theyellowdartmti

Hey guys.

I have been wanting to start this thread for some time now, seeing as I recieved the tank about a week ago, but I've been extremely busy with school and such.

anywho...

The tank is a 24 gallon (actaully only 20) jbj nano cube with stock lighting and "free" stand.

The equipment (very basic):
-Stock powerhead/pump
-Hagen aquaclear 50 powerhead w/ hydor flo deflector
-Stock lighting (72 watts total... I know, I know)
-Visi Therm Stealth 100 watt heater.
-Surface skimming option
-Seachem Seagel (If you want to call that equipment...?)

Soon to be added:
Cheato for back chamber w/ submersible halogen light. (After cycle)

The rock was kind of steep at a little over 7 bucks a pound, but I am very pleased with it. One of the pieces is loaded with life and corraline algae. Within a half an hour of placing it into the tank I noticed several feather dusters, some type of brittle sea star, a very small mushrom, and what appears to be some type of bubble coral. And now, I see a ton more feather dusters, brownish/red zoas, more larger brittle stars, and more mushrooms.

So I'm on my way. Hopefully the cycle will be fast and painless like I plan it to be. (This is fully cured LR after all.)

After the cycle, I plan on adding one or two fish, probably two small occelaris clowns, and a few zoas or mushrooms.

These pictures were taken a few days ago when I first set up the tank and before I added sand. (Sorry they aren't that great... my camera broke so I had to borrow one)

A little messy...






One of the small mushrooms:


One of the feather dusters and a couple of mushrooms:



My last water test (1/13/08 w/ sand)
ammonia- almost .50
nitrite- undetectable
nitrate- 5 PPM
pH- between 8.3 and 8.4
Temp- a constant 78 F

Anyone know if it's normal to be getting nitrate readings this early in the game?

Thanks for looking and please comment!
Matt

Peterpiper

Hi Matt,
Looking good, and nice rock!
Should have 0 nitrates.. are you mixing salt and water or buying it?

theyellowdartmti

Thanks
I'm mixing it myself. It could just be me reading the test wrong. lol

Matt

Looking good

As pete said. You should have 0 nitrates. Buying premixed saltwater has proven to be the best option for me.

-Matt

theyellowdartmti

Thank you!

Ok, then. I'm probably just misreading the test or not shaking the bottle up enough.
Thanks for the help.

Matt

Its Okay. Here on FishLore We Love To help

-Matt

theyellowdartmti

When I got home today I noticed a very small starfish. It was probably only about 3 cm wide.
Very cool.
I also noticed this worm like creature coming out of the rocks last night when the lights went out. Again, probably only about 2 or 3 cm, but could extend to about 4 or 5 cm.