28g JBJ HQI

[bauder1986]

Originally Posted by makana

Well so far everything is on track. I bought aprox. 18lbs of live rock and it is doing its thing. There has been no noticeable spike an anything yet so I am not sure if there will be an actual cycle. I have the lights on a timer at 4 hrs/day this week. I am following the advice I have received from bauder1986 and increasing the daylight by 2 hrs every week to avoid problem algae.

The live rock came with aptasia that I am trying to kill off. I have also spotted a crab in there that I have to figure out how to catch. Any suggestions?

There are a couple of threads on here about bottle trapping. I dont really know what that is about because I got lucky this far and havent had to go and catch any annoying hitchhickers (knock on wood). But yah, search bottle traps/trapping in the forums and read away.

[makana]

Well things are going good so far. There was no cycle so the rock must have had very little die off. The hair algea is starting so I didn't increase the light cycle this week.

I was thinking of peging my rockwork. Any advice on the best way to do that? Any reason not to do it?

[makana]

nothing new to report. I have some hair algea and the start of a diatoms bloom.

I was wondering if I should remove the ceramic rings and sponge from the filter chamber. Any thoughts?

[makana]

Well I finally have an update worth posting about. I added the sand, rock, and the first fish. I tried pegging the rockwork but that really didn't work out. I tried a few different ways and every time the rocks were unbalanced and I really wasn't happy.

So instead I tried epoxy putty and zap straps. The zap straps allowed for securing rocks in very interesting positions. I am happy with what I was able to do with that. Hopefully it doesn't take long for coraline to hide the ugly straps though. I am not really sold on the putty. It has no bonding at all. it works well to even out surfaces for stacking rock but for the most part I could have accomplished the same result with the zap straps alone.

The fish has been in there for a few days now. Amonia is 0, nitrite is .1, and nitrate is .5. Im not really sure were the nitrate came from with no bioload. It is a little frustrating to have climbing nitrate already and an unstocked tank.

[makana]

[Snaz]

Makana - Nice aquascape. My experience with the putty is not much of an adhesive but it does as you found out level and fill in holes nicely. The rock looks great and in time the zip straps will be invisible.

I would have thought the heat from the chiller in that tiny space would be too much. How is it?

[makana]

The chiller has actually never been turned on. I have a pump on order for it but there will be no real need to run it until the summer. I am running the tank at 78 now and it goes up to 80 with the light on. The stand is actually designed for the chiller, there are vents in the stand that match up with the vents on the chiller. So it should vent well I hope.

[bauder1986]

Wow makana! That tank is looking very clean! I think you are a prime example of someone that knows what the term 'patience' means! Shouldnt be too long till you have that tank running full blown with everything transfered over from the smaller nano! Oh yah and that aquascape is a gooder. Shouldnt be to long before the zip straps are covered by algea. Algea just loves plastic for some reason!