Bherbold8 Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 Whatsup Austin reeflings. Excited to be back in the hobby after 9 years! Got my tank set up last Friday, waiting is the worst! Waiting for my Redsea test kit to hopefully arrive today so I can see where I'm at w parameters. Went w 20 lbs live sand, 28 lbs of aquacultured caribsea from aquatek, another probably 5 lbs of coral /rock from Hawaii (had it for years ) and seeded with some LR rubble from one of our very kind admins!! Added a bottle of Fritz 9 and have been ghost feeding. Have another Sine SLW10 arriving shortly and will likely be replacing the stock return pump. Still need to get my XR15 programmed and planning on renting a PAR meter....other than that just playing the waiting game, can't wait to have some life in there!!! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bherbold8 Posted March 4, 2021 Author Share Posted March 4, 2021 Temp 78 (shooting for closer to 79/80)Salinity 1.0245Ammonia 0Nitrite 0Nitrate 2ppmpH 8dKH 8.5PO 0Calcium 460(Tested w raw shrimp piece still in tank)Tanks been up and running for 6 days and have been ghost feeding for 4, and also added a bottle of Fritz 9. only thing sticking out is the low nitrates , which makes sense considering the low bio load. pH of 8 may be a bit low, any thoughts on this and if I should be doing anything to raise it ? Using Fritz reef pro mix.I could be wrong but I think I mostly skipped a substantial cycle since I started w live sand, aquacultured Life rock (sitting in lfs tank with other rocks and a couple fish) and also seeded my tank with sediment and LR rubble from established tank...don't shoot me but I'm debating adding a tailspot blenny this weekend to continue building the bacteria population. Thoughts ?Thanks for checking in!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 Looks like a good start. I've always been able to skip the initial cycle using maricultured live rock, live sand and some rubble & water from an existing system so I'm not surprised you've skipped it. To help with the maturing process if you can get some rubble or rock that has some fo the cryptuic sponges found in reef systems that would help also. I would also be adding some hermits, definitely add some hardy fish and start adding easy and hardy corals (purple stylo, actinodiscus mushrooms and xenia are three I'd recommend). The carbon, nitrogen and phsohporus cycles are very complex and both fish and corals are needed to moderate them. I would strongly encoruage you to get a copy of FOrest ROhwer's "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas" (kindle is ~$10). Researchers are finding Disolved Organic Carbon (DOC) plays a critical role on reefs in promoting autotrophic microbial processes (good) or heterotrophic microbial processes (bad) and Rohwer's book is an excellent introduction to the subject. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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