Kris Posted February 17, 2010 Share Posted February 17, 2010 Wow, first off I'd like to say how excited I am to find these forums. I've been reading through the last couple of days and decided to register. On Dec. 28 2009 I started a 24g aquapod. My first saltwater tank. I bought 20lbs of live sand, my dad gave me 10lbs of LR he's had in his sw tank for 6 years+. I went to aquadome and got my ro/di water. I let it set for 2 days and took a trip up too aquatek and bought 5 more lbs of live rock and a couple of snails. A couple days later I went to aquadome and talked to the guy there and told him everything about my system, long story short...he let me walk out of there with 3 fish and 2 corals. Back then I had not done any research for myself. I was listening to my old man and the guys at aquadome. At this point I had 15lbs live rock, 1 clown,1 dottyback, 1 gobi, 1 brown mushroom colony, and a brian coral. I was so excited that it was going so quickly. A week later I went back to aquadome to tell the guys everything was fine and if I could handle more corals? They said "seems like everything is doing fine, getting a couple more corals should be just fine." I went home with a devils hand leather and a kenya tree. Everything seemed alive and happy and I told myself I was not going to buy anything for awhile except a test kit. When I got the kit I immeditly started testing the water and came to find that ammonia was high, ph was very low, and nitrates we a bit high. So I started to worry and jumped on my computer to do some research of my own. I found a site called nano reef that I have been reading for well over a month now. I'm am shocked in how misinformed I was and how ignorent I was to not do my own research. I quickly called the only person I know in austin with a sw tank and gave him everything. I went back to aquatek and bought 11.5 lbs of live rock and let everything sit for 3 weeks. All my levels are stable and within normal range. I'm doing 10% weekly water changes. I replaced the stock pump with a mj 1200, bought a 20" nova extream pro 150w t5ho lighting system, add a koraline 1 and a elite 100w heater. I took out the bio balls, rings and sponges. Replaced with a dyi egg create media rack witch runs filter floss only, for now. I bough chemi pure elite and purgen, but still not sure if I need them. Last week I bought a red banded coral shrimp. Yesterday I bought a cuc. 2 nass, 1 cerith, 1 bumble bee snail, 1 fighting conch, 2 hermits and 1 emerald crab. I'm planning on watching my levels for a cople of weeks before adding a small gobi. I'm very excited about this website and hope to get to know you guys soon. I will be posting some pictures up as soon as I can. Thanks for reading! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesL Posted February 17, 2010 Share Posted February 17, 2010 Yay! More "southerners" Welcome! Your story probably happens to a lot more people than you think.. but with worse consequences. It is good that you had someone that could look after your livestock until your tank was ready. And it sounds like you are are the right path now. If you didn't see, this month ARC meeting is being held down south, hope you can make it! Good luck with your tank .. I had the same tank prior to my current 75g. And I also started off at nano-reef, then Andrew (ACampbell - ARC owner) pointed me to this local board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisfowler99 Posted February 17, 2010 Share Posted February 17, 2010 welcome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kris Posted February 17, 2010 Author Share Posted February 17, 2010 Thanks for the quick welcomes! I'm working on posting some pics in the next hour or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Posted February 17, 2010 Share Posted February 17, 2010 WELCOME to the Austin Reef Club!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kris Posted February 17, 2010 Author Share Posted February 17, 2010 Sorry the pics are lousy, took them on my phone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted February 17, 2010 Share Posted February 17, 2010 Welcome aboard from another Southie. Sounds like you've done what most of us do, but a big pat on the back for thinking of the fish/corals first and finding them somewhere safe while your tank cycled. Things are looking good, but you seem to have some cyano growing in the front right of your tank. Do a little research and you should be able to get it under control before you add more fish and corals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kris Posted February 18, 2010 Author Share Posted February 18, 2010 Welcome aboard from another Southie. Sounds like you've done what most of us do, but a big pat on the back for thinking of the fish/corals first and finding them somewhere safe while your tank cycled. Things are looking good, but you seem to have some cyano growing in the front right of your tank. Do a little research and you should be able to get it under control before you add more fish and corals. thanks mike! I've done some research and I'm currently waiting to see if the cuc helps any. In a week or so, depending on if its gotten any better I'll use my chemi pure eilte. I've also read adjusting the flow could help. Anything else im missing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 When I've had cyano it's usually a combination of a dead spot (lack of flow) and overfeeding. You can do 3 days of darkness followed by a large water change and that will usually be enough of a one-two punch to knock it down and then remove it from the water stream. It seems to be a problem that all of us fight... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesL Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 It is also a common new tank issue. I would say play around with the flow. Maybe add a fighting conch into your clean up crew also, they like cyno. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lamont Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 Welcome, i also had a small cyano problem a few weeks back. i went away in about 3 days. i added a small power head to the dead spot did a 15% water change and started to measure how much food i was putting in the tank. i use a turkey syringe that came with a seasoning kit, put a cube of frozen mysis shrimp in it then suck some of the water from the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kris Posted February 18, 2010 Author Share Posted February 18, 2010 thanks guys! ive had this problem for about a week now. I have not fed the tank anything during the cycle. I'll mess with the flow today. Seahorse, I did add a fighting conch about 2 days ago and he has gotten rid of some of it. Right now, im using a mj1200 as my pump and a k1. Is that enough for a 24g ap? I was thinking of getting a koraline nano. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesL Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 That sounds like enough flow. You might just play around with the direction/location of the K1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad and Belinda Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 Welcome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kris Posted February 20, 2010 Author Share Posted February 20, 2010 hey thanks guys!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kris Posted March 5, 2010 Author Share Posted March 5, 2010 Hello again everyone! Just a quick update on how things are going. I added a sixline wrasse today and he seems to be doing great so far. I've been noticing that the ph is 7.8 at night and 8.2 durring the day, is there anyway to stalize this naturally? I do 10% wc every Tuesday. All my other levels are steady. Also I've noticed somy coraline is starting to fade, could this be due to too much light? I'm running a nova extreme pro 6x18w. 10 hours on 14 hours off, antics come on 30mins before and 30 mins after daylights. I'm having abit of a gha problem but I'm planning on getting a couple or turbos and/or astreas. So my complete bioload is... 1 turbo 1 cerith 1 fighting conch 5 nass's 1 margarita 1 stomatella 1 red bannded coral shrimp 1 bumble bee snail 1 red emerald crab 3 small hermits 1 sixline wrasse I'm gonna add a few more snails and 1 more fish (in 2 weeks) and stick with what I have for the next 2 months before I add my first coral. I'm also wondering if a k nano, k1 and a mj1200 in place of the stock pump is to much flow. Any ideas, suggestions or comments of any kind are welcome and appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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