice comments. Even though it has a slight touch of brown on it now the snails are making good work of it.

Snails are on the top left, well two of them.

 

[mynd]

Morning of the 13th day. Algae bloom is leaving, lights are on full time and silicates are about 1/2 of what they were, but still at 2 or above. Three (4) gallon water changes and phosguard every 4 days should rid my tank of the silicates once and for all Tank is looking nice.. I am very pleased.

Almost no silicates.. You have no idea what I have been through.. That color used to be as dark as blue is the ocean deep. I never thought I would recover.

Soon I will be able to add something from the pnoy collection.

 

[Subliminal]

Get some stuff in there already!

 

[mynd]

Have to wait till day 15. Those are the rules.

15 Add cleanup crew
20 Begin water changes and other maintenance
30 Water change (10-15% every two weeks from now on)
31 Add 1-2 corals
60 Add 1 fish
Enjoy!

 

[mladencovic]

Have to wait till day 15. Those are the rules.

15 Add cleanup crew
20 Begin water changes and other maintenance
30 Water change (10-15% every two weeks from now on)
31 Add 1-2 corals
60 Add 1 fish
Enjoy!

Where did you get such strange rules

You can add the cleanup crew on day 1 and you should definitively add the fish before the corals. Since fish are much more "dirty" (more feeding, more sh...) it will be better for your system to stabilise before you add the corals. Hardy fish, like damsels and clowns can be added in the first week, you do not need to wait for two months. For less hardy fish, it is questionable if small system will be able to support them without constant interventions, in which case you don't need to wait two months either.

Which fish and corals are you planning to put in?

 

[mynd]

Damnit.. lol I hit the wrong key and wiped.. lol Anyhew That information I provided was taken from a silly site I found, but it did have some key suggestions. I was going to go back and modify what it said but then decided it was more fun not too. The intent is there, but the information is up to the person who has the tank to decide what is best.

I am going to be putting in some Twin Spot Goby and I will be putting in most exotic rare stuff. Maybe an Acan, some zoo's, lps, whatever looks great and is rare and provided by PNOY. Things that can survive under 54 watts of light in a 10 gallon tank that is only like 12 inches deep. My options should not be that bad since it is about 5.4 watts per gallon if not a little more. There is 24lbs of LR in the tank with a 2" sand bed as well. Might only be like 8 or 9 gallons in there.

 

[mladencovic]

Very nice fish. I am concerned, though if you would be able to keep it in such small tank. A month ago, I got a similar species of goby - Rainford's goby, that feeds in the similar way (sand sifting), and mine still won't touch prepared foods. I guess I have a plenty of crap in my sand for it to eat :

I guess, for that kind of fish, maybe you should wait a month or two, so that your sand gets as "live" as possible, just in case your fish does not accept your feeding in the beginning.

 

[mynd]

Your thinking is just like mine.. I won't be putting any fish in this tank until the sandbed is alive and flourishing. I don't want to have to add anything to the tank except for maybe a treat here and there. It could be as much as 6 months maybe longer till I add any fish. By that time I should have the maintenance down to a T and more time to deal with any issues the fish may bring. We shall see.

 

[mladencovic]

...
I don't want to have to add anything to the tank except for maybe a treat here and there.
...

You will definitively have to regularily feed that fish. I seriously doubt that the amount of sandbad you have will be able to sustain that on its own. It will clean it in a week or two.