Hello

[Ray Laneville]

Hello,
I am brand new to this. My son gave me his used 5 gal fluval setup. It had been sitting dry for months. A week ago, I set this up with his old sand, his old previously live rock, store bought saltwater, filter stuff, and a tube of some bacteria stuff he brought.
I ordered a test kit, received it yesterday.
yesterday : pH 8.0, ammonia 2.0, nitrite .20, nitrate 0.0
today : pH 8.0, ammonia 4.0, nitrite .50, nitrate 5.0
I also ordered a refractometer which has not arrived yet.

I see some small dead algae flakes floating around so I guess this is what is decaying to start the cycle. My question now is should I do a water change at some point or let it go and just keep testing?

I plan on setting up a larger system, I am using this basically to get familiar with testing, cycling etc. while I read up and plan. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Ray Laneville]

Hello,
I am brand new to this. My son gave me his used 5 gal fluval setup. It had been sitting dry for months. A week ago, I set this up with his old sand, his old previously live rock, store bought saltwater, filter stuff, and a tube of some bacteria stuff he brought.
I ordered a test kit, received it yesterday.
yesterday : pH 8.0, ammonia 2.0, nitrite .20, nitrate 0.0
today : pH 8.0, ammonia 4.0, nitrite .50, nitrate 5.0
I also ordered a refractometer which has not arrived yet.

I see some small dead algae flakes floating around so I guess this is what is decaying to start the cycle. My question now is should I do a water change at some point or let it go and just keep testing?

I plan on setting up a larger system, I am using this basically to get familiar with testing, cycling etc. while I read up and plan. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

I would also like to thank everyone here for posting all the info. It's made for some interesting and informative reading.

 

[Maritimer]

Welcome to Reef2Reef, Ray!

Sounds like you're well on your way into a cycle, but that you've got some old sand (often regarded as not the best solution) and rock with plenty of dead organic material and detritus trapped within it. If your ammonia goes _too_ much higher than it is, it may slow the cycle down a bit - it'll still happen, but it'll take a while. In such a case, a partial water change can help keep the environment within the tank from becoming hostile - even to bacteria.

As you're probably aware, things can happen pretty fast in a small system - but water changes are super-easy to get done!

~Bruce

 

[Ray Laneville]

Welcome to Reef2Reef, Ray!

Sounds like you're well on your way into a cycle, but that you've got some old sand (often regarded as not the best solution) and rock with plenty of dead organic material and detritus trapped within it. If your ammonia goes _too_ much higher than it is, it may slow the cycle down a bit - it'll still happen, but it'll take a while. In such a case, a partial water change can help keep the environment within the tank from becoming hostile - even to bacteria.

As you're probably aware, things can happen pretty fast in a small system - but water changes are super-easy to get done!

~Bruce

Thanks Bruce,
At what ammonia level do you think I should do a water change? Or should I remove the rock and/or sand and stat over?

 

[don_chuwish]

I wouldn't get rid of the rock & sand, but cleaning it well is a good idea. You can thoroughly rinse the sand in a bucket until it doesn't cloud the water anymore.
Rocks can be blasted with a hose to get rid of any loose organics.
Put it all back together and you'll still cycle fine but be better prepped for the long run.

 

[reef lover]

Welcome to the salt life!

 

[Ray Laneville]

Welcome to the salt life!

thanks!

 

[Ray Laneville]

I wouldn't get rid of the rock & sand, but cleaning it well is a good idea. You can thoroughly rinse the sand in a bucket until it doesn't cloud the water anymore.
Rocks can be blasted with a hose to get rid of any loose organics.
Put it all back together and you'll still cycle fine but be better prepped for the long run.

thanks

 

[jsker]

Welcome to R2R, looks like it's time to start a build thread

 

[Jesterrace]

Thanks Bruce,
At what ammonia level do you think I should do a water change? Or should I remove the rock and/or sand and stat over?

Never change the water in the middle of the cycle, it can restart the whole process. I agree that cleaning would be best, although I would just replace the sand as it would be a lot less hassle, especially in such a small tank where you won't be replacing a ton of sand.

 

[Ray Laneville]

Ok, I got my 90g setup bought, this small tank needs to be moved to build stand for big tank, so for now I'm going to just break it down and find a spot for it later. Was good practice for testing, cycling though. It had no life in it yet so easy enough to break it down.

 

[Dickeybrazil]

Welcome

 

[Matt Carden]

Welcome to R2R!