New to hobby

[Bergy]

i have worked all over schofield barracks...

I remodeled the quads, the officers housing, the medical center, and a couple office areas....

I was on schofield for about 6-7 years straight


I lived in haleiwa, and plan on moving thier in a few more months...  my next big stage is to have garage sales and sell all my crap...

As of your system... the nitrites isnt good either...  you should test those every day to see how they go up, spike, then drop... that is what you are looking for...

your lights are going to be 'weak' for corals, so not sure if you are going to get any corals or not, but you wont do well them... look for T5 or metal halide... (since uncle sam is payin' the electric bills)


I used to live across from haleiwa beach park/harbor...  and have heard my old house is kinda of in limbo.. the owner tried rebuilding without permits and they stopped her and its been a skeleton for years... too bad.. i could live there in a heartbeat...


anyways, gotta stay in touch as i will be flying out there in about 1-2 months....gonna check out the 'traffic' and how things have changed, hopefully not too muycn


btw, there is / was a great plate lunch place right across the street from main gate... near the lagoon...

also a great 'diner' in wahiawa,, ELANA's kitchen... excellent 'Fried Rice Omelettes'  omg...


i am getting so anxious...



btw:  good pics....

[rbond76]

The traffic is horrible in the afternoons around 4pm to 7pm on the H1 going North...

About the lights..I'm not keeping corals just a FOWLR tank.  The amonia and nitrites have spiked then fell again, as for the nitrates, I have to do a water change since there is nothing you can do to get rid of them EXCEPT a water change lol..

[Bergy]

Yea, fo will be ok with your lights,   it is up to you as to what color you like lookin at.. some of your pics look a little 'greenish', which is usually from white/yellow lights... but again, this is personal preference...

you shouldnt have any nitrites... nitrites are present at the beginning of a cycle.. when you have nitrites, then you will probably get ammonia...

nitrites are present before your live organism can process the ammonia...

when they spike, nitrites that is... then they usually drop to ZERO the next day... and usually never show up again, unless something is wrong or yo udo some serious aquascaping...

usually, when nitrites spike, they are off the chart...

anyways, i suggest keeping track of the nitrites by doing daily testing, around the same time of day... and see if they are going UP, or what???

I have never heard of gradual dropping of nitrites.. and there is no way to get rid of them 'cept to grow a healthy biological live filtration


anyways, stay tuned... i will let you know when i make my reservations...

btw:  how long you been on oahu???

[rbond76]

Been on Oahu for 4 months now...we just got here!  And I will do the testing every day around the same time to see what this sand did to the tank lol

[Learner]

Nice tank.
 
Free sand.....free rock.....coralline too!!  8)

You are lucky ;)

Is the small white rock looking thingy  ( technical eh??) a coral skeleton of sorts? :)

[Bergy]

yea, free is good, although i dont reccomend for most folks to do this, as the sand and rock and critters from 'more populated' areas are usually not clean...

also, other tourist areas are not 'suggested' collecting sites either, as if all folks were to take ONE THING< then the beaches would be scavanged and not pretty, nor would they continue to be good tourist sites...

and congrats on the deployment to paradise....  I hope you enjoy it... most folks end up getting island fever after about a year....  but, it sounds like you might be perfect for paradise...


good luck on your tank and on your all your hard work for all of us....

THANKS


Bill

[rbond76]

The live rock was bought through a family owned pet store in Ewa Beach..they ordered it from Molokai...which is the only place in Hawaii to get it legally.  They (Molokai) put the rock in a fish pond for up to 2 yrs then they harvest it.  It is illegal to harvest it from the ocean yourself.  It is part of Hawaii's effort to preserve the reef (which is a good idea).

The white rock thingys are dead coral skeletons, I used them initially for something for the bacteria to attach to while I was cycling my tank.  I have since took them out after I added the sand.  I got the sand from the beach right across from Dillingham airfield...not populated at all.  It's a very nice place to go to the beach with the family, tourists don't know about it lol. 

I tested the water again today.. Ammonia is 0, Nitrites are 1 and Nitrates are at 40 now...partial water change tomorrow.  I cant seem to drop the Nitrites below 1.......

[Bergy]

you might want to compare your test kit to another test kit... maybe have the lfs test your water for you???

[rbond76]

I'll try that

[Joy]

WOW!!!  Thank you SOOOOOOO much!!!!  I too live very near the beach, Fort Myers, Florida and was wondering if I could use our sand and live rock.  Thank You So Much!  Any other advice or tips will be greatly appreciated!!!!

Joy

[Bergy]

I ususally dont reccomend using local sand /water/rocks for a couple of reasons.


and not in any special order

1.  If everyone took rocks and sand, there wouldnt be any good stuff for others to see and enjoy
2.  the rocks/sand/water may not be clean... lots of run off into the local waters will be kinda ok in the open oceans but when placed into a small ecosystem will be too high a concentration to maintain an aquarium
3.  it might be against local codes and laws for collection.  There are some pretty steep fines/penalties in many areas...


Anyways, it is up to you to figure out if it is ok/acceptable in your area...