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Thanks. The initial water was straight from the water hose along with Instant Ocean Sea Salt. The sand was Carib Sea - Bahama Oolite Live Sand. The sand, from what I was told, has some sort of preservative that caused my protein skimmer to go nuts. So I shut it off. I was told and have read that it is not necessary during the initial cycling. The water, salt, sand, then rock was all tossed in at the same time. To replace evaporation, and with the 120mm Ice Cap Fan there is plenty of evaporation, I am using purified water from the Water Windmill, the ones where you take your 5 gallon jug and get it filled for $1. I know it utilizes reverse osmosis but I am not sure about deionization.
I think I will continue cycling without lights and if I do not need to change the water even better. It has been 27 days now, so let’s see how much longer this goes on. There is a barely noticeable brown haze starting to develop on some of the rock, but my ammonia and nitrites are still through the roof. I already ordered my fuge and it should be in within the week. Once the cycle ends I’ll attach it and get it fired up.
When you started to run the lights, did you run all of them or just the actinic, and how do you define sparingly?
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