First SW ever owned...Build thread

Thanks Civiccars

 

Nice work, Scape looks good, as a DIY stand builer my self,
I too like the pallet wood on the stand!

 

Thanks, Todd. Took me about 10 tries to get scape where I liked it

 

Oooo la la. Pretty scape. Very well done! I put my heater in chamber 3 with the recirc pump. I use a Neptune probe holder and have my probes in chamber 2 only because they won't fit in chamber 1 with my skimmer. But if I ever get the Tunze skimmer I'll switch the probes to 1 and the skimmer to 2.

Skip the fuge light and chaetomorpha. You really can't get enough growth in this tank to see any appreciable nutrient export. It just adds more hassle, costs more money, and adds another point of failure. But I agree that you should ditch the stock filter. I can't remember if I mentioned it already but inTank makes an excellent media basket for chamber 2 and it has multiple trays for filter floss, media bags, etc... and it's pretty!

 

Here's what I have going rn for the sump:
Chamber 1, bio balls, below floss and eventually carbon (after the cycle).
Chamber 2: chunk of dry key largo rock and Hydor skim nano
Chamber 3: Tunze nano ATO, heater, return

 

Are you using the plastic bio balls or the newer ceramic ones? That rock in 2 will give you extra surface area for nitrifying bacteria but with your sand bed, rock scape, and smaller bio load, it probably won't be necessary. It's fine though and until you want to use that space for something else it's cool to just leave it there.

 

Just the plastic ones for now, mainly for the exact reasons you stated regarding the live rock being unnecessary.

 

Here I am, day 3. I have cleared up, seemingly, 100%.
NH3 = ~0.1 (API SW test kit - 0.00-0.25)
NO2 = ~0.00 - 0.05
pH = ~8.0
Temp = 80.3-81.3 range. (Hydor heater set to "80" in place of a backordered Cobalt Nano-therm)

I began ghost feeding twice a day, starting yesterday. I am feeding at an estimated rate of 4 mature fish (10.5 total inches)

 

woo hoo!! looking really good redd!

 

Today's Parameters:
Temp = 84.0 F (turned down the heater to 76 after I saw that)
Salinity = 1.027 (swing arm) 1.029 (refractometer)
NH3 = 0.20 ish
NO2 = 0.05 ish
NO3 = 0.00
pH = 8.1 ish

So, help me out here. I calibrated my refractometer yesterday in a room that was 73degF with RO water. My basement is about 62degF
Is there something with the temps, either high tank temp or low room temp that would my refractometer that high. Should I be calibrating the meter in the same temp room that I will always be testing salinity in?

I'm not too worried about it right now, as I have just now began to smell ammonia off of the water and am starting to see measurable levels. (it's been 4 days of ghost feeding 2x/day). But, i'll want to nail everything down when the time comes to water change after the cycle completes. As you can see my salinity is a tick high even with the swing arm, so I'm apt to trust that right now over the meter, and I can fix the salinity level once I do that 20% change.

Here are some pics. The first one is so clear it doesn;t appear to even have water in it, awesome! The second is decaying pellets