First Saltwater Aquarium Cycle Going well ?

[OpenOcean33]

I started my first saltwater aquarium tank on march 29th. In my tank I have live rock (real reef rock), and live sand. It has been up and running now for 6 days. At my LFS they advised me to use aquavirto seed and alpha and have been dosing the aquarium per instructions. I have the protein skimmer running and lights for 11 hours/day. I am growing rust colored algae on the sand and rocks that are forming bubbles in the day (hopefully diatoms ?). So I had a few questions.. does this sound to be on track as my there seems to be no ammonia or nitrites. However, I am using the alpha so I am now not sure what i am looking for in the cycle. Secondly should I be using the UV on my lights during this time ?

PH- 8
Salinity - 1.024
Ammonia - 0
nitrite- 0
nitrate- 0.

 

[OpenOcean33]

Hey guys, I am new to saltwater aquariums coming over from freshwater. I started a tank 6 days ago and curious about my cycling process. I have a 70 gallon tank with live sand and rock (real reef rock). I am dosing the tank with aquavirtro seed and alpha. This was recommended to me by my LFS. I have rust colored algae growing all over the rocks and sand (diatoms hopefully?) they are creating some small bubbles that eventually float to the top. The lights are running 11 hours a day. I am on day 6 and my parameters are as follows:
Salinity- 1.024
PH- 8
Ammonia- 0
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate-0
I know I am using alpha which reduces the ammonia so how do i know if my cycle is progressing. Also should i be using my protein skimmer and uv on lights during the cycle phases ? Thank you guys in advance!

 

[PatW]

In a cycle the idea is for the bacteria on your rocks to convert ammonia to nitrites and then nitrates. You want to see a decrease in ammonia and a rise of nitrates in your tank. I don’t see any ammonia, nitrites or nitrates in your tank. So I cannot say that once you are feeding fish in your tank, that the excreted ammonia will be safely and quickly turned into nitrates.

 

[PatW]

In a cycle the idea is for the bacteria on your rocks to convert ammonia to nitrites and then nitrates. You want to see a decrease in ammonia and a rise of nitrates in your tank. I don’t see any ammonia, nitrites or nitrates in your tank. So I cannot say that once you are feeding fish in your tank, that the excreted ammonia will be safely and quickly turned into nitrates.

 

[PatW]

In a cycle the idea is for the bacteria on your rocks to convert ammonia to nitrites and then nitrates. You want to see a decrease in ammonia and a rise of nitrates in your tank. I don’t see any ammonia, nitrites or nitrates in your tank. So I cannot say that once you are feeding fish in your tank, that the excreted ammonia will be safely and quickly turned into nitrates.

 

[EmptyWallet]

Yeah it doesn't look like your tank is cycling at all, and my guess is the Alpha is neutralising the Ammonia resulting in nothing happening. I recently followed the Dr Tim's process (using ammonium chloride to simulate ammonia and One and Only to seed the bacteria) and it worked like a charm. Saw an almost immediate ammonia spike, followed by nitrite spike, followed by nitrates over about 4 to 6 weeks. In the end I had a cycled tank and strong bio-filter, but about 1000 litres of water with nitrates > 50ppm requiring a 100% water change. Time over, I would just get a 1 or 2 small fish and a bottle of One and Only and skip the fishless cycling as the One and Only should be able to comfortably cover the small amount of ammonia that 1 or 2 small fish produce (with liberal feeding of course). If you have no fish in the tank (you didn't state fish or fishless cycling?), I would turn off the lights which will stop the brown algae growing, and let the cycling process complete first, then do a major water change to get rid of the nitrates, then turn the lights on only once you have the first fish.

Let us know if you have fish and if so how many, that will help others advise on your next step as the 'bio load' would determine the best path forward

 

[OpenOcean33]

Empty wallet thank you! It is a fishkess cycle. I have found out my problem after further thought and it was when I bought lfs gave me my water it was from there frag reef tank. So essentially there is not much to cycle. Now I didn’t k ow this at the time.... if I could go back I would like to start with my own water.

 

[EmptyWallet]

Cool. Do you know what to do from here to 'perform' a fishless cycle? I don't know about 'Alpha' (we don't have that product here in Australia) but if it is an Ammonia Reducer of any sort you don't want to use that now as you want ammonia in your system to feed the bacteria and begin the process. If you google fishless cycling you get lots of good info.

 

[EmptyWallet]

Oh and not sure about your question regarding lighting. On one hand, during a fishless cycle, you don't need lights and as soon as you turn the lights off the algae will stop growing (and existing will die off in about 72 hours). On the other hand, you might want to leave the light on and get the ugly diatom phase out of the way now before you get any fish, which now as I type it is probably the better way to go - 2 birds with one stone

 

[Jesterrace]

I agree that your cycle probably hasn't started and what you are dosing it with is preventing it from happening. You don't want to reduce ammonia at this point as it's a necessary part of the cycle so you can establish your biological filtration. As for Aqua Vitro, I've used Aqua Vitro twice and honestly I have found it to be all but worthless.

 

[OpenOcean33]

Cool. Do you know what to do from here to 'perform' a fishless cycle? I don't know about 'Alpha' (we don't have that product here in Australia) but if it is an Ammonia Reducer of any sort you don't want to use that now as you want ammonia in your system to feed the bacteria and begin the process. If you google fishless cycling you get lots of good info.

Yes, alpha is a ammonia removal product withbother I wanted stuff. I called my lfs they told me my tank was cycled and when I want to add one fish a monitor the parameters for 2 weeks as it may spike the ammonia... possibly a mini cycle? I am trying to do research on my own but the way I have gone seems to be unpopular with much answers. But it’s a great learning experience. I am now have it brown/rust algae everywhere in the tank which I am hoping is diatoms that will go away on their own I would like to get a clean up crew to at least clean the sand as soon as possible. I read a lot about the new tank ugly syndrome haha

 

[IslandLifeReef]

Your LFS isn't helping you. You haven't cycled your tank at all. Just because you added water from their frag tank doesn't mean that you didn't need to cycle the tank. The cycle happens in the rock and sand. You should be dosing ammonia during a fishes cycle, not adding something to get rid of it. If you LFS is telling you that you may get a mini cycle by adding a fish or two, then they haven't given you good instructions on how to cycle a tank.

If you really want to do a fishless cycle, I would visit the Dr. Timms website and read his instructions. If you add any livestock right now, you will cycle your tank, but will probably kill several animals in the process. STOP adding the alpha, it is stealing the ammonia that you need to actually cycle your tank. Also, algae everywhere after less than a week isn't a sign that things are going well, probably the opposite.

I would turn off your lights, wait a few days for the algae to die off, and then start to cycle your tank using a proven method. This will take a couple of weeks to a month to accomplish.

 

[EmptyWallet]

Yeah agree with IslandLifeReef above - might be time to find another LFS who know what they are talking about lol... You technically can cycle with a fish responsibly, it just requires you to seed the bacteria as you add the fish (like Dr Tims One and Only which is bacteria in the bottle as opposed to fishless cycling which builds up the bacteria levels over time) start with 1 or 2 tiny fish so they don't produce much ammonia and monitor the ammonia daily. Don't worry so much about nitrite spikes as nitrite isn't toxic for saltwater fish until you get into the hundreds of ppm. BUT fishless cycling is always best for a newbie because you can afford to make mistakes without livestock