Cycling a reef tank

_Conway · Mar 29, 2016

randy4083 said:
Yeah I didn't put the fish in there for 2 weeks into the cycle and this Saturday is 3 weeks and I didn't plan on adding anything until it was finished with the cycle but what kind of cleanup crew should I put in their since it's gonna be a reef tank

March 24th you posted you "have been cycling" with a tang that appeared sick
That's a bit shy of the 2 weeks.
In order to receive good advice try to be accurate and honest about what you've done and when.
This hobby requires patience.

Reeferfourlife · Mar 29, 2016

You can go to Reef cleaners and pickup a package for your tank size. Once again wait til your tank finish cycling then add the cuc. Make sure the ammonia and nitrite is at 0.

Myka · Mar 29, 2016

I would add some Prime or AmQuel or ClorAmX to the tank to detoxify the ammonia. Once the detoxifier is in the tank your ammonia test kit won't read accurately though. A SeaChem Ammonia Alert badge will read ok with the detoxifier which is one of the reasons I like to use the Ammonia Alert instead of test kits for cycling tanks. You get a live reading anytime you glance at the tank.

The detoxifier won't interrupt the cycle, but it will keep the tang's gills from getting ammonia burn which will scar the gills and cause permanent damage.

_Conway said:
Find a new LFS as selling someone a yellow tang to cycle tank is ridiculous and cruel.

Reeferfourlife said:
Don't ever go to that store again. They will do or say whatever just to sell something. All you going to do is waste more money in the future.

You guys don't know that. What a customer interprets, and what a LFS employee/owner tells a customer are often two different things.

_Conway · Mar 30, 2016

Myka said:
I would add some Prime or AmQuel or ClorAmX to the tank to detoxify the ammonia. Once the detoxifier is in the tank your ammonia test kit won't read accurately though. A SeaChem Ammonia Alert badge will read ok with the detoxifier which is one of the reasons I like to use the Ammonia Alert instead of test kits for cycling tanks. You get a live reading anytime you glance at the tank. The detoxifier won't interrupt the cycle, but it will keep the tang's gills from getting ammonia burn which will scar the gills and cause permanent damage.

You guys don't know that. What a customer interprets, and what a LFS employee/owner tells a customer are often two different things.

The OP was pretty clear that the LFS suggested the tang for cycling.
Did you even read the whole thread. Your advice sounds like a LFS. Buy this and that and add this and you'll be fine.

Reeferfourlife · Mar 30, 2016

Well he was told to cycle with fish instead of a shrimp. The lfs should of ask him about hes perimeters before selling him a fish for a new tank. I know I started with bad advise from a lfs when it comes to adding live stock. Also I bought my whole setup from them with live sand and live rocks. But this was 12yrs ago.

_Conway · Mar 30, 2016

_Conway said:
The OP was pretty clear that the LFS suggested the tang for cycling.
Did you even read the whole thread. Your advice sounds like a LFS. Buy this and that and add this and you'll be fine.

Detoxification can delay a cycle.
Removing the fish is the only logical way to save it.

brandon429 · Mar 30, 2016

Pics aren't laser clear, but I claim to see proof of benthic life on them, implies full bacteria never partial, op has live sand and a few weeks and no current signs of ammonia tox from any organism

Voting heavy, no bac issues exist here

but no tang should go first. Web nerding is fun
Glad to know the badges work like that, different from typical kits that's handy.

I can see the consideration is at work that when moving tanks or buildings, bacteria die off. That's why I'd asked about macna convention setups. That's not one tank luckily pulling off a setup, that's a whole industry. They are simply moving cured materials

Op did it too. Lfs is guilty only of tang milling. Since these were cured rocks, not any bacterial retro scaling happened but only if those rocks are indeed aged, with a bit of coralline and color and deposits. Just my opinion on his cycle status.

_Conway · Mar 30, 2016

brandon429 said:
Pics aren't laser clear, but I claim to see proof of benthic life on them, implies full bacteria never partial, op has live sand and a few weeks and no current signs of ammonia tox from any organism

Voting heavy, no bac issues exist here but no tang should go first. Web nerding is fun
Glad to know the badges work like that, different from typical kits that's handy.

I can see the consideration is at work that when moving tanks or buildings, bacteria die off. That's why I'd asked about macna convention setups. That's not one tank luckily pulling off a setup, that's a whole industry. They are simply moving cured materials

Op did it too. Lfs is guilty only of tang milling. Since these were cured rocks, not any bacterial retro scaling happened but only if those rocks are indeed aged, with a bit of coralline and color and deposits. Just my opinion on his cycle status.

Only regular water tests will reveal how this cycle is going to develop.
I'm thinking biospira would be helpful at this point.
And yeah it's possible to setup tank and add fish in a day.
ATM do it all the time.

Reeferfourlife · Mar 30, 2016

Hes cycling status is on the test pics he posted. I could only image how high hes ammonia was when he add the fish about a week ago since it looks lke .4 now.

brandon429 · Mar 30, 2016

They do add mass drop fish agreed

john.m.cole3 · Apr 3, 2016

brandon429 said:
How does anyone set up a reef tank at a macna convention, with tangs, ten grand in frags and they have zero days to cycle?

That in no way implies the OP tank was assembled ideally, but just to set boundaries of either luck or controlled option...how did we just get a friends tank entirely across town without a cycle, including rinsing all sand clean-literally two weeks ago. Ps I did no work, I never do we just typed everything out (hope to see your tank 10th John.Cole but I might be in ruidoso w still meetup sometime anyway)

No fish should have been added here without test kits and as a first go. Rocks and snails maybe. People will always disagree here.

But the lfs isn't necessarily hung either

Requested pics

If the rock shown in OPs instant tang tank matches the opening color pictures in the thread above labeled as group b, the lfs is not a liar they are just pushing too fast.

Fish won't readily survive being put in rocks with no filtration ability, they'll self poison fast. From details given so far, he was likely sold group b rocks and a thread that's cycled hundreds of reefs says that's indeed possible

Do you have pics

To add to this no cycle with type b rock phenomenom, I did move my tank across town with no casualties over a3 hour period. That tank was up for 5 weeks before I transferred everything to my new and larger tank with 50 pounds of new dry rock, again no casualties. I added all livestock 12 hours after having salt in the new tank! I also rinsed my live sand for about an hour a bag to remove all potential for a cloudy tank. I moved LPS and SPS over ás well. Just had to acclimate my new t5 fixture.

Brandon knows is stuff and helped me out over this forum exclusively (even through i wouldn't have minded a extra hand to carry 5 gallon buckets of rock!)-

I'm looking forward to hosting our first meeting that gas been long over due.