machus

If you want information on how to cycle a new tank or start the cycle check out these links.  The cycle is the same on a big tank as it is on a little pico tank.  Please don’t cycle a tank with fish or other livestock in the tank.   Just let it cycle with the live rock and sand if you have that.

http://www.nano-reef.com/articles/?article=8

http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/bionitrogencycle/The_Tank_Cycling_Process_and_Ways_to_Cycle_an_Aquarium.htm

I went ahead and purchased a nano wave by Aqua Medic from the local fish store (lfs) and starting gathering supplies for it over the next few days.  Of course since this was my first foray into salt water it has been quite interesting and a vary valuable learning experience.  Even thoug the tank seemed like a good purchase at the time issues have been coming up.  Since the ballasts for the lights are in the hood and don’t include a fan heat has been an issue and I enlarged the slits on the side of the hood to try and increase air flow.  But even with that I still have to either crack the hood open some and or have a fan pointing at it.  This thread over at nano-reef.com pretty much goes through all the little problems that he trys to go and fix.  After three days of cycling the tank I can see the benefit of having a overflow into the refuge.

Anyways it was time to start cycling the tank and see what I can do with it with my rather impressive reef keeping skills, which is none.  You can see what happens when one doesn’t wash the live sand before added it to a tank and how cloudy it has become.

Hrmm I wonder what type of camera phone I used…..

I have another interesting problem arise with the camera phone that I am using to take the pictures in that I get banding in the images reminiscent of old CRT tvs.

After a full water change due to me not washing the sand and not wanting to ruin the pumps the tank cleared up after a few hours.

Here is the tank I think on day two after the water has cleared up and before I head off the fish store for some sand out of their tank to really give the cycle a kick in the pants.

The power head takes up a lot of room but gives me rather impressive flow in the tank and at the angle it currently is at the sand has been blown away.  Makes for some interesting sand shapes.

Here it is on day 3 of the cycle and 1 day after I added the live sand from the store.

I even got a bonus critter in my sand a Nassarius Snail. Of Course I am worried about him since he is going through a complete tank cycle and as a scavenger and not an algae eater he is going to be going hungry here soon.  I am slightly worried that my water change in the beginning might have done a number on starting the cycle but I did buy some sand from another established tank to get the cycle started.  I say I am worried since my levels haven’t changed so far.

I am using google docs to do book keeping of the tank which also always me to do pretty charts like the above.  Hopefully when I get home tomorrow from work and do another test my ammonia levels have started to climb indicating the start of a cycle.

Tags: Nano Reef, salt water

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 4th, 2009 at 5:47 pm and is filed under Nano Reef. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.