A new reef is born!

[chrispyfish]

Looks like I got a 4X54W T5 fixture lined up for next week

Gotta love Craigslist...

[Myka]

Nice, what brand? Does it come with bulbs?

Just an FYI if you're looking for bulbs...the KZ and ATI bulbs are really good, very efficient bulbs (good output vs watts), nice color. Some people really like AquaScience, I can't stand them as I find they lose their color in only a few months. Blues and blue plus bulbs have waaaaaay better output than actinic and if are good quality they can give you just as good color. If your fixture has two switches put blue bulbs on one switch and white bulbs on the other then set the blues for 12 hours and the whites for 8 hours. Then you can do dusk/dawn effect.

[chrispyfish]

Yeah it comes with bulbs, but they are 4 - 5 months old. I guess HO light should ideally be changed out every 6 months or so eh? Because they lose their intensity after a while?
But yeah its a good set up. Sunlight Tek 4X54W T5's. I've been pokin' around on J&L and noticed the URI and Giesemann bulbs as well. Any info?

Also, I'm trying to figure out my tank's cycle right now. I bought the tank used, and the guy I got it off of said he had a couple of fish in the tank, and went out of town with the fish in care of a friend, and came home to an empty tank. That was like a year ago apparently.
What I'm trying to figure out is the state of the rocks and the cycle. I obviously emptied the thing for transport, and refilled with freshly mixed RO water, but I let the rocks dry out a bit overnight while mixing before filling the tank. I thought this might help to reset the cycle, as I wanted to ensure the bacteriological cycle was still active in this guy's tank. There's barely any growth on the rocks at all, coralline or otherwise, but there are a couple little dustings of purple here and there, so I thought we should be good to go, and we are.

After testing, the first day I noticed a bit of ammonia, no nitrites, and like 100+ ppm nitrate, which I found really high. So I tested my water supply and it was all good. So, the next day the ammonia came down to nil, but the nitrates are still super high, and have remained ever since. I'm thinking once I get some algae in the sump it should mitigate a bit of that, but I dunno, any ideas whats going on? I'm 90% sure the tank is already cycled and good to go, and the only reason I have high nitrates is due to having exposed all the anaerobic bacteria during transport. Any ideas on how to help them quickly recolonize?