The 75gal reef tank cycle has started!!!!!!!

I have a light fixture I'm looking at!

This light fixture was suggested to me another user. She said that is was a good fixture. I have to say that it is a nice looking unit. The thing is it's $380.00. Now I know that they tend to be much more then that. She told me it is because the unit dose not have a UL rating. Is this something t really worry about? Here is a link to the web page.

Also I was looking at refugium lights and I found this one and was looking for some opinions.
 
For my fuge I just use a cheapo home depot style clamp-on work light with a 6500K screw-in PC bulb, works fine and the whole thing cost me about 10 bucks.
 
ditto and my mangroves are growing and my chaeto has taken off again..
 
The light "looks" decent.. but just let me ask, how do you feel about it blowing up within a year and no warranty... or worse, blowing up and causing a fire? I never dealt with the "fire" part myself, but know others in my reef club who have. It took me a couple times to realize that "hey dummy, stop spending 1/2 price on a light every year when it dies.. spend 2x the money up front and get a light that will last, or at least has great support"

I know the lights are extremely expensive, but if your going to spend around $400 on a "cheap" light, why not spend another $300 on a quality light that you don't have to worry about. It is only going to take 1 time when your light burns out and you have a tank full or corals wilting away because you can't get the light repaired fast enough, or don't have the money at that exact time to buy a replacement. To me, it is just not worth it.. coming from a person who has thrown away more money in lighting than I have currently on my tank right now.
 
Well we've have got LS and some LR. We got a 20lb bag of live sand and about 14lb of LR also 8.5lb of bass rock. The guy at the LFS gave us the LR for only $2.14 per lb and the BR for $6.99 per lb. I think the reson the LR was so cheap is that he said it was more rubble then rock.

OK here are our reading as of today.

Temp 77.0
SG 1.024
PH 8.2
Nitrite .02/.01

Now we just got the Nitrite test kit today and we thought we wouldn't have a Nitrite reading yet. Is it from the live rock we just put in? We weren't able to test it before we put the rock in.
 
Here are some pictures of the once again foggy tank. Dose this happen every time you mess with the sand?

Live Rock and Live sand 007.jpg Live Rock and Live sand 008.jpg Live Rock and Live sand 009.jpg
 
The cloudiness gets less and less each time you stir up the sand. That sock will really help as well. That is a really good deal on your LR even if it is a little smaller. You could stick it in your fuge if you think it is to small for your main tank, either way, it is going to help with the cycle.

Ammonia should be the thing your testing for right now though, not nitrites. You will see the ammonia levels keep climbing for a little while, then it will start to decline after a week or so.. then your nitrites will start its own spike. At first, your interested in seeing the ammonia spike.

WaterQualityCyclingNitrogenCycle.gif
 
Ace25 said:
The cloudiness gets less and less each time you stir up the sand. That sock will really help as well. That is a really good deal on your LR even if it is a little smaller. You could stick it in your fuge if you think it is to small for your main tank, either way, it is going to help with the cycle.

Yeah that is what we thought. We are saying that we are only going when he is working. LOL We did say we were going to put some in the fuge and even some in the sump but we have it in the display for now just so we can look at it for the cycle.

Ammonia should be the thing your testing for right now though, not nitrites. You will see the ammonia levels keep climbing for a little while, then it will start to decline after a week or so.. then your nitrites will start its own spike. At first, your interested in seeing the ammonia spike.

We haven't found a good test to buy yet. The one that we want was in at the LFS today. My GF is going to her parents house to get the one she has for her tank right now. We got the Nitrite because it was in and we are going to need it anyway. These test that we're getting are very good and very hard to keep in the store so when they have them you should just get them. They are made by Aqua Test Expert Line. Have any of you used these tests and are they any good. Everyone that goes to our not so LFS like them. Has anyone had any problems with these tests?
Click to expand...

Again if anyone has anything to say about these test please post. I would like to hear any feed back you may have.
 
I have to say it is clearing up allot faster with the sock on there. It's like a third clearer now then when we started. I wish I had it before.
 
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