I was never a very active member of MASC, but I did post from time to time. I'm posting in the intro's because my other thought was in the tank builds, but I don't want to do a whole build thread.
When I last left you I had two biocubes a 14 and a 29. This was in 2012 or so. One was a full reef setup the other was FOWLR and I had a calico crab in there of all things. Well, I was laid off from my good job around March 2012 or so. I stayed unemployed for about a year and in that time I took a trip back to Montana in July. At some point the AC died in my house and my tanks overheated. When I returned I had lost everything. In a fit of poverty and frustration I got rid of most of my set up save for the tanks and stands. Well awhile ago I found a guy who was getting rid of his sand and live rock so I figured I'd start back up again.
So I zip over to this guy's place and I see a neglected tank filled with a sand bed that's around 2 inches deep and some pretty poor looking rock. Lights were gone, looked like he was just using a HOB filter, no pumps or anything else. He said it has been like that for a couple of months, he would just top it off with RO always with the intention of getting back into it. I know a lot of people don't like DSBs and wouldn't even consider moving them but I figured for free the price was right. I started pulling rocks, wrapping them up and all that and found not only what I believe to be a true Percula but also a watchman goby. Both are pretty starved down looking, the guy said he hasn't fed the tank in couple of months so I have no idea what they found to eat on. But he said I could have them as well or he'd just flush them (!!!) after I was done getting the rock and such. So I took the fish, the sand the rock and filled my plastic tubs with as much of his water as I thought I could hold. I filled my Biocube 29 with all that, found some pumps and a heater, setup my old skimmer, and set about doing daily water changes. I slowly backed off the water changes to where I'm doing them weekly and what I would call routine. Turns out something is screwed up with the original hood I have for the biocube so this tank has been living in darkness at my place as well, but I just got word my LED setup should be here next week, so I set about making an egg crate top today. I'll eventually replace that with screen just want to have the LED setup in my hands first before I commit. Anyways; I seem to find something new in this tank every day. It did go through a cycle, although it was smaller than I had expected with moving that sand bed. The clown and the goby are putting on some weight as well. There actually is still a lot of life in this tank, I even have a nassarius snail that made an appearance tonight when I fed some Rod's. I haven't seen any crabs, or asterina starfish, or aiptasia, but when I shine a light in at night I see various tube worms. If I look closely enough I can see some copepods on the glass (or is that amphipods that like the glass?) Not a big population but it seems to be growing as I didn't see any at first. I think I'm about ready to throw some hermits in it tomorrow and see what happens.
Anyways; my numbers for today using an API test kit.
Temp: 80*F
Salinity: 1.025
pH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 5 - 10
What do you think? Is it ready to start adding clean up crew? Like I said, I did see a cycle with a bump in ammonia and then nitrites, but it was smaller than I would have expected. This setup has been running without a light and regular water changes for about 6 weeks now. It was right about the 4 and half week mark where the nitrites fell back to 0, but I was expecting a bigger swing and honestly I was expecting the surviving fish to die as it cycled so I've just been holding off on putting anything else in there.
When I last left you I had two biocubes a 14 and a 29. This was in 2012 or so. One was a full reef setup the other was FOWLR and I had a calico crab in there of all things. Well, I was laid off from my good job around March 2012 or so. I stayed unemployed for about a year and in that time I took a trip back to Montana in July. At some point the AC died in my house and my tanks overheated. When I returned I had lost everything. In a fit of poverty and frustration I got rid of most of my set up save for the tanks and stands. Well awhile ago I found a guy who was getting rid of his sand and live rock so I figured I'd start back up again.
So I zip over to this guy's place and I see a neglected tank filled with a sand bed that's around 2 inches deep and some pretty poor looking rock. Lights were gone, looked like he was just using a HOB filter, no pumps or anything else. He said it has been like that for a couple of months, he would just top it off with RO always with the intention of getting back into it. I know a lot of people don't like DSBs and wouldn't even consider moving them but I figured for free the price was right. I started pulling rocks, wrapping them up and all that and found not only what I believe to be a true Percula but also a watchman goby. Both are pretty starved down looking, the guy said he hasn't fed the tank in couple of months so I have no idea what they found to eat on. But he said I could have them as well or he'd just flush them (!!!) after I was done getting the rock and such. So I took the fish, the sand the rock and filled my plastic tubs with as much of his water as I thought I could hold. I filled my Biocube 29 with all that, found some pumps and a heater, setup my old skimmer, and set about doing daily water changes. I slowly backed off the water changes to where I'm doing them weekly and what I would call routine. Turns out something is screwed up with the original hood I have for the biocube so this tank has been living in darkness at my place as well, but I just got word my LED setup should be here next week, so I set about making an egg crate top today. I'll eventually replace that with screen just want to have the LED setup in my hands first before I commit. Anyways; I seem to find something new in this tank every day. It did go through a cycle, although it was smaller than I had expected with moving that sand bed. The clown and the goby are putting on some weight as well. There actually is still a lot of life in this tank, I even have a nassarius snail that made an appearance tonight when I fed some Rod's. I haven't seen any crabs, or asterina starfish, or aiptasia, but when I shine a light in at night I see various tube worms. If I look closely enough I can see some copepods on the glass (or is that amphipods that like the glass?) Not a big population but it seems to be growing as I didn't see any at first. I think I'm about ready to throw some hermits in it tomorrow and see what happens.
Anyways; my numbers for today using an API test kit.
Temp: 80*F
Salinity: 1.025
pH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 5 - 10
What do you think? Is it ready to start adding clean up crew? Like I said, I did see a cycle with a bump in ammonia and then nitrites, but it was smaller than I would have expected. This setup has been running without a light and regular water changes for about 6 weeks now. It was right about the 4 and half week mark where the nitrites fell back to 0, but I was expecting a bigger swing and honestly I was expecting the surviving fish to die as it cycled so I've just been holding off on putting anything else in there.
