My new 80 gallon! :D

Me tooooooooooooooooo ,, I can't wait until it fully stocked & running

 

Tank looks great Pink. How long you think it'll take to cycle?

I'm not sure... I'm on day 3 and still haven't seen a drop in ammonia levels or readable nitrites

 

My 29 gallon took a while to get fully cycled. It was all of two and a half months. I don't know if larger tanks take longer or what, but I was starting out new.

 

I really wish that my brackish tank didn't have cyanobacteria. It'd make this a whole lot easier. Oh well.

But since I'll be understocking so much (at least for now) it seems that I can get away with using less than the 5ppm ammonia.

 

I got my sand today!!! $9 for 2 5 gallon buckets almost full. I think it's oolite sand... I'll go research on it a bit though...

 

I got some rocks today!!!
I went to the garden center and got some of the broken pieces of flagstone they use for ponds and stuff. I got a bunch of reddish flat pieces. I'm so excited to put them together!!! I got 50 lbs of rock for only $8!!!! 16 cents a lb. I was very pleased. We'd looked at lfs's and their rocks were $1/lb. So I've got enough to decorate about half the tank. I'm looking for a big piece of lava rock or a similar kind of porous rock for the other.
I'm happy. $8 is awesome. ;D

 

haha nice bargain, post pics when you put all the rocks in

Mike

 

I definitely will! I'm trying to figure out how I want to arrange them right now. They're long thin flat rocks. Right now I have them arranged like the below pic. It's about 32" long, 12" tall, maybe 8-10" wide, in a 48"L, 30"H, 12"W tank.

 

wow, you should definitely leave your wall as the background, that would look incredible!

congrats on the 80, I wish I could have one

 

Thanks!

Here's my secret: buy two little puffers that are so adorable that everyone in the house falls in love with them, then tell them that they will actually need a giant tank! LOL

 

yeah, i'm working on trying to get my 10 gallon converted into a dwarf puffer tank, we were at the pet store today and the dwarfs are just so cute and friendly! i'm convinced if everyone sees their cute faces long enough they will crack!

you better believe i'd be saving up for an 80 if I didnt live in a dorm , max tank size is a 20 gallon, well...i've stretched that a bit, none of my tanks (so far) are over 20 gallons, I have a ten, another ten, three fives, a twenty, and two 2.5s....when I get my 29 in here i'm just going to tell them that it's a 20 and that the 20s are 15 ...hooray for tank juggling!

oh, and of course they ALL come home with me over every single break....yayyyy moving

 

Oh gosh, that would be quite a chore! When I lived in a dorm there wouldn't be enough room for all those tanks! Plus the biggest we could have was 5gs.

 

HI Pink,
Sounds like the tank setups going great!
Hows the cycle going?

 

Hey Pete
Yeah, I'm getting excited. It's hard to find enough stuff to fill a huge tank like this lol
The cycle is still not going anywhere. I confess, I ordered a small bottle of BioSpira, because I really want to be able to put the puffs in the tank by my birthday. It's my birthday and I'm gonna enjoy it, dang it! haha. Even though it's meant for only 30 gallons, I figure it will be fine since the boys are in a 20 gallon right now. So, I hope it works!

 

How long has it been cycling now?
Your seeing no change in the ammonia??

 

It's been at least 2 weeks... and yep, ammonia is static. I even added a little tiny piece of mussel meat, seeing if that would provide other nutrients the the bacteria needed, and that was about a week ago.

 

That's very strange... have you tested for nitrites?

 

Yep, many times. It's always the pale blue (API kit...)

 

The ammonia you are using, it has nothing but ammonia and water right?
This is sus.... even a tank with just water.. add ammonia to 2ppm and you have nitrites within 10 days, and that's without adding bacteria to kick start it. ( I done it once to see how long it would take )

 

Yes sir! I got the kind from Ace Hardware, had to look all over this town and the next to find that stuff.
Yeah, that's how I hear it's supposed to go, but it's not. It's holding still and not budging. It's rather frustrating.

 

Can you use Safestart in a brackish tank?

 

I was consulting some people on the puffer forum about this, as they deal with brackish a lot more than people here, and the consensus was that Tetra Safestart will usually work up to about 1.008SG, and Instant Ocean's BioSpira meant for Saltwater will probably cover anything above that. So that's what I'm going to try for my 1.014SG tank

 

Pink I just want to say have fun with your project love the puffs and happy birthday (early or late or on time anyways happy birthday)

 

how are you going to attach the rocks together, silicone?

 

Yep. I already have some left over from a past project. I think I might have to make it in a few pieces though, I'm not strong enough to lift up 50 lbs into a 4' tall aquarium LOL

 

lol, you could probably just get in it it's so huge!

 

Yeah I probably could, lol

Well, as of this morning we have a nitrite reading!!!

 

Haha you are getting there.

 

From what I understand the nitrite phase takes 2x as long as the ammonia, in which case it will be another month til it's done...

 

I can imagine u are getting super excited and can't wait to put everything together. I know that feeling myself.

 

I am! I want to get this thing decorated and done cycling! My puffs are anxious lol

 

The puffs are fine You are anxious. .

 

When I get my own place it will be full of pets too lol. I can't wait.
I've played with snakes before. They are so fun, have the cutest faces, and are so chill. I knew this one snake that loved heavy metal lol it was hilarious.

Snakes are death ?, right back off topic haha sorry, cool for the nitrite readings D

 

I now have nitrates and lots of nitrites! Wahoo! Plus I added a small bottle of biospira to get things moving along so KiwI can come

Oh, and I added the rocks in last night. Haven't got the sand in yet though... I keep procrastinating it lol

 

Have you got some pics with the rocks in yet?

 

Nope, not yet. I suppose I could take some now lol. Let's see if I'm not too lazy...

Yeah, so I fell asleep soon after posting that last one (it was 2AM), woke up at 6, then went and got ready for bed LOL. Well, here's the pic now. I was still too lazy to get the sand in... maybe tomorrow lol. And I'll also be adding plants as well.
Oh, and since I added the small bottle of biospira yesterday... well, it looks like it's working. ;D My nitrites appear to be going down a bit, as they were very high when I measured them before adding Biospira. Now they're at 1.0 and the ammonia was at .25 (so I added more ammonia). Hopefully this can be all ready to go by maybe tuesday. ;D

 

I absolutely love the new tank and am definitely jealous!

 

Hey PFP, your tank is looking great! I love the rocks. Good job on cycling.
I wanted to ask, you said you haven't added the sand yet, it's that going to be messy to add it after the waters already in?

 

Hey PFP, your tank is looking great! I love the rocks. Good job on cycling.
I wanted to ask, you said you haven't added the sand yet, it's that going to be messy to add it after the waters already in?

Yes, but unfortunately I got the tank set up before I got the sand, and wanted to get started on the cycle right away. I'm going to try to put it in as gently as possible though...

 

Yes, but unfortunately I got the tank set up before I got the sand, and wanted to get started on the cycle right away. I'm going to try to put it in as gently as possible though...

I'd love to see you trying to do that! I'm sure it'll look great when it's done, but it'll be messy!