Jul 6 2012

Crystal Clear :)

The tank is crystal clear today!! just having a slight problem with pH and temp but working that out.  I think the temp will be fine, my biggest concern is swings in the temp.  Going to try to adjust my heater so that it wont get quite as cold tonight when we turn the a/c down to 73…haha. I turned the settings up on it a little so we will see…I just dont want it to turn on when it’s already 80 in there.  It has been running 80 since yesterday afternoon but went back down to about 76 when I got up this morning.  Also went and invested in a refractometer to measure the salinity and specific gravity of the water since that is one of the major things with salt water tanks.  You can test it with a little $10 hydrometer but most people think that they dont work at all.  One person on the forums said that when he finally upgraded to a refractometer he realized his hydrometer was way off and it was causing lots of problems.  It makes since, the hydrometer is just this little plastic thing with an arm that basically measures how buoyant the water is which can change depending on temperature.  The refractometer actually using light to measure how much refraction (light refracts off of salt) comes off a drop of salt water.  Fresh water would refract zero light and salt water refracts about 1.023 light.  Anyway, I am happy I have it now.  It also make it much easier to test water from other sources like the fish store so that you can slowly increase/decrease the water in the bag with your new fish/coral so they dont go into shock.  You only need about 1 drop of water with the refractometer and with the hydrometer you need about 1/4 a cup.

New picture below! until next time, just keep swimming!

Jul 5 2012

Water Quality Test #1

Just did the first water quality test and will be doing one every other day.  Not really sure what it all means yet but just posted on reef2reef.com to get some insight.  I do know that the pH should be 8.1-8.2 and mine is only at 7.5.  Not sure what to do about that yet but I am thinking it will solve itself as we go through the cycle process.  Nitrite is a zero parts per million which is good! should be at 0 at all times.  The really concerning one is Nitrate.  It should be as low as possible and we are all the way at 20 ppm.  I think this will also solve itself but it is concerning just because people on the forums have said that the bioballs are Nitrate factories and I choose to use them thinking “why would the makers of the biocube build them into the tank if they were bad??” oh well, guess we will find out.  If push comes to shove and the Nitrates dont go down on their own I may have to reconsider.  You can view on the test results on our Water Quality page every other day.

Until next time, just keep swimming!

Jul 5 2012

Day 2! :)

Well, the tank looks much clearer today! just went to the store and got a cleaning magnet.  One magnet goes on the outside and one inside.  They both have cleaning pads on them so when you move the outside one the inside ones cleans the inside of the tank.  Looks so much better now that the inside surfaces are clean.  Also bought a bottle of bio fuel.  It is supposed to improve water quality and speed up the cycling progress.  Normally takes about 2 week before we can put any snails or crabs in the tank but hopefully the bio fuel will speed that up to only a week.  With any luck we will be able to get our first inhabitants next Thursday.  Gonna go down to Petsmart and buy a water test kit as well.  First test results coming later today! 🙂 updated picture below.

Until next time, just keep swimming!

Jul 4 2012

Our tank!

Today was finally the day (well actually it was going to be tomorrow but since it was a holiday we got paid a day early :)) We finally got our tank! The tank came into the house yesterday and today we go the live sand, live rock, and water! now its complete.  It looks a little cloudy at the moment as the sand settles back to the bottom.  We are so excited to finally have it in the house.  The pumps are running and we have it on a timed light cycle already.  It was quite the event adding 30 gallons of salt water to it.  We also purchased a power strip complete with digital timers built-in.  Can’t wait until the water is actually clear enough to see through.

Until next time, just keep swimming!

Jul 1 2012

Bio-B-A-L-L-S

About to head back up to World Wide Coral to see if they have anything new.  They get new stuff in every other day so it’s always fun to go and see the new arrivals.  We are getting very close to tank day! I have Wednesday and Thursday off work 🙂  We will be going to purchase the tank in the morning (Thursday), bringing it home, getting every thing set up and then we will have to go back to pick up the live rock and salt water.  We are going to get the tank and live rock at Sea in the City since they will give me a 10% if we write a positive review of them on google which I have no problem with since I love that place.  Decided to get the salt water at World Wide Coral since I am going to have to make multiple trips and its right down the street.

Have learned lots of stuff since my last post.  I joined Reef2Reef.com which is a forum for coral reef keepers.  Learned about dipping (which is dipping corals/fish/inverts in a solution to make sure they are free of disease before adding them to the tank) and also learned a lot about Bioballs.

Here is the run down.  The Biocube has 3 compartments in the back.  The first compartment is a water holding area (I will also modify this area to keep my water heater in), the second compartment has the filter floss and 2 other biological filters, and the third compartment has the water pump and Bioballs.  The purpose of the Bioballs is to grow beneficial bacterial.  The water trickles down them and is exposed to air, during this process bacterial builds up on the balls.  When the water gets to the bottom its pump back out by the water pump.  Without bacterial build up, you cannot have a successful Reef Aquarium.  Some people take these balls out and replace them with some other type of media because they say that if water were to stop flowing over the balls the bacteria could die and as it decays raise the nitrate level in the tank which could kill everything off.  I am looking into replacing them with ceramic balls, these balls have a much larger surface area (cause they have a porous surface).  Also, the ceramic stays moist even if water stops tickling which is the main benefit as a posed to the Bioballs.

Anyway, more to come as we get closer! until next time, just keep swimming!