250 Build!!!!! HOOOOO!!!

Blue Kai

Blue Kai

Hi All,

I'm a transplant from the dying west coast, but I bring great reefing knowledge, LOL!

I am also a reef2reef refugee. I like local forums beeetttteeeeer.

Anyway, I wanted to share what I have been working on since I moved to NORTH dallas.

currently cycling... will be cycling forever...bought some stuff to help with the cycle... more to come once the stuff shows up
 

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IowaKGB said:
Welcome, nice looking tank! Looking forward to seeing it after it cycles and you add livestock.
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Thanks! I've never started a tank with dry rock. All the past tanks have been live rock shipped in from parts unknown with all the fun pests and negative bacteria. I found that I had a ammonia tests kit that expired 10 years ago, so I reckon I need to purchase another. Apparently dry rock takes a while to get going, we will seeeeee.
 
Added the Microbacter Dry Rock Bacteria Starter tonight. I have read good things. As i said before, I'm not used to dry rock at all, so this is all new to me. Will be testing for ammonia tomorrow. Very fun.
 
After i posted last I realized i haven't given any specs. my apologies.

Tank is 84x32x21 with a 17.25 water line. Rimless. 3/4" low iron glass. I would have gone wider and shallower if it would have fit through my front door, haha... stand is 42" tall. 4' sump, with a red sea 900, 2 part dosing pump, and return pump rated at 500 gal an hour. My internal flow is currently made up of 2 MP60s. Boy oh boy is the mobius app broken and buggy, zzzz. My lighting is 3 Hamilton 250W 14K lamps. I run no controllers, and my lighting is on digital timer. Simple, reliable, unbroken.

I'm old school. Like deep sand beds, minimal equipment, and minimal rock.

Over the next year, this tank will be stocked with cryptic fish, peaceful reef fish, uncommon inverts, clams (which are inverts but need mention because they are my favorite) solid color stags, and eventually a couple of gigantea nems.

I'm excited to meet everyone at the next event. I need to join the club!
 
Tested for ammonia this AM and boy was it elevated. Nitrite was still 0. I have 7 days of this. Ammonia should, over the next 6 days, settle to 0. Once ammonia is at 0, ill test Nitrate then add a fish/es.

Do you guys think that Fish Gallery is a good place to buy fish locally? Do they order fish that you might want? Please let me know.
 
I ordered another bottle of MIRCOBACTER XXXL (or whatever). This one smelled pretty bad, but I dumped it in anyway.

Ammonia is still UP, but that's to be expected for the next week.

There is a disclaimer saying something about not using this product if you used live sand. that it could extend you cycle. Not sure how that makes any sense, but I'm taking my chances just like I always have.

Hey by the way, super warm welcome from who I think is the moderator. Thanks again.
 
The 7 days cycle appears to be taking a little longer than expected, but only by a couple of days. Should see both 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite by maybe Sunday. At which point I will do a 40 gallon water change and start thinking about adding fish. In the end, I really do not want a lot of fish, so whatever we add first, will live in this tank until it dies.

Will be adding peaceful fish first, then moderate, then tangs i suspect. Thinking about adding maybe a foxface first, or maybe a hardy wrasse.

Any thoughts?
 
Still getting things situated in my cabinet. Won’t have coral until the summer I suspect, so the dozer will remain off for a while. 5 gallon water change every week sound suffice for trace elements for now.27047F9C-3F62-44F6-8EC5-741F2318DC46.jpeg
 
Ok pals, update on the current livestock list. No pictures cause they are teeny tiny little wieners. And that’s just boring (FOR NOW).

2 yellow coris wrasses
1 melanurus wrasse
3 green chromis (no way i wanted these, but my son INSISTED LOL)
4 talbot damsels
1 tailspot blenny
3 caulk bass
2 skunk shrimp
3 halloween hermits (included to get that freeee shipping...)

future fish will be
2 pyrimid butterfly (might have to fly to CA for these.................................)
and group of tangs (unsure of exact ones, but 3-4)
pair of true percs for the gigantea, BUT WHO KNOWS WHEN THAT WILL BE.
 
I went ahead and set up the 2 part doser for 5 ml of alk and calc to get things going. Tested both yesterday and calc was 400 and alk was 7.8. For kurls I like to run at least 450 calc and almost 9 alk (OH MY). So I’ll work over the next few months to juice the numbers up I’m getting with the brightwelll mix. BTW a good buddy of mine called me a fool for continuing to run brightwell as they have had several batches of bad salt. But I’m a silly boy so I’ll continue to use it.7CE59442-B747-46B3-A82F-8FEED3BFC012.jpeg
 
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