The system was ordered sometime last fall, and I actually got it in November. There were a couple of issues, but those got sorted out quickly enough. Jesse, who runs ElosUSA, is very good about responding to questions and concerns, and I found the customer service to be very good.
The tank has had water in it for about 2 1/2 months now. I started with about 60 lbs of dead rock and one piece of live rock, in order to try to minimize pests. I have a shallow sand bed, made of a mixture of 1-2 mm sand and larger, coarser crushed coral.
Cycling took about 6 weeks, and was done by feeding the tank with fish food. I didn't test obsesively, but every couple of weeks I would check to make sure I was getting a good ammonia spike. After about 6 weeks, things had settled down, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate had all reached zero. I have never been able to detect any phosphates, but I had a pretty good crop of hair algea, so it was time to get some life into the tank.
I started with some scarlet hermits and trochus snails, and the algea started disappearing. Since then, I have added 2 very young ocellaris clowns, and one young yellow tang. All of the algea has disappeared, and everyone seems to be doing well. The fish are eating well, and the only loss I can see has been one hermit. I am not QTing, as Wendel will hold onto, and medicate, my fish for several weeks for me before I get them. This is much appreciated.
That is where I am now. I plan on taking this slow, and adding fish every 2-3 weeks, and corals and inverts in over the next few months.
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03-21-2011, 11:56 PM
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