Cycling my tank

[kylebrown]

I've just recently set up a SW tank for the first time and beyond excited about the future of the tank.
But.. Is everything okay at the moment? An employee at the local fish shop helped me set up the tank and just told me to leave my tank for 2 weeks before I do a water change or test it. I've text him a couple times and sent a few photos and he's said everything hunky dory.. I just want this confirmed. Thursday this week will be the 2 week point that it's been set up.

Also, there's 6lb of live rock in there with near on a pound in the back of the tank. I was thinking of adding more in the future when I have the funds to build up at the left hand side.

The first picture is yesterday, the second being today. The difference is quite a lot?

Any help is gratefully appreciated.

 

[KJ]

Welcome to R2R.

The Supreme Guide To Setting Up A Saltwater Reef Aquarium

 

[ReeferJohn408]

Looking good. Welcome to R2R.

 

[Amit Kumar]

Do a water change at 2 weeks. After you test the waters. When ammonia and nitrite is at 0.. and there are low amount of nitrate then you can add some hermit crabs and snails to clean up the diatoms. Or you can get your first fish. But I recommend not together either that or that. I'd go with a clean up crew and give it a week.

 

[kylebrown]

Thank you! The tank holds 75L (including the filters etc at the back) how much would you recommend? I was told do half, but then read up 10%-30% so I'm stuck on what to actually go for!

That's what I'm gonna do, go with clean up crew as I'm still in the process of moving house, I laid my floors and got the tank set up as a priority over moving other furniture haha!

Regarding the Aqua scaping. I want to look at a pair of clowns, maybe a royal gramma once things are settled. With how it looks at the moment when my tank is stable enough, would I a BTA find a suitable spot to call home there? And do you think more live rock on the left hand side or go with adding a coral to that side? Again this is something for the future, I know I'm a long way from corals or nems!

Thanks again!

 

[ReeferBob]

2 weeks is probably not enough time to cycle. You need to test the water. You should see ammonia, and then the ammonia should go away once the tank cycles. A newly cycled tank is at a balance between beneficial bacteria (BB) and ammonia. You should add fish slowly to a newly cycled tank to give it time to adjust and increase the BB count to support the new bio-load. That is a small tank really a nano sized so you should not put too many fish in it. Research the fish you want to make sure they are compatible and added at the proper time. A pair of clowns would be great for that tank. You are already showing some diatoms which will get worse before it gets better. Adjusting your water flow can help. Keep up on water changes at least 20% a week. I also suggest replacing your bulbs every 6 months to ensure proper spectrum. By a decent quality aquarium bulb!

Also Clowns are jumpers (along with many fish) so put a screen top on at least. Do that BEFORE you buy the fish.

PS Be VERY wary of fish store advice. Many of their employees know nothing at all about the care and feeding of the tanks and give bad, destructive advice. This forum is a much better choice for advice!

 

[kylebrown]

So would you say give it a 3rd week before I do a water change? I'll get the water tested tomorrow, I haven't bought myself the equipment just yet. Only a refractometer as I was told by the LFS to get the water tested there for the mean time. I was thinking a pair of clowns to begin with before I potentially looked at a bigger tank. Would a royal gramma be okay with a pair of clowns in that size tank? There's plenty of crevices for the little guy to be in and out of. Can't thank you guys enough for the advice!

I was looking at something to put over the tank as my father has a nano and he's lot a clown through the fish thinking it was a hurdler lol!

Ps how much water do I need to take down to the LFS to get tested?

 

[DeniseAndy]

I am not a huge fan of LFS advice as many either do not have experience with saltwater or reef, or they just want you to spend money. Cynical, I know, but unfortunately true. Now, there are quite a few stores/vendors that are excellent and give great advice because they have kept or do keep reefs. Not many of these types have actual stores it seems though.

So, my guess is if you bring water in they will do a stick test. put water on litmus paper and read the colors. May be okay for ammonia, but would not trust to much else. If funds are low, you can try a API test kit, but Red Sea is better. Even better if you have a reef friend to test for you or a local club that can test your water. Check out local clubs as they may be a great source of help for you too.

2 weeks is short and if you added live rock, you probably had die off which is not a bad thing for a cycle, but need to get through the full cycle prior to adding animals. Just give more time and try to get a good test done. You want 0 ammonia, 0 Nitrite, and 0-2 Nitrate. Then you can add some clean up crew for the algae you will get next. I would not do a water change until all values are zero. Patience is the hardest part of this hobby.

 

[kylebrown]

from reading other posts on this forum it does seem like money is what your local store for, as if something goes wrong or your fish dies.. You buy another. The local store is very known throughout the UK though, it's called Maidenhead aquatics and they do seem to have good things said about them, but not everyone in every store is going to be as clued up as each other due to experience with aquariums/part time job they don't care about etc.

I'll look into the testing kits, I'll see what I can do this Friday (pay day!)

I'll look up local clubs too! A guy I work with keeps tropical and has done for 30+ years.. Think he would have he necessary equipment to test?

At the moment I'm not actually moved into my new house, so I've got my lights on an 8 hour timer (is this the right thing to do? Again just going on recommendations from the shop) and I'm just going back checking everything's okay, cleaning the glass. Topping up with R/O.. Doing the daily stuff. So I can sort of beat the desire or urge to want to put any live stock in the tank at the min because I know I'm not there 24/7 to make sure everything would be okay

 

[DeniseAndy]

Lights on during cycling will only increase algae. They are not needed to get the bacteria going. I would leave them off. JMO.

 

[kylebrown]

Sorry to pester again, what clean up crew would you guys recommend for my tank? Thanks!

 

[DeniseAndy]

Never pestering to get help.

I would wait to see what types of algae you get going. Since you have some sand, I would definitely get some cerith snails. I also like the nerites and trochus. However, make sure you have enough to eat for the trochus. Margarita snails are nice too. I would stat off light and add more as needed rather than putting a whole bunch in. Need to increase load slowly and also need the food to feed them. 4 cerith, 4 nerite, 2 trochus then wait. I love nassarius, but your tank is not old enough for those guys yet. They are carion eaters and need more dead stuff in the sand.

Crabs, I only get scarlet hermits. All others have always been to predatory for me. Eat all my snails and other hermits. I also like mithrax crabs (green or red). One hermit and one mithrax would suffice.

Cleaner shrimps are nice and maybe a peppermint shrimp or two.

Once your tank is established, you can add more things that target specific items.

This is all my opinion from experience with many sizes of tanks. Lots of other opinions and all work depending on situation. Make sure to get lots of opinions and ideas before just running out and getting animals.

 

[brandon429]

I want to drop a tidbit

its the reverse engineering of every algae wrecked tank you can google, that went anywhere online asking for algae help. Your question about ideal grazers was their fork in the road; and they turned right, into the fields of algae. a mere left would've savd em all. they thought clean up crew was the breakpoint in algae, but it never was for us.

clearly you'll get recommends of snails, crabs, raspers like urchins possibly, or slugs, and some fish. no doubt myriad options there each w pros and cons but its totally amazing to consider that no clean up crews were ever needed for any algae wrecked tank to be algae free. thats a wierd claim to make for sure lol, clarify:

choose your CUC off what you like and the common recommends, they are all good at times and in intervals depending on the algae type at hand. But see them for what they are, and you'll never be anywhere but on the left hand turn.

CUC are preventers of algae, never removers, but only if you command an algae free tank from day 1 to day 3000. one can easily choose to let grazers remove early growths and they may get lucky, they aren't the ones with wrecked tank threads because things worked out for the all natural approach. but is that the majority of tanks? I claim not. its a vast minority. algae problems are the majority.

if you see algae, or any growth in your tank you dont want in a mature reef, remove it with your hands, a water change, a removal from the tank scrub off, anything that simply makes it gone. This is what keeps you algae and invasion free, forever, including all invaders. They are all optional, when you see a wrecked tank from any conditions you need to see that as a choice on week 2 where algae was simply left in there when it could have been removed. We aren't given permission to act outside of grazers, so many tanks are lost or troubled early on and permanently.

Normally a simple inquiry about CUC wouldnt draw into what causes wrecked algae tanks, and actually its neither nutrients nor clean up crews that cause them, its purposely leaving the baby version of the invasion in the tank to grow. Ideal grazer tanks are known because the keeper doesnt have to remove by hand, the preventers are working.

Until that standard can be claimed, help your grzers if needed, and you'll never have a wrecked tank.

I give you my word that if you track my reefs for the next 15 yrs you will never see one spot of any algae or any invader at any time, they've been all disallowed. I have no idea what would be in my tank using the old way./

 

[kylebrown]

My local fish store would stock the majority of these clean up guys without me needing to specifically order them in? It's a big store and specialises in marine so it'd be safe to assume there would be these guys ready to buy?

Those scarlet hermits are cool looking guys!

If my water tests okay, will I be able to add all these guys in one go? I know there's correct way to introduce my live stock. Acclimating them properly but will I need to wait a specific time between each one?

 

[Mr T]

Hi

I am on my second week so have been following your posts with interest. I have a 270l about 30kg live rock and approx inch of live sand. After two weeks of testing my cycle will not start as all readings are zero. So having read many other posts I popped a fresh prawn in this morning hoping that in two days time I will see some ammonia heralding the start of the cycle.........all day it sat on the sand, no movement. This evening I looked at the tank and noticed the prawn had not only moved but completely disappeared!!! Either I have quick sand or something in my live rock is a dam sight bigger than a "critter"!

So.....I guess the first thing I will be doing is trying to catch the prawn thief. I suspect he will not be Hungry for a few days. So have to wait a while until I can lure him out. Seems ironic that the first thing I am looking to do is remove livestock from my tank.

Also, today I put loads of filter sponge in a pair of old tights (not mine) and wedged it into the sump to start preparing the filter media for my QT.

 

[kylebrown]

Great insight Brandon! Thanks a lot for that! Really opened up my mind! This forum is going to be a great help!

 

[DeniseAndy]

I love the cuc for diversity and life in the system. Due to your small system, you need lots of life and action with not as many options. This is where what we call cuc come in. They provide a benefit to the tank as they prevent and maintain algae growth, they provide diversity from an animal perspective. You will not see a live reef without algae. It is there. Control is the best we can do for unwanted algae. Cuc and maintenance is how this is done.

My recommendations are based on many sized tanks I have had and what I personally like to see in my tank moving around. Maybe waiting to see what is an issue was not quite understood. All reefs need to find out what their biggest issue could be. All captive systems seem to have preferences based on your chemistry and maintenance of the system. Letting your tank mature before getting too much cuc was what I was trying to say. Know your system and what it can sustain prior to just getting a bunch of animals.

 

[kylebrown]

Haha Mr T! That's not what you expected I can imagine! I kinda wish I'd have gone a bit bigger with my tank however I'm quite happy for a first time marine aquarium. The size is very suitable for me with work, a new born child

 

[DeniseAndy]

Hi

I am on my second week so have been following your posts with interest. I have a 270l about 30kg live rock and approx inch of live sand. After two weeks of testing my cycle will not start as all readings are zero. So having read many other posts I popped a fresh prawn in this morning hoping that in two days time I will see some ammonia heralding the start of the cycle.........all day it sat on the sand, no movement. This evening I looked at the tank and noticed the prawn had not only moved but completely disappeared!!! Either I have quick sand or something in my live rock is a dam sight bigger than a "critter"!

So.....I guess the first thing I will be doing is trying to catch the prawn thief. I suspect he will not be Hungry for a few days. So have to wait a while until I can lure him out. Seems ironic that the first thing I am looking to do is remove livestock from my tank.

Also, today I put loads of filter sponge in a pair of old tights (not mine) and wedged it into the sump to start preparing the filter media for my QT.

That could be a big invader. Listen for some clicking or smashing noises. Then you will have to get that guy out or could be your only inhabitant (mantis shrimp). I also found a large green brittle star (serpent star) in live rock that killed three fish before I discovered what it was. This guy was hard to detect.

 

[brandon429]

Mr T there is something very important in your post, you may be cycling in wrong order of ops but I know this is confusing please consider reading this, your tank is like the one in this thread below

only systems using dry white rocks use shrimp cycling, live rock systems do not, because excess ammonia kills micro life you brought in as live rock

your cycle was likely never needed, see here
http://reef2reef.com/threads/week-2-tank-still-not-cycling.213996/