still cycling?

[brettdis]

I'm new to salt water. My tank is a 65 gallon with a hang on skimmer. Been up and running since may 2018. I have roughly 65 pounds of rock. Bare bottom. I am currently having a nitrate problem but have gotten it down to 10ppm from 160ppm. Used water changes 50% twice a week and no pox. I test it regularly and everything else is good. Most of the rock was live when it went in. All purple and green. Now most of it is a brown colour with very little purple. There is 4 snails 2 damsels and a mushroom in there. I didn't want to add the mushroom but He was in a horrible situation so we adopted him. Is it still cycling? What am I doing wrong to cause my rock to die?
My local store just keeps telling me to add more rock. But at 10 bucks a pound for it to die is getting expensive.

 

[brandon429]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-microbiology-of-reef-tank-cycling.214618/

Done cycling. If you want to never be ripped off regarding live rock, consider that thread

Residual metabolites from no recent large water change is what you see, plus allowed and expected test variation, plus clouded detritus common in a live rock transfer setup.

The bioloading you carry would be dead in 48 hours if it wasn't cycled, you have group b rock from that thread.

Your params don't matter, don't need to know.

Here's what to do: make your aquarium have zero places where there's a cloud.

If you pick up and shake your rocks in the water, and a cloud comes off, that's feeding your nitrate whatever the measure. Testing accuracy need not be confirmed, to have cloud is to have nitrate by rule.

If you reach into your sand and grab and drop, and a cloud comes, then there's your nitrate. I have threads that describe how you can clean, that one above shows you how live rock works.

Most people will refuse the work, they'll refuse to clean the clouding for one or more reason, in that case a host of dosers and testers is awaiting purchase.

Or, you can cease testing for nitrate, de cloud the tank, and have a balanced nitrate condition. To do anything other than de cloud is wrong and the path of many. It fuels industry well; strong incentive keeps the notion going but if you want it fixed just clean your tank and do a giant water change, fixed. Not just a water change, while leaving clouding in place, do the number one thing the masses would not do-save money and win by just cleaning the tank top to bottom.

Step 2. Algae is coming soon. If you take algae advice from people who advise storing clouds of waste, have lots of purchase money handy for various things to try. Seek a plan for algae, which is coming.
Have that plan not involve ever letting it grow on top of a fully clouded condition tank, you can opt out of losing your setup way ahead of time. How you plan on handling, or purposefully growing algae, that is coming next month, is far more impactful than your current nitrate measures. Thinking ahead
B

 

[SPR1968]

Hi there and firstly welcome to R2R!

I would ignore the LFS advice to add more rock or anything for the time being. The rock going brown sounds like some form of algae issue potentially.

Do you have any pictures of the tank and a list of your water parameters?

 

[LEOreefer]

Just a thought also is where your source water is coming from? RODI? LFS? Tap? If you don't have a confirmed good source of fresh water, nothing else you do will matter. I believe in process of elimination and in my opinion it starts with the source water, once you confirm you have good clean water then you can move onto water parameters, feeding habits, flow etc.. Welcome by the way!