Fuzzy

Don't change any water until Ammonia is 0, Nitrates should be increasing if the cycling is going well. The white/grey patches should be dead or decaying matter, did you wash/scrub/clean your live rock before you put it in? Sounds like it was not fully cured yet, should not be a problem, will just take a little longer to cycle. Also explains why you still have ammonia readings at 20ppm nitrate. What kind of water did you use to fill the tank? Dechlorinated tapwater with salt mix? Also what is your water temperature and can you keep it below 30C at all times?

Hey thanks bro! The live sand and rock I got from you did wonders for cycling.

Buy an eheim? kidding, kidding. Why are you using a canister for marine? what media is running inside? Open check the O-Rings are ok, see if the plastic latches are cracked (usually the cause)

Will do, my chaeto is alive, but not in great shape, I was storing it in a small betta tank with saltwater and light, but with no flow for a month, before I got my tank up. Heh. Chaeto torturer..thats me. I'll see if it bounces back and update with pics next week. Some quick updates, splashed a little cash at GO (little over a blue note) Mostly humble little frags, don't laugh hor. Going to stock up slowly, don't want to risk the inhabitants going through a crash. Can anyone ID this coral? I thought it was a gonio sp. but I don't think so now. Got a bunch of multicolored shrooms on a small rock, one fell off in the bag and reattached to my LR scape, heh. Some really bright blasto. Small frag of Yellow Suns that just started opening Okie thats it for now, I need to meet up with bro fUel to grab some of his inverts this week, hehehe.

I just worked out how much I spent over the last 4 months prepping to get my first tank up, JBJ 28G. Close to $2500.00...I have basically everything I need except livestock but I've only got a few small frags of LPS and mushrooms in it at the moment. Could probably do it for way less than half if you were going FOWLR. But still, not for the faint of heart. This is relatively harmless as far as "serious hobbies" go though, I have seen people who spend way WAY more on their hobbies than we Aquarists do. Remote Controlled Toys are a killer, especially Helicopters, Modifying your Cars for Track driving is another.

Unfortunately what tends to happen to these tanks most of the time, is that the cover gets removed and the frankenstein-ing begins. Both in Freshwater and Saltwater, unless you're running a chiller, the cover tends to trap heat and raise water temperature. Also frequently the light is not strong enough and installing better equipment (powerheads, filters, skimmers) is very hard if not impossible with the cover on.

Hehehe yeah, I noticed some detritus accumulating there when I cycling, so I managed to ninja a K1 back there. Yeah the tank has 2 return nozzles, but the return is really not strong enough to generate any appreciable amount of current. I am still trying to figure out where the other K1 is going to go, can't really visualize the flow of the tank yet, surprisingly no sandstorm going on, I was expecting more of a mess. Need to get rid of microbubbles still though. I am going to wedge foam into the return compartment in the rear and see if I can stop the pumps from sucking in bubbles, wish me luck. Hee, I was actually on the prowl for a denitrator also, but that would be serious overkill for a tank this size, and I didn't find one that would fit my budget. I'll just stick to 10% weekly water changes for now. If I decide to try SPS when this tank is more mature, I'll start looking again.

I'm using the 3 stage Crystal Pro to produce DI water at the moment, its all ok, TDS of input water 60ppm and output is 0ppm. Thing is I've read that DI water is unstable and needs to be left overnight and stuff like that, is there any truth to that? If so what does this "ionic instability" do to a marine tank? I have some coral chips soaking in my 60 litre holding tank for my DI water, I use it for topping up a handful of FW tanks as well as for mixing salt and topup of my nano. Does DI water really need to be remineralized like its always recommended for RO water? Also, I know the Carbon stage is supposed to remove chlorine and chloramine from the water, but I sometimes still detect a faint chlorine smell in the output water, and have been using a small dose (5% of recommended) of antichlorine/chloramine in each batch of water I draw. Has anyone else experienced this with the Crystal Pro? I don't have a Chlorine / Chloramine test kit, and don't really feel that compelled to go get one...

For your tank size, you should consider the Hailea HC-500A. 1/2 HP, you will probably need the power since your temps can reach as high at 31.5C. Or if you really can't stretch your budget that far, use Fans and a HC-300A together.

Thanks for the kind words! I was surprised at how fast it cycled, probably had something to do with my using 20lb of live sand from established system and the live rock from the same system. NH4 - 0 NO2 - 0 NO3 - 15ppm (Did a 40% water change before adding livestock) Temp - 26C SG - 1.024 CA and Mg not measured, freshly mixed Marine Environment (should be ok I hope) I picked up a few small frags from GO last night, Yellow Sun, Mushrooms, red blasto, and what I believe is goniopora, but I may be wrong. Lets see how this goes. Feeding Hikari frozen Rotifers and Cyclopeeze, Hikari Mysis for the Sun.

Here's my noob attempt at scaping, I decided to use only the live rock I had been given instead of going and buying more live rock, broke... Here's whats the rear looks like Here is an attempted DIY conversion of an FR into a Chaetofuge reflective Mylar sheeting over the back of the FR, Stuff chaeto in, stick 9w PL lamp beside it, and hope for the best. Shot of the FR in the Dark My tank is in my bedroom and the light bugged me, so I decided to do something fairly ghetto.. Mmmm I think thats all I have to contribute for now

After pondering long and hard about making the jump from Freshwater to Marine, I found myself in a situation similar to that faced by many newcomers in our hobby. Confusion as to how to begin and a fairly tight budget. After doing a considerable amount of research (over 3 months) I decided due to budgetary and space constraints that it would be a nano tank, and then to started acquiring everything I needed, over the next 4 months. Thanks to many of the bros here (you know who you are!), I managed to get pretty good deals off the marketplace, and finally assembled everything. This is an approximate list and breakdown, not all of this equipment is necessary, I just decided to buy some of it for future use / expansion. All prices are approximate and to my best recollection, may not be 100% accurate, but its close. From Pasar Malam and AQ Forum: JBJ 28 Gallon HQI Nano tank (150W MH Lighting built in) - Full set Stand for tank Hailea HC-150A Chiller 20Kg of Live Rock 20lb of Live Sand Hydor Koralia 1 Wavemaker 250g Biohome ---------------------------------------$488 RM Fluidized Reactor RM 8" Calcium Reactor TLF Phosban 150 FR ---------------------------------------$240 Dupla pH Controller Delta ---------------------------------------$120 3.5L CO2 Tank and JBJ Solenoid ---------------------------------------$120 JBJ Automatic Top Off + FW holding Tank ---------------------------------------$100 Tunze 9002 DOC nano Skimmer ---------------------------------------$120 FOX External Thermostat ---------------------------------------$30 API Saltwater Master Test kit Tropic Marin Ca Test Kit Seachem Reef Complete Seachem Reef Carbonate ---------------------------------------$20 1x Digital Timer 2x Analog Timer ---------------------------------------$25 Bought new from various LFS: Salinity Refractometer --------------------------------------$90 Crystal Pro 3 stage + inline TDS meter --------------------------------------$225 60 Litre water drum -------------------------------------$17 Hydor Koralia 1 -------------------------------------$50 2 Bags Marine Environment Salt -------------------------------------$68 Tanita Digital Kitchen Scale (3kg/1g) -------------------------------------$57 20lb Caribsea Live Aragonite Sand --------------------------------------$40 Grotech kH+CA 3 Remineralization Purple Up Aragamilk TLF Phosban Media Rowa Ezeclean D+D Epoxy API Reef Master Test Kit ------------------------------------$210 BLV 20K 150w DE MH Bulb ------------------------------------$90 Eheim tubing for all plumbing ------------------------------------$40 Eheim Compact 1002 pump ------------------------------------$50 1kg Biohome Plus ------------------------------------$40 The rest of the cleaning/scaping/maint stuff I had laying around my house, or already acquired previously for my Freshwater stuff. Eeeek the Total damage is $2240 + probably $200 - $300 more of misc stuff spent over the last 3 months. I didn't quite feel the pinch as badly as I very gradually acquired everything. I hope I haven't scared anyone off, this is probably serious overkill, and you can probably do it for a lot less, but I wanted to be sure my setup was as close to bulletproof as budget allowed. Also, about $400 of the expense was for the Calcium Reactor which I am not even planning to use currently. Pics of the tank and setup which has just completed cycling to follow!

not unless you put them in a tub of seawater with a hang on filter and some circulation

If you are working on a budget, I recommend Hailea, but wow for a 4x2x2.5 you are looking at a 1/3 HP or bigger chiller.

You can buy Japanese Made (Scythe S-Flex) or German (Papst) fans from Sim Lim Square if you wanted to, you need to hook them up to a 12 volt adapter or other power source though. But yeah, the evaporation is a killer, I'm running 3x 80mm fans on my 3ft freshwater planted, and I have to top up close to 50 litres a week. You _must_ do daily topups in a marine tank to prevent salinity fluctuations, if you intend to stay in this hobby for any amount of time, you really need to invest in a chiller in your initial setup, unless you have the discipline and desire to top up daily.

I found another crab in the rocks when i got back, but he crawled out of the styrofoam box and into my garden somewhere

Muahaha I'll get a sneak peek at this tank tonight.

No PM reply for me I'll pass on the ATO then.

Ah ok the pump cannot be upgraded? thanks for the clarification!

Hi bro, PMed you regarding: ATO Auto top-up system - $50

ZOMG, 32.5 inch True Perc?!?!? Ok ok I know its a typo, I thought it was funny though. Best of luck on your new hobbies bro, always sad to see an aquarist leave the hobby.

Can this model be used out of sump also?

I haven't seen any at restaurants in quite awhile. where have you seen the edible ones recently? But heh buying from restaurant as pet it probably not a good idea, they've not be transported or held in the the best of conditions.

it clogs up and doesn't produce as much bubbles as a new one. Wow its stuck that tight?? I would try soaking it in warm water first, if still cannot, try vinegar solution. I suspect calcium or coralline deposits are keeping it in.

Oh and I have 3 cats..but cats not for breeding one