Day #7 🐠🔥
Unexpected update… the Flowerhorn is arriving EARLIER than expected tomorrow 😅📦🐟
The tank is still in the middle of the nitrogen cycle, but we’re seeing solid progress every day 👨🏻🔬
Current parameters:
• Ammonia: ~0.25 ppm
• Nitrite: ~1.0–2.0 ppm
• Nitrate: 5–10+ ppm
• pH: 7.6
✅ Crystal clear water
✅ Nitrites processing
✅ Nitrates increasing
✅ Heavy aeration & filtration running 24/7
✅ Pothos added for natural nitrate absorption 🌱
✅ Beneficial bacteria growing fast
At this point the tank is officially alive — now waiting for the nitrite spike to crash before full stabilization 💪
The Flowerhorn lands tomorrow morning before noon 👑🐠
So now it’s crunch time 😅
Quick AI Prime 16 question for a new reef tank.
No corals yet — just copepods and clean-up crew.
I’m trying to keep the light low to avoid algae, but still make the tank look good.
Thinking:
RB 25 / B 25 / W 5
Everything else 0
5–6 hours/day
Light about 9–11” above the water
Is this a good starting point, or would you run it differently?
Looking for advice! Bought a used IM 120 gallon AIO tank from LFS. When we got tank, the inside glass was a bit foggy. LFS said fog would go away with water. We added water and things seemed ok until we turned lights on. Fog is definitely still there. This pic seems like where previous owner had his nori clip. Tried scraping it a bit. Nothing seemed to change.
Wondering if anyone knows how to clean it. Tank is newly cycled and I added fish from a smaller tank. Could move the fish back to smaller tank if I need to empty the 120. It would suck, but it will only get harder given more time.
So anyone have tricks to help? Either with water or without? Thanks yall!
How of doing people do a water change or how often should we do one. So my tank is about 4 months old now and have been doing a watcher change every two weeks. Its been through all it's cycles and now all readings are coming back perfect and salinity is also spot on. My question is do I need to keep doing a water change every two weeks if my reading are spot on or can a leave it a bit longer now ?
Update- Firefish went in first, Bengaii and Pink Wrasse 2 weeks later due to stocking availability. All doing well so far. Update on Week 11-12 coming soon as that was my first panic disaster week!
Hello community, I’m new here, crossing over from Freshwater🫣. Got me the Hello Reef 15g AIO, then decided I needed two more 5gs to balance out my pico tank shelves- each tank has a stocking plan, but we’ll see how it all pans out. Currently each are somewhere between 3-7 days into cycling with live sand and rock, dosed with Dr. Tim’s ammonia and either Dr. Tim’s or Fritz 9 live bacteria. Hoping to add first inverts by June! I plan to get each tank set up on an ATO soon- I was looking at Fzone as an affordable solution for these smaller tanks. What do ya’ll think?
Cycling my new tank - I find the waiting the hardest. Nitrites are 0,5ppm and Nitrates are 5ppm.
I still need to get my lights and I’m having a hard time deciding.
Day #7 🐠🔥
Unexpected update… the Flowerhorn is arriving EARLIER than expected tomorrow 😅📦🐟
The tank is still in the middle of the nitrogen cycle, but we’re seeing solid progress every day 👨🏻🔬
Current parameters:
• Ammonia: ~0.25 ppm
• Nitrite: ~1.0–2.0 ppm
• Nitrate: 5–10+ ppm
• pH: 7.6
✅ Crystal clear water
✅ Nitrites processing
✅ Nitrates increasing
✅ Heavy aeration & filtration running 24/7
✅ Pothos added for natural nitrate absorption 🌱
✅ Beneficial bacteria growing fast
At this point the tank is officially alive — now waiting for the nitrite spike to crash before full stabilization 💪
The Flowerhorn lands tomorrow morning before noon 👑🐠
So now it’s crunch time 😅
Day #6 🐠🔥
The Flowerhorn tank is officially entering the nitrite spike phase of the nitrogen cycle 🔬
Current parameters:
• Ammonia: 0.25 ppm
• Nitrite: 1.0 ppm
• Nitrate: 0.50+ ppm
• pH: 7.6
Good signs:
✅ Beneficial bacteria growing
✅ Ammonia dropping
✅ Nitrates appearing
✅ Crystal clear water
✅ Heavy filtration & oxygenation running 24/7
Now we wait for the nitrites to fall and the ecosystem to stabilize before the Flowerhorn arrives 👑🐟
Slow process… but worth doing right 💯
#Flowerhorn #Aquarium #FishTank #NitrogenCycle #Aquascape #Cichlid #Fishkeeping #MonsterFish
My first set up newbie…. Currently finishing up the cycling process
pH: 8.0–8.2
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0–0.25 ppm
Nitrate: 0–5 ppm
Week 5 and 6! I have definitely learned a lot the last 2 weeks with the help of some amazing experts in the field. They were hard to find as not a lot of people that are sellers take marine husbandry serious. My parameters were stalling and the advice to add more of the RIGHT bio media and some more bacteria saw my nitrites drop within 24 hours finishing my cycle. Some more water changes to come before fish but my first corals are in deviating from the original two planned to allow some learning. Mushrooms allowed me to learn corals opening and closing, rocks and frag plugs and what glue works and doesn’t; which corals can be glued to frags and which can’t and a whole lot of trial and error before getting things right.
Hey guys I stared this tank on march 23 not gonna lie I've only check the water one time since it's been up how does it look everyone's opinion I've did three water changes since it's been running haven't lost one fish or coral
Can't figure out why my water is soo cloudy! It doesn't clear up after a water change also. Any advice?