Am I doing things correct

[clownfishdaddy]

I just started reefing i set my first saltwater tank up about a week ago its a 24g lifeguard aio with 15 pounds of live rock with live sand a fluval water flow maker rated for a 440 gph and my temp is running between 77 and 78, it has plastic floating bio balls and the hard sinking porous bio balls in the back of the aio, i added fritz zyme ammonia and Nitrifying bacteria then today after a week i added fritz zyme fishless fuel to give the bacteria a food source instead of adding livestock for the bacterias source my question is am I doing everything right am I missing something because I feel like I am I just want to make sure I have a successful reeftank

 

[clownfishdaddy]

this is my tank

 

[Shirak]

I just started reefing i set my first saltwater tank up about a week ago its a 24g lifeguard aio with 15 pounds of live rock with live sand a fluval water flow maker rated for a 440 gph and my temp is running between 77 and 78, it has plastic floating bio balls and the hard sinking porous bio balls in the back of the aio, i added fritz zyme ammonia and Nitrifying bacteria then today after a week i added fritz zyme fishless fuel to give the bacteria a food source instead of adding livestock for the bacterias source my question is am I doing everything right am I missing something because I feel like I am I just want to make sure I have a successful reeftank

Looks nice. You shouldn't need to do anything else right now except just leave it alone and let the bacteria do their thing and colonize. Lights on just for the tank shot? If so ok but if you are running the lights each day .. turn them off. You don't want an algae bloom or some other light loving microorganism growing at this stage.

 

[clownfishdaddy]

Looks nice. You shouldn't need to do anything else right now except just leave it alone and let the bacteria do their thing and colonize. Lights on just for the tank shot? If so ok but if you are running the lights each day .. turn them off. You don't want an algae bloom or some other light loving microorganism growing at this stage.

yes I have a 12 hour light cycle sunset sunrise my LFS told me to turn on the lights day one and let the alge get bad to get a cleanup crew in then get it all clean start adding fish corals etc although i’ve heard a ton of turning the lights off and not keeping them on for a while so I didn’t know what to do I just kept them on But if turning them off and not letting algae grow is the best option then I will definitely do that I’m just looking to have the most successful tank I can

 

[Shirak]

It’s a small tank so I would leave things alone with the lights off and let the tank cycle and give time for a biofilm to cover everything. It makes it harder for algae to get a foothold later. After the ammonia is gone and nitrate has stopped rising do a near 100% water change to get all the excess nutrients out from cycling. Then your ready for a small fish or two.
Once you have some fish, lights 4hrs day is all you need so you can enjoy them when you are home. You will start to get some algae and probably need snails at least to clean the rock and help with the glass. You do not need 8+ hrs lights until you add some photosynthetic coral. Why battle algae if you don’t have to?

for now just add fresh water to make up for evaporation.

 

[clownfishdaddy]

It’s a small tank so I would leave things alone with the lights off and let the tank cycle and give time for a biofilm to cover everything. It makes it harder for algae to get a foothold later. After the ammonia is gone and nitrate has stopped rising do a near 100% water change to get all the excess nutrients out from cycling. Then your ready for a small fish or two.
Once you have some fish, lights 4hrs day is all you need so you can enjoy them when you are home. You will start to get some algae and probably need snails at least to clean the rock and help with the glass. You do not need 8+ hrs lights until you add some photosynthetic coral. Why battle algae if you don’t have to?

for now just add fresh water to make up for evaporation.

thank you I turned off my lights now and I’m about to test my ammonia from yesterday to make sure it has risen to 2ppm , I’ve been thinking about making a graph to track my ammonia/nirite levels during the cycle to get a more clear picture of where the cycle is at

 

[brandon429]

This is a skip cycle reef, meaning it’s instantly ready when you set it up and no bottle bac is needed. If the lfs sold you bottle bac for this reef they were doing a ripoff but may not have known it.

here’s two hundred other skip cycle tanks

A thread tracking pure skip cycle instant reefs, no bottle bac

right now you're googling failed cycle to retro find that example, hoping its from this year at least, and seeing still only more of my diatribe, is that funny or not types of cycles: -dry rock with bottle bac and wait for params to line up, add fish when api permits dry rock and bottle...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[clownfishdaddy]

This is a skip cycle reef, meaning it’s instantly ready when you set it up and no bottle bac is needed. If the lfs sold you bottle bac for this reef they were doing a ripoff but may not have known it.

here’s two hundred other skip cycle tanks

A thread tracking pure skip cycle instant reefs, no bottle bac

right now you're googling failed cycle to retro find that example, hoping its from this year at least, and seeing still only more of my diatribe, is that funny or not types of cycles: -dry rock with bottle bac and wait for params to line up, add fish when api permits dry rock and bottle...

www.reef2reef.com

my lfs did not give me the fishless fuel I went and got it on my own time along with the test kit I talk to a different fish store and told them what i did they told me to add the fishless fuel stuff then start testing my water and then once my ammonia nirates/ nirites drop back down to 0 to add fish in

 

[brandon429]

You can see by the link provided they were wrong, you paid for rocks that were already cycled. Moving to a new tank does not remove the bacteria or kill them. It was harmless though to add the extra bac, just a little unneeded expenditure

if you took all these rocks and instantly moved them to a bigger tank one day, then that tank is instantly ready. Changing the glass for new around a group of live rocks does not kill them. With this new angle, you are now able to deep clean the reef if needed, or make upgrades, or change your sandbed, all without every buying bacteria again. If you didn’t feed this tank for eight years the bacteria would not starve, they’re permanent residents of the live rock. This type of cycle you did is called a skip cycle.

 

[clownfishdaddy]

You can see by the link provided they were wrong, you paid for rocks that were already cycled. Moving to a new tank does not remove the bacteria or kill them. It was harmless though to add the extra bac, just a little unneeded expenditure

if you took all these rocks and instantly moved them to a bigger tank one day, then that tank is instantly ready. Changing the glass for new around a group of live rocks does not kill them.

this entire website is way more helpful than any fish store ive ever talk to, thank you so much, now I guess it’s letting the bac play out until things drop again? and the bottle was only 4.99 so i dont mind Lol

 

[brandon429]

Be sure and read the link, there’s nothing to wait for, you skipped the cycle. We show how the tests you are using to cycle are useless. They cause misreads and panic among skip cyclers.


your main issue is prepping for fish disease, read the fish disease forum to learn how to keep your new fish from dying in a few months.

Even though your tank can carry several fish, if you add them without preps they’re dead in a few months, spend one hour reading the fish disease forum to be ready.



you read about cycling techniques that are used on dry rocks but these above are skip cycle rocks, ready the same minute you set them in water. Dont test for ammonia or nitrite again on this tank they’re permanently controlled. Add some starter corals.

 

[clownfishdaddy]

You can see by the link provided they were wrong, you paid for rocks that were already cycled. Moving to a new tank does not remove the bacteria or kill them. It was harmless though to add the extra bac, just a little unneeded expenditure

if you took all these rocks and instantly moved them to a bigger tank one day, then that tank is instantly ready. Changing the glass for new around a group of live rocks does not kill them. With this new angle, you are now able to deep clean the reef if needed, or make upgrades, or change your sandbed, all without every buying bacteria again. If you didn’t feed this tank for eight years the bacteria would not starve, they’re permanent residents of the live rock. This type of cycle you did is called a skip cycle.

And now that you say that I’m thinking about

Be sure and read the link, there’s nothing to wait for, you skipped the cycle. We show how the tests you are using to cycle are useless. They cause misreads and panic among skip cyclers.


your main issue is prepping for fish disease, read the fish disease forum to learn how to keep your new fish from dying in a few months.


you read about cycling techniques that are used on dry rocks but these above are skip cycle rocks, ready the same minute you set them in water. Dont test for ammonia or nitrite again on this tank they’re permanently controlled.

I just read the link my ammonia levels are currently at 1ppm -ish , I won’t put a fish in there until my ammonia drops to 0 since it cannot properly extract its toxins with ammonia in the water

 

[brandon429]

Ok have fun

 

[clownfishdaddy]

Be sure and read the link, there’s nothing to wait for, you skipped the cycle. We show how the tests you are using to cycle are useless. They cause misreads and panic among skip cyclers.


your main issue is prepping for fish disease, read the fish disease forum to learn how to keep your new fish from dying in a few months.

Even though your tank can carry several fish, if you add them without preps they’re dead in a few months, spend one hour reading the fish disease forum to be ready.



you read about cycling techniques that are used on dry rocks but these above are skip cycle rocks, ready the same minute you set them in water. Dont test for ammonia or nitrite again on this tank they’re permanently controlled. Add some starter corals.

A local man in my town that grows coral out of his house actually said what you just said basically he told me to add some starter hardy coral so I’ll be going back to him in purchasing coral I also already tested my ammonia and nitrates this morning so that’s how I already know what they are at, and i will check this forum out right now it seems like im behinding on my fish readings Lol

 

[brandon429]

The testers you are using can’t read correctly


google this:


_______________ ammonia test reef tank misreading (insert your name brand of test kit into the space)


notice thirty thousand examples of your kit overstating ammonia, your tank is # 30001

(you paid for rocks that instantly eat ammonia, you paid for double bottle bac, you have no free ammonia)

after doing the google search you can see your tests are no way usable here. If you were using seneye, you’d be able to see your levels correctly. We don’t even need to see seneye, we already know what your ammonia is based on the rocks and the bottle bac, you werent sold dead rock and dead bottle bac, for example. Your ammonia tester has instructions for discerning free ammonia from total ammonia, that’s being skipped in your testing as well. The reason thirty thousand people report bad readings with your tester owes largely to skipping tan conversion as well. We got this all wrapped up and fixed


your tank was ready for use day one, and you never had one ppm of free ammonia. You have misreading test kits.

 

[brandon429]

Going off precedent you can clearly read in the disease forum, theres a 99.99% chance you will add fish without using any preps


based on fish disease forum reading, how is that likely to turn out


heres the forum below

Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis

A forum for discussing treatment and diagnosing saltwater reef fish.

www.reef2reef.com

as you can see, cycling never was an issue it’s the coming disease that’s the issue.

 

[clownfishdaddy]

Going off precedent you can clearly read in the disease forum, theres a 99.99% chance you will add fish without using any preps


based on fish disease forum reading, how is that likely to turn out


heres the forum below

Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis

A forum for discussing treatment and diagnosing saltwater reef fish.

www.reef2reef.com

as you can see, cycling never was an issue it’s the coming disease that’s the issue.

I have been reading the forums and I will continue to read them but my question is what should I do from this stage on since i added ammonia into my tank yesterday is it bad to get livestock or should I go out today and buy some invertebrates corals or fish or should I wait or is there something else completely different i should be doing

 

[brandon429]

the ideal move is exactly this:

no more ammonia and nitrite testing for the life of the tank, not even once more. they're done.

any you added is gone, and the tester can't report that for reasons shown in the searches. we use trust in wet surfaces from here on out from our big work link.

you build up the tank with corals you want starting today, add some clean up crew members. do a nice big water change before starting, to export all the extra stuff dosed.

build up the tank a month or so into something you enjoy looking at, then stop adding anything but feed for 80 days (no fish, simply run the tank adding nothing new but feed and water changes and watch the corals be happy)

at 80 days time, add in only fish that come from quarantining places or fish you've personally quarantined/observed and pre treated for their known maladies, straight from the fish disease forum. this is your strongest chance of success and its quite an easy, testless plan. the only two parameters you need to test for in the next 3 months are temp and salinity of your tank, be doing partial water changes weekly of a small degree that way your assertive feeding is exported and won't pollute the tank.

the reason you're going 80 days without adding anything is the fallow preparation you can see in the disease forum.

with this kind of pre action vs stagnancy and leaving the tank alone unworked, all your params other than temp and salinity will self balance just fine. the job is add corals, change a couple gallons water weekly as habit, be feeding well, keep the tank clean and tidy accept no algae takeovers, and after you've stocked up for a month then stop adding anything other than food and water changes for 80 days as the tank fallows. after that, add quarantined fish/all set.

as you can tell, few new reefers will follow disease preps they'll find a reason not to. in that case, when you add the untreated fish into the system that brought in fish disease from whatever tanks those live rocks came from, they'll live several months then die. You'll never have a cycling issue in this tank ever again

 

[brandon429]

Whats wrong with my clown :(

Woke up to my clown looking like it grew a white nose and it having stringy white poop.

www.reef2reef.com

case in point, this is how 80% of skip prep fish use tanks begin.

 

[clownfishdaddy]

the ideal move is exactly this:

no more ammonia and nitrite testing for the life of the tank, not even once more. they're done.

any you added is gone, and the tester can't report that for reasons shown in the searches. we use trust in wet surfaces from here on out from our big work link.

you build up the tank with corals you want starting today, add some clean up crew members. do a nice big water change before starting, to export all the extra stuff dosed.

build up the tank a month or so into something you enjoy looking at, then stop adding anything but feed for 80 days (no fish, simply run the tank adding nothing new but feed and water changes and watch the corals be happy)

at 80 days time, add in only fish that come from quarantining places or fish you've personally quarantined/observed and pre treated for their known maladies, straight from the fish disease forum. this is your strongest chance of success and its quite an easy, testless plan. the only two parameters you need to test for in the next 3 months are temp and salinity of your tank, be doing partial water changes weekly of a small degree that way your assertive feeding is exported and won't pollute the tank.

the reason you're going 80 days without adding anything is the fallow preparation you can see in the disease forum.

with this kind of pre action vs stagnancy and leaving the tank alone unworked, all your params other than temp and salinity will self balance just fine. the job is add corals, change a couple gallons water weekly as habit, be feeding well, keep the tank clean and tidy accept no algae takeovers, and after you've stocked up for a month then stop adding anything other than food and water changes for 80 days as the tank fallows. after that, add quarantined fish/all set.

as you can tell, few new reefers will follow disease preps they'll find a reason not to. in that case, when you add the untreated fish into the system that brought in fish disease from whatever tanks those live rocks came from, they'll live several months then die. You'll never have a cycling issue in this tank ever again thank you so much

the ideal move is exactly this:

no more ammonia and nitrite testing for the life of the tank, not even once more. they're done.

any you added is gone, and the tester can't report that for reasons shown in the searches. we use trust in wet surfaces from here on out from our big work link.

you build up the tank with corals you want starting today, add some clean up crew members. do a nice big water change before starting, to export all the extra stuff dosed.

build up the tank a month or so into something you enjoy looking at, then stop adding anything but feed for 80 days (no fish, simply run the tank adding nothing new but feed and water changes and watch the corals be happy)

at 80 days time, add in only fish that come from quarantining places or fish you've personally quarantined/observed and pre treated for their known maladies, straight from the fish disease forum. this is your strongest chance of success and its quite an easy, testless plan. the only two parameters you need to test for in the next 3 months are temp and salinity of your tank, be doing partial water changes weekly of a small degree that way your assertive feeding is exported and won't pollute the tank.

the reason you're going 80 days without adding anything is the fallow preparation you can see in the disease forum.

with this kind of pre action vs stagnancy and leaving the tank alone unworked, all your params other than temp and salinity will self balance just fine. the job is add corals, change a couple gallons water weekly as habit, be feeding well, keep the tank clean and tidy accept no algae takeovers, and after you've stocked up for a month then stop adding anything other than food and water changes for 80 days as the tank fallows. after that, add quarantined fish/all set.

as you can tell, few new reefers will follow disease preps they'll find a reason not to. in that case, when you add the untreated fish into the system that brought in fish disease from whatever tanks those live rocks came from, they'll live several months then die. You'll never have a cycling issue in this tank ever again

thank you so much this advice has really help I’m so used to fresh water that salt water it’s so different and advice varies there’s not many set solutions to anything or an exact way to go around anything especially with salt water and I’m still learning that right now I’m currently trying to figure out what I will need for corals like food and what to add in the water for the corals