And Cycle...
The tank is ready to cycle! I spent most of yesterday afternoon (thanks Leah and George!) installing the remaining electronics, aquascaping the sand and rock, and filling the tank.
The live sand made the water murky, to say the least, but I added the little packet of liquid CaribSea provides for clearing the water and within an hour or two the tank was crystal.
I'm pretty happy with the aquascape, especially considering it was done in 5" of murky water so I couldn't really see what I was doing. The LifeRock Shapes are great. And even though 4 of the 7 rocks had some portion chipped off, they still look fantastic. There were two rocks with holes, two long branchy rocks, and three rounder chunks. They are a variety of sizes and fit well into the tank, making it look nicely full. I made a tall branchy structure with holes on the left and a low cave on the right, focusing on the third-points of the tank while trying not to block the return nozzles.
There were a couple of issues yesterday. First, my ATO has stopped responding to the optical sensor so it overflows to the emergency float every time. An email response from Tunze suggests this is because I'm getting bubbles on the optical sensor so I'll have to see what I can do about that.
On the topic of bubbles, I hooked up the protein skimmer yesterday and it's been very temperamental so far. It's making millions of micro-bubbles, and it wants to produce TONS of wet foam, which overflows the cup in an hour or two. Fortunately the cup has an overflow pipe that directs the skimmate back into the sump. And since for now the skimmate is perfectly clear, I'm not too worried about it. I'm hoping a few days of running like this will break it in and get things running more smoothly.
Tonight I'll be adjusting the salinity and doing the first round of water tests. If everything checks out I'll add the first doses of the Red Sea Reef Mature cycling program.
Excited to get started!
The live sand made the water murky, to say the least, but I added the little packet of liquid CaribSea provides for clearing the water and within an hour or two the tank was crystal.
I'm pretty happy with the aquascape, especially considering it was done in 5" of murky water so I couldn't really see what I was doing. The LifeRock Shapes are great. And even though 4 of the 7 rocks had some portion chipped off, they still look fantastic. There were two rocks with holes, two long branchy rocks, and three rounder chunks. They are a variety of sizes and fit well into the tank, making it look nicely full. I made a tall branchy structure with holes on the left and a low cave on the right, focusing on the third-points of the tank while trying not to block the return nozzles.
I tried to make a time-lapse of my work but it somehow got stopped after about an hour. I'll put it here anyway:
On the topic of bubbles, I hooked up the protein skimmer yesterday and it's been very temperamental so far. It's making millions of micro-bubbles, and it wants to produce TONS of wet foam, which overflows the cup in an hour or two. Fortunately the cup has an overflow pipe that directs the skimmate back into the sump. And since for now the skimmate is perfectly clear, I'm not too worried about it. I'm hoping a few days of running like this will break it in and get things running more smoothly.
Tonight I'll be adjusting the salinity and doing the first round of water tests. If everything checks out I'll add the first doses of the Red Sea Reef Mature cycling program.
Excited to get started!
That photo doesn't do it justice-- the rock is so pretty!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'll try to get a better photo tonight. Although you can probably see that the water's cloudy this morning. I think that's from the first round of bacteria I added yesterday. Hopefully should clear up in a few days.
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