New Salty: My 29

[56jman]

Srry little late, got thermometer, powerhead (yes getting another) 1lb of LR (beautiful + covered w/ coraline) balmy 82 degrees w/ heater to 80. Ammonia Nitrite and Nitrate 0. Salinity 1.024-1.025. Adding sand once water clears. Added Bio-Spira "bacteria in a bottle". Am I doing any thing wrong??? Thx
The pics are further down the page

 

[lljdma06]

IMO, you won't really need the biospira. That could've been spent on buying more LR. Just my opinion. You also have to add all your rock before you add the sand. Especially if you want the jawfish, like I said. Otherwise, him burrowing everywhere is going to cause rocks to shift and not kidding, one can fall on him. You need to put the rock first, then add the sand.

You don't have a photobucket account? That's where most of us upload pictures from.

L

 

[56jman]

K im going to add 25-30 more lbs of brs reef saver rocks then add 40lbs of live sand.I have no filtration yet so when I add rock I will get a protein skimmer. Question: I put in the live rock and some flakes and the ammonia got up to 0.25ppm. Will that get the cycle going???

 

[SaltNoob]

You do not need to run a skimmer with only rock in there... Especially if you want it to cycle and spike well. Skimmer will remove the food you put in.

Getting flakes of food will help cycle, yes. Just do it once, and don't dump it in.

-Tyler

 

[56jman]

Added HOB filter for hour and still cloudy from yesterdays sand addition. How long will it take to clear up???
Salinity dropped from 1.026 to 1.022 then added salt so now 1.024-1.025??? Whats happening???
Will 0.25ppm ammonia start cycle or add more food???

Thanks,

-Jared

 

[SaltNoob]

what are you using to determine salinity? Don't go adding salt. HOB is not necessary. Carbon is what scrubs the water clear. Its a new tank. Just let it sit. no touchy! Don't add food.

-Tyler

 

[56jman]

Pics coming. I use a floating hydrometer very accurate. So your saying to take a "Penguin" filter from HOB filter and let it sit in the water because that has carbon in it. So just powerhead, CFL light and heater is enough for tank while cycling??? Thanks

Pics be up in about an hour

-Jared

 

[SaltNoob]

You created a second journal for some reason with ur pics there. You can post your pics inside this one. The white specs im not really sure. What kind of bulbs do you have? How many and the wattage? Much less thatn T-5s and you won't really get much corraline. It will be a few months before you see corraline spreading much anyway. Algae still a good week away. Your first thing to expect will be diatoms (brown algae feeds on nitrates) most likely. Once you have diatoms it will be time for a CUC if the ammonia is ZERO and only ZERO.

Make sure you get the rest of that rock in there. You don't need to do much testing right now jman, its just a waste of your tests. It will be a couple weeks before you put anything in. The tank needs to just sit and stabilize for now. I did the same things you are doing, test test test, just wasted em lol even though they have a lot of juice in em. This is what we call the "pet rock" phase. Watch ur main rock see if you get any feather dusters or fun things crawling out.

What is your temperature set at?

You should read my journal, it is the same size, and you will see the beginning stages and the questions I asked. Will help you learn a lot.

-Tyler

 

[56jman]

My temp is about 80 degrees F and those things aren't brown or green so are you sure they're diatoms. My rock is cured and from the pet store so will I still get fun "crawlies" . A question: If I let it sit and stabilize will the water clear up???
My ammonia is about 0.40ppm so when it reaches 0 and I see more of the diatoms I can a a CUC?
Thank you for reading and responding to my posts

-Jared

 

[SaltNoob]

Jared,

You do not have diatoms. I said those will be the first things you DO get. It will be a weeks time before you see this. Creepy crawlies will come out im sure. YES let it sit, it will clear up.

-Tyler

 

[56jman]

Would a good CUC be: Cleaner, Blood, and Peppermint Shrimp and astrea and cerith snails w/ a couple scarlet hermits and a brittle star be adequate for a 29. And would a HOB filter decrease amount of WC you have to do, what kind of filter if it does???

-Jared

 

[56jman]

BTW-Would a HOB benefit my tank that has carbon in the pads or just have some other form of mechanical and chemical filtration???

-Jared

 

[56jman]

My water is almost crystal clear after 2 days of settling

-Jared

 

[SaltNoob]

I have avoided a brittle because they get pretty large.... cerith snails, astreas, and nassarius are all great. Hopefully you are at 0 copper cuz they cant survive with it. A couple hermits should be fine also.

Don't go rushing off to buy them yet. Wait a week or more. Your cycle is gonna take a minute to settle down. I hate HOB's they are a nitrate factory even if you clean them out frequently.... Other people use them, but this is your baby, go read up on it more (google) and decide for yourself if it is necessary.

-Tyler

 

[56jman]

What kind of filtration do you use or do you just do frequent WCes

Hey do you own an anemone or know anything about them
your reading this right now

-Jared

Any one own a Condy anemone??? Anything about them in a new tank??? Compatibility???

Hey SaltNoob(Tyler) and Donya, thanks for keeping up on my build

BTW Donya, do you know what the white dots are on my pics???