Another log of a Newbie starting out with TBS rock!

[dwculp]

your tank isn't cycled after 4 days, its not even close. Your water levels will spike again.

Are you familiar with TBS rock and their cycling method? The rock is collected and stored in water, then shipped to you in water. I have checked and many people with TBS rock never expereince a large ammonia spike. TBS says that your tank will normally cycle in 7-10 days. All you are really doing is waiting for the things that are going to die to die.

[OCDP]

brad, you have missed this whole thread or something.... this is why he's so curious, is because he's hardly seeing a cycle. It's TBS rock and they ship it in water too, so this helps with the cycling process. I'm sure the phosphates and nitrates will reside in time or with the help of some kind of media.

Will be tagging along as usual!

[tygger]

Originally posted by dwculp
Day 4 is about to come to a close (at least for me). I normally stay at school MUCH later than our official 4:10 release time. I sponsor and teach a robotics club 5 days a week(Oklahoma Regional Botball champions and the highest ranked middle school team in the country!), I am the chess club coach, I have an interactive fiction club and a few other activities. However, I am leaving today when the bell rings to go and do some early voting and catch up on some sleep.

I broke my hydrometer today. I dropped it and the little weight on the swing arm snapped off. I will have to buy another tonight, which saddens me. The old hydrometer was pretty accurate as I tested it against water of a known SG. I had bought one from Instant Ocean as a backup a few weeks ago, it was WAY off. > 0.010 to be exact. My Sea Test would read 1.024 while the IO would read 1.034 or above!!!

I will get a refractometer when pay day swings around. After dropping >$500.00 on the rock this month the refractometer will have to wait.

I had an interesting exchange with a student today, he was talking during a test:

Me: I need you to move seats, please take your materials and sit over there.

Student: Do I have to?

Me: Yes, you do.

Student: That�s why you are making enemies, you better watch yourself.

Me: Are you threatening me?

Student: I am just saying you have lots of enemies now, you just better watch yourself.

Me: Exactly what is that suposed to mean?

Student: I am just saying your time is over, it is our time now.

Stuff like this doesnt really bother me. The kid is all of 13 and about 2.5 feet tall. I could crush him and not break a sweat doing it. However, it worries me sometimes that some student may decide to get back at me by dumping something in the tank. I spent $1,500 of my own money, not the schools and it worries me a bit. Unfortunatley the student would be hurting not only me, but the other students who are growing to like the tank. I put it in my classroom along with my other tanks and snakes for the enjoyment of my students and me.

Water parameters at the end of day 4:

Ammonia - ~0 (where was my ammonia spike??)
Nitrite - 0.05 - This is on the way down also
Nitrate - 5-10ppm (on the way up)
PO4 - 0.1
Calcium - 400

It looks like the tank may be cycled, or at least close to it If, by the end of next week the ammonia is holding at 0 I will call Mary at TBS to arrange the next shipment. However, the best time for me to pickup will be after Nov. 20th so it may be a little while before I get the second shimpment.

I may transfer my CBS next week if the ammonia holds steady at 0.

Instead of spending money twice, once for a hydro and again for a refracto, you might as well buy a refracto. Not sure if you knew, but Drs. Foster Smith has them on sale for $35. Click their banner in the sponsors list.

[dwculp]

Instead of spending money twice, once for a hydro and again for a refracto, you might as well buy a refracto. Not sure if you knew, but Drs. Foster Smith has them on sale for $35. Click their banner in the sponsors list.

That is where I will be ordering the refratometer from. I went and bought a new hydrometer, same model as the one that broke last night. I needed the hydro right now and it would take a few days for shipping on the refractometer.

In other news, my digital pH pen just arrived!!! Wooo Hooo!!

[dwculp]

Day 5 is nearing to a close and the tank readings are:

pH - 8.2
Ammonia - ~0
Nitrite - 0.05
Nitrate - 5-10 (this test is very hard to read)
Phosphate - 0.01
CA - 400
SG 1.0255 (I think the new hydrometer is reading about 0.001 high)

I will do my first water change tomorrow night. I have 10 gallons of water stewing for the water change.

On another note. I got my Coralife pH pen and I cannot get it to work. We have one in our 7th grade science deptarment and I could not get it to work either. My new pen simply reads ~7.0 no matter what you put it in. The old pen will calibrate but then the readings are off. One time it will tell me my tank is at 7.5 pH another 9.8!!! I am about to give up on it!

[dwculp]

I fixed my old hydrometer!!! How good am I!!

The old one is reading at 1.0245(33ppt) and the new one is reading 1.0253 (34ppt). Pretty close to each other!

[fishonadic]

hey, im just tagging along to.

[ratherbediving]

Originally posted by dwculp
Here I am at work early and ran a complete set of tests:

pH 8.2
Ammonia ~0
Nitrite - 0.05ppm
Nitrate - 5-10ppm
Phosphate - 0.2

The nitrate and phosphate level has me a bit worried. I am not feeding the tank, so why are the nitrates and phosphates rising. The only filter I have is a protein skimmer (CPR Bak Pak 2 with the bio-bale removed). I will do a 10 gallon water change tomorrow after work which should drop it a bit.

...

I wouldn't think think Nitrates of 5-10 ppm, or phosphates of 0.2 are anything to worry about so far.

Stuff is dying on your rock. Probably not much; but enough to produce ammonia. Your rock already has all the bacteria in place-- it is a fully 'cured' filter. So it is able to process ammonia and nitrite right away. But that is where the nitrate and phospate are coming from. Still, you are a long way off from needing to do a water change, IMHO.

[dwculp]

Here are the water parameters at the start of day 6:

pH: 8.2
SG: 1.025-1.026
Ammonia: ~0
Nitrite: 0.02
Nitrate: 10
PO4: 0.1
CA: 350
Temp: 26C

This morning I have a large snail crawling up the glass. The snail is a about one inch in lengh, white, and conical in shape. I found a new feather duster worm, this one has brown feathers instead of white. The large crab is peeking out of his rock this morning. I now believe him to be a decorator crab.

I have hair algae growing, it looks like tufts of grass groing from the rock, not excessive........yet. I supose from everything I have read the best thing to do is to pull it up.


The snail. Look at the large bivalve in the background to the right of center, you can see the hair algae. This is the spot in which it is the worst:







A really bad shot of the crabs claw peeking out of a hole in the rock, he picks bits of stuff off the rock and sticks it to his body. He is actually quite hard to see sometimes when he is out and about. You can also see the brain coral, which I think looks a bit better than it did a few days ago.

[Maxxumless]

Originally posted by dwculp
Here it is day 4 with the first half of my 40 gallon package from TBS saltwater. This morning the big crab, which I believe to be a porcelain crab is not in his hole. Maybe he moved holes during the night.

I searched high and low in the tank and I do not think I have a mantis shrimp, but I do still hear lots of clicking and popping coming from some of the rocks.

I started testing more water parameters today:

pH - 8.2
Ammonia - 0.12 - 0.25
Nitrite - 0.1
Nitrate - 5.0
Phosphate - 0.1

I am wondering how my nitrates got so high in just 4 days! I will do my first water change today to bring the nitrates down.

It is typical for nitrites to elevate nitrate tests.

[dood68]

looks great!! i think your right on the decorator crab, i looked some stuff up and i think that,s what you got. also the anemone might be a condy or pink tipped.

[dwculp]

I snapped a few photos of these brown things I have in the tank. There is at least one colony on each rock I received, can anyone ID?











This hermit is ALWAYS out and always in the same area of his tank, quietly plodding along.









A yellow sponge thing:

[dwculp]

When I transfered the Bak-Pak 2 protein skimmer from the FO tank to the reef tank I took the "bio-bale" out as I knew it would be a nitrate factory. The empty chamber would be perfect to slide the heater into.

Anyone have any opinions on this idea?

[CrewCab]

I snapped a few photos of these brown things I have in the tank. There is at least one colony on each rock I received, can anyone ID?

Those look like cup coral to me, I have them all over my TBS rock as well.

[dwculp]

I changed about 11 gallons of water, here are my water parameters:

pH: 8.2
SG: 1.025-1.026
Ammonia: ~0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 2.5
PO4: 0.1
CA: 400
Temp: 27C

Everything looks good! It seems more and more stuff keeps popping up in the tank!

[OCDP]

Good old TBS for ya

[cappn]

Im excited for you. Im going to continue to tag along in this thread as well. Im planning on starting my own from TBS in the next month so im interested in your outcome. Good Luck!

[Jounior]

Hey Teach... Looks like you got yourself some VERY nice looking Sun Polyps there as a hitch hiker. I payed 50 bucks for mine. Got 3 seperate colonys but hey yours where free...Well sort of!! Nice anyway! Great Thread By the way. Your levels will be perfect in no time I am sure!

[sickman]

Originally posted by dwculp
When I transfered the Bak-Pak 2 protein skimmer from the FO tank to the reef tank I took the "bio-bale" out as I knew it would be a nitrate factory. The empty chamber would be perfect to slide the heater into.

Anyone have any opinions on this idea?

I took out my bio bale and replaces it with caulerpa (sp) because I had no room for a Fuge, and within a week it soaked up all my nitrates, I always had a nitrate problem, but the caulerpa in my back Pak skimmer solved it. Just have to "harvest" some of the caulerpa out every 2 weeks, very good way to export your nitrates without a fuge.

[dood68]

hey teach i also yhink you have cup coral AKA sun coral, do a search here on rc they have very specific feeding needs, you need to feed each individual cup with a siringe, they are somewhat hard to keep because you have to feed them often and individualy

[dwculp]

Here it is day 7, actually, a little over day 7. I placed the rock in the tank last Friday at around 5:30pm. Therefore this is really around day 7.75!!

I came in to work do a LOT of grading. Grading papers is the bane of teachers everywhere. I enjoy teaching. I hate grading papers; it is tedious, often boring work!

The tanks parameters today are:

pH: 8.2
SG: ~ 1.025
Temp: 27C
Ammonia: ~0
Nitrite: 0 - 0.05
Nitrate: 5.0
PO4: 0.1
CA: 400

I see more snails on the glass today, big ones, tiny ones, snails on the substrate. Where the heck do they hide????? I am not sure but I think I may have witnessed a couple of snails breeding. Two snails were tangled up together and thrashing about on the substrate. I have NO idea how snails reproduce, but who knows, maybe I did witness snail sex. Either that or a snail was cannibalizing another snail!

After about 5 minutes of this the snails separated and went about their own way.

I found a tiny feather duster worm (a couple mm tall at most!) in the cave formerly occupied by the crab, he now lives in a hole right behind that one, which was formerly occupied by the spaghetti worm which made a quick move when the crab moved in.


I still have my CBS in the 29 gallon tank and I am resisting the urge to place him into this tank. I had planned on adding no livestock until after Thanksgiving. I shall resist the urge to put him into the tank for as long as possible!!

I have decided the big crab must go. I caught him picking on my brain coral. I hate to do it, he is a character and really fun to watch.

hey teach i also yhink you have cup coral AKA sun coral, do a search here on rc they have very specific feeding needs, you need to feed each individual cup with a siringe, they are somewhat hard to keep because you have to feed them often and individualy.

Thank you for the info. I did a search on Google and found some good information on feeding them. Wow, they look difficult to keep! Hopefully I can keep them alive!

Well, this post is now taking over an hour to make as I was writing it while doing some tank maintence. I wrote the above sentence about an hour ago! I decided to thaw some krill and try feeding the sun/cup coral. I took a syringe and sucked up a little krill and placed a bit on each of the polyps of the best looking coral. Withing about 5 minutes one of the coolest things I have ever seen happened! Each individual polyp began opening and ingesting the krill!! I have fed each of the other colonies, even those that looked "dead" and they all ate!!

OMG!!! I have just found my brittle star fish!!!! He is purple/pink about the size of a half-dollar with a central disk around the size of two pencil erasers. I had thought he had died as I saw him on day one and then again on day two when I picked up the rock. I never saw him again after that. I wonder if the smell of krill in the water has brought him out? He is right under the place I was feeding the moist krill to. Arrrgggghhhh, I do not have the camera here!!!

YES!!! I just but a little squirt of krill near him and now he is extending his arms, wrapping them around the krill and bringing it up under his central disk!!! He even took a couple of bloodworms!!

OMG!!! Crap is popping out all over the place!!! a few snails just exploded out of the sand, yes, exploded and worms are coming out of the rock and headed in the direction of the krill!!!

I wish all of you could be here to share my excitement!

I took out my bio bale and replaces it with caulerpa (sp) because I had no room for a Fuge, and within a week it soaked up all my nitrates, I always had a nitrate problem, but the caulerpa in my back Pak skimmer solved it. Just have to "harvest" some of the caulerpa out every 2 weeks, very good way to export your nitrates without a fuge.[

This is very interesting; wouldn’t you need lights over the chamber for the algae? How long have you been doing this? I may seriously consider something like this. I had originally intended to make my 29G FO tank into a sump/fuge but decided against it.

[sickman]

Originally posted by dwculp


This is very interesting; wouldn’t you need lights over the chamber for the algae? How long have you been doing this? I may seriously consider something like this. I had originally intended to make my 29G FO tank into a sump/fuge but decided against it.

Been doing it for months, first I had a little desklamp with a 10 watt flourecent bulb in it to grow it, but it grew too fast, now I don't have any light except for the light already coming from the tank and it grows slower and still does the job

[Pistonkev]

Tank is looking good take your heater and put it in your bakpak so it is hidden.

[jbucholz]

Originally posted by CrewCab
Those look like cup coral to me, I have them all over my TBS rock as well.

They look more like tube coral to me. The tube corals are more round, have a brownish color to them and grow in tight colonies. The hidden cup corals are larger, more white in color, more oval in shape and while they may grow in colonies, they don't necessarily need to.

- Jim

[cappn]

DW you really have a knack for making people jealous lol!