Our Progress - 46 bowfront

The most recent full tank shots can be viewed on page 38 for those who don't like to read alot

Well here's a before, in between, and after picture of what we have going so far. The before is after the clowns were put in, and in between is during the height of our algae problem (and right after the CUC was put in, see the smaller Fuzzy Chiton on the shell? He's bigger now )


Here's the First pic - Week one and cycling


Hair Algae!!! AAAAH. Ammonia zero, nitrites almost zero. Nitrates dropped by 5 after the algae (from 10-5)


Taken today. Everyone's happy, got alot of pods and spirobids or whatever they are, and the algae is going awwwaaaay.


Mr Fuzzy, the Fuzzy Chiton. Cleaned the rock himself. Fatty.


I just wanted to throw this picture in there. Nothing really great about it...just wanted to.

ENJOY!
-Justin

 

Very nice.. Your well on your way...

 

Did a water param check today and we are EXCITED. Tested twice because I didn't believe the results, and also used 2 different brands of Ammonia tests.

Our params:

Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 0

This would explain why the algae is going away. They ate all of the "food" and now they don't have anymore. Makes me want to go get a fuge if these results are true...

Other params are normal. Nothing bad, but nothing exciting either. Going to LFS today! Bring on critter round 3!

 

check your PO4 also and I'd start checking and dosing calc/alk/mg at this point to

Looks good though great start

 

In celebration of the wonderful readings etc, we picked up a pistol shrimp and goby combo today at the LFS. We've been watching this pair ever since we went and bought our live rock 3 weeks ago. The owner told us it would be a huge risk buying them and putting them in unless our ammonia was at zero after cycling. Soooo...now we have them

We're picking up a Protein Skimmer tomorrow hopefully. Happy day!

 

very nice!

 

Got the protein skimmer in yesterday. At first, it was running "ok". Except all I saw was a bubble tornado in the middle, no foamy froth going everywhere like an abyss of white. "Did that guy just sell me a seaclone or something?" Today, woke up, NO bubbles were making it to the collection cup. Soooo...

I took it apart and cleaned every square inch of the internal parts. Ran hot tap through it for a bit, rinsed, repeat. Disassembled the Venturi valve, removed all the algae build up inside of it dizzy2 scraped all the dead worms off of it, ran hot water through it, scrubbed, ran hot water through the pump only, rinsed. THEN I finally reinstalled it.

It is now working like a charm! Amazing. My mom got home (she was gone while I was cleaning it) looked at it and said "Oh you got it foaming again! (looking at the collection cup) and OH MY GOSH look at all the bubbles! (looking at the chamber inside)."

So the skimmer is now working flawlessly skimming up all kinds of icky poo ;D

We're doing our second water change at the moment. Might post pictures later.

 

No....you will post pictures later!!! Nice job. And thanks for the pic of Pooh. I want a few of those!!!!

 

Ok how bout this, I'll put some pics up when I have a good pic of each inhabitant and our Skimmer woes are over.

Even after my water cleaning, the skimmer created some bubbles etc for 30 minutes - 1 hour, then it dropped down. Is this normal for a skimmer when first put it? It is not a "new" skimmer, just new to our tank. We our currently running it with a vinegar solution and we will try again some time.

 

My skimmer took about 4 days before the bubbles went away