ThE StArT Of My 120 BB sPs TaNk

[trueblackpercula]

I have started a in wall 120 BB..........
It has starboard bottom
Glasscages made it for me 30x30x31
The sump is PM
The skimmer Is a MRC MR2 single becket
Blue line HD 40 runs the skimmer
blue line 30 for the return
OM squirt For returning back into the tank
150watt VHO Actincs on an Icecap electronic ballast
250watt SE Megachrome 13,000k bulb
80 pounds of Uaniva rock love it by the way
100 blue leg hermits and 50 astrea snails
here are some pictures of the setup.
Uaniva Live Rock

[trueblackpercula]

here is the OM squirt

[Leonardo's Reef]

Very nice tank and equipment! I'll follow the progress.

-Leonardo

[Viv]

What is an OM squirt? Never heard of this before.

[Wiskey]

Sweet!! I am glad you figured out the picture thing!!!! I was following your "other" thread for some time. I didn't post much (sorry but there is a reason), though I read every reply. Good to see you are continuing it here.

The OEM squirt is a current changing device, like a Squid but no restriction.

Whiskey

[Loverotties]

Looks AWSOME!

[trueblackpercula]

Thanks everyone I was courios to find out after testing the water today i found that my nitrates are 10ppm how is this possible/ there are no fish,no feedings and i change water once a week.

[trueblackpercula]

Salinity 1.026

P.H. 8.2

AMMONIA 0 PPM

NITRITE 0 PPM

NITRATE 10 PPM has gone up what would be the cause? (no feeding, fish or sand)

CALCIUM 430

ALKALINITY 10.8 Has gone down some
I have been adding b-ionic every other day 3mls

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by trueblackpercula

Thanks everyone I was courios to find out after testing the water today i found that my nitrates are 10ppm how is this possible/ there are no fish,no feedings and i change water once a week.

but you have rock in there right? I would bet it is cleaning up. Personally I would not add any fish until the rock cleans up and that goes down to 0.

My 50 has about 10 nitrate with no fish too, the rock is sheading. My 15 went up to a nitrate of about 15-25 as the rock cleaned up, but now it is dropping, at about 2.5 last test, probably about 0 now.

Whiskey

[trueblackpercula]

I was told that BB tanks always have high nitrates and that a sand bed would take care of it. I do not want a sand bed so how do we overcome the battle?

[Wiskey]

That is not true, your LR will de-nitrify the same way a sand bed will. You just have to wait for your live rock to clean up and settle down.

Spanky has a huge fish load, and 0 nitrates.

Whiskey

[trueblackpercula]

here a few pictures of the skimmer in action

[trueblackpercula]

I am starting to ge the hang of it

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by trueblackpercula

I am starting to ge the hang of it

Sweet!

One thing I notice is that you are running that skimmer pretty dry, crank that sucker up! You nitrate just might go away

Whiskey

[trueblackpercula]

The owner Andy of Mrc told me that there skimmers run better when run dry. I had it running wet but he told me not to. Maybe I will go back to wet and see if that helps with the nitrates. In any case as long as it is working LMAO