WarDog's Tank Thread : Episodic Trial And Error

[daplatapus]

Awesome seeing water in that baby.

[gregzz4]

Originally Posted by WarDog

Tried testing Alk with Salifert and came up with 9.3. Don't think I did it right and now I want a Hanna, lol.

Did you try using the reference in the kit ?
If you can get 6.7dkh with it then you'll know you're following their instructions correctly

[WarDog]

Originally Posted by daplatapus

Awesome seeing water in that baby.

Thanks Dap, it's been a long road. Hopefully this time next year I will have figured out how to keep corals successfully.

Originally Posted by gregzz4

Did you try using the reference in the kit ?
If you can get 6.7dkh with it then you'll know you're following their instructions correctly

Ahhhh nope. Guess I should do that eh? Stupid Noob!

[gregzz4]

Originally Posted by WarDog

Stupid Noob!

Nope, just Noob
You're a Man, and we don't read instructions very well

[WarDog]

Tank is now 29 days old.

Still kinda boring, however, no2 and no3 are finally dropping over the past week.

no2 : 0.25 ppm
no3 : 25 ppm
ammonia still 0
po4 still 0.03 ppm
Alk : 6.8 (Thanks Greg for the tip)

Still need to pick up kits for Calcium and Mg. (or just mooch off my LFS just to upset Brad, lol)

Used up all of Rich's Miracle Skimate Cycle Accelerator.
Continuing to dose Zeo products as listed before.
Started dosing ZeoFood and then... BOOM!



It's alive! Not sure if it's diatoms or cyano (guessing diatoms), but either way I'll take it!

Added a fish today, really hoping the little guy will be ok. I was on the fence about adding him.
I'll get him a buddy once I'm confident with my chemistry.



Thanks for looking.

[WarDog]

...and a boring FTS as we are updating things.

[gregzz4]

Woohoo, your first critter (dead shrimps don't count)

Such a big change in your Alk from 9.3 to 6.8 ...

So ... are you gonna bring that up a tad ? It's close enough, but once you start adding corals that 6.8 doesn't leave you much room for it to dip low ...
And it helps keep your pH up don'cha know

That stuff on the sand looks to me to be diatoms, if I'm seeing it right
Welcome to the next cycle

Lovin' the sexy sump

[Howie]

Tank looks good so far. I'm at the lovely diatom stage myself right now.

[Tn23]

Wow Warren... that is a REALLY clean Sump. Wish I could rig something like that up!
Trade you some frags if you help me? LOL!

[WarDog]

Originally Posted by gregzz4

Woohoo, your first critter (dead shrimps don't count)

Such a big change in your Alk from 9.3 to 6.8 ...

So ... are you gonna bring that up a tad ? It's close enough, but once you start adding corals that 6.8 doesn't leave you much room for it to dip low ...
And it helps keep your pH up don'cha know

That stuff on the sand looks to me to be diatoms, if I'm seeing it right
Welcome to the next cycle

Lovin' the sexy sump

Thanks Greg!

Tank is going to stay fish only for a bit.
My first water change is coming up in 2 weeks, so I need to perfect my water change method. Want to do 25% every two weeks.
Secondly (depending on when I might pick up someone's birdsnest, cough, cough), I need to stock up on my bulk supplies and figure out how to use the Libra properly.
Still a huge learning curve for me buddy and I gots of take it slow ('cause I'm getting old and things take longer to sink in) lol.
pH is holding between 8.04 and 8.16.