Allow myself to introduce.....myself

[Aleks]

Originally Posted by Myka

Welcome to Canreef!!

What kind of lights did you buy? Take a pic of the Zoas you found, and we can confirm they are Zoas. I'm just worried they might be some type of pest like hydroids, aiptasia or majanos. I'd also just like to see a pic of your new tank!!

You should not have added any invertebrates to your tank yet with the ammonia at 4ppm. That would be like bathing you for a week in bleach. I don't think you'd like that! Those bacteria packets or bottle bacterias are a well done advertising scam. You could have bought dry sand for half the price and you wouldn't be any further behind. Sorry to break it to you. You should do several large water changes (like 50-75%) to bring that ammonia down under 2ppm. With the ammonia so high it will be killing off some of the biodiversity that's on the live rock you just paid a pretty penny for.

I would suggest you remove the Bio Loops from your filter because they are designed for freshwater tanks and will become a nitrate factory in your reef tank. Be sure to throw out and replace the rest of the media at least once a week but twice a week is better. You can keep costs down by using bulk sheets of filter media that will be about 1" thick or so, just cut to size.

Take a read through some of the guides in my signature, which simplify a lot of things for you.

I figured that the packet may be a wishful thing....I will do the water change, because that was gonna be my next question! What about the livestock in the rocks during cycling? Now, if I remove a bunch of ammonia, will it delay cycling? I thought the bacteria will consume it to create the nitrites and continue the cycle? No big deal, I just want to make sure its all working or I'll be chasing this problem for a while waiting for the whole cycle to continue.....

Filter media (the donuts) were always temporary, my intention with the whole filter is to just have foam and polisher, and occasionally run charcoal for clarity but not all the time. The foam is dirt cheap so no biggie, just keep the bigger stuff from hanging in the water, and let the biology do the rest (when established).

On another note, up to 6 feather dusters found, all sitting up out of the rocks proudly this AM. Also saw what I assume is considered a "pod"....Looked like an opaque spider about 2mm in size making his way up the coral? Neat to see.....I tried getting a picture of the things I think are Zoa's, but even with my photography skills there is waayyy too much distortion to get a good shot, including with my 90mm f2.8 macro lens....Maybe when it gets bigger

Thanks again for all the help, keep it coming!

[lorenz0]

Originally Posted by Aleks

No, same Aleks from every site but beyond.....turbomedic on beyond

No way lol. jdigital and i live across the street from you

same 2 from beyond and i am sure you are happy the exhaust is off the prelude now lol

[Aleks]

Originally Posted by lorenz0

No way lol. jdigital and i live across the street from you

same 2 from beyond and i am sure you are happy the exhaust is off the prelude now lol

YES! I'm a Paramedic so I work nights, I hate the fact that my bedroom is on the front of the house.....Now who's got the blue civic??

[lorenz0]

HA HA HA i had 23 complaints about that exhaust in a week after taking the silencer out. don't worry i hated it more than anyone on the street could which is why it came off. but the turbo accord is our other roomate.

but on another note, glad to see your in the hobby and your always welcome to come chat over here

[Aleks]

Alright.....updating things, and why not.....Levels normalized well, swapped some water, and moved some more peeps in.....Have 4 hermits (3 zebras), 2 mexican turbo's, probably 7 or so stomatellas, some little hairy hitchhiker crab thats less than 1cm in size (I'll watch him for trouble), couple little bristle worms (again hitchhiker), a bicolor chromi, and a peppermint shrimp (from RC, despite their love of aptasia there, won't touch any of mine....hmmm).....then just the GSP and the Kenya tree frag.....

Need something to stir more sand, had to do it myself this last WC cause the CuC isn't doing a good enough job getting rid of the accumilate.

Changed power head from a crappy topfin to a Koralia 1, and removed everything from my cannister as I had planned.....If my water stays clear I may eliminate it altogether because the K1 flows plenty for this tank.......Unless I pick up a surface skimmer, undecided on that, or park some rubble in it and some carbon....

[Boomboy]

welcome to canreef, i noticed your salinity is at 1.021 you should get it up to 1.024 or 1.025 before you get some corals in there. another good site for nanos with lots and lots of info on nano because nano are different than bigger tanks, is nano-reef.com go check it out.

[Aleks]

Originally Posted by Boomboy

welcome to canreef, i noticed your salinity is at 1.021 you should get it up to 1.024 or 1.025 before you get some corals in there. another good site for nanos with lots and lots of info on nano because nano are different than bigger tanks, is nano-reef.com go check it out.

Hi, thanks for pointing that out, I've had SG level up to 25 for some time now, that was the first mix....And I'm on Nano reef too, same user name

[Aleks]

Found a couple more hitchikers last night....One fairly large crab with big purple claws, he barely came out and just hides under the rock...Keep an eye on him for a while make sure he isn't a trouble maker.....Annnnd, something that looks like a small brittle/sand stirring star? He is in a hole in my rock, and he hangs his arms out of multiple spots....Probably 2cm across, and white/black banding on his arms....Wish I knew what he was...

EDIT: Peeked around, definitely a black brittle star....Hope he comes out sometime....

[Aleks]

More stuff going on.....Remembered my old Aqua Clear 300 (guess now 70?) HOB filter from my FW tank was laying around, so will be doing a Fuge mod on it this week! Stock a little sand, rubble, and macro in it and see what happens! This will mean I'm taking the Fluval 204 offline, I'm only running carbon in it now anyhow......My flow characteristics will change a bit, I guess the 300 is rated for 300gph, but its indirect so I don't think it will make things go crazy compared to the 180gph directed flow from the Fluval....

Hitchhiker update... Believe I saw a green nudibranch (not lettuce, just lime green) creeping along some of my rock in the middle of the night....Couldn't get a good pic, so no way to identify.....

Where can I get Cheato locally?

[Snappy]

Welcome to CanReef and I can give you a little cheato to get you started.