Couple newbie questions for 120g build in progress

Tilian · 04/08/2013, 10:28 PM

Hey guys,

For those who haven't been following my build thread (link in sig), I'm in the process of setting up a 120g mixed reef. I've got 100lbs of dry rock curing in a tub in the garage. I'll be adding 50lbs of cherry primo deco rock from LiveRockNReef once the dry has cycled and leached all its' phosphates (probably another 3-4 weeks).

I'm also cycling a 20g QT tank with a TopFin 20 hang-on powerfilter. I dumped the carbon out of the filter cartridge and filled it with ceramic rings instead.

So I've got a couple questions I could use some help with. I've been cycling for a couple weeks now and it looks like it's winding down. See the test results below:

I cycled the QT tank with a single table shrimp which is still pretty intact at the bottom of the tank. I plan on testing the water a couple more times over the next week and if the NH4 and NO2 stay at 0, I'll call it cycled and order a few fish.

So my question is, should I leave the shrimp in there until I'm ready to add the fish? I assume I need to keep feeding all the lovely bacteria I've spent the last couple weeks growing right? Then, when I'm ready to add fish, I'll do a big water change to get rid of the NO3 and then pull the shrimp out and add the fish to start their QT time. Sound right? If so, how "big" should the water change be? Since the only living thing in the tank at the moment are the bacteria, any reason not to do 90% waterchange?

As for the dry rock... I'm cycling that tub with two table shrimp as well. They're buried down under the rock somewhere but I assume they're pretty intact as well. The dry rock seemed pretty low in phosphates to me at first... after a week in the water, the PO4 was only at 38ppb. I'm dosing with Lanthanum Chloride (LC) which is a phosphate remover which bonds with the phosphate in the water and causes it to percipitate. I'll keep dosing LC every few days until the tests show a consistent low reading (< 20 ppb) for a week straight. Once Phosphates stop rising, and NH4 and NO2 stay at 0, it will be ready for the display tank and I'll add the 50lbs of good live rock at that time.

So my question here is the same... do I leave the shrimp in the tank while I continue to try to leach the phosphates out of the rock? What I'm concerned about is, how do I know if the PO4 I'm measuring in the water column is coming from the rock or could the rotting shrimp be creating PO4 as well? I'm not sure if rotting shrimp even create phosphates or not? If they do though, I'd hate to think I'm leaching PO4 from the rocks when in fact all I'm doing is burning my Hanna checker reagents on rotting shrimp! LOL.

Finally, one more newbie question for everyone. When I'm ready to start aquascaping my tank, I've read that it's recommended that you add a piece of egg-crate to the entire floor of the empty tank, then add the rock, then the sand, then the water. Does everyone use the egg-create below their rock? I'm only planning on 120lbs of fairly fine sand (1-2" sandbed). I was thinking that if I do it in that order it could leave empty spots under the rock with no sand... just empty water. Is that a problem? The last thing I want is to see egg-crate poking through the ocean floor because my fighting conch or gobbie decided to go digging.

Thanks in advance for the advice guys!

anarchyx914 · 04/08/2013, 10:42 PM

Sorry to post in your thread, but what did you make all of the neat charts with?

I'm in the process of getting started, and I think it would be a great way to chart my progress.

Hope you get the answers you are looking for - good luck

Tilian · 04/08/2013, 10:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by anarchyx914

Sorry to post in your thread, but what did you make all of the neat charts with?

I'm in the process of getting started, and I think it would be a great way to chart my progress.

Hope you get the answers you are looking for - good luck

Thanks Anarchy... the graphs were just from an Excel spreadsheet I was using to track my test results as I cycled. Nothing fancy... just manual data entry each time I did a test.

thegrun · 04/09/2013, 07:00 AM

You can either leave the shrimp in the tanks and tub or remove them and simply ghost feed the tanks a small pinch of dry flake fish food daily to feed the bacteria, either method works well. The shrimp may add a very small trace of phosphate, but with your readings the issue is in the rocks, not the dead shrimp.
I am an advocate for placing egg crate in the tank before rock and sand, it helps anchor the rock in place. Otherwise over time pressure from shifting sand and the rocks above will move your base rocks and a rockslide becomes a real danger. You want to place the rock in before the sand so the rock is anchored on the bottom of the tank, rock sitting on sand will shift and could cause your rockwork to fall. Voids under the rock eventually fill in with sand as it shifts around, but even if it there are empty spaces that is not a problem.

04/08/2013, 10:28 PM	#1
Tilian Registered Member Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 46	Couple newbie questions for 120g build in progress Hey guys, For those who haven't been following my build thread (link in sig), I'm in the process of setting up a 120g mixed reef. I've got 100lbs of dry rock curing in a tub in the garage. I'll be adding 50lbs of cherry primo deco rock from LiveRockNReef once the dry has cycled and leached all its' phosphates (probably another 3-4 weeks). I'm also cycling a 20g QT tank with a TopFin 20 hang-on powerfilter. I dumped the carbon out of the filter cartridge and filled it with ceramic rings instead. So I've got a couple questions I could use some help with. I've been cycling for a couple weeks now and it looks like it's winding down. See the test results below: I cycled the QT tank with a single table shrimp which is still pretty intact at the bottom of the tank. I plan on testing the water a couple more times over the next week and if the NH4 and NO2 stay at 0, I'll call it cycled and order a few fish. So my question is, should I leave the shrimp in there until I'm ready to add the fish? I assume I need to keep feeding all the lovely bacteria I've spent the last couple weeks growing right? Then, when I'm ready to add fish, I'll do a big water change to get rid of the NO3 and then pull the shrimp out and add the fish to start their QT time. Sound right? If so, how "big" should the water change be? Since the only living thing in the tank at the moment are the bacteria, any reason not to do 90% waterchange? As for the dry rock... I'm cycling that tub with two table shrimp as well. They're buried down under the rock somewhere but I assume they're pretty intact as well. The dry rock seemed pretty low in phosphates to me at first... after a week in the water, the PO4 was only at 38ppb. I'm dosing with Lanthanum Chloride (LC) which is a phosphate remover which bonds with the phosphate in the water and causes it to percipitate. I'll keep dosing LC every few days until the tests show a consistent low reading (< 20 ppb) for a week straight. Once Phosphates stop rising, and NH4 and NO2 stay at 0, it will be ready for the display tank and I'll add the 50lbs of good live rock at that time. So my question here is the same... do I leave the shrimp in the tank while I continue to try to leach the phosphates out of the rock? What I'm concerned about is, how do I know if the PO4 I'm measuring in the water column is coming from the rock or could the rotting shrimp be creating PO4 as well? I'm not sure if rotting shrimp even create phosphates or not? If they do though, I'd hate to think I'm leaching PO4 from the rocks when in fact all I'm doing is burning my Hanna checker reagents on rotting shrimp! LOL. Finally, one more newbie question for everyone. When I'm ready to start aquascaping my tank, I've read that it's recommended that you add a piece of egg-crate to the entire floor of the empty tank, then add the rock, then the sand, then the water. Does everyone use the egg-create below their rock? I'm only planning on 120lbs of fairly fine sand (1-2" sandbed). I was thinking that if I do it in that order it could leave empty spots under the rock with no sand... just empty water. Is that a problem? The last thing I want is to see egg-crate poking through the ocean floor because my fighting conch or gobbie decided to go digging. Thanks in advance for the advice guys! __________________ My 120g Build Thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2269795

04/08/2013, 10:42 PM	#2
anarchyx914 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2013 Posts: 161	Sorry to post in your thread, but what did you make all of the neat charts with? I'm in the process of getting started, and I think it would be a great way to chart my progress. Hope you get the answers you are looking for - good luck

04/09/2013, 07:00 AM	#4
thegrun Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Garden Grove, Ca Posts: 17,023	You can either leave the shrimp in the tanks and tub or remove them and simply ghost feed the tanks a small pinch of dry flake fish food daily to feed the bacteria, either method works well. The shrimp may add a very small trace of phosphate, but with your readings the issue is in the rocks, not the dead shrimp. I am an advocate for placing egg crate in the tank before rock and sand, it helps anchor the rock in place. Otherwise over time pressure from shifting sand and the rocks above will move your base rocks and a rockslide becomes a real danger. You want to place the rock in before the sand so the rock is anchored on the bottom of the tank, rock sitting on sand will shift and could cause your rockwork to fall. Voids under the rock eventually fill in with sand as it shifts around, but even if it there are empty spaces that is not a problem.