Here we go! TinCanHero's First SW build - 93 gal 30" x 30" x 24" (LxWxH) Cube :)

[Brew12]

That is very interesting what you say about it not effecting the TDS, I was unaware of that. I was under the impression that Chlorine would breakdown naturally within 24h? I somewhat remember my late father leaving buckets of water out in the bath over night as a kid to do a WC on the aquarium.

People tend to make the bad assumption that 0 TDS means the water is perfectly pure. That isn't the case. All it means is the water is non conductive. It's a good sign that tells us the water "may" be clean but that is all. Chlorine isn't all that much of an issue and my local utility adds plenty of it. Chloramines are what tend to get people into trouble. It's a combination of chlorine and ammonia (but I'm not a chemist!). It's become popular in the US because it doesn't break down as quickly as regular chlorine. People who have to deal with it tend to add an extra carbon filter on the inlet side. Your local utility should be able to tell you if they use it.

Its starting to break my heart to see WYSIWYG coral id buy in a heartbeat selling lol

This is the rough part if you are like me! I can't claim I was able to resist but its best to wait until the tank has been set up for at least 4 months before adding SPS. I have plenty of dead frag skeletons to prove its a challenge and how bad I am at resisting the temptation. ;Sorry

 

[TinCanHero]

Back for another small update.
I popped down to pick up the rest of that second hand equipment today. I think i got a fairly good deal, i payed £80 for everything shown here, most of the chems are over half full, the DP alone is £70 new and this one is almost new. I also piked up a "new" refractomiter while i was there, i haven't got around to calibrating and checking it against mine, it looks a higher quality product thou. Here is a spread of the stuff i picked up.





In other news, Houston we have lift off! Unless i'm going crazy staring at test vials i think Nitrites have rose to 0.25ppm today! the vial is looking slightly purple over its usual baby blue Day 24 after adding bacteria. Seems where finally off to the races

This is the rough part if you are like me! I can't claim I was able to resist but its best to wait until the tank has been set up for at least 4 months before adding SPS. I have plenty of dead frag skeletons to prove its a challenge and how bad I am at resisting the temptation. ;Sorry

Ouch! its going to be tough! Hopefully i can keep impulse out of it the plan is to have a few fish for a month or 2 before i add any coral. the longer i can wait the better in the long run i guess. only time will tell

Kind regards, TinCanHero

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, back for another quick update.
The cycle is sure underway now. Day 2 and i could 100% see the nitrite spike forming.



day 3 and we started to see nitrates increase with our nitrite spike off the charts.



day 4 and where still going strong. A weird thing that i don't quite get it the ammonia is reading 8ppm+ now? there is no ammonia source in the tank so i don't quite get why its gone so high :?



The Diatom bloom has reached its peak and its starting to loose its color, im guessing its on its way out.



I'm starting to see small patches of green algae forming on the rockwork and sand.



I'm also starting to see small patches of black that seem to be "hairy" or "fuzzy"







Any ideas on that ammonia spike @Brew12 ? should i do a partial WC to mitigate the nitrate spike or just wait it out and do a 75%+ WC at the end? I'm thinking of dropping my intensity on the lights until the cycle is complete. i don't want this algae to get to bad

-TinCanHero

 

[Brew12]

Any ideas on that ammonia spike @Brew12 ? should i do a partial WC to mitigate the nitrate spike or just wait it out and do a 75%+ WC at the end? I'm thinking of dropping my intensity on the lights until the cycle is complete. i don't want this algae to get to bad

I have 2 guesses. First is that small pieces of the shrimp had broken off before you removed it and are still decaying. Not unusual. It also looks like you may have had some organics on your rock which are breaking down now that they have rehydrated.
I wouldn't do a water change, just wait it out. I also wouldn't read too much into the nitrate readings, you probably don't have any yet (or at least not measurable).
Turning off the lights for a few days might not be a bad idea if you are worried about the algae. Won't impact the cycle at all.

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, back for another quick update.

Things have been progressing well, the Ammonia is now gone, or atleest is < 0.25. just waiting on the nitrite to drop now

02/03


03/03


04/03


I cleaned the glass for the first time today too, The algae is starting to thrive at this point.




05/03


And finally today 08/03


The algae is quite a interesting green color under my lights





Wont be long now

Kind regards, TinCanHero

 

[TinCanHero]

I have 2 guesses. First is that small pieces of the shrimp had broken off before you removed it and are still decaying. Not unusual. It also looks like you may have had some organics on your rock which are breaking down now that they have rehydrated.
I wouldn't do a water change, just wait it out. I also wouldn't read too much into the nitrate readings, you probably don't have any yet (or at least not measurable).
Turning off the lights for a few days might not be a bad idea if you are worried about the algae. Won't impact the cycle at all.

Hey! Been a busy week.
No idea what i was thinking when i posted last everything seems to be going well thou, hopefully it wont be to much longer now

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, another busy few weeks. With spring fast coming my time becomes more sparse because of work.
Anyway, Not much to report. Nitrites are still sky high and Nitrates are up in the 80+ppm range. I wont bore you all with a hundred pictures of water sample tests, ill just post today's and a shot of the tank from the right hand side, i don't think i've shown this side off much.

Today's results.


The tank shot.


Still sitting here and waiting
Kind regards and happy reefing,
TinCanHero.

 

[sphinx15]

Love the scape!

Add some leafy plants and that would be a great looking FW tank

 

[TinCanHero]

Love the scape!

Add some leafy plants and that would be a great looking FW tank

Haha, i have and have had far to many of those. my largest current FW planted tank is 6x2x2.5 ft

Thanks thou, im glad you like it

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, Back for another update.
I was passing a FS the other day, one of the not so good ones for coral, but they have nice fish. Anyway the place wasn't doing so good and the owner was as kind as ever so i decided to buy a few things to show support. I picked up a long arm grabber and i also grabbed a box of Evolution Aqua Pure Reef Balance. They are gel balls that you add in to aid in cycling etc, they come in 3 pots - basically just another bacteria product. I stuck a pot in on Saturday 23/3 and a second on 26/3. I tested today and I can finally at last see a drop in nitrates Here are the results.

[pic]

Here is the product.






In other news i have some strange stuff starting to grow in my tank. First up, the not so strange. Ive had some small patches of black on the sand, if i had to guess its probably just detritus or cyno, no idea witch.



Now on the the more strange, ive had this weird patch growing on my overflow for the last week or 2. its been growing at a fair rate and has now spread to the weir fins and the "mother" patch has moved around the corner and onto the back glass. Its a light blue/purple colour, cant imagine its coroline yet?
Here is a few pic's of its growth over the last few days.






Around the corner and onto the glass


Spread to Weir fins.


Time to start filling the drum for a WC soon
Kind regards, TinCanHero.

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, back for another update. This one is a little long and my literature skills lack so it may be a painful read, like most of my posts.
Some good and bad and ugly in this one, i guess we could say this is the first real update too since the tank now has livestock im also lacking photos a bit due to me constantly not charging my phone :/

So for the good, my cycle ended on Friday night (29th) i retested again on sat (30th) and compared to a RODI water test and we came up with the same 0ppm result Whoop! So it was a 8 week (9 if you start it from the day i added the shrimp) cycle with 3 products used, Dr Tims, Seachem Stability & EvolutionAqua Pure Reef Balance. I also made a "ghetto fix" of my net cover that came with the tank, i need a new one

I did a large WC on sat(30th) after i tested, i probably did 75%, the main display was only holing a few inches by the time i finished. I made sure i kept my rock wet by splashing it, the whole process took a hour or so, i also cleaned the back glass and weir i also "cleaned" the sand bed with a "gravel cleaner" i recently bought - haven't had to use one for years in my planted tanks, i actually think i just turned it over though :/

So Monday swings around, early start but everything in the tank is looking good. were looking at about 5-10ppm of nitrate's in the tank after the WC, i can live with that for now. This is where things start to look ugly with alot of stupid mistakes that are purely down to me being to god dam excited along with a "perfect storm" opportunity of hitting my "LFS" a client and a nursery that i needed to pick up a plant from, all of these where in the same general location (35 miles away). God dam it, that 12 year old came out.

So i head off for my first job of the day drop off some stuff to a client, head over and pick up a plant from that nursery and what you know they have a aquatics shop inside - a SW one... so i check the place out, its pretty new, not much there but there where some nice colony's of corral and a small frag rack with a few bits on.. they had a nice red Montipora Digitata frag there for £5. my inner child told my adult brain buy it, like a kid would say "but its only £5". as soon as i was driving to my "LFS" i was already regretting the impulse buy, thinking "I just bought this to watch it die..". Anyway i got to my LFS and was excited to get some new stuff, i was hoping to get a few bits of livestock too but i wanted to talk it over with them first. They said i was good to go, so i bought 1 Banggai, one Nassarius snail and 2 small rock hermits. I was also talked into a Conch snail - a totally awesome little creature, those eyes thou haha! I didnt want to over do the clean up crew, im still unsure if i should have said no to the conch for now, i hope he has enough to eat as hes a big lad. I picked the best Benggai too, no fin damage, he was top dog in the LFS tank I picked up some Rowaphos too, not going to use it just yet, i think im going to order a new reactor with better flow control first. I also picked up some Chato, they pulled a small ball out of there sump, he was kind enough to sift through it for me.. I should have been a little smarter when i saw this i think.

I got home, cleaned out the Chato in RODI while the livestock where acclimating and found a few bristle worms, some bubble algae and a copopod, i removed them all. i popped everyone in and watched for a while.

I then headed out to work for the rest of the day, i came home around 6 hours later. The conch had moved a little by that point and seemed active, the Banggai has claimed the back left bottom corner and hasnt moved out since he darted there after being placed in, he seems happy thou. the Monti had its colour back but wasnt extended. the hermits where at work and the Nusarrius snail hasn't moved.

A long boring story short, I F**cked up pretty bad in my own opinion. Here is what i think i did wrong and what i would have liked to do better in the future.

- Took a opertunity rather than waiting for a planned visit.
- Rushed the WC
- Probably should have waited atleest a week after the WC
- Made a impulse corral purchase. far to early IMO, and TBH not even something i really want in my tank, its boring but a canary i guess now.
- SPS -- really?!
- Didn't buy cultured chatto
- Didn't dip chatto
- Didn't dip corral
- Didn't cut the plug off the corral
- Didn't quarantine corral*
- Didn't quarantine fish*
- was careless during acclimation causing a bag to dump some of its water into my tank. (LFS has high copper due to treatments, and its just not good.)

yeah, so i basically got excited, i just need to calm down and chill in future

 

[TinCanHero]

Back for one more update, 2 in one day! what can i say.. i wrote the last post out in Notepad over a few days just before bed, time is short this time of year

Anyway, today was another one of those days. I had a hospital appointment midday, The news wasn't to good so after work I popped to a Madenhead Aquatics store that's a little closer than the usual FS i use. I went there to pick up some Nori and some more food for my new friends, i had to do this because one of my dogs found my fish food pots in the middle of the night and ate them.. hes never done anything like this before, it was a strange thing to wake up to So anyway, i get the food i wanted and i decided to have a look around to see what they had. Bad idea. They usually have a real poor marine selection and what they do have usually looks unhealthy, however this time it seems like something has changed, the place looked great, including the FW side, it was all nice and clean and looked healthy for a change.
While i was there and browsing i saw a really nice Firefish Goby, no fin damage and quite plump. Nope, just carry on looking i said. down the row i went, where i came across two small Regal Tangs... Oh F*uck. So i sat there for 10 minutes watching them and i talked to the manager. They seemed good, there was a slightly larger one and a slightly smaller one, the larger one was picking on the smaller one a bit along with a large clownfish bullying the both. Apart from that they both seemed good. Nope, most defiantly not i told myself so i headed back to the counter and paid for my food and headed off. I quite literally got to the exit of the car park before i turned around and went back inside.... At this point im not sure what i was thinking if im honest, im shaking my head writing this. So anyway as soon as i got back inside i think they knew i was on the hook, i talked to one of the marine guys and layed out my tank again and talked though everything - again id like to point out i should have known better, i do know better - I was talked into buying both the Regal and the goby. Tang and common sense police, take me away now and rightfully so.

Anyway, back home i went and did the whole acclimation run though and tanked them both. The Regal surprisingly didn't do the whole "im dead" thing he just swam down and chilled in the bottom right corner by the weir and the goby above the rocks in the center. I watched for a while and decided it would be a good idea to turn down the WM, I headded off for a few hours and now im back home every thing is looking great, the goby has found a spot he likes by the rocks, the regal is out munching algae from my rocks and my Banggai is out from his corner checking the tank out for the first time. Ive also noticed a massive change in my Monti's polip extension, I thought that it was fully extended over the last few days but when i saw how crazy it was when i came home i realized it was only half way out. Im thinking my flow was two high in the tank.

In other news i also bidded on and won some zoa frags, the company will hold onto them for 30days so i plan to rack up maybe 5-6 frags over the next month - 6 weeks and then get them to ship.

I know ive done bad again, and i kinda feel awefull about it. Im not sure what happened today, if im honest i think i just wanted some retail therapy after the day ive had. Hopefully I can ride this out and provide for lives taken on. No more live stock for a while i think its best i stay away from my LFS

Just another update before lights out, everyone is eating. The Tang has found a nice spot in some rockwork to call home for now, it seems to like it In other news the Nassarius snail came out after i was feeding, right infront of the goby, like an inch or 2! it scared it to high hell and back, its now hiding in some rockwork. what are the odds of that ^^

Tank params:
Temp 25c
salinity 1.024-5
ph 8.1-2 - not a salifert test kit, got one on order
kh 8-9 - - not a salifert test kit, got one on order
cal 465
mag 1320
nitrate 10 - 25ppm - second hand salifert kit showing slightly higher than API
p04 0
Iodiine 0? - may be incorrect test - first time ive done it.

Kind regards, TinCanHero.















Even im finding it hard to see the regal in this pic, he is in the center cavern of this photo.

 

[TinCanHero]

Another quick update, I was feeding algae flake for the first time today, the flakes where quite large going in ( my mistake) so i dipped my finger ontop to make it sink. Upon doing so i had a small shock, i thought it was just salt getting into some split skin as i usually feel but i wasn't convinced so i dipped my finger tip in and out a few time and sure enough i was getting small shocks sometimes. im not sure if it was because i was bare footed and usually i have work boots on so im probably not grounded? either way it seems i have some stray voltage somewhere. I tried to issolate it via the "get shocked a hundred times" method but i gave that up after getting shocked with nothing bar my light on.. My multi meter is broken so ill either buy one or borrow one tomorrow to hunt again. ive decided a ground probe probably isnt a good idea for a few reasons, ill find out what it is after work i guess.. :/

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, back for another update.
Everything seems to be going well, everyone seems to be eating although the Firetail Goby spends all of his time in his little gap in the rock since the nassarius snail scared it.
I plan on doing a WC tomorrow, but im lacking a bit in salt, a trip to the LFS will be needed next week However my water has got a little cloudy so ive decided to add some carbon that i had laying about from my FW tanks and floss to polish the water for a few days.
I don't think i mentioned that i fixed my reactor, i purchased a 200LPH pump and superglue'd the adapter that came with it to the bottom of the reactor and its worked well, ive been running my EA reef balance balls inside it to test for the last week or so. Here is some pics of myself loading the mix, i rinsed it all in RODI before hand.

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, Back for another one again I'm starting to wonder if anyone reads these, its awfully quiet in here. If your reading say hello, tell me how bad I'm doing or any advice you may have etc

I received a package i ordered the other day, a PH & KH test kit, some coral RX pro dip and some 25mm hosing i needed for my latest addition to the tank ive been working on.

What is the latest addition? its a UV sterilizer i had left over from a pond job i did the other week
its a APS 18w with a recommended flow of 2500lph.
I attached it to the roof of the aquarium stand, its a tight fit but I managed to get it in. I used some new 25mm hose from the sterilizer to the return pipe but had to use the old pipe for the return pump to the sterilizer because I apparently didn't notice it was a 20mm pipe that had been expanded to 25mm, it will do for now.

I wasn't planning on adding a sterilizer to my tank but since i had a new one laying about i thought why not. In other news the water is looking alot clearer since yesterday, ill leave the carbon in for another 24h ish and then ill remove it

Kind regards, TinCanHero.

 

[Retro Reefer]

Nice looking tank! Gotta love a cube

 

[TinCanHero]

Nice looking tank! Gotta love a cube

Hey @Retro Reefer ! thanks for stopping by. Im absolutely in love with my cube, im glad you like it! the depth is amazing!

I checked out your tank, it looks amazing! i love some of your acans! any tips or advice?
Kind regards, TinCanHero

 

[dantimdad]

Love your cube!

It's taking shape! (Pun intended)

 

[Retro Reefer]

Hey @Retro Reefer ! thanks for stopping by. Im absolutely in love with my cube, im glad you like it! the depth is amazing!

I checked out your tank, it looks amazing! i love some of your acans! any tips or advice?
Kind regards, TinCanHero

Thanks.. I had been feeding my Acans several times a week until recently, I slowed down because they are just growing to fast

 

[TinCanHero]

Love your cube!

It's taking shape! (Pun intended)

Haha! It most certainly is, so far I'm really happy with how everything is going. i have a slight nitrate problem at the moment, apart from that everything is shaping up
Thanks for posting!

Thanks.. I had been feeding my Acans several times a week until recently, I slowed down because they are just growing to fast

Wow! that's crazy, better get fraging soon
any tips to keep them happy? I've seen a few go cheep on the auction site but i hear they can be a bit difficult to keep in some tanks. I have some Nyos LPS power from the "lot" i purchased second hand waiting for some acans to eat