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TriggerHappy 
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Joined: August 20 2003
Location: SoJo, UT
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 Posted: September 20 2018 at 7:20pm |
So this is how I decided to go with the fishless cycle. Jerry Ohrn, who as most of you know, has set up many a Sheels tank using Fritz 900, so I decided to give it a shot. I'm using Ace Janitorial Ammonia as my ammonia source. Playing with my 20 Gallon QT tank, I found that 1ml per 10 gallons would get me to my target. YMMV so be careful!
So, here is the ammonia level and the Fritz bacteria-in-a-bottle behind. haha
Reading the bottle states that the tank will be cloudy and have an "earthy smell". Umm, earthy? No, smelled like poo. At least their cloudy description was accurate. Oh, just in case you wanna try this...turn off your skimmer, ozone, UV, and remove your filter socks! Also, raise your temp to at least 80 degrees.
After 24 hours, I tested the Ammonia and Nitrites. Prior to dosing, they were both 0. Now my ammonia is ~3 ppm and my nitrites are ~2 ppm. It's working! Not worried about nitrates yet. I'll keep y'all posted, but very excited at this point.
Edited by TriggerHappy - September 20 2018 at 7:28pm
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210 gallon Mixed Reef
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TriggerHappy
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Posted: September 21 2018 at 8:43pm |
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Things are still progressing. Day 3, ammonia is now at .25 and nitrites are now at 1.0! No dosing tonight, but happy for all of the activity of my biological filtration getting set up. Hoping for 0/0 tomorrow so I can do another ammonia dose. Fish addition is coming soon! Woot!
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210 gallon Mixed Reef
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TriggerHappy
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Posted: September 21 2018 at 9:29pm |
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I'm so ready for a flame fest, so here it goes. As you can tell from my avatar and my screen name, I am a trigger freak. So, with that in mind and knowing that I totally get that it is temporary, I'm seriously wanting my first fish to be a juvenile clown trigger....and go!
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210 gallon Mixed Reef
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WildBill
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Posted: September 21 2018 at 9:32pm |
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Sweet. I look forward to seeing the finished product.
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TriggerHappy
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Posted: September 22 2018 at 7:41pm |
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Day 4. Ammonia 0 nitrites .25. Another dose of ammonia, here is hoping for 0/0 tomorrow night!
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210 gallon Mixed Reef
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TriggerHappy
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Posted: September 23 2018 at 9:48pm |
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Playing the ever familiar game of hurry up and wait. I have to get into my Zen space. Oh, so close, but no. Tonight was another 0 ammonia but .5 of nitrites. Oh, well, cannot rush a good thing. Dosed again tonight and we will patiently await Zen...0/0...bring it!
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210 gallon Mixed Reef
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TriggerHappy
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Posted: September 26 2018 at 9:17am |
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So, it seems that I've hit a bit of a wall. Keep getting 0 ppm on ammonia but .25 ppm nitrates. I tested my nitrates and, yeah, you guessed it...they were sky high. Performed a 20% water change and at this point will switch to Seachem Stability and wait it out. No more ammonia at this point.
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210 gallon Mixed Reef
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TriggerHappy
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Posted: September 30 2018 at 5:02pm |
I somehow got myself lock out of the site, but I'm back to get y'all caught up.
So after a bunch of research, I discovered that my freshwater upbringing was clouding my saltwater experience. Nitrites for saltwater fish, unlike freshwater fish, is not harmful at low readings. So, with ammonia a 0 ppm and nitrites at .25 ppm my nitrates were ~ 100 ppm I did about a 35% water change and went fishing.
I got the following:
1 Clown Tang 1 female Leopard Wrasse 3 Banggai cardinals 1 blue Unicorn Tang 1 Bi Color Angel
I found a used ATI PowerModule hybrid that is on its way...this has 8 80W + LED, but wanted lights now, so I rigged up my old AI Sols and it actually looks pretty nice for a FOWLR to be a mixed reef later!
You can tell I only have two Sols...three would be better. This was before I got them both synced up using the Apex:
Here is a night shot with them synced up:
As of this morning, my reading are: Ammonia 0 ppm Nitrites 0 ppm Nitrates 10 ppm (more than one water change was performed)
Tanks (sic) for reading and more to follow!
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210 gallon Mixed Reef
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WildBill
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Posted: September 30 2018 at 5:28pm |
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Congrats Trigger. That is a beautiful setup.
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TriggerHappy
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Posted: October 06 2018 at 6:58pm |
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Thank you WildBill! So, nothing new to report other than our leopard wrasse did not make it. I blame myself for not having a more established sand bed, but all other fish are happy. Which brings up a request. Does anyone close to South Jordan have some good seed sand to give/sell me?
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210 gallon Mixed Reef
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WildBill
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Posted: October 06 2018 at 8:35pm |
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When you say seed sand, you mean live sand? I have a 5 lb bag you can have, or you can take some out of my tank. Either is fine by me.
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TriggerHappy
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Posted: October 07 2018 at 9:35am |
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Awesome, WildBill. Out of the tank is what I'm needing...like to add some bio-diversity. I'll PM you, thanks!
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210 gallon Mixed Reef
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TriggerHappy
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Posted: October 08 2018 at 11:20pm |
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A little update. The tank is running great at this point, still have some work to do, but I'm extremely happy. I was out of town all week last week, but got a used Korallin 1502 Ca reactor and a ATI Powermodule. The Korallin 1502 was meticulously packed as was the Powermodule, but somehow the Powermodule got bent up...Thankfully it is going into a canopy and it seems to work flawlessly. This light is amazing. I was going to leave the two AI Sol Blues in place, but thought...what the heck. I'll post pictures later, I'm pretty tired. @WildBill (not sure if this works in this forum) came over and brought me a cup o' sand (or more)...thank you so much!
Took full readings tonight and I'm pretty happy so far:
Ca 410
Alk 7.95
Mg 1275 (cheap IO salt to start)
NH3 0.0
NO3 0.0
PO4 .15
Starting to see some brown algae form on the rocks that my clown tang has been happily pecking at. A few diatoms on the sand bed, but nothing drastic. I will be looking at purchasing a Maxspect Gyre, but have not pulled the trigger on that yet due to being FOWLR for now. I'll post up some pictures soon.
As always, thank you for following.
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210 gallon Mixed Reef
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Akira
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Posted: October 09 2018 at 7:21pm |
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LOving the progress so far
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TriggerHappy
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Posted: December 27 2018 at 7:51pm |
Man, time flies when you're workin' for a livin'. So, I kind of left everyone on a ledge. The 210 is up and going. I could not be happier with the progress. I have the Korallin on-line and it is straighten out my alkalinity. Prior to getting the CaRx running, I was dosing every two days to try to keep to my 8.1-8.4 target.
For some crazy and unknown reason, all of the fish that I mentioned above, except for the unicorn tang died. I really thought that I was faced with Marine Velvet.. it sure was not ick! I was seriously considering pulling the unicorn out and going fallow, but wait...the unicorn tang is fine. If it was truly Marine Velvet, I would think the tang would have died as well, but he showed no sign of any issues. That being said, I decided to add a Poseidon O3 to my skimmer. Since then, I have added two bullet clowns, a blue jaw trigger, two fire fish a Desjardini sailfin, and a huge naso tang. All are alive and well. Not too sure what the heck the issue was, but so happy it is over, knock on wood. I have added various zoanthids, a torch, a hammer, several montiopras, and now started with some acros. All in all, I'm pretty happy for this being a 3 month old tank!
Current tank params: Ca- 425 Alk- 8.1 Mg- 1400 No3- .2 Po4 - .06
Still working on the rockscape, it keeps changing, but here are some pictures I took a couple of days ago.
Hope all had a Merry Christmas and have a great New Year!
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210 gallon Mixed Reef
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Adam Blundell
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Posted: December 27 2018 at 11:49pm |
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Shane said exactly what I was thinking. Fun read, cool thread.
Adam
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Come to a meeting, they’re fun!
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WildBill
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Posted: December 28 2018 at 10:23am |
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Tank is looking great.
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TriggerHappy
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Posted: December 28 2018 at 11:28am |
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Thank you Adam and WildBill!
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210 gallon Mixed Reef
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TriggerHappy
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Posted: December 29 2018 at 12:07pm |
So, last night I paid Kevski a visit and got to hand pick some amazing frags! Here is what I added to my tank:
Bubblegum Digi
Tricolor Valida
Blue Cali Tort
Green Slimmer
Hawkins Echinata
Jeff's Blue Lemon
Pearl Berry
Oregon Tort
Ice Fire Echinata
Orange Setosa
Thank goodness I have a CaRx, I went a little crazy!
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210 gallon Mixed Reef
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