Freddie's 14 Gallon Reef

[frefal13]

Little bit of an update, I'm actually a little relieved, my cycle isn't completely finished yet, there is still less than .3ppm nitrite in the tank and the ammonia is all gone, it looks like it will be finished this week. When it finishes I'm gonna get a few snails and some hermits, that I may actually have to feed lol. For CUC I will probably get 3 snails, 1 astrea or tronchus, and two cerith. Actually I may get some small nassarius as well since I am going to have 3 little carnivorous gobies . And 2 or 3 hermits, I dont think that is over doing it a few algae grazers for the glass and sand and a few meat eaters for leftovers. If anyone thinks thats too much CUC for a small tank let me know, I am open to new ideas =). After the CUC is in the tank for a few weeks Ill think about adding my first fish, either a clown goby or the firefish first, I havn't completely decided yet.

[frefal13]

Some new pictures of boring old CUC! haha

Just some snails and hermits hanging out on a rock


Hermit crab going his hermit crab thing


Silly hermit crab thinks hes a snail


And a FTS which still looks exactly the same lol


I will clean that sand residue off the glass eventually....

Ohh and I will probably just put small updates in my blog, instead of putting them here. So check out my blog for small updates on the tank =)

[Cliff]

the tank is coming along nicely

[frefal13]

Thanks cliff! I think I am gonna get my first fish in a few weeks, and I will probably add a few coral frags when I get the chance to frag some stuff my from other reef to see how the corals do.

[Surfdog]

WOW!!!! your hermit can climb glass!!! Geez, mine are lame... nice setup, I really like the center setup its different and very cool!!! BTW WTH is a blog and who would search for something outside this forum that has folks who actually care about you and what your doin Fre...

[frefal13]

Thanks Surfdog! Well I wouldn't say the hermit can climb glass, more like he can climb the very small gap between the false wall and the glass lol. And of course I mean my AC blog =) just so I can save the big exciting updates for the journal lol

[frefal13]

Well I think I am ready for fish now, everything seems stable.
Parameters with API
Ammonia-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-10ish
pH-8.0 matches my tetra test as well. Not to bad considering my tank is covered
dKH(Tetra)-6.5 or 7ish, slightly low
I don't have a mag test or calc test yet, but I won't have any lps for a while so I am not overly concerned with that. I also don't plan on wasting money on a phosphate test that is going to be inaccurate anyway, algae is the best phosphate test anyway lol. As much as I would love to go out and get a clown goby this week I probably won't because I won't be here this weekend so I wouldn't want my new fish to spend his first weekend alone!lol
The diatomes dusting is growing too, some is on the glass now and its spreading on the sand, the hermits made quick work of it yesterday, but my lonely astrea snail essentially does nothing all day, it is definitely more active at night but I didn't think they were nocturnal.

Ohh and is there any way to raise my dkH a little bit? I think I am just going to buy premade salt water for this tank, after the price of buying the RODI water and the salt making my own only saves like 5 cents a gallon...but this way I am kind of stuck trusting the LFS to tell me the truth about their water, but I also don't have to deal with mixing it lol. Decisions decisions!LOL