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Waterbox 80.4 frag build thread

Prince Shah said:
I have 10 1/4" width my only problem is one side its the wall and other side is the aquarium stand. If it buldge and puts pressure on the stand I might risk breaking the stand.
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It says it’s 9” and you’ve got 10-1/4” of space. I wouldn’t expect 16 gallons of water to cause it to bulge that much and if it did your stand has to be pretty flimsy for it to cause any problems.
 
Flagg37 said:
It says it’s 9” and you’ve got 10-1/4” of space. I wouldn’t expect 16 gallons of water to cause it to bulge that much and if it did your stand has to be pretty flimsy for it to cause any problems.
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I have waterbox stand and it is sturdy. So i guess I will order it worse case I will have to repurpose it for something else :).

Thank you guys.
 
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Nitates are too High should I do water change ? should it be 20% or 50% ?

This is 10 days later after adding bio spira and dosing Amonia using Dr. Tims Ammonia Cloride.
 
Sure, but what's a water change going to do? lower your nitrates, and then they come right back with conversion of nitrites to... nitrate.

I would be running my tank lights out at this point anyways, possibly with something covering the sides if there's a lot of window/ambient light in the room and algae blooms are no longer an issue.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Sure, but what's a water change going to do? lower your nitrates, and then they come right back with conversion of nitrites to... nitrate.

I would be running my tank lights out at this point anyways, possibly with something covering the sides if there's a lot of window/ambient light in the room and algae blooms are no longer an issue.
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hahah make sense.... I didn't turn the lights but it does get some light from kitchen area. I will cover it with trash can bag to block the light. Thank you.

At this point should I stop dosing Ammonium Cloride ?
 
What do the directions say to do? I never added ammonia to a tank in any form, but I'm guessing what's happening is your have low ammonia because you have enough nitrifying bacteria to deal with most of what you add, and you can see that in the high nitrite levels, which in turn leads to high nitrate levels. I mean the fact that your nitrates are so high means it is in fact breaking stuff down, which for a relatively "dead" tank doesn't occur.

Do be prepared to do a fairly big water change when your cycle has completely though.
 
I would skip adding more ammonia. Just wait until Nitrite goes to 0.

Are lights on?
If so, definitely do large water changes, or with that nitrate level you risk having hair algae become established.
Otherwise, does not matter that much.

Do not be afraid of 75%+ water changes. It takes less salt to get rid of all the nitrates that way.
Nothing really in the tank other than bacteria.
 
No lights.

I will monitor nitride as soon as it hits 0 I will change 70% water.

Once I m done with it I was planning to get bengii cardinal but wanted to QT it for atleast 2-3 weeks. Is it ok for DT to be empty? Should I continue adding ammonia to keep the cycle or any other suggestions?


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sfsuphysics said:
What do the directions say to do? I never added ammonia to a tank in any form, but I'm guessing what's happening is your have low ammonia because you have enough nitrifying bacteria to deal with most of what you add, and you can see that in the high nitrite levels, which in turn leads to high nitrate levels. I mean the fact that your nitrates are so high means it is in fact breaking stuff down, which for a relatively "dead" tank doesn't occur.

Do be prepared to do a fairly big water change when your cycle has completely though.
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Here are the instructions :

The Process:
  • Day 1 - dose ammonia to 2 ppm ammonia-nitrogen [NH3-N] using our ammonium chloride (1 drop per gallon [After Nov 2016 when using DrTim's ammonium chloride use 4 drops per gallon]) [NOTE: do not expect your test kit to exactly read 2 ppm and it is not critical to get exactly 2 ppm. The key is to not add too much ammonia]. If using DrTim's Aquatics One & Only Live Nitrifying bacteria add it now (turn skimmer, UV and ozone off and remove filter socks for 48 hours).
  • Day 2 - Measure ammonia and nitrite.
  • Day 3 - If ammonia and nitrite are below 1 ppm add more ammonia: four drops of our ammonium chloride per gallon (check the label).
  • Days 4 & 5 - Measure ammonia and nitrite.
  • Day 6 - If ammonia and nitrite are below 1 ppm add 2 ppm ammonia. Four drops of our ammonium chloride per gallon. [NOTE: since you have added the One & Only your ammonia kit will not read 2 ppm and DO NOT continue adding ammonia trying to get to 2 ppm - just add 2 ppm ammonia (4 drops per gallon of our ammonium chloride) and carry-on.
  • Days 7 & 8 - Measure ammonia and nitrite. On the first measurement day (Day 2, 4, 5, 7 or 8) that BOTH ammonia and nitrite are both below 0.5 ppm (NH3-N or NO2-N) your tank is close to being cycled.
  • Now start to measure ammonia and nitrite every day.
  • When BOTH ammonia and nitrite are below 0.2 ppm (NH3-N or NO2-N), add another 2 ppm ammonia.
  • Continue to measure every day. When you can add 2 ppm ammonia and BOTH ammonia and nitrite are below 0.2 ppm (NH3-N or NO2-N) the next day your tank is cycled - congrats! You're done!
  • Do a partial water change and add some fish.
I guess I am on Days 7 & 8 will continue to monitor nitrite.
 
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Prince Shah said:
No lights.

I will monitor nitride as soon as it hits 0 I will change 70% water.

Once I m done with it I was planning to get bengii cardinal but wanted to QT it for atleast 2-3 weeks. Is it ok for DT to be empty? Should I continue adding ammonia to keep the cycle or any other suggestions?


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@sfsuphysics any suggestion for getting fish and QT?
 
Well two schools of thought for fish/QT. First I would always suggest QTing fish, that said if these are the first fish and you don't plan on actively medicating during QT you might as well put them into the tank and skip the QT. Now if your tank is still cycling I wouldn't put fish into the tank, as such QTing is a good idea however you need to have a QT setup which... is cycled so there's probably a bit of a catch-22. If it were me, I'd simply wait until the tank was cycled, then add the fish. In the future have a sponge or other media in your sump or "behind area" (for lack of a better term) ready to go that's loaded with bacteria so you can quickly just get a QT up and running.
 
Two key reasons to really push QT:

1) If your fish have ich, and you put them in display tank, the cysts will essentially infect the tank
That means you will need to leave it empty for months, or even healthy fish will get it.

2) It can be very hard to catch fish in a display tank.
If they do turn out to be sick, then you cannot treat them.
 
@rygh and @sfsuphysics thank you for helping (u guys are the best) but let me clarify a bit.

- First of all I want to QT my fish. In past I have lost two designer clown fish and wrasses to ich and other parasites. So I am all for it. Infact I have setup a 10 gallon tank next to the sump for that purpose.
- I will be travelling during holidays and will be gone for 5 weeks so I wanted to plan ahead. I am in no rush to add fish. For the very same reason I only started the top section without sump (so worse case salinity will swing but I have a friend who can fill in ATO container once every 10 days).

So at this point I have two option.

1. Do gost feeding to keep up with Ammonia source for live bacteria.
2. Add a fish with auto feeder and hope for best case.

If I choose second option I will have to QT the fish first. I was thinking that once my DT is cycled I will transfer some water to 10 gallon and use that for QTing the fish while gost feeding the DT.

Bascially, I want to keep the DT in pristine considition and I will start adding my LiveStock in Jan 2020. I could have started the tank after my holidays but then would loose time for tank to get mature.

Sorry for the long post.
 
Don't rush things in this hobby, EVER. You will always regret it.
So do not add a fish until you are back from vacation.

My suggestion is a bit different:
Start turning lights on, but a bit low.
Add snails.
Get some live sand and bits of rubble from a nearby existing tank.
In particular, bits of rubble that has coraline on it.
Scrape that coraline off and into the display tank.
This seeds the tank, so you get life other than just bacteria going.

Just be careful that you do not get a ton of hair algae established.
 
yes what he said, don't rush. I've done it myself, I'll do it again, but every time I do I regret it.

5 weeks of vacation though? Yikes. All I can say is don't get too attached to your tank, that is a LONG time to be away from it and not expect some problem unless you have someone who can look after it (and they know what they're doing)
 
rygh said:
Don't rush things in this hobby, EVER. You will always regret it.
So do not add a fish until you are back from vacation.

My suggestion is a bit different:
Start turning lights on, but a bit low.
Add snails.
Get some live sand and bits of rubble from a nearby existing tank.
In particular, bits of rubble that has coraline on it.
Scrape that coraline off and into the display tank.
This seeds the tank, so you get life other than just bacteria going.

Just be careful that you do not get a ton of hair algae established.
Click to expand...
Oh thats a nice thought. I could had some CUC once I have algae bloom. Alage will act as a food source and in turn I will some ammonia.

I was planning to go barebottom this time. So instead I have 1 gallon Bio Spira balls for bacteria to flourish. I like the idea of getting coraline alage. I might pick snails which have them and they can seed :).

I have read that in order for coraline to grow they need calcium and Dkh. I am not planning to dose anything for now. I use Instant Ocean Reef Crystal. (I know I will switch it soon to better brand). I wanted to use that as I had it handy.
 
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