Big update! The tank is born!

Sorry for the absence.  School has started and the rocks did not come in when they were suppose to.  But as of last weekend, our tank was born!

The water was still a little cloudy.  but the aqua scape looks good!

We got our order of rocks from Reef Cleaners.  We ordered 15 pounds of  dry Florida reef rock and put in the description the type of tank we had and the aquascape we were looking at doing.  We were thoroughly impressed with the product but not the shipping time.  We paid eight dollars for standard shipping which is fine but they did not offer any expedited shipping which would have been nice.  Regardless, the customer service is fantastic and the product is fantastic so we will definitely order from them again. :)

Rocks from Reef Cleaners

AQUASCAPING

Please enjoy a slide show of our many aquascaping ideas.  We measured out the tank and craftily marked out the borders with a book, a nickle and a pair of scissors.  On my day off from work, I pretended to do homework while I was really playing with rocks and watching Inuyasha.  It is actually a really good show.  The first dry rock runs ended up being the scape we tried to build.



A quick note when aquascaping:
It will be difficult to replicate your structure in the tank... Apparently glass is slippery. 

LIVE ROCK

We bought five pounds of live rock from Reef Culture in Tempe, AZ where we also bought a digital thermometer.  The rocks are very pretty with some variation in magenta and deep purple Coraline algea.  I am very excited for the colors. 

A good view of all three rocks from the "back" or kitchen side of the tank.

CYCLING
We ran the tank for a day while debating on how to kick start the cycle.  When doing all LR, you typically just sit back and wait for it to start.  However, since we only had five pounds of the stuff, we were wondering if it would be enough to effectively start the cycle in what we considered a timely manner.

There are three manners of cycling I found while researching.

One is the fish cycle which I disagree with.  You drop in a hardy fish like a clown or damsel and let that fish's waste be the kick starter.  However, due to the potential high levels of toxin this is very stressful and potentially deadly to the fish.

The other two methods are fishless cycles.  A fishless cycle is exactly what the name describes, a cycle without a fish.  There are two (actually three) common methods I found.

The Dead Shrimp Cycle:  You take a peice of shrimp harvested for human consumption, put it in your tank, and let it decompose.  While this is effective for getting your cycle started, it is also effective for letting deadly bacteria grow in your tank.  This is why the method is debated.  It is great for some people and deadly for others. Deadly for their future fish, not the owners.

The Pure Ammonia Cycle:  This is the method I use.  It requires taking regular, non scented, house hold ammonia (like janitorial strength ammonia from Ace Hardware) and adding it to your tank.  The drawbacks are the large concentrated amounts of ammonia and the effect it will have on your live rock, you may experience some algae die off.  Always research how much will be safe for your tank.  I put a teaspoon of ammonia in for 20 gallons.

The third/non practical cycle:  I added this as a sort of third because it is not practical for first time hobbyists unless you have friends.  This method requires taking filter media from an established tank and putting it into your own tank to kick start cycling.

So How Is Your Tank Doing?
Just great! Thanks for asking :)

We started cycling on October 2nd.  It is now October 8th and we have our first diatom bloom! If you don't know what diatoms are, feel free to reference my Proposed Set Up post and the videos from IPSF on setting up a tank.  In a nutshell though, diatoms are produced when there are high nitrate levels in a tank.  Nitrate is a product of nitrifying bacteria (the production of which is the whole point of cycling) processing the ammonia.

Blurry pic of diatoms.  A better view is in the video.

My tests have followed a good path of high ammonia=low nitrates=no diatoms and the moment my ammonia started decreasing, bam! low ammonia=high nitrates=diatoms.  So I will continue to monitor my levels.

I've been tracking my nitrogen cycle according to this chart:

Image from The Aquarium Wiki

As you can see, my tank is accelerated.  This because using the pure ammonia method put me at day ten on day one.  It took a few days for my nitrates to catch up which is to be expected.  Now I am waiting for the nitrate drop.  I do not have the test kit for Nitrites yet (in the mail from Amazon) so I do not know what my levels are.

When the cycle is done or close to done, I will post a similar chart with my specific data.  I've been recording all of my tests and keeping notes of any changes in a log on Excel.

Final Thoughts:
Here is the break down what the tank specs are:

Tank size: 20 gallon long (30x13x13)
Lighting: one AI Sol Super Blue
Filtration: modified Aqua Clear 70 Power Filter
Waterflow: two 600 Maxi Jet Pro Circulation Pumps
Heater: Well, interesting story.  We live in Arizona and it is, well, hot.  So I did not think I would need a heater for another month. Thanks to Murphey's Law, our tank temperature alarm went off at 5:45 am saying the water was 75.4 degrees.  Before the unexpected cold front, it was sustaining 77.5 all night.  So, I am getting ready to install the heater I got in my free deal.  I don't really like it so we were planning on upgrading next month.  We borrowed from next month's budget and a Aqueon Pro 100 watt heater is on its way. 

And here is the video I promised!