Neverlost 90 Gallon Reef Build Thread

lol bears..... i would just add maybe 3 dead shrimp? and put a couple of lil chromis in ur sump or somthing to speed up the process their poop and left over food in there will cycle through ur tank and speed it up.... thats what i did and my tank cycled in NO TIME! lol

 

pruitt that is a GREAT idea about the fish in the sump... if I want to add fish to the system but might want them out later, that is the PERFECT way to put them somewhere and be able to extract them without much trouble...

The skimmer has been secured, so wastes should be gathering.

so I have read it in like 5 places now, does anyone ACTUALLY pee in their sump to get the ammonia levels up? that sounds like a terrible idea. I dont know why though.

three more dead shrimp are going in today! go go go go go go go cycle.....

 

Man, that had me LOLing for real...

I, for one, would not want to take a piss on all the money I spent setting up my tank, and mine's nowhere near as nice as yours.

From a scientific viewpoint, I can see where it could be possible that would help, but it feels WAY wrong.

 

Man up and DO IT!





On a much smaller, less attractive tank.

 

haha thanks for the advise and encouragement all!

I am going to measure all the levels again tomorrow, see how the cycle is coming. It appears at the moment that the only living things in the tank are a ton of tiny starfish that live in the sump. They must have come in with the live sand from my buddies tank. I hope they arent pests!

 

Here is a shot of the framing that will eventually contain the sump in the basement in a sort of "fish room". Right now the tank cannot maintain 76-77 degrees since the basement is not heated and it is making it very humid down there. So I am making a little room (not really structural at all, just light wood and plastic with some light insulation on the external walls).

The good news is, the cycle appears to have STARTED. The ammonia levels were up on sunday morning so hopefully in a few weeks I will be in business!

Oh, and it turns out, if you are running a closed hood on your tank (is ventilated with fans during the day [6min off, 2 min off] but was off at night), your hood will collect so much condensation at night that it will be pouring down the glass in the AM! I guess my living room at 60 deg just isnt warm enough. So I am now running the fans periodically at night too so that gas exchange is always happening and hot humid air cannot collect in the hood for too long.

 

Here is a shot of the fish room all insulated and plastic'ed. I know it isnt the most gorgeous thing any of you have ever seen, but it will be once I put fishy theme wallpaper/wrapping paper on the outside! It has already made a huge difference in the amount of time the heaters stay on, in the amount of power the tank uses to stay warm, in the reduction of spilled heat/humidity in my basement, and in the amount of time I spend in shorts and a t-shirt in the fish box (as my girlfriend calls it).

Check it out.




the last things to do are to set up the calcium reactor, and run a hard line of power from the breaker box into the fish room. (soon soon).

oh, and then, maybe, sometime in the future, put some fish and corals in there. If theres time.

 

I might skip the fish and corals step.

On a side note, that room looks like a kill room from the show Dexter. Great show if you haven't seen it then rent it.

 

haha NaCl you are the 2nd person to mention that!

I swear im not a killer! ....it puts the lotion on its skin..... haha

here is an update!



Calcium reactor! There isnt a single critter in the tank to benefit from this thing yet, but that didnt stop me from taking it for a test drive! It is a Korralin 1502. Pretty sweet, my controller is handling the internal pH and all seems to be well.



The yellow tube is the drip return from the reactor. My top off is the clear tube coming into the sump there. I am thinking I am going to stick some Kalk in the top off bucket along with a powerhead for circulation to kind of balance out the pH coming out of the calcium reactor.

I am testing parameters again today. Lets hope the ammonia has gone away! (It never really got that high anyway... neither did the nitrates.... weird). I did remove the carcases of 4 completely decomposed coctail shrimp last night.

When do I do the first big water change? Once the ammonia and nitrites are at zero?

 

The lotion thing... is that from the new season? I don't have showtime but I've got the first three seasons (second is the best by far). On topic - I really like how you've got a whole work room for your aquarium supplies. Those are going to be some happy corals once they're in there. What are you thinking for fish? Clam?