Hello GIRS.. just another new face.

Was in WDM this weekend up at the Petland, the guy running the sw tanks gave me the GIRS card.  TBH i didn't even know there were this many people intrested in reefs in Iowa.  I mean .. its Iowa.

Current setup: Cycling
80g tank
100lbs raised rock
2inch sand bed
2- modded Koralia 4
Eshopps 1200gph overflow
4-65w pc lighting 2 10k daylight 2 actinics
HoB Penguin filter ( gonna remove it and stick it in qt tank when done with main tank)
25g sump
Mag7 for return
Refug stuck cheato in it now with 6500k 26w? GE bulb, with a dsb
15lbs rock
7g gravity ATO
Testing cycle with Red Sea Marine testing kit
Started the cycle on Apr 19.  initially with a few cocktail shrimp but wife thought the house smelled after a day or 2 so I switched to Blue Ribbon clear ammonia from True Value.  I was aiming for a solid bacteria colony that wouldn't keep mini cycling with every new fish I added, so the ammonia fishless cycling method was appealing.  First few days I started dosing 50ml of ammonia till nitrites showed up on Day 5.  I let the nitrites take hold for 2 days till my ammonia spiked and came down then started dosing 25ml of ammonia.  Its day 12 of my cycle and numbes are as follows:
Ammonia=0
Nitrite =>1
Nitrate=>50 (realy high nitrite affects this on the red sea kit) its up there tho
sw grav 1.20
Tank can process 25ml of ammonia daily alot more then normal fish byproduct can produce so thats good, just waiting on the nitrites to come down I believe I've seen the spike in last day or 2.  With nitrates so high I'm gonna end up doing about a 90% water change (oh yea using ro/di unit from purewater.com)  then I should be set for some fish. 
Fish list as of late is 2 clowns, yellow tang, maybe a blue tang, lawnmower blenny
Not sure on what I want with corals I know I like Zoas, I want a rbtn I think and thats as far as I have thought about it.. I need to upgrade my lighting not sure what I want yet tho .

 

Posted By gb387 on 05/03/2009 05:15 AM
Welcome to GIRS! I do have a question... what did you mod your K4's with? SureFlow mod?
Thanks!! and yea I ripped the magnet and large impeller off the sureflow kit.  Increased the flow quite a bit we'll see how much life i get out of them with the bigger impeller.  And hello anyone from Marshalltown !!
Have family in WDM, I make a trip to WDM pretty often about once every 2weeks so thats good I've checked out Adam's, Petland in WDM, Petco on Mills Civic road... heard something about Seascapes or something gonna have to check that one out.  Any other good ones down and around that area?  Soon as this tank gets done cooking gonna need some stock so I've been looking.  Surfing TRT I came across a new store in the Minneapolis area.  Saltwater Empire anyone ever been up there? good bad? It came up in 2008 and the pictures i've seen show a nice clean place..i've heard some good things about them.

 

Posted By Bill on 05/03/2009 10:01 AM
Oh yea after looking at your pictures I have one concern. Do you have a check valve on your return? If not with it going that far down into the tank if your power went out you would have almost all of your tank water on the floor.Other than that looks great!
You know I looked into it.  After googling it a bit there are some pros and cons with it.  I hear they tend to fail over time they get clogged or what not.  I just ended up drilling 4 holes in the return about 1/2 down.  I can see if those are clogged and every water change I'll jam a tooth pick in there and clean em out real quick.
And tbh i'm not sure if I like where I have the return... since I have a raised rock setup the theory behind it was to have flow around 90% of the rock... the only places the rock aren't exposed are just where they touch each other.  Figure i'd have more surface area doing the filtration that way.  Atm my flow looks good, unless its rock if it gets tossed into the water it'll keep circulating the tank it gets stuck on the powerhead or gets pumped back down to the sump.  I'll see tho if I get to much of a film buildup on the surface of the water I might cut down the return and point it towards my hob on the other side of tank. 
And yea I still need to check out Seascapes.  Good to hear about Saltwater Empire tho its not that faraway and gives some excuse to hit the mall of America. I'd like to do alot of my purchases locally, as long as 1. I don't go broke... 2. They have a clean healthy setup.. 3. Good customer service. 
I don't wanna bash on stores if I don't like them I just won't go.  I initially got into the fish hobby by going into a Superstore.. the clerk sold me a brand new tank kit, along with way to many fish and not the right kind of fish for that tank.  Brand new uncycled tank with 10 fish was bad... 3/10 survived and it was frustrating.  I wish I woulda done my research first, I had no clue on cycling but what made me the most mad was the fact that the fish attendant didn't say a damn thing.  Completely trying to avoid anything like that so still looking for a lfs that meets my needs and respects their livestock as well.