Nano Fanatic!

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Nada

New Member
Hey as you know i recently bought a nano and ive just completed some modifications, i finally got a new ironcore ballast and upgraded it too a 36 which enables me to have 2x18w lamps (10k day/actinic) however i ran in too some problems, i wired everything up right and when i turned it on they would both flicker but in the end only one would light up, so i called up a mate which is an electrician by trade, and he advised me to get an electronic tridonic atco. ballast, so yeh when i have some free time ill get around it.

Besides that the nano is going fairly good by the looks and the parameters of things. Currently im just using the stock filter media, to do a little salt water test, everything seems to fine, the sand has settled and also the water, ive got my heater set right and my flow almost perfect. today i plan to go to the LFS and buy some better filter media, as reefman suggested if i cant get any chemi-pure or some chaeto (macro algae) just go for some activated carbon, abit of filter floss and also a tiny bit of filter sponge, not to the point i start to trap detritus! hopefully theyll have some nice filter media in today.

I also plan on getting my first live rock, and i have a question for you guys.. first of i know that the live rock at my LFS has been cured and cycled, it also has some coraline growth on it. I was wondering would/should i cure it in my quarantine first before placing it in my tank or would it be fine just to slowly place it in my nano (which is pretty much set up.) And also hence abit of kill off which will cause a small amonia spike thus the cycle begins?

Thanks in advance... and 3 more words,

IM NANO ADDICTED!

Regards, Nada.

:gcool
 
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reefman23

New Member
It is perfectly fine to put the rock right into the tank as long as there are no fish or shrimp etc yet. You will almost certainly have some sort of cycle, it just depends on how much die-off there is. you will just want a basic nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia test kit to monitor the cycle and know when it is safe to add some inhabitants.

BTW, once you are addicted, there is no turning back!

Jesse
 
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Nada

New Member
Ok so i went out and got some filter media, awsome stuff i bought some PhosGaurd which removes Phosphates and Silicates, and some ChemZee which is zeolite fairly expensive but very good products...

I also finally bought some live rock which has been cycled and cured... however when i got home and placed everything thinsg seems fined the critters wer everywhere, i had starfish, shrimp, crabs, lots of worms even snails! but yeh after i installed the filter media things started going wrong, the ph dropped to almost 7.0! and theres this cloudy smoke particles in the water its like clouds similar to a white haze... my filter media consist of activated carbon, some phos gaurd, chemizee, abit of folter sponge and some filter wool.

Alot of my critters have died, should i change the water? or just up the ph, by the way the ammonia has shot off the roof!

Thanks in advance.
 
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Nada

New Member
LOL oh gosh abit to late sigh, ok ill remove everything and just leave the filter floss GRR :anxious

AND ill re-change the water and clean out the dam sand... sigh..
 
TimSchmidt

TimSchmidt

New Member
Don't get discouraged. Just go slow and steady. If in doubt, get an answer you feel comfortable with, and then proceed with a healthy bit of caution. :lol:
 
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SaltWaterNewb

Member
Which I don't understand what really happened if the rock you got was cured. How long was it out of the water? You did buy it locally, correct? I would say that one of the chemical medias you used caused the pH crash which killed your critters which caused the ammonia. Take out all the media, do a large water change and clean out as much of the dead stuff as you can. Hopefully the pH will return to normal and your tank will most likely go through a mini cycle at least since stuff has died in the tank. If you still have living critters in there you can try to keep them alive by doing a soft cycle which means doing daily water changes keeping the ammonia and nitrite levels low but it takes longer.
 
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Nada

New Member
wow that was scary, but im still hanging in there.. i done a huge water change and cleaned pretty much all the subtrate, AND live rock, seems like the rock wasnt cured after all GRR i hate my lfs sigh... well ive rearranged everything and just pre-mixed some salt water, and added it in, and took out all the filter media and just left some activated carbon and some filter floss, the water is now pretty much clear and at least theres no stench left... i also done a quick ph test and its perfect.

Hopefully the tank does its mini cycle and i shall change the water daily to keep down the ammonia etc.

wish me luck... ARGHH this is so hard!
 
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SaltWaterNewb

Member
Yeah, hard lesson but you just learned that you can rarely believe your LFS. I am sure they charged more for that rock too. We have the same issues in the states. LFS telling you whatever so they can make a quick sale. That is why places like this are great. You are told the truth and you have access to tons of info so you can make your own educated choices.
 
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reefman23

New Member
IMO and the opinion of some others though, uncured live rock (likely what you got) can be preferable for its diversity of life. You will be amazed at what will make it! You will be seeing new things for months to come.

Jesse
 
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Nada

New Member
hrm i guess, i think they just try take advantage of me due to my lack of knowledge towards the saltwater hobby, with the FW stuff they can never try anything, usually i always get the better half lol.

Sigh i hope some things do live, just a shame alot of them died. there wer 3 crabs, and a small shrimp kind of looked like a yabby one big claw and a small one with stripes, also had a very tiny starfish oh and some plants, like little invertabrates swishing there stuff around, and alot of worms. Well there gone now, i guess they make the sacrifice to get the cycle going. hopefully my live rock isnt dead all together.
 
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Nada

New Member
OMG its doing it again, the ph is starting to drop and that stinky white cloud is happening all over again. ill do a 50% water change tomorow, do you guys know what the problem could be? would it just be the dying critters causing this ph drop and cloudy water?
 
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Nada

New Member
At the moment you cant really see the cloudly haze, but i know itll get worst like before, day by day it just keeps building up and soon youll be able to see dark hazy swirls (that smells)..

This is when i done a water change after the bad haze and smell, i cleaned the subtrate, scrubbed the live rock and even cleaned my filter and glass, everything seemed to be fine even the ph..





Below is after a day or 2 all i have in my filter media is just some filter floss and csome activated carbon, the haze isnt as bad but i know itll build up..







So what do you guys suggest? just keep at the water changes? or should i add some sort of different media? at first i thought it was because the water level was to high so i took some out, but yeh no difference.
 
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Nada

New Member
i started playing around abit with the filter media and i think one of the problems was the activated carbon was blocking some water flow, ive now removed it and it seems as if theres more ripples in the water, hence some more water flow, im thinking i should get a power head or just mod the filter abit eg cut out the plastic barriers so its just one complete filter?
 
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reefman23

New Member
You don't rally want to be doing water changes until your cycle wraps up. I would wait it out and are what happens. You really will be surprised to see what makes it.

Jesse
 
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KidNano

New Member
Well first thing you want to do is get rid of that film on the surface of the water. Aim your return line up so that it disrupts the surface of the water. you might want to try removing some of that junk first though. I'm not sure what else to do as I haven't experienced anything like that. However, if it were my tank I would throw the carbon back in.

I do agree with Jesse about waiting it out though. :???:
 
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