Jim's(bubbletip) 156g SPS Dominant Tank

[bubbletip]

Ok, where did I leave off. A lot of the live rock pictures you have seen are ones that were taken after the rock was thoroughly examined for any unwanted critters, brushed off of any detritus, and then rinsed several times before adding it to the tank.

Here is a pic of my live rock cleaning station. I have done it this way for 12 years. Each time I clean live rock ,I pull out my old box containing my nylon brushes, an old metal probe that I have had since I started reefkeeping, long nose pliers, short nose pliers, 3 buckets of water from the tank, some tote tub lids, a desk lamp, and of course my geeky head lamp(probably the most important item as it allows me to look in the rock for unwanted crabs, worms, or shrimp.



I wanted to do something different to test exactly how much water is lost to the addition of the live rock and to really know how many total gallons this system holds. I purchased 150lbs of uncured rock if you remember. So what I did was fill up 2.5 gallon buckets with water from the display as it was running full of water with nothing in the display. I first took out 7.5 gallons thinking that I was going to at least need to do this 1 or 2 times more. The water was used to rinse the rock out of detritus:



Surprisingly, after cleaning all of the rock and adding it to the tank, 7.5 gallons is all I needed to take out to get the water level back to where it was with all of the live rock in the display and sump. Wow was I shocked. I really thought this amount of live rock would at least take out 15-20 gallons of water. Just proved another point to myself that this rock is highly porous, filled with holes which did not require much water to be taken out. I now have a pretty good estimate of a 180 gallon system with water in the pipes, sump, skimmer, and display. This will allow me to accurately measure out any additives that I use in my reef systems.

After all of the rock as cleaned and thoroughly inspected I placed approximately 120lbs in the display and 30lbs in the sump to free up display space for swimming room and coral growth.

Here are some shots of the first aquascapes of the tank on its first day fo cycle:







You will notice no sand on the bottom of the display. This is my preffered method for cycling. Reason being is I can clean the rocks off with a strong powerhead(mjmod), blowing off all of the loose detritus that I can easily vacuum off the bottom of the aquarium. I will have certainly blown sand all over the place if I added the sand while cycling. This method also keeps detritus out of the sand bed which I feel is a major cause for sand bed problems that people face. I really feel that if you can blow off as much detritus as possible during the cycle, your sand bed will be much more manageable down the road.

As stated int he previous posts, the ammonia level never went above 0.5 and was completely cycled in 3 weeks time. I did weekly water changes of 30 gallons during this process. No livestock was added during this time as well. While the system was cycling, I had time to work on finishing up the stand and canopy for lights/fans. I do not run lights myself during the curing/cycling until the cycle is complete. I did run 2 daisy chained Phosban Reactors filled with carbon in the first chamber and Phosban in the second. This is the first time I have used Phosban during a cycle thinking it may prevent a brown diatom bloom. The brown diatom bloom came as usual, so my thoguhts on this are it is a necessary step of the cycle that is unavoidable. I have heard people say they have cycled tanks without a bloom. I have never seen this myself, especially when cycling with uncured rock.
So there you have it, cycling inside the display using uncured live rock with no apparant problems noted to date. During this time I also tested levels and made additions to get the system where it needed to be.

I as well as most reefkeepers are rarely satisfied with the first, second, or even third aquascape that is attempted. I will show some other pics of different aquascapes I attempted in the following post.

[CarmieJo]

Jim,
Thanks for this informative post.

BTW, I agree you can't avoid diatoms.

[Phurst]

Yep, great post. Fascinating theory on the detritus buildup in the sandbed from cycling. There may be somthing to that. Also a really cool thought on the phosban and the diatom bloom. Didn't stop it, but very interesting none the less.

It's looking really good. Thanks for sharing.

[bubbletip]

Originally Posted by CarmieJo

Jim,
Thanks for this informative post.

BTW, I agree you can't avoid diatoms.

You know Carmie at this point, I try to post as much useful information as I can. I am also always open to suggestions, willing to answer questions, and available to give sound advice as best as I can. It was certainly worth a try to prevent diatoms. After only 15 Astrea snails added the brown diatoms are pretty much gone in less than a week. So not bad overall. These Astreas went to town leaving bare rock behind. May be the phosban reactor helped. Hard to say without a control.

[bubbletip]

Originally Posted by Phurst

Yep, great post. Fascinating theory on the detritus buildup in the sandbed from cycling. There may be somthing to that. Also a really cool thought on the phosban and the diatom bloom. Didn't stop it, but very interesting none the less.

It's looking really good. Thanks for sharing.

Pearson,

I have made the mistake of putting sand in with cycling rock and had nothing but trouble with the sand bed. You would not beleive how much detritus came off during the cycle Even with rinsing and brushing off quite a bit before putting the rock in the tank. I used a MaxiJet 1200 modded with the rated 2400gph kit. Man these things are great to blow off detritus. The socks I use in the sump catches the majority of what was blown into the water column leaving a very clean tank. I had to change the socks out every 4 days when cycling typically after blowing off detritus a couple times every other day.

As far as the Phosban Reactor, I don't beleive it can harm anything during the cycle. It may have limited the bloom but like I said in the previous post it is hard to tell without a control. Again, I daisy chained two Phosban Reactors and filled the first chamber with carbon to reduce the organics in the water and filled the second chamber with Phosban. The carbon is great for cycling and keeping water quality up which may have helped to prevent a huge ammonia spike as well.

After the cycle was complete I then added the Purigen on the skimmer return to reduce nitrate and also to help polish the water. I have heard of people using Purigen when cycling and thing it is counterproductive. The whole idea behind cycling is to get nitrate to increase to levels that build the bacterial colonies in the system. If you use Purigen during the cycle you may reduce nitrate to the point that it takes longer to build up the good bacteria we all want. I would recommend starting it after the nitrogen cycle is complete for this reason.

Thanks for the comlpements, Pearson

[V]

redefined the word "rag-doll'd "

[Pinecone_Jeff]

Originally Posted by bubbletip

Pearson,
I have made the mistake of putting sand in with cycling rock and had nothing but trouble with the sand bed. You would not beleive how much detritus came off during the cycle Even with rinsing and brushing off quite a bit before putting the rock in the tank. I used a MaxiJet 1200 modded with the rated 2400gph kit. Man these things are great to blow off detritus. The socks I use in the sump catches the majority of what was blown into the water column leaving a very clean tank. I had to change the socks out every 4 days when cycling typically after blowing off detritus a couple times every other day.

First of all, very, very nice setup. Thank you for documenting your design and process. Awesome looking tank so far. I can't wait to see what your tank will look like after it cycles!

Anyway, your theory about problems with sandbeds that have cycled with LR is very interesting. It makes total sense. When you have uncured LR, it's going to have a ton of die-off and where does all this die-off go? It's got to decompose still, right?!?! When I cured my LR on my first tank, it was with "pre-cured" live rock in 5 gal buckets. I got it mail ordered and of course it had to go through another set of die-offs and the gunk it left behind in the buckets was amazing... amazingly disgusting! :P So I can totally see how this would overload a sandbed right from the get go.

[Phurst]

Yeah, I cycled with UNcured LR, and there was tons and tons and TONS of detritus. I was still blowing it off rocks every couple of days 3 months after the cycle. I try to blow the rocks off weekly now, but it's nowhere near as much gunk.

[bubbletip]

I agree with both of your points. Things can die off six months or longer into the life of the tank. The method I used with a strong powerhead really helped to speed the process. Blowing of the rocks as much as possible is still necessary. I just don't use as strong a powerhead in areas where there are coral. Otherwise I use a turkey baster and this seems to help as well.

[bubbletip]