macadac Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 Hi im 9 days into my saltwater aquarium tank is 70 gal with a sump which is 30gal I have no livestock in my tank but i have 10kg of live rock and 10kg of live sand mixed with dead coral sand My protein skimmer was pulling dirt out but now my protein skimmer is pulling nothing out sometimes pulls cloudy water out but sometimes nothing Whats going on should i just buy a new protein skimmer The protein skimmer is second hand came with the tank so dont know how old it is but is in good condition pump is working fine please help Link to comment
Rememberme Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 IMO it's probably cause there's nothing to skim out. No live-stock means no/little waste. Have you been adding food to cycle your tank? If not then you should do that, cause you need bacteria build up before you add livestock. If yes, then your tank is probably ready for some livestock. Link to comment
macadac Posted March 15, 2015 Author Share Posted March 15, 2015 Ive tested my tank every day for the ammonia spike and nothing at the moment my ammonia is at 0.25ppm nitrate and nitrite is at 0 So i should just add food how much and do i do it every day Link to comment
bevo5 Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 Have you added anything to the tank for a source of ammonia? If not, then you wont really see a spike..or anything at all. The easiest way is to go get yourself a fresh shrimp and drop it in there for a while...you'll smell when it's time to take it out. That will spike your ammonia up to about 3-4ppm... But - there's no reason to have your skimmer on at this point. THere are no proteins to pull. Link to comment
Rememberme Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 Actually, since live rock is already cured, an option could to just buy a bottle of bacteria e.g Nutrafin and throw in some hardy livestock (maybe CUC first and after a few days a more hardy fish). Link to comment
macadac Posted March 15, 2015 Author Share Posted March 15, 2015 I dont really want to add any live stock yet because i dont want it to suffer or die how long do you leave the shrimp in for can i use anything else like a piece of fish Link to comment
porkchop-rob Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 You can use almost any protein to start the cycle. With the live rock you have, I bet you will not see much of one. I would toss in a square of Mysis and check the ammonia in a couple days. Link to comment
macadac Posted March 15, 2015 Author Share Posted March 15, 2015 Ok thank you everyone for the advice Happy reefing Link to comment
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