Water Change?

Gary Ellis · May 7, 2018

I have a brand new tank. I have dry live rock and SPECIAL GRADE ARAG-ALIVE! LIVE REEF SAND and saltwater. It's been up and running for 5 days now. I'm going to put in a bottle of Dr Tims this coming Friday. Should I do a 10g water change first?

redfishbluefish · May 7, 2018

Dry rock needs to cure.....give up the rotting dead stuff inside the rock. This is monitored by looking at nitrates and/or phosphates. So I'd first test, and if and when they are high, water change. Personally I'd hold off on the Dr. Tim's until my N's and P's were on the decline.

Gary Ellis · May 7, 2018

I'm using REEF SAVER AQUARIUM DRY LIVE ROCK...no rotting dead stuff in there..

redfishbluefish · May 7, 2018

Gary, I'm not sure who told you that, but it does need to be cured. They guarantee no pests....but that's an easy guarantee, because it's totally dry. However, still needs to be cured.

Jesterrace · May 7, 2018

Gary Ellis said:
I have a brand new tank. I have dry live rock and SPECIAL GRADE ARAG-ALIVE! LIVE REEF SAND and saltwater. It's been up and running for 5 days now. I'm going to put in a bottle of Dr Tims this coming Friday. Should I do a 10g water change first?

I always leave the water alone during a cycle, the tank is going through enough changes as is. Let it do it's thing and then change the water.

redfishbluefish · May 7, 2018

Curing reef saver rock

BRS's response in in post #2

Gary Ellis · May 7, 2018

Well I'm not sure what to do now.. It's in the tank and I don't think I want to take it out. I have a Red Sea Max E-260> i'm going to do a 10g water change and throw in a bottle of DR Tims and hope for the best.

redfishbluefish · May 7, 2018

Gary, you're just fine. Let the rock cure in the tank....there is no other life in the tank, right? Hold off on the Dr. Tim's. After a week of so, test for phosphates. Assuming high, do a large water change. Here's the one cases where you could do 100% if you wish. Wait another week or so and test again....and water change as needed. Do this until phosphates no longer are climbing. Now is when you add the Dr. Tim's. Actually by now you might already have bacteria doing it's thing. So you're in good shape.

Gary Ellis · May 7, 2018

No life in the tank...Is the API phosphate test kit good enough? Thanks for your help

Gary Ellis · May 7, 2018

Picked up a API Test kit. This is the results after a week of up and running...

Gary Ellis · May 8, 2018

Still not sure if I should do a water change...phosphate doesn't look bad to me... it's been 7 days...when should I start adding bacteria? It seems to me that there is nothing in there to start the cycle....

lapin · May 8, 2018

I dont see a phosphate issue if your test is correct. Add the bacteria. Toss in a table shrimp or dose ammonia (1 to 2ppm) . Take the shrimp out after a week. You will see ammonia rise then fall if using a shrimp. Nitrite should rise then fall. Then nitrate will rise.

Luno · May 8, 2018

Is this your first tank? You may need to understand how a salt water aquarium's nitrogen cycle actually works, and how rock is cured. It's fine and everything's a learning curve and an aweful lot of mistakes will be made.

Your tank needs to go through the nitrogen cycle this means no water changes, your trying to promote nitrifying bacteria water changes are going to mess with this stage and getting your tank ready for inhabitants will be delayed.

scott11106 · May 8, 2018

it is very hard but you really need to slow down and let the tank do its thing. Trust me when i say that you will thank yourself later for some patience today. The tank is going to cycle one way or the other and you really dont want to do it with alot of other things in play(chemicals, livestock ect..)

Gary Ellis · May 8, 2018

Are you saying the tank will cycle without bacteria added? I have a bottle of Dr Tims. Use it or not is the question. From what I understand if I add bacteria I need to feed it,so adding a fish would be the thing to do. Right. So no water changes until when?

recess62 · May 8, 2018

I used reef saver dry rock with Carib sea live sand There will be enough organic material deep in the rock to cycle your tank. It took about 6 weeks for my tank to complete its cycle.

Gary Ellis · May 8, 2018

OK no water changes,no added chemicals. Just let it go and keep testing...

Luno · May 8, 2018

You can add the dr timms if you want, I throw a fresh prawn in the tank just to kick off ammonia. Funnily enough there has been instances where guys pee'd in their tanks to kick off the ammonia [emoji14]

Just no water changes not until you can't detect ammonia and nitrite. Then water change till your hearts content

mahindra.dev · May 8, 2018

@Gary Ellis

Here is what I did. I used BRS reef saver rock as well. The cycle takes 5-6 weeks. I did a fishless cycle and added pure ammonia every other day and maintained it at 4 ppm (API Test kit, testing for Ammonia every day). Some add fish food, some add piece of shrimp. But this is a good start. After doing this, you will not see any results for 2 weeks and then ammonia will start to drop and nitrite will spike and then nitrates. All this will take 5-6 weeks.

At the end of the cycle [for me the end is add 4ppm ammonia and test of it after 12 hrs and it should be zero], i did a 95% water change and then added Dr. Tim's and introduced live stock within a day or two. During the cycle I had NO LIGHTS on the tank. Helps tremendously with algae outbreaks.

Hope this helps.