The official 65g FOWLR diary thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
Blinky

Blinky

Gone
Jun 22, 2004
2,995
0
0
50
Toronto, Canada
Visit site
Yep, another diary :D
I really find it beneficial to be able to look back and see how a tank has progressed, so I hope no one minds another day-by-day thread.

Equipment:
65g tank
182W PC light fixture
FilStar XP2 canister filter
2 - AquaClear 402 Powerheads
150W Ebo-Jager heater
Prizm Deluxe protein skimmer

42lbs live rock
20lbs live sand
50lbs Aragonite sand

Set up on November 30th (converted from planted tank)

Today's water paramters (December 5th):
NH3 0
NO2 <0.1
NO3 5

Guess that live sand is working! I added two hermits to clean up the bits and pieces hanging off the rocks, they're little cuties! Once NO2 is steady at 0 and I see some algae I'll start adding some more cleanup critters.

Pics from this evening:
FTS:
65FTSD05.jpg


Right side:
65RSD05.jpg


Centre:
65CD05.jpg


Left side:
65LSD05.jpg


Electric Blue hermit:
65ebhD05.jpg
 
Very nice Blinky!!

I see you've added your clean up crew first. Great idea. How long did you cycyle before adding them by the way?

Also, is that a black background?
 
Mooch, the tank was only set up a week ago. I've only added two hermits, just to clean the debris from the rocks. The parameters still aren't perfect (shouldn't be seeing any nitrite) but at <0.1ppm I don't think the NO2 is hurting them. The tank hasn't really cycled, it's wierd. I added some sand and rock, which was supposed to be uncured. The ammonia and nitrite both spiked: NH3 was over 1ppm, NO2 around 0.5ppm. The next day I added 20lbs of live sand and both went down to 0.1ppm. Now there's no measureable ammonia even though I put in the last of the rock yesterday (it's fully cured but was out of the water for a while so I'd expect some die-off). The live sand seems to have made a huge difference. I'm still waiting for 'echo spikes', the cycling process won't be through for quite a while. I'll remove the hermits straight away if the levels get worse, but for now they're doing a great job and look happy.
The background is black, it's spraypaint. This tank was painted before I set it up as a planted tank and I've left it - I love the way SW fish and coral look against black. Every tank I have has a black background, I just think it adds so much depth without taking anything away (unless of course you've got black fish, then it wouldn't look very good, lol).
 
LOL, I use tap too :rolleyes:

I know is bad, but I haven't moved my RO unit from my old house to the new and I've been here almost a year!!! I use conditioner to remove chloramines, heavy metal etc.... seems to work fine. Hopefully I'll get the system here and hooked up at the turn of the year...

anyway :OT:

Nice tank blinky, I really like that rock, what kind is it and where did you buy it?

Journals are great... and I look forward to reading yours

-LS
 
SF - LOL, I only use our tap water because it has no PO4 and no or low NO3. I do plan to get an RO unit, I do, but my hubby is saving up for something so it's on hold for now. The minute the fish or corals show any sign of unhappiness with the water, we'll go with bottled distilled/RO or hook up a unit.

LS - 28lbs of the rock, the bigger base pieces, are from Big Al's. They had it advertised as 'Pompeii' rock, but I believe the proper spelling is Pohnpei or Ponhpei, it's an island in Micronesia. I've never seen rock from there so I figured since the price was right ($7.88/lbCD) I'd get some. The rest is from PJ's Pet Centre where I work weekends. It was $7.99/lb (but I get a discount) and I believe it's either leftover Fiji from the last shipment or Kaelini - hard to tell since it's mostly white and no critters have emerged yet.

UPDATE:
There are diatoms everywhere, so we're definitely cycling along :) The hermits are doing a great job and seem like happy little guys. My husband was home for lunch yesterday and told me they were playing 'king of the castle'. One would climb to the top of the rocks, and the other would sneak up and knock him down. They're hilarious :D
 
LOL don't forget, my prices are in Canadian dollars and I get 30% off everything I buy at work, it's not as bad as it seems.

UPDATE: I added another 6lbs of Bali LR today, two pieces have nice macro growth on them that I hope will live and spread. I also got a handfull of Caulerpa. This stuff reeks, but it's actually pretty and I'm hoping it will make the tank more attractive and soak up lots of PO4 and NO3. There's green dust on the glass and diatoms on the rocks and sand, so I picked up a turbo, three trochus and five cerith snails today. I also moved my zebra-stripe turbo from the 30g into his new home, he looks much smaller in this tank!

Here's a pic from this afternoon, sorry it's cloudy - I had just added the rock.
65FTSD73Small.jpg
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom