Its day 10 since my 110g was setup up using liverock from a local reefer's teardown. Things are progressing rapidly, too rapidly I'm sure many would say. Luckily I skipped the bulk of the nitrogen cycle because of the rock. I never detected any ammonia and likely little NO2 (Red Sea kits have poor resolution). My nitrates built up to something like 25ppm, but two series of water changes have cut that down to 4ppm. That's important because my tank came with a large blue hippo tang and the liverock ...
Okay, it is day 5 for my newly setup 110g tank. If you've been following then you know that I've got an unusual situation in that all the live rock I bought from a local reefer is covered with coral polyps and the used tank setup that I bought came with an adult hippo tang (disclaimer: I didn't seek out to add either of these!). I'm at a point where I've got several questions for the experts. Luckily I think that I escaped any major ammonia spike - my test kit has consistently been 0 or close to ...
Not that this is exciting to a seasoned reefer...but I saw a mushroom or ricordea coral eviscerate itself and then resorb its gut. I guess that it was pooping! I've only had my tank set up for four days so I'm looking forward to many more discoveries and gee whiz moments!
So I'm new to reefing and very excited to be starting my first tank this month. I've done freshwater plant tanks for many years and always avoided reefs because of the environmental impact. Well, there is no way around the energy consumption, but I realize that the hobby has progressed to the point that there are many sources of captive bred animals, trading and aquacultured products so I bought a used setup off craigslist. The only problem is that it came with a beautiful hippo tang. As you'll ...