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Tank is operational!!

Cephdoc

Vampyroteuthis
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Nov 19, 2010
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I set the cuttle tank up this morning. It took around 5 hours to get it all operational.. Cloudy from substrate and minimal live rock because im going to clear up the scrathes and glue the aquascaping the way i want when the time comes. I will take some pictures when the water clears up. I used 40 pounds of agronite and 40 pounds of sand for substrate... No bio balls in the system yet, or any livestock. I dont plan on doing any of that for alittle while yet. Im still unsure about some of the things i want to do with it some now i can just take my time and plan things out. I have a slight problem though, I ran out of RO water this morning and given its Thanksgiving there was nowhere to get more, so i had to use some water out of the taps... :frown: i hope this doesnt cause a problem.. I have no knowledge of bad agents in out water besides the basics. I know its rich in iron. Thoughts on whether i should try to rid my tank of this water through water changes or other methods? Will charcoal work ot help filter out some if the bad if there is any?
Thanks
I will keep everyone posted on the build, and develepment.
 
I have no idea what effect most of the metals in our water (other than copper) might have so hopefully someone else can address the subject and you might try a reef forum for some suggestions and general impact thoughts. Neither carbon nor reverse osmosis (RO) remove metals but they bind to the deionizating (DI) sand. I have never tried filtering the tank water with a sand filter (bag of DI sand in the water flow to the sump) and it would be very hard to contain and still have water pass through. If you experiment with it be sure to do so in the sump but you might give it a go.
 
Im honestly not too worried about it, i have used the tap water in my other 75 gallon reef tank. It has alot of organisms you would think wouldnt like it, and it does great! Pics coming soon
 
Here is the tank as of tonight... Its been cloudy all day. How long will it take for it to settle? Ive never used the sand before i was told 2-3 days? If not more?
 

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Tank is still filthy! Ugh! I am working on getting a ballast for my old Current moonlight system. Runns two 10000 K 65W Daylight bulbs, and 2 55W actinic blues, with 5 led moonlights. I am thinking about just running this system for lighting when i replace the ballasts, because it seemed to do great for me last time i had the tank up growing familiar corals... And after doing a fair amount of looking, im not sure if i want to spend 500+ on new lights!! I will keep posting as i update.
 
I probably should have mentioned to rinse the sand first :oops:. If you can place a particulate filter where the pipe enters the sump (the sock set up works well for this with a little creative hanging ingenuity - the commercial hangers are only for the smaller socks, are costly and are a pain with maintenance). I keep a bag of charcoal in them and use them full time so adding one would not be a waste and will help keep your water clear of particulates.
 
I did rinse the sand 1st :frown: LOL The LFS said not to rinse it too much it didnt need it that bad he said. And he was correct it didnt seem to bad as i rinsed it.. Im not sure whats going on. Ill look into setting up a sock
 
Don't worry too much as it will eventually settle but that is typical dust that is usually minimized (but not elimnated) by rinsing. Filtering it out would be a good idea or it will stir up again (not this badly) when you clean the substrate.
 
I am also aware of keeping sea cucumbers with cuttles? And octopus? Could that also be a good addition to the tank as it develops and i stock it? I currently have 2 in my reef now. I have always had luck with them. As of now i have filter pads in the wet/dry and i rinse those about 3 times a day.
 
I love cucs but am leary of trying to keep them with octopuses. I do keep a cowrie with Cassy and have not had a major sliming issue (yet). You might try googling: cucumber sight:tonmo.com and see if there are any journalled issues but I don't remember anyone reporting problems. Like octopuses, though, the species is likely to matter (mostly the toxicity if it dies or spits out its insides because it is molested) and I suspect the concerns are less with cuttles than my sand digging buddies.
 
The tank as of today. I need input on ways to cycle, methods and advice that will help and be the best route to go... I have started the process already by adding old bioballs and water and lava rock from other tank. Also Salinity for Cephs like Octopus and Cuttlefish is between 1.024-1.026 correct?
 

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It looks like you are running a wet/dry trickle filter, a skimmer, and live rock. Is that your filtration system? I run a wet/dry and skimmer for my bimac, and I found that nitrates would build up too fast (I was feeding the tank a lot, and it's only got 50 gallons of water). I added a deep sand bed, and that helped reduce nitrates a lot. I would highly recommend installing a Remote Deep Sand Bed instead (RDSB) to reduce nitrates. They are easy to set up and literally dirt cheap.
One word of warning about using a trickle filter - if you don't filter all the particles out of the water before it goes into the wet/dry, then detritus will build up in the bio-balls, and that detritus will become a large source of nitrates. Judging from how long it took to clear the dust, you don't have a fine enough pre-filter. I use polyester filter floss (actually "batting" from the fabric store, used to maek quilts) but a filter sock would work too. Since the purpose of the pre-filter is to remove particles before they have a chance to break down into ammonia, etc. you must replace or wash the filter often (every other day?).

Cephdoc;167385 said:
I need input on ways to cycle, methods and advice that will help and be the best route to go... I have started the process already by adding old bioballs and water and lava rock from other tank.
You can go online and find recommendations about how to cycle your tank, but most of them don't explain how cycling works, so it makes it easy to do it wrong. Here are a few tips:
The purpose of "cycling" your tank is to grow a population of denitrifying bacteria that is sufficiently large to consume the amount of ammonia per day that your tank inhabitants will produce. The result you are after is NOT simply to get the measurements of ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate to rise and then fall back to zero. You must grow a population of bacteria (on your live rock and bio balls) that is large enough to consume the amount of waste that your animals will produce. That means that you must provide two things (at least): living space and food.
1) Enough live rock and bio balls to provide enough places for the bacteria to live.
2) Increasing amounts of "food" for the bacteria (ammonia/animal waste). As the amount of food increases, the size of the bacteria population will increase (assuming there is enough living space). The "Cycle" is over when you are feeding your tank about as much food (or ammonia) as you will be feeding it when it is fully stocked, and your test results regularly show 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and nitrate that never gets above 10 ppm between water changes.

It makes sense to "seed" your tank with bio balls and live rock from an established tank, but doing that only makes sense if at the same time you also add more living space (fresh bio balls and live rock) and if you feed the tank more than enough to keep the "seed" bacteria alive, and to feed the (hoped for) increasing population of bacteria.

The methods of feeding the tank that I've read about are:
1) Keep a few tough and inexpensive fish, and feed them, letting their waste feed the bacteria. Gradually increase the population of fish (weekly?) until they are collectively eating about the same amount of food per day as you expect to be feeding your tank when you stock it for real. At that point, and when the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels are okay, swap out the fish and swap in your live stock.

2) Add daily measured, gradually increasing doses of ammonia (Ammonium Chloride, or even household ammonia). This method is described here.

3) Just put some flake food or a small piece of shrimp in the tank, and let it start to rot (decompose into ammonia). Slowly add a little more per day.

I like method number 2 best, followed by method number 1. I'm not a big fan of method #3, but it will work.


The warmer the water is ( up to a point) the faster the bacteria will grow, and it will also speed things up if you seed the tank with a culture of living bacteria, but a few of the bacteria are always present in the air, so "if you build it, they will come" (but it might take longer).

I think it's best if you seed the tank twice: once when you start, and once again after the initially ammonia spike (because different species of bacteria eat different chemicals, and while the high ammonia level feeds the ammonia eaters, it kills the nitrite eaters, so seeding a 2nd time with nitrite eaters will speed things along).
 
Thanks Joe ceph. The Wet dry is rated for a 120 gallon system on a 75 gallon tank. I understand where you are coing from and was aware of this from the previous setup with the reef, but ive never had a problem. Also is connected to a refugium.
 
Tank today. Bought two damsels yesterday for it to help cyrcle and the seeder bottle. Micro bacter. Was told it was one of the best out. Mixed the tank up alittle bit more with the sock filter on it, gotta clean it up.
 

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