Results of first test!

[jman9331]

Finally began cycling my 75g aquarium yesterday, and did an initial test this morning. results are as follows: sailinity 1.03, ammonia 0, nitrate 30ppm, nitrite .25ppm, and pH 8.0

 

[Mike J.]

Might as well get your salinity to 1.025 - 1.026. What are you using to create a source for ammonia? One day in and 0 ammonia, and high nitrates? I'm thinking you're using Dr. Tim's or something? Are you using live rock? Can you supply a few more details?

 

[jman9331]

Yes, I went to the local reef store here to get water for the initial fill up. he gave me 50 gallons of mixed and then 20 gallons from his frag tank. I have 2 pieces of live rock right now and I haven't added anything else no chemicals or anything. Oh and I have live sand as well carib sea I believe its called 2.5'' sand bed.

 

[jman9331]

 

[jman9331]

more clear than the first pic

 

[Mike J.]

75 gallon is a good choice. Are you going to add a lot more rock? Are you going to introduce an ammonia source? IMO a sand bed should be less than an inch or more than 4 inches. Personally I'd go with 4 inches or more.

 

[jman9331]

Yes I will be adding a lot more rock the guy ran out so I figured I'd take what he had then come back this week coming up to add more. Do I need to add an ammonia source?

 

[jman9331]

probably need to add another power head as well

 

[Mike J.]

If you're going to use all live rock it might not be necessary to raise ammonia. Personally, I'd feel better if I saw an ammonia reading go to zero. I'd at least feed the tank to see if there is a functioning nitrogen cycle.

 

[jman9331]

thats probably a good idea I'll probably throw in a shrimp.

 

[hummer]

Cool ..looks good ..have fun. Go slow

 

[jman9331]

Thank you!

 

[mckwestla]

Matthew Claiborne Karic:
Let me know your thoughts.
Cheers


Matthew Claiborne-Karic:
SO another question, when can I and what kind of clean up crew can i start implementing. I am on day 3 or 4 of cycling my first ever tank. My statistics:


tank: 48g
Sump: Amiracle 3 compartment wet/dry trickle filter with bioballs, I have since gotten rid of the bioballs and replace the middle compartment with live rock, golf-ball sized pieces. I am still using the drip plate with filter pad on top. I have a fluorescent bulb installed that I leave on all the time for the sump.
Protein skimmer: Coralife super skimmer 65 (still trying to find the sweet spot on this guy, not really getting any skinmate)
Powerhead: wavemaker 1150gph
Display tank lights: two fluorescent bulbs one of which is t5


So, I got my tank and set it up with tap water and treating with aquel water conditioner. I have about 30 lbs of live rock, and a bag of live sand, (and two bags of live sand that ended up being expired), I am going to add more live rock today. Yesterday I added Dr. Tim's all in one nitrogen bacteria in a bottle as well as I have added two clown fish to help assisting with the cycle. I have been monitoring levels religiously, I did have a spike of amonnia levels mid-afternoon yesterday, I added some amquel and tasted later in the evening and these were my stats:


Water temp: 77F
Ammonia: 1
Nitrates: 15
Nitrites (this one is always hard to tell): 3
pH: 8.3
Salinity: 1.021


I want to add some clean up crew because, the first live sand I added, which ended up not being live at all, and just caused a giant cloud mess. This sand has left a film over a lot of my live rock, I can use the powerhead and blow it off, but I would really like to employ cleaning crew.


Let me know your thoughts.
Cheers

If you're going to use all live rock it might not be necessary to raise ammonia. Personally, I'd feel better if I saw an ammonia reading go to zero. I'd at least feed the tank to see if there is a functioning nitrogen cycle.

 

[fishroomlady]

oh my - so many things - you don't want to cycle with fish - you can add in an ammonia source by using a piece of raw shrimp in a bag and let it decompose or you could ghost feed the tank and monitor. You could see if your live fish store could take the clowns back until you're cycled.

Your tank needs to cycle fully before adding anything alive including cleaning crew. Unfortunately, you'll need to get used to some not prestine conditions in the tank because it will go through some stages that includes diatoms and algaes. Having another powerhead probably would help to suspend things so that they can be taken out. You may want to raise your salinity to 1.024 at least depending on what you want to keep.

You may want to rethink using tap water. Since the lighting in salt (for corals at least) is very strong, you want your water to be very clean so most people use RO/DI water. You can used distilled water or at least get RO from a store. It will save you so many headaches in the long run.

I love your excitement, we've all been there. You need to be patient and I know it's so hard - I'm not a patient person by nature lol -

 

[mckwestla]

I really don't think the LFS will take back the two clown fish. What can I do to help ensure their survival? I was going to add some more live rock tonight and maybe some macro-algae?

oh my - so many things - you don't want to cycle with fish - you can add in an ammonia source by using a piece of raw shrimp in a bag and let it decompose or you could ghost feed the tank and monitor. You could see if your live fish store could take the clowns back until you're cycled.

Your tank needs to cycle fully before adding anything alive including cleaning crew. Unfortunately, you'll need to get used to some not prestine conditions in the tank because it will go through some stages that includes diatoms and algaes. Having another powerhead probably would help to suspend things so that they can be taken out. You may want to raise your salinity to 1.024 at least depending on what you want to keep.

You may want to rethink using tap water. Since the lighting in salt (for corals at least) is very strong, you want your water to be very clean so most people use RO/DI water. You can used distilled water or at least get RO from a store. It will save you so many headaches in the long run.

I love your excitement, we've all been there. You need to be patient and I know it's so hard - I'm not a patient person by nature lol -

 

[jman9331]

Shrimp in a bag? Hmmm fascinating!

 

[Mike J.]

If you want to keep live animals in an ammonia environment you have to do water changes every time the ammonia raises. The solution to pollution is dilution. An example is when I got boxes of live rock from Vanuatu, I went through 2 boxes of salt doing water changes to keep the ammonia down. It worked and I had hundred of specimens make it.

 

[mckwestla]

Will doing that frequent of water changes inhibit the cycle of bacteria build up and extend the cycling period?

If you want to keep live animals in an ammonia environment you have to do water changes every time the ammonia raises. The solution to pollution is dilution. An example is when I got boxes of live rock from Vanuatu, I went through 2 boxes of salt doing water changes to keep the ammonia down. It worked and I had hundred of specimens make it.

 

[jman9331]

Is ammonia caused by dead animals decomposing? Is that the make source?

 

[Mike J.]

In his case, yes, it will extend the cycling time. IMO he really doesn't have a choice now that he has fish in there. He also added Dr. Tim's which is supposed to speed it up? In the case with live rock reasonably fresh from the ocean, that already has lots of bacteria but also some die off, it took about 8 days for it to level out. I also didn't add any fish for six months.