Coming up, I'm going to talk about cycling the tank.
[Inaudible].
So I started this tank up about six weeks ago.
And as you can see, I've got some critters in there,
some live fish, and I've got some hermit crabs in there, but, um,
to, to cycle this tank, it was actually pretty simple.
What I did was, um, I started the tank up with, um,
fresh salt water and I placed the live rock that are received into the tank the
same day that it came in and it was shipped in boxes in
water. So, you know, really a lot of the life that was on the rocks. I didn't,
I didn't have a lot of die off when the, uh, when the rock came in.
So I put it right into the, uh, into the tank, you know,
when I wrenched each piece of rock and fresh salt water,
just to kind of get any, uh,
potential die off out of there and also get any debris off of the rock.
But yeah, I was, um, I was pretty happy, so I just, uh,
I did that and, and really what I did for the next few days,
actually three days in a row was I did 30% water changes.
So this is a 225 gallon tank. And I did the, um,
the 30% water changes for each individual day. Just really,
to try to get ahead of the ammonia spike, because that's going to happen.
Even if you do use live rock that comes in with a lot of life,
there will be some die off. So I did that, uh, you know,
those major water changes to get ahead of the ammonia, but, you know, I,
I tested, I didn't really start testing the water until a few days
later, actually, after about a day three or four, um,
of these, uh, water changes. So, you know,
I never did see any ammonia.
It came out to be zero. So that was a good thing.
I guess when I started testing, I was already behind the ammonia spike.
And when I tested for nitrite, I, um,
you know, the, uh, the few times that I tested for nitride,
I only had 0.1 part per million of the nitrite.
So I knew at that point in time that I was, um,
the cycle was progressing pretty good. And I was, I was, um,
moving along pretty, pretty, uh, quickly with it when I, the, uh,
the trait,
I think I had maybe a 25 parts per million nitrate after a few
days. And, um, you know, then soon after that it was down,
I think it was two, 10 parts per million.
So ultimately this tank cycled in about
one week, which is great, you know, I mean,
that's vantage with wive rock is that you're going to get a much quicker cycle
versus dry rock. And I added no, um, bacterial,
uh, booster products to the tank. This is all natural.
I didn't throw in any I'm dead shrimp. I just used the live rock to a,
to cycle, and I had the protein skimmer running right from the get go.
So very pleased in terms of that quick cycle. So, as I mentioned, you know,
I, I, um, started this tank up six weeks ago. And,
you know, after the cycle, which technically,
I think was eight days in terms of the, uh, the cycle,
when it was complete eight days after the, uh, the tank was set up,
I did a ad Herman crabs to the tank to try to get some additional life in
there. I also, uh, you know, I planted add some, um,
bandit, trocars, snails, but they came in, uh, DOA dead on arrival.
So I did not add any of those, but a, um,
about a week after I added in the HerMoney crabs,
I added in some fish. So you could see the, the, uh, the four green chroma.
So those were the first fish that I added into the tank.
So technically they were, um, I dunno,
about two weeks after I added the rock to the tank.
And I,
whenever I add the first set of fish to a new reef tank,
I'm kind of expecting not all of them to make it,
but surprisingly these four did. And they were really, and,
um, great shape from the get-go. So they'd never showed any signs of stress.
Yes. And I was really very psyched about that. Um,
then what I had to do was about a week later.
So this is about week three into the process here with the, uh,
with the new tank. I had to, um, add two,
add four additional fish. You could see the, uh, the tags I have in here, the,
uh, the yellow Tang, the sail Fen Tang, the LOI cold Tang,
and the bristle tooth too, to Tang really cool fish.
So I had these fish in my, uh, frag tank. And in another video,
I talked about how I had to suddenly break down my 50 gallon little boy,
because it started, started to leak on me. Well,
those four tanks were in that low boy tank.
And my other frag tank had, um,
a Fox face and a, um, and also another self and Tang. So,
and it also had a couple of clownfish in there. And also it was,
it was pretty crowded.
I not want to relocate these four fish into that other frag
tank, which was a 75 gallon frag tank. So I,
I kept my fingers crossed.
I took a shot and I relocated them into this, um,
225 gallon peninsula tank. And boy, let me tell you, they,
they really acclimated themselves very quickly. I think they were,
they were very happy to have a, um,
a much bigger space to swim in. And, and as you can see,
they're doing a great job in terms of picking away at the rock and picking away
at the bottom. There's not a lot of algae in this tank right now.
So I am really psyched.
That was always planning on adding a bunch of tanks to the tank
and, and, uh, you know,
so with the emergency going on with the leaking tank,
I had that add them a little, well, a lot sooner than what I had expected,
but boy definitely came out, um, uh, a great,
because they're just doing a super job and they're very happy and they
never showed any real signs of stress.
So just to kind of sum up really what's been going on in terms of this tank
cycling really over the, um, the last six weeks that it's been up and running.
And I had the live rock in there and, and, you know,
it's cycled pretty much w about, you know, about a week's time,
which was just great. Again,
I'm just very glad to have the live rock and have that much quicker cycle than
versus dry rock the fish. Um, well,
I guess the hermit crabs were added about eight days after the rock came into
the tank. And then about a week after that,
I added those green chromosomes and then a week after that came in the, uh,
the other four tanks. So listen, I am, um,
really quite pleased at this point. Things are, um, are looking really good.
There is not a lot of sign of, um, problematic allergies.
So I haven't hit the ugly period yet with this tank. I'm, uh,
I'm certainly expecting to see something, but, you know, these tags are really,
um, you know, doing what they're supposed to be doing,
which is kind of picking out those rocks and eating any undesirable
algae and, and, um, you know, so hopefully that won't happen.
But I think also the fact that the tank is bare bottom will, uh,
will help in that regard. I, uh, as I mentioned, I have the, uh,
the protein skimmer running.
I do not have anything going on right now in terms of the nutrient export.
I've got the PAX bellum, Erin, [inaudible] all plumbed in and it's running,
but I don't have the lights going on yet.
So I'm probably going to fire that up pretty soon.
But my plan at this point in time is to get
the calcium reactor fired up.
I've got a brand new calcium reactor from reef octopus. It's a,
it's a brand new model. It's a dual chamber calcium reactor.
So I'm going to get that all plumbed in,
and I'm going to get that ready to fire up.
I've been taking some M D K H measurements with my cage
director or the GHL cage director.
And right now the DKSH is around Oh, around 60 K H.
And the calcium is in the low four hundreds. Magnesium's around 1400.
So I got to get that DK H up. Um, but obviously, um,
you know, it is low because I'm not doing anything right now to supplement. So,
you know, I think what I'll do is I'll, I'll get the calcium reactor going,
get the DK DK H up a little bit.
And once I start to see some signs of Coralee analogy,
then I'm going to try out my first few starter corals.
Luckily I've got some LPs that I could take from my
187 gallon tank and test them out on this tank.
And then if all goes well, like it, add some Hardy, uh, SPS, and I'll,
I'll start with some motha pour again,
I've got some Mata Purim that I could bring over from the other tank into this
tank. So that is the plan.
And that is the journey in terms of the cycling of this tank
and the plan moving forward. Anyway, Hey,
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See you next time.