Cycling tank test results. What next?

[vlangel]

Bio-wheels are also OK if you start out with softies as they can actually utilize some nitrates and phosphates as food. There are phosphate reducing pads that you can put in your HOB filter pump that will help some. They aren't as efficient as reactors but they are helpful. Small bi-weekly water changes go a long way with controlling nitrates as well. Its too late for this but for future reference a DSB (deep sand bed) is a very effective way of controlling nitrates also. Be sure to research it first as they have certain requirements to be effective.

 

[ReefPiracy]

turtle wins the race.

 

[scoobysnack77]

Id be patient. those nitrates are pretty high for fish and inverts. Id get a refugium started with cheato to begin feeding on those nitrates and phosphates. Patience is key. i know its hard to wait , lol. i was excited when i saw tiny star fish on my live rock so you could imagine how eager i was to get fish and coral. u want your animals to be happy and comfortable to get all your parameters in line first. I had a bit of a PH struggle in the beginning so watch that as well.

 

[gemini9]

Yes it is hard to be patient. I want my fish soooo bad lol. I have a few pods in there tho! Lol teeny tiny things the size of dust. I have quite a few of them. But still no diatoms.

 

[scoobysnack77]

Yes it is hard to be patient. I want my fish soooo bad lol. I have a few pods in there tho! Lol teeny tiny things the size of dust. I have quite a few of them. But still no diatoms.

I had live rock straight from a 10 year old tank with little or no die off. my tank cycled in a day or so. i had to wait for a few months to add acros and i was pulling my hair out. acros do NOT like high nitrate or phosphates. they need small amounts of both. my patience payed off cuz now my corals look great and my fish and inverts are happy and disease free. i ordered ALL my fish from live aquaria. not one single fish I've ever gotten from there had ich or any other disease. all my tangs and fish are ich free.

 

[gemini9]

So yesterday I did a 20% water change, added my circulation pump and added some dry rock. I have 2 carbon filters in my Marineland HOB filter and I changed one of them to try and clear up some of the murkiness in the water. My water has been slightly cloudy for almost a week now. I checked my readings again and they are as follows

Ammonia: .50 ppm (I have NEVER seem my ammonia higher than .5... is that weird?
Nitrite: 1.0 ppmNitrate: over 160 ppmHigh Range pH: about 8.1 Salinity: 1.021Temp: 77

This spike in all my tests are probably due to adding the dry rock I'm guessing? I still have no diatoms growing and my water is a little cloudy still. I'm going to pick up 2 or 3 pounds of live rock at the LFS to help seed the rest of the rock in my tank I think. Should I buy any more tests while I'm out? Alkilinity test or copper test or anything like that? And should I do another water change now, or wait a few days?

 

[vlangel]

No, you are good for test kits for now. If you do a lot of LPS and or SPS you will need a calcium and magnesium kit but not yet. You could probably do another water change now. The carbon will really clear up your water too.

 

[gemini9]

Speaking of carbon, I read somewhere (can't remember where) that too much carbon can be bad for your tank because it releases Phosphates. Is this true? If so, how much is too much? I plan on changing my HOB carbon filters every 2 weeks. Is that too much?

 

[scoobysnack77]

So yesterday I did a 20% water change, added my circulation pump and added some dry rock. I have 2 carbon filters in my Marineland HOB filter and I changed one of them to try and clear up some of the murkiness in the water. My water has been slightly cloudy for almost a week now. I checked my readings again and they are as follows

Ammonia: .50 ppm (I have NEVER seem my ammonia higher than .5... is that weird?
Nitrite: 1.0 ppmNitrate: over 160 ppmHigh Range pH: about 8.1 Salinity: 1.021Temp: 77

This spike in all my tests are probably due to adding the dry rock I'm guessing? I still have no diatoms growing and my water is a little cloudy still. I'm going to pick up 2 or 3 pounds of live rock at the LFS to help seed the rest of the rock in my tank I think. Should I buy any more tests while I'm out? Alkilinity test or copper test or anything like that? And should I do another water change now, or wait a few days?

I test right before my water change to see what my tank is using up so where to adjust. I try to keep my parameters on the lower side because water changes raises your levels a bit. I never like when my levels are too high or too low. I have a nice sweet spot that my corals enjoy. As for what I test for, I test for alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, nitrate , phosphate and potassium. And of course salinity . I don't go crazy. Just once a week

 

[vlangel]

Speaking of carbon, I read somewhere (can't remember where) that too much carbon can be bad for your tank because it releases Phosphates. Is this true? If so, how much is too much? I plan on changing my HOB carbon filters every 2 weeks. Is that too much?

No that is not too much. I change mine about once every 2 weeks also. I do always rinse the dust off my carbon before I put it in the tank though.

 

[vlangel]

I test right before my water change to see what my tank is using up so where to adjust. I try to keep my parameters on the lower side because water changes raises your levels a bit. I never like when my levels are too high or too low. I have a nice sweet spot that my corals enjoy. As for what I test for, I test for alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, nitrate , phosphate and potassium. And of course salinity . I don't go crazy. Just once a week

I test the day after a water change, (different strokes for different aquarists). I keep my parameters near natural seawater. I don't go crazy either. I test: salinity, PH, alkalinity, calcium and magnesium when my alkalinity is low. I rarely test nitrates, or phosphates since they stay very stable with the frequent water changes.

 

[gemini9]

Well after a week or so of adding my latest order of dry rock, my nitrites are finally down. I tested yesterday and they were still off the charts. Today, my nitrites are down to .25ppm so that's good. I guess tomorrow I'll do a 10% water change to eliminate some of the nitrates then? Should I buy a few pounds of live rock this weekend?

 

[vlangel]

I wouldn't buy LR for biological filtration but if you want some for the life or more rock that has interesting characteristics then go for it!

 

[gemini9]

Well I have about 26 pounds of LR in there now so I could probably use a few more. I would like to have more of the Pukani from BRS! I love the pukani. I would get more from BRS but I don't want to jump start another cycle lol. The LFS wants $10 per pounds for theirs. Kinda crazy. I do think I will go to LFS and look at some sand though. I've found allot of gobies and other fish are not compatible with CC so I'm strongly considering swapping it out. I ordered a 6 pack of filters from ebay yesterday so I have some more hob carbon filter cartridges on the way. I'll change my filters once they arrive and start changing them out every 2-4 weeks.

 

[vlangel]

Just be sure to leave yourself some negative space in your tank. Sometimes the empty space is almost as important (artistic wise) as the space you fill up. Sand is nice, I am glad I have it. So what sort of CUC are you thinking of?

 

[fishroomlady]

I would work on getting the nitrates down at this point. Just doing water changes will help with that. A biowheel can be a source of beneficial bacteria (I used to think it was place for nitrates to build up but it's actually very beneficial bacteria that can seed your existing biological filter). I ran a small bag of carbon and phosguard in my HOB and it worked well for me. I always like to see what a hobbyist already has and see if you can use it

 

[gemini9]

Thanks fish. Good advice! Ill pick up some phoaguard. As for the cuc I havent given it any thought. I probably should huh? Lol. What should I feed them?

 

[vlangel]

Shrimp pellets are good for feeding a CUC . You can control exactly how many and where the pellets go so you don't overfeed. That's what I feed my extra hermits that live in sump.

 

[gemini9]

Cool. Can peppermnt shrimp handle nitrates?

 

[vlangel]

I'm not sure about peppermint shrimp, my tank has phosphates but almost no nitrates. Maybe post that question in the inverts discussions. My husband is mailing the syphon clean today after work so you should have it by the weekend. If you change to a medium course sand I think you can still use it although you may lose some sand.