seabass Posted July 18, 2016 Share Posted July 18, 2016 In my thread about water changes during the cycle, the water changes didn't really break the cycle, but they did extend it a little. However, once the ammonia levels started to drop, water changes helped to reduce ammonia and shortened the time it took before ammonia became undetectable. This is why I'd like you to try waiting to change the cycling rock water until the ammonia level starts to drop, and then change 100%. Astraea snails are good, but they can't always right themselves when they fall. For algae cleaning, I like turbos and trochus snails. Don't worry about nitrate becoming undetectable. That takes a different kind of bacteria (denitrifying) which might not be able to convert the nitrate in the rock cycling container. The 100% water change will export the nitrate. If the light is much brighter than your current light, it can shock corals and anemones. However, it isn't duration that is the problem. So you normally either raise the light to lessen the intensity, use light screens to filter some light, or set the intensity lower (if it's programmable). Link to comment
Blr26995 Posted July 20, 2016 Author Share Posted July 20, 2016 Here's ammonia two days after last change so day 12 ? Link to comment
Blr26995 Posted July 20, 2016 Author Share Posted July 20, 2016 Yes the light is programmable. So it is betting changed from the stock florescent bulbs to led lighting. Link to comment
seabass Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 I'd be tempted to share this information with the dealer who sold you these rocks. Just as a friendly FYI. I'm glad that you are still posting test results. It really let's us see what's going on. If you get a phosphate test kit (not API, since it goes up in 0.25ppm increments), I'd be interested to see the phosphate level in the container of curing rocks. Link to comment
Blr26995 Posted July 20, 2016 Author Share Posted July 20, 2016 Yea no problem. I should he was a private dealer. Link to comment
Blr26995 Posted July 21, 2016 Author Share Posted July 21, 2016 So here is ammonia today it's reading 0.50ppm for me it may be hard to tell in the photo. But it's been riding at 1.0 ish . Link to comment
seabass Posted July 21, 2016 Share Posted July 21, 2016 Yeah, it looks to me like it's coming down. Is it possible to change out all the water in that container (just to see if the ammonia level stays down)? My thought is that the rock is consuming more ammonia than it it producing, so a 100% water change should remove the existing ammonia, and ammonia shouldn't rise afterward. Note that most new water has some ammonia in it; so if we wanted to be scientific about it, we'd test the water before we put the rocks in, and then 24 hours after putting the rocks in. Don't worry if you don't do this, I can always run this same test later on. If you decide not to change out the water, just let the ammonia become undetectable before adding these rocks back into your tank. And thanks for documenting this for everyone. Link to comment
Blr26995 Posted July 21, 2016 Author Share Posted July 21, 2016 I'm actually going to do a partial change in my tank today to clean out debris and while I'm doing that I'll dump rock water may as well since I'll have everything out. I'll test water before see what it looks like. I checked ammonia because I checked my tank water just to make sure it was good before adding a few new snails later today. Link to comment
seabass Posted July 21, 2016 Share Posted July 21, 2016 Since you are doing a water change anyway, you can use the used tank water (instead of new water). It should be free of ammonia. Link to comment
Blr26995 Posted July 22, 2016 Author Share Posted July 22, 2016 K 100% water change done!! So check ammonia in 24hrs correct? I used the tank water. Link to comment
Blr26995 Posted July 23, 2016 Author Share Posted July 23, 2016 Rock water as of 23 hrs shy an hour sorry.. ? Link to comment
seabass Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 That's awesome! Your picture couldn't be more clear that ammonium is undetectable. Without the water change, it probably would have taken at least another week before the ammonia was gone. I'd test it once again (later this weekend) just to be sure, before returning the rocks to your display. Link to comment
Blr26995 Posted July 23, 2016 Author Share Posted July 23, 2016 Yes I'm going going to do just that!! And I'll kinda be sad it's over.. Lol now what!!! Link to comment
seabass Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 Yeah, I think it's kind of fun too. Well, at least you can play with your tank now. You have to re-aquascape, not to mention your algae issue. Link to comment
Blr26995 Posted July 23, 2016 Author Share Posted July 23, 2016 Yes I got a turbo snail and a trochus funny thing when I went to remove the cerith because I thought they were dead they are actually all still alive maybe just recovering? So I'm still keeping an eye on them. Vacuumed up a good account of the algae and the hermit crab has made his way up there feasting so every thing is moving along. Re_aquascape that will be interesting. The main rock that is wanted as the center piece bothers me because I can't get it to sit right... ? oh well. Link to comment
Blr26995 Posted July 24, 2016 Author Share Posted July 24, 2016 Well farts..... 0.25..... Link to comment
seabass Posted July 24, 2016 Share Posted July 24, 2016 What water is that from? In my opinion, it's closer to 0 than 0.25 ppm. But maybe just a tinge of green. Link to comment
Blr26995 Posted July 24, 2016 Author Share Posted July 24, 2016 Yea it's kinda in between I just went with 0.25 because it wasn't 0. Do you think I should still wait? What water is that from? In my opinion, it's closer to 0 than 0.25 ppm. But maybe just a tinge of green. Link to comment
seabass Posted July 24, 2016 Share Posted July 24, 2016 Yea it's kinda in between I just went with 0.25 because it wasn't 0. Do you think I should still wait? So this is the rock water. If you think about it, the amount of ammonia accumulated after a couple of days is pretty small. Your tank's biofilter should be able to deal with this small amount of extra ammonia. However, waiting wouldn't be wrong either. Your call. Link to comment
Blr26995 Posted July 24, 2016 Author Share Posted July 24, 2016 Yea I think I may wait. I think I'm still just kinda nervous. So once I do add them back I don't need to rinse them or anything right? Just add them in? Link to comment
seabass Posted July 24, 2016 Share Posted July 24, 2016 If they look clean, yeah, you can just add them back in. If you see anything on them, I'd brush it off. Link to comment
Tamberav Posted July 25, 2016 Share Posted July 25, 2016 This thread is an awesome. I know it started out as a mistake but a lot to learn in this thread about cycling and the right way to add new live rock. Great pictures of the progress btw. Link to comment
Blr26995 Posted July 27, 2016 Author Share Posted July 27, 2016 This thread is an awesome. I know it started out as a mistake but a lot to learn in this thread about cycling and the right way to add new live rock. Great pictures of the progress btw. Hey there thanks!! I'm really thankful for the info that I was given and glad I could show the process. I'm also really glad I removed the rock you saw how those numbers climbed??!!! Thankfully I only really ended up with three casualties. Wish it wasn't any but boy I learned my lesson!! I was partially hesitant as my husband was wanting me to leave the scapeing alone but it was me doing the dirty work so I just pulled em. Meh he got over it hard to explain numbers and water stuff so I just showed him colors and where they are supposed to and where they were going. That worked better. Rock is testing closer to 0 now so I'll be adding it to the tank tomorrow during my water change. Yay!!! I'm more comfortable with that. My tank is doing very well I think it can handle that now. Really all the testing and updating was/is fun to me! Sea bass is the bees knees! Link to comment
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