Reboot 2.0 advice needed

[Salty_Northerner]

Hey I've stripped my aquarium down. TL;DR

Anyways I've removed all the sand since it was to lite for my flow. Also water chemistry was all wacked out. So to reset I put all the rock into a bin with fish, inverts and corals.

I completely ripped the sand bed out. Took 98% of the water out and made new RODI and salt mix.

I've left the 3 big bags of bio gems in the rear chamber thinking it hold enough good bacteria but after overdosing on bactor7 I'm sure it wiped out any good and bad bacteria from the system.

Question: I've added fritz fishless fuel at less then dosing instructions as most ppl say X amount of drops to x gallons took the suggested ammonia over the 2.0 ppm so I dosed 3 ml and will test in the morning to see how much ammonia is in the system.

How long should I expect it to take to drop to safe levels so I can add my animals back? The Rock I have is not in the tank, it's in a container with the other animals. So all I added was a bag of Caribsea aragalive special grade sand. The bag had a good amount of water in it and everything was dumped into the empty display part of the tank. Lights are off and tank is blacked out and have a UV sterilizer running. Should I add bactor7 for the ammonia or will the sand already populated be enough to neutralize the ammonia?

I went to fast the last time, changed the salt 3 times and just messed up the tank huge.

It was logically the easiest way to start over IMHO.

So this is reboot 2.0 and would love to get some advice as I really don't have a proper holding system for the long run. Also I have some jars of Galaxy pods and phytoplankton, PNS YelloSno PNS Probio and other additives coming next week to add to the tank.

Any and all advice is welcomed as I don't want to mess the 2.0 reboot up.

Thanks in advance!

 

[blaxsun]

You should turn the UV off while the tank is cycling (the CaribSea sand you added has live bacteria in it).

 

[twentyleagues]

So is the rock in with the fish cycled? Or is it new rock?

Over dosing on bactor7? If this means microbactor 7 from brightwells it's not possible to overdose so your cycled media should be fine.

I'm guessing I missed a lot or I'm just not remembering it. I'm not exactly sure why you are ripping down your tank and halfway restarting with different sand and all the same other stuff that's cycled but not in the tank that you are cycling the sand in...
Anyway the live sand should be able to cycle the ammonia you added pretty quickly. Just test and see. I'm guessing maybe 24-48hrs.

Did someone guide you to this path or did you find your way here on your own?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Why didnt you add the rocks directly into the new tank? All the bacteria is in the rocks, that's what keeping your fish alive in a container. The same principal applies if you move the rocks and fish to the new tank, the rocks will keep the fish alive, it would have insta-cycled your tank.

I don't know anything about these other additives you intend to add to the tank, but consider just keeping it simple, no need to dose anything into a brand new tank. None of that will help in the long run.

PS-should have rinsed out the new sand before using, always. (EDIT - not always, its a personal choice)

 

[twentyleagues]

Why didnt you add the rocks directly into the new tank? All the bacteria is in the rocks, that's what keeping your fish alive in a container. The same principal applies if you move the rocks and fish to the new tank, the rocks will keep the fish alive, it would have insta-cycled your tank.

I don't know anything about these other additives you intend to add to the tank, but consider just keeping it simple, no need to dose anything into a brand new tank. None of that will help in the long run.

PS-should have rinsed out the new sand before using, always.

You don't need/want to rinse the caribsea live sand. It works as intended and will process ammonia within 48hrs upon add.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

You don't need/want to rinse the caribsea live sand. It works as intended and will process ammonia within 48hrs upon add.

Personal choice I guess, I always rinse, I hate having that silt and cloudiness in the tank. We have bottled bacteria anyway, so I lose nothing by rinsing the sand.

 

[Salty_Northerner]

You should turn the UV off while the tank is cycling (the CaribSea sand you added has live bacteria in it).

But isn't the bacteria on the rock and not free floating? And sorry for just replying now, something is up with this app as in font size and not getting push notifications :/

 

[Salty_Northerner]

So is the rock in with the fish cycled? Or is it new rock?

Over dosing on bactor7? If this means microbactor 7 from brightwells it's not possible to overdose so your cycled media should be fine.

I'm guessing I missed a lot or I'm just not remembering it. I'm not exactly sure why you are ripping down your tank and halfway restarting with different sand and all the same other stuff that's cycled but not in the tank that you are cycling the sand in...
Anyway the live sand should be able to cycle the ammonia you added pretty quickly. Just test and see. I'm guessing maybe 24-48hrs.

Did someone guide you to this path or did you find your way here on your own?

the rock used Caribsea life rock and has been going since January and yes its in the rubber-maid container with the fish with heater and power head. As in overdosing Brightwells Bactor 7 we were actually dosing 8x the amount as the instructions on the back said a cap for every 25gal for 14 days. We couldnt keep nutrients at all in the tank, even when dosing daily.

See I started out the first time using RS black bucket but the dkh was to high at 12-13 and kept mucking up the rear chambers. I was advised to switch to Bio actif salt by the man himself after explaining the situation and I think he misunderstood. I believe he thought I also moved the sand bed from the Fluval tank over but I didn't.

Anyways carbon dosing salt in a new swap over tank was not a good idea.

My badge from Seachem is showing 0.5 right now and going to check it against the red sea ammonia test kit.

 

[Salty_Northerner]

Why didnt you add the rocks directly into the new tank? All the bacteria is in the rocks, that's what keeping your fish alive in a container. The same principal applies if you move the rocks and fish to the new tank, the rocks will keep the fish alive, it would have insta-cycled your tank.

I don't know anything about these other additives you intend to add to the tank, but consider just keeping it simple, no need to dose anything into a brand new tank. None of that will help in the long run.

PS-should have rinsed out the new sand before using, always. (EDIT - not always, its a personal choice)

See that's the advice I received before my new aquarium was delivered. But then again like I mentioned I swapped out 90% of the Red Sea water for the Actif salt and everything went south like real fast. Had a bacterial bloom real bad as the water went milky white for a number of days. Dinos took over the sand bed real fast and also added a week ago the Oceans direct sand which was way to small grain size that I had to turn the pumps way down to stop a sand storm from happening and having it settle into the UV. The quartz sleeve isn't a cheap replacement.

I was thinking about the rinse of the new sand bed but with the amount of water in the bag I rolled with it. Checked the salinity of the special grade bagged sand and and I was getting 1.020 reading so I thought its good to toss it in. water is crystal clear now. The picture is the new sand and full of water.

 

[Salty_Northerner]

Why didnt you add the rocks directly into the new tank? All the bacteria is in the rocks, that's what keeping your fish alive in a container. The same principal applies if you move the rocks and fish to the new tank, the rocks will keep the fish alive, it would have insta-cycled your tank.

I don't know anything about these other additives you intend to add to the tank, but consider just keeping it simple, no need to dose anything into a brand new tank. None of that will help in the long run.

PS-should have rinsed out the new sand before using, always. (EDIT - not always, its a personal choice)

I was dealing with an out of balance tank, like really out of balance. And the rock is going for a quick scrub to make sure I get any dinos off the base. From removal and inspecting I didn't dee any dinos on the rock but I just want to make sure.

And @blaxsun I left the UV on because I wasn't able to empty the rear chambers of the other (old) water and I thought It's better to have it on then not and have them come back. The dinos took hold after the bio actif salt was introduced into the tank and bottomed out nitrate and phosphate.

 

[Salty_Northerner]

I'm ok with all the criticism you all feel like dishing out to me. I Know it was my own fault for the bad choices from the first setup. I just wasn't clear enough when asking Tropic Marin on a salt to switch to. This is a learning curve for me so please feel free to give it to me..

 

[Salty_Northerner]

So now what do you all suggest?

Add some live rock to the tank today to bring down the ammonia?
Add Bactor 7? if so how much and why? Sorry once bitten twice shy on using it

 

[twentyleagues]

So now what do you all suggest?

Add some live rock to the tank today to bring down the ammonia?
Add Bactor 7? if so how much and why? Sorry once bitten twice shy on using it

Like I said above the sand has live bacteria in it and will cycle ammonia in about 48hrs. After put your stock/rock back in. Test to be sure before hand obviously. Ive never seen an overdose on microbacter 7. I dont measure it I typically just dump some in usually more then enough and continue weekly or when adding fish until the bottle is gone. I have a large bottle from which I add some to most of my tanks on a regular basis no issues. Did someone show you how overdosing microbacter 7 caused your issues? Im not savvy on all the salts out there with what they do or dont do. I use reef crystals for the ease of use and obtaining, it keeps stuff where i want it and have used it successfully for at least 14 years.

 

[Salty_Northerner]

Like I said above the sand has live bacteria in it and will cycle ammonia in about 48hrs. After put your stock/rock back in. Test to be sure before hand obviously. Ive never seen an overdose on microbacter 7. I dont measure it I typically just dump some in usually more then enough and continue weekly or when adding fish until the bottle is gone. I have a large bottle from which I add some to most of my tanks on a regular basis no issues. Did someone show you how overdosing microbacter 7 caused your issues? Im not savvy on all the salts out there with what they do or dont do. I use reef crystals for the ease of use and obtaining, it keeps stuff where i want it and have used it successfully for at least 14 years.

Ok, I was speaking to 2 different companies and both said that yes, you can OD on the bactor7 and kill the good and bad bacteria. From the conversations I had my understanding is that yes, its good for the tank, but there's a specific dose required and I didn't read the instructions properly. It said to add 5ml per X amount of gallons for 14 days and went with that.

This is what they said and I was under the impression I was supposed to dose as a new tank.

** Medium- to High-nutrient Systems, or to seed Biological Filtration in (new aquaria To effectively decrease the concentration of available nutrients and waste material in all marine and freshwater aquaria, add 5 ml (1 capful) per 25 US-gallons (94.6 L) [≈4 drops per gallon (3.8 L)] of aquarium *** water daily for the first two weeks of use***

But at 8x the dose things will go south real fast as it will strip out N03 and P04, and that's what happened.
Bottomed out everything, and I'd get readable numbers then the next day nothing! It was a problem I was chasing and just couldn't fathom dosing and dosing N & P constantly. It doesn't fit my work schedule.

So the bio-actif salt in a new tank is not a good choice as its carbon dosing from day one. Im sure Lou Ekus didn't take that in account, or I probably didn't mention that I didn't use the same sand bed in the tank swap. I admit to all fault!

No one likes to admit to a total fail but I am, and Hopefully others will see this post one day when googling, and learn from my epic journey of total outright damnation on borking up a system.

 

[Salty_Northerner]

I've just added 50% of the rock and going to monitor ammonia till its bottoms out which shouldn't take long now.

SO live sand, live rock and a total salt change to just the Tropic Marin pro reef. The Bio-Actif salt will come in handy for me in proabley after the 1st year, but till then I'm just going to do little to nothing, and let this system find where it want's to settle.

 

[twentyleagues]

I've just added 50% of the rock and going to monitor ammonia till its bottoms out which shouldn't take long now.

SO live sand, live rock and a total salt change to just the Tropic Marin pro reef. The Bio-Actif salt will come in handy for me in proabley after the 1st year, but till then I'm just going to do little to nothing, and let this system find where it want's to settle.

I would not go to such extremes in the future. Just be patient and let it ride/sort itself out. Early on all you really need to worry about is water changes after the initial cycle. Assuming of coarse you are following a disease prevention protocol.

 

[blaxsun]

But isn't the bacteria on the rock and not free floating? And sorry for just replying now, something is up with this app as in font size and not getting push notifications :/

If you added the live sand it also included water and bacteria - so that would be in your water column. There's just no need to have the UV working against you while the tank is cycling.

 

[Salty_Northerner]

If you added the live sand it also included water and bacteria - so that would be in your water column. There's just no need to have the UV working against you while the tank is cycling.

thank you for the advice, UV is off now.

 

[Salty_Northerner]

I would not go to such extremes in the future. Just be patient and let it ride/sort itself out. Early on all you really need to worry about is water changes after the initial cycle. Assuming of coarse you are following a disease prevention protocol.

well noted thank you. And yes I realize I went way to fast the last time, and just going to ask if I'm not sure, even if I need to wait it out for an answer.

 

[Salty_Northerner]

@blaxsun my storage container with the coral and fish in is showing some detectable ammonia. I did add half the live rock to the tank yesterday and the ammonia badge still showing the same color as yesterday.

So it looks like all that bactor7 I overdosed killed most of the bacteria. I did kill the UV after you said to. I'm going to have to do some small water changes in the storage bin and all I can add at the moment is seachem Stability. That's all I can get locally. Biosphera is like $60 bucks off Amazon here in Canada. That's insane so I'm going to suck it up and wait till this coming Tuesday. I ordered some products from Algae Barn.

This order get me on the right path this time?