New Tank Feeback

[Bouch097]

I'm now on day 18 with my 72 gal. bowfront tank. NH3 and NO2 have been stable at 0 for about 5 days now, but I grew a ton of diatoms in the cycling process. I'm guessing because I used tap water for the initial set-up (oops). I added a few fish to make it a little more attractive since NH3 and NO2 are stable, but I haven't added any corals yet (and probably won't until the NO3 stablizes). I did about a 20% water change with RO water and cleaned off the glass some so I could take some pics and get some feedback from you experts. I also slowly put in a cleaning crew (5 turbo snails, 5 hermit crabs, and a Lawnmower Blenny). The Blenny has been going to town like it was Thanksgiving dinner! I love that guy! Anyway, since this is my first tank and I've obviously got a ton to learn, I wanted to get some feedback from ya'll on my current set up. Thanks again for all of your help during my cycling. This is a great site. Here's the pics (If I can figure out how to post them on here).

[Bouch097]

Day 3

[Bouch097]

Day 17... Lots of brown diatoms

[Bouch097]

I love this 45 pd brick of tonga show live branch rock... Or at least I think that's what they called it.

[CHughes]

Bouch:
Great looking tank...I'm impressed you cycled in 18 days! My 55 took a month to the day to stablize. I have 2 blennies in my 33 tank and they are sweethearts to watch.

Make sure you use R/O for your top ups. I didn't (used treated tap water) on my 33 and ended up with tons of diatoms and weekly cleaning. I'm also adopting Corax recommendations of weekly 10% salt water changes to on both tanks...makes sense to me.

Glad to hear it's working out for you. Now I'd wait for a month to let everything calm down and stabilize. I think it's gcvt sig that states..."Start slow, then taper off". Sound like wise advice on the salty side!:D

Chris

[Bouch097]

Thanks... Actually, I just bought a RO unit on EBay. Figure it's better to buy one for $90 than spend $1/gallon at a shop every water change. I'm going on a business trip tomarrow for the next 3 weeks (I have someone here to feed them), so things should have settled down and be ready by then for some cool looking corals. But yeah, I was amazed how fast it cycled. NH3 and NO2 were dropped to 0 on day 13! Merry X-Mas to me!...lol.