Aquascapeis nice and clean! Did you cement or epoxy the LR?

Thanks :)

definitely need to snag nitrate and phosphate tests. Scott was trying to find an inexpensive but reliable probe to use but had zero luck. currently I'm just checking ammonia and nitrites. I should get out tonight and see if i can snag some at boxing day pricing!
Regardless... i do have 20 gallons mixed for a water change. I meant to do it yesterday but the holidays have a way of keeping you too busy.

the aquascaping is just fit together, no bonding. It was a bit of a place and wiggle test routine but managed to get them all pretty stable. I really should knock on wood though lol.

Worked out perfectly! I hope my 150g scape turns out like this!

picked up the test kit and 5 pink turban snails to help with algae control.

HOLY COW! those snails are cleaning machines!!
This rock had a brown coat yesterday, woke up today and they had made short work of it.
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f...6%20image1.jpg

As for my water test, looks like i have 5 ppm Nitrates and 0.25 ppm Phosphates. Not terrible considering the tank is just finished cycling and being overfed. Waterchanges will help keep it coming down.

Yeah, those snails are awesome!

Why were you overfeeding the tank? What's the purpose? NO3 looks good, but PO4 is quite high!

The LFS who helped me set up wasnt convinced my rock was done with the cycle, wanted me to try to force a new cycle. every day i fed a whole cube of frozen mysis to 10 crabs... lucky crabs lol.

my ammonia never budged, nor did my nitrites. If anything it made me more reassured my rock was indeed fully cycled and capable of dealing with a bioload.
I think if i had lights over it the whole time i may have had a bloom sooner.

Regardless of the diatoms, i have no regrets with the feeding. A water change will help bring down some of the nutrients, and now i can adjust my feeding to be more practical.

I understand the theory behind that, but it's still odd. :lol: Next time, use Brine Shrimp instead of Mysis - less phosphate. :D Some GFO would do you some good now. I wouldn't be too excited to add light to a tank with 0.25 ppm PO4. :)

getting into reactors and dosing pumps would be new ground for me... not going to lie and say i understand the complexities of reef chemistry.

If i run GFO dont i have to worry about alk dropping or is that only with continued use?

Ultimately id like to start eliminating my Phosphate sources, which i can identify 2 major culprits. Then maybe once we are ready to progress to hard corals start looking at dosing systems and reactors.

Alkalinity drops a little but like 0.25 dKH when you first add it, really not very noticeable. You can use it in a media bag in a high fow area of the sump. No need for a reactor.

thats awesome news! thanks Mindy, i'll have to try that