my schedule is pretty free , getting me in the evenings is gonna be tough but ill work it out.

bring what you like , i have around 200lbs of rock on standby so i dont mind swapping some out.


when you come over i will give you some helpfull tips to keeping your tank clean and water where it needs to be , trust me its very easy just sounds like alot to do.

really think about investing in a skimmer, i know its a hard number to swallow but i bet i could find you one for cheap that would work on your tank , most any experienced reefer will tell you a good skimmer goes along way.

ill pm you my info in a bit:)

cheers

The problem is your rock. You have to think of your tank as only having 2 pounds of rock in it. In a new system if the 38 pounds were completely dry it will take around a year to cure with only 2 pounds seeding it. Yes I said a year after 6 months it will begin to seed and start becoming live causing spikes along the way, after a year it might be fully cured. You should not have any livestock in the tank right now as it's not cycled and with that much dry rock it will be 6 months before it starts to cycle and up to a year before you stop seeing spikes and killing off livestock.

No offense to you (and I'm not referring to you) but I get frustrated with numerous people cheeping out and buying 95% dry rock and 5% live and then wondering why on earth they are having so many issues. I've told many people who want to use mostly dry rock not to and said to them if they do they should wait 6 months to a year before adding anything live and they look at me in disbelief. These same people don't listen, do it the way they want to, and get frustrated and confused when they have nothing but problems.

Not sure if you have any livestock in there now but I would look at re-homing it until the tank cycles. Or if you can find someone to swap out some of your dry rock for live that should help, however that seems unlikely. Edit: I see Denny to the rescue! :biggrin:

Doing tons of water changes is pointless in a system that isn't cycled. The high nitrates aren't good but I'd bet they're not as much of the issue as I'm guessing the mini ammonia spikes your most likely having from the dry rock in your tank. Focus on getting the rock cured and I'll bet most of your issues will clear up afterwards.

Its was used from mature system bought from guy with rock

Awsome ill bring 10lbs ish then should be enough??and I got a small diy skimmer seems too be working...but yea if you want too do some searching great I plan on running a sump sooo...

i seen the pics of the little skimmer now while i admit i love a good diy , and it was an awesome idea, when you come to my house ill show you what real skimate looks like and how long it takes. i could even give you a loaner for a couple weeks if you want to try one before going all in?

mines so thick and black it could be passed as roofing tar lol

Did you wash the sand really really well? Old/used sand causes tank crashes due to the excess of nutrients it traps in it. If you didn't rinse it I would remove it all and rinse it out until the water runs clear. The sand will cause nitrate (and other) issues if not cleaned. When my boyfriend moved his tank 2 years ago he used a 1" layer of the old sand and it caused his whole tank to crash, he lost 2 rubbermaid containers full of sps, all his zoas and fish :sad:

It's not the brand it is the type of silicone. Avoid GE I and II.

Egh yummy lol..i cant wait too meet you and get some good tips...maybe you can give a lesson on uploading pics too lol..i have a bigger diy skimmer on paper but might just buy one..If u got a extra,small skimmer awsome

Humm okay umm I didn't was my sand oh boy..looks like I got a lot of work too do...when I pull rock out too trade with Denny ill pull out most if not all sand and rinse it really well...what do ido with my hermits snails and starfish tho...

K thank you...:biggrin:

Please test his water, too! I'm not convinced his nitrate readings are accurate, at this point.

Well are gunna I show him how I testhecan use his own test see what happens...
Also this live rock should really help with the curing and nitrate problems Denny and everyone I owe you a million

As others have said the sand should have been rinsed well. I use a large fish net to rinse sand & only do 2 cups at a time.


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When I swap rocks ill be rinsing sand very well...how do you use fish net?and ill be using ro water ofcourse?

Take 2 cups of sand & dump it into the net to wash it. Make sure the net is a very fine mesh, you will lose some so put a pot under the net to catch as much as possible.


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Awsome okay thank you

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Well lol that didn't work

ok so now we have a game plan right , use only the liverock i gave you , start from scratch, all new water.leave alone completely for 2 weeks and low light period.

get to buying yourself a decent skimmer and one of the small reactors i showed you and use the gfo you got(remember passive is better thaan nothing)the sooner these are hooked up and running the better off youll be in the long run.

remember all the little tips and in 2 weeks or so come see me again ill give you a tester frag to try out and we will do a water test and talk about some more ideas and tips:)

nice meeting you cheers!!

Denny, you're the best. :)

Were nitrates really as high as the test was indicating?

I'm actually not site Shelley as we didn't test. We do have a aide now though. Basically hos liverock isn't live and is not porous basically small boulders. The other is with 40lbs of solid rock there's isn't much water left in a 17g tank.....no water and no filter are a bad combo.

I sent Garrett home with about 25lbs of nice purple mature rock right from my system nice and porous too.

Now he has a fresh start with new rock and new water, small wait for 2 weeks then he comes back over for our first water test.

In the meantime he needs to get himself a small decent Skimmer and I gave him some rowaphos to try out

Sometimes a stepback is needed to move forward.

I believe his dense liverock and small water volume made for a unpredictable system....no stability.

Good luck buddy remember come see me in 2 weeks and we move from there.....in the meantime go for a nice hike or build a snowman....the tank doesn't exist for 2 weeks k lol:)

Ah. That explains a lot, doesn't it! It makes sense now, as the weight of the rock seemed to be far too high to squeeze into a tank that size. I'm glad you took the time to meet with him in person and get to the root of the system's issues. :)

This is why this site and the members on it rock!
Glad you got him on the right track.

Yea thank you sooo much denny your awsome ur set ups are awsome..i bought a red Sea prism deluxe works awsome...and yea it run lights a few hrs too admire the rock:biggrin:

Yea a step back was needed took a huge leep towards tho...i got a skimmer got ,my mini 7 gallon sump goin with the algea and red Sea weed you gave me...im not gunna lie got a free tiny frag had too throw in.too see it survives or what:wink:.but other then that what tank lol...

I'm glad too lol..If he didn't help me I would have been tucked lol

Dropping out of contest
 

Well after alot of trials and problems I'm sad too say I'll be dropping out of this year's nano contest...now that sand is rinsed well new live rock in now the tank is leaking..so ill be shutting down tank:cry:...buttt for good news I will not be dropping out of hooby but in fact advancing as I upgraded too a huge cube tank:biggrin:...now that been said I'm on the hunt for live rock..anyone got some nice live rock???