Zen in the tattoo shop. 17L Pico UPDATE 12/01/14

[RCanik]

FTS as of Dec 14, 2013

[RCanik]

I wasn't too sure about the readings I was getting from my test kits (bought at a discount for the 6 foot well before this started) ....so bought a different set and whoa...what a difference. the numbers seems to be a little more consistent with what I would expect from a cycle. So I'll test today and post the new results here tonight. But! I did find a stomatella snail cruising around the glass yesterday which means it came in on the live rock from a client. Hope the little guy makes it through!

[RCanik]

Readings as of Dec 17

Ammonia: 4ppm
Nitrite: 1ppm
Nitrate: 20ppm

Also! found 2 more stomatella snails as well as a little orange feather duster!

[RCanik]

Final stages of the cycle!!!

Today's readings:

Ammonia: 0!!!
Nitrite: 5ppm
Nitrate: 80ppm

I also added a Fluval Sea 1 for $60 and an additional 1000lph! now there's 88x the turnover in the tank. Whoa!

[robthepom]

Final stages of the cycle!!!

Today's readings:

Ammonia: 0!!!
Nitrite: 5ppm
Nitrate: 80ppm

I also added a Fluval Sea 1 for $60 and an additional 1000lph! now there's 88x the turnover in the tank. Whoa!

Cool scape

And 88x turnover full acro tank maybe??

[RCanik]

Final stages of the cycle!!!

Today's readings:

Ammonia: 0!!!
Nitrite: 5ppm
Nitrate: 80ppm

I also added a Fluval Sea 1 for $60 and an additional 1000lph! now there's 88x the turnover in the tank. Whoa!

Cool scape

And 88x turnover full acro tank maybe??

It's broken up pretty well by rock work and seeing as it's such a small tank it bounces off the walls pretty good creating a good decent flow pattern. I'm not entirely confident in the flow rate coming off the return pump so it's probably less. I'll grab a short video tomorrow when I'm at the shop and post it here

[RCanik]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=796132863746226&l=4815846689748637162

quick video of the tank from yesterday

[RCanik]

FINALLY starting to see a drop in Nitrites and a rise in Nitrates. Which means hopefully this thing is almost ready for some critters! I also just so happen to be going to pick up a car a week from today that is in the Deer Park region...which means I'll have a new wagon with heaps of room for stuff for the tank!

oh yeah...setting up a kitchen pico. Huzzah!

[RCanik]

Today is a good day!
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5!!!

[RCanik]

pictures tomorrow (hahaha suckas!)
But I picked up some snails,
2 frags of zoas with 10 or so heads each (some greens and some orangish ones? are we giving fancy names to things still?)
1 green morph
1 green plate coral
1 frag of green/purple acans with 5 or 6 heads on it (back home that goes for almost 50 bucks! I paid 10!)
1 frag of blasto with 6 or 7 heads on it.

So proud of myself, only spent $80!

By the time I'd done what I needed to at the shop the zoas were already almost all open and the acans were nice and poofy. The plate coral's mouth was a bit open but I'm chalking it up to stress from transport. I'll keep an eye on it though just to be safe. The blasto is being pissy as all blasto's I've ever owned are but should open up shortly and the morph was already settling in nicely.

I angled the Fluval sea so it's blowing towards the back overflow, slowing down the flow rate for now and over the course of the next little while I'll move it and increase the flow as it all adjusts