quick update... Tank is cycling away. Ammonia is spiking hard. Skimmer is working awesome, pulling out about 1.5 cups of ugly brown stuff every day. set up an ATO of sorts, pre filled a container with 6 gal of RO/DI water put a small maxi jet pump in the container and plumbed a 3/8 tube into my sump. Made 2 marks on the side of my sump showing min. water level and where to fill to...... Now the wife just plugs in the pump and watches the level and unplugs when it is at the max. mark......... my new ATO (at least until my switches arrive :lol:

on another note I have changed to running the lights only 2 hours a day to minimize algae growth if possible.

let the waiting game begin :biggrin:

Haha......I love it. Your wife is your ATO. Nice work.

You're trying to combat algea growth right off the bat. All I can say is Brutha, the algea is going to come. I dealt with green hair algea and it was BAD. It was like that for like three months. I'll send you a picture of how bad my tank looked. Today I don't have a spot of GH algea but got another kind of unknown algea. It's all but gone now as well but it is frustrating. it's best to brace for it and expect it and in time it will all go away.

When your ready drop me a PM and I'll give you some Cheato. That will help.

Just an update.....

Ammonia slowing coming down. Nitrites are climbing. Watching, testing and waiting. All good for now

Had one snail must have hitched a ride in the live rock.

Ammonia - 0 ppm
Nitrites - 0.5 ppm
Nitrates - 80 ppm

It is getting there. Lots of brown growth in the tank

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/12/11/20/tyvarute.jpg

are you using anything to cycle the tank? like prodibio or zeobak?

No, I just used live rock from a fresh shipment. 50 lbs worth

Day 21. Ammonia 0, nitrites .25ppm, nitrates 50ppm. Lots of diatoms in the tank. What looks like a bristle worm seems to have hitched a ride in the live rock (the wife doesn't like it) from what I read there seems to be mixed emotions when it comes to if the bristle worm is good or bad.

The snail that came wih the live rock is now named "Gary"

My new lunar module and LEDs for the Apex arrived at home. I will install next week. Also have to hook up and calibrate new Ph probe for Apex

almost there :-) I admire your patience. I've heard so many stories of people being impatient with their cycling and trying to speed it up by dumping all sorts of concoctions into their tanks during the cycle LOL.

hey , this is coming along great man i knew you would do well with it :)

once you think your cycle is done you can do a large water change to bring everything in range , then you can start to work on your water parameters:)

get to thinking about how your going to handle phosphates and nitrates export, read up on them and find what you think is your best option:)


as your finding, patience is the key and while its easy to try to rush it with a bit of time it will all come together:)

cheers and good job!!



denny:)

Nice build, love the snails name! Sponge Bob fan? lol