Journey's journey into SW Aquaria

I'm worried about that too. It is "live sand" not crushed coral but the consistency is funky. The bottom is silty/sandy but the substrate left on top is the size of gravel and is "Bahamian sand" or some such thing...scooped up from ocean floor basically. I don't know if it will be too big for the little guy.
 
It will need a deep sand bed and it will want a variety in the particle sizes to make it's burrow. Bigger is better than sugar fine. Do you have a photo of the substrate? What you have might be perfect provided it is deep enough.
 
Pics of the sand bed are on the first page..can see it in pics of rocks. I think my sand bed is about 2-3''s deep...what constitutes a "deep" one? Can I add more sand on top of what's there?
 
I'd want it 4-6 inches for one, but the yellow only gets 4" so you might get away with the low end of that? I'm not certain on it however. You can add more substrate on top but if it isn't live you're covering the live with dead sand. Definitely don't want to do that all at once except in the case where you are still cycling.
 
So, the tank was filled on 3/22/08 with salt water, sand, and 20lbs of live rock. Here are params:

Day 1: No test kit. Just hoping not to kill everything before I can get my order delivered.
Day 2: Still waiting.
Day 3: Thermometer reads 70 degrees. Nothing else delivered yet. Can't wait any longer, go grab cheapie ammonia kit.
.50 in am, .25 in pm
Day 4: Ammonia 0
Day 5: Finally products arrive. Ammonia .50 am, .25 noon, .50 pm. Crap, discover that cheapie stand in thermometer was wrong. Tank has been around 68 degrees. Hook up heater, gradually increase.
Day 6: Have full test kit. Ammonia .5-.75 in am, 1.0 in pm Other params same day:
PH 7.8
Ammonia 1
NitrIte 1
NitrAte 20
Salt 1.023

I'm wondering if my temperature could have slowed the cycle down. I'm supposed to do water changes for anything above 1.0ppm ammonia levels but haven't got above that yet.
 
your right your temperature is slowing down your cycling. boost it up to 82 degree. you dont do anything until see you see ammonia going up and down, same for nitrite and last you should see good amount of nitrates(25-50ppm) then you should do w.c. after you done your w.c feed couple of fish food and see if you get ammonia spikes for a week if not your good to go with livestock
 
nycsicktank said:
your right your temperature is slowing down your cycling. boost it up to 82 degree. you dont do anything until see you see ammonia going up and down, same for nitrite and last you should see good amount of nitrates(25-50ppm) then you should do w.c. after you done your w.c feed couple of fish food and see if you get ammonia spikes for a week if not your good to go with livestock
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Thanks a bunch...it's been irking me not to know!
 
no worries thats why we're here to help.
are you going to add more cured lr to in the future?

i went through your thread again and your lr has alot of live on it. you have plants in your lr which mean you shouldnt do w.c cause plants need those nitrates to thrive so save yourself from a hassle and salt money. =)
 
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LR looks great. I would get the crushed coral out of there while you still can, it was a mess more me i switched to sand.
 
Bagshaw said:
LR looks great. I would get the crushed coral out of there while you still can, it was a mess more me i switched to sand.
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Thanks! It's not crushed coral (though I had a fit when I saw it and thought it was) it is a live sand from the ocean floor and I think it is called Bahamian sand or something like that.
 
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