A new reef is born!

[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?

[chrispyfish]

So I thought I'd update now that I've got the system basically up and running and post some pics.
Everything has cycled nicely. Being a previously established tank, I had a solid cycle to nitrates within a couple of days, and nitrates were high for the first week. Since then, I've started dosing with vodka, and they've come down to practically nil (a little spike when I added the livestock). I also had my calcium hovering around 350ppm so I've been adding Kent Liquid Calcium, and that has been a steady 420ppm since.
I've got a firefish and a green hammer frag in there, as well as a sea cucumber and a clean up crew. There's live rock and macro algae in the sump/fuge, which is running Chemi-pure elite and purigen between the first set of baffles. I got a Sunlight tek light running 4X54W T5's, 2 actinic and 2 10k. They're running on a two separate timers to simulate dawn/dusk.
The protein skimmer is a chinese knock-off (Boyu is the brand name) that I got from amazon.ca for $100. I had read a couple of reviews on the product which said it performs admirably, and I have to say I agree. By day 4 I have a nice thick dark greenish brown foam coming out of it. I also like how it has two returns, each with its own adjuster knob, which makes fine-tuning the skimmer a breeze. Nice and quiet, I'd highly recommend the product to anyone. http://www.amazon.ca/Underwater-Trea...=11TBRBHFA0WWG

SO yeah. I'm gonna do a full water test tonight, so I'll post the results, but so far so good. Looking forward to stocking now...next big purchase: Reefkeeper :P

[chrispyfish]

Ca: 460ppm
pH: 8.2
Specific Gravity: 1.0255
Carbonate Hardness: 10dKh
NH3: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 7ppm
Phosphates: 0.1ppm

Dosing:
Kent liquid calcium (dosed once to bring it up, will check and maintain as needed)
Aquavitro Fuel at 1/2 dose (recommended by LFS for coral nutrients.)
Vodka - control NO3, Phosphates. (both still coming down from cycle, Phos has sinced bottomed out)

CUC:
30 blue leg hermits
5 red leg hermits
10 asterea snails
10 margarita snails
10 Nerite snails
1 pink warty sea cuke (Super happy, eating well)

1 green hammer frag (doing superbly well, super extended, very vibrant)
1 stnd. Firefish (found a home within 5 seconds, and now chills outside his den and watches me play vids, hoping I'll feed him :P)

So far, everything is running perfectly. At first, my CPR overflow box was making a lot of gurgly noises, despite the tube thingy they give you to prevent it, but once I filled 'er up with filter floss just a certain way, everything became perfectly silent. No complaints since. My aquarium is quieter than my desk fan :P

I also want to say one more time how happy I am with my cheap chinese protein skimmer. Cleaned it out today and it was so gross. I am so pleased with the amount of crap its pulling out of the tank already, after only 5 days! $99 on Amazon.ca, and it performs as well, if not better, than most $300+ models I've seen. Its got 2 return outlets each with its own adjuster knob, so you can fine-tune it really precisely. Again, wicked buy. (this company should pay me for this :P)

Anyway, thats all for now. Couple more pics.
Best hobby ever