GOOD?

[E.Y.]

New to reefing.

 

Tank set up for two days. Used live rock out of an established 90g. Also was given a frogspawn.

 

Frog is out and about when the light is on. Looks happy to me.

 

Ammonia: .25

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate 10ppm

 

Figure a 25% water change tomorrow. Am I out of the woods in terms of the cycle? The .25 ammonia scares me.

 

14g Bio Cube, 10lbs. live rock, 17lbs. tropic eden reef flakes, two headed frogspawn, steve's leds

[Sal10104]

its just starting. its going to rocket up then go down. your frogspawn may not make it. try some prime?

[RayWhisperer]

Established rock? How long established(cured)? What about the sand? Out of a bag?

 

I don't usually trust cured rock. Regardless, once you remove it from the tank, you'll get a cycle. If it's really cured, it won't be bad, and won't be long. The way I see it, you've got 2 options.

 

1) change 25% water daily until ammonia and nitrites are undetectable. That's called a soft cycle.

2) take the coral back to your friend and let the tank do what it will. Once the cycle is finished, take the coral back.

[squamptonbc]

If its long established live rock and it was not out of the water for a long period, the die off on the rock should be minimal. and fairly short.

 

I wouldn't leave any corals in if at all possible as if you do get a higher spike it may end up dead.

[vegasgundog]

If the rock stayed in water and did not dry out you might be alright. Brandon469 swears the bacteria is indestructible except for full drying. If the bethnic life died on it from exposure, it's rotting away will give you aneed ammonia spike. When I set up the rsm I got to pick "cured" lr in the back of the lfs. I had a very short cycle from die off and rot before I broke down the bc and moved everything in. I'd say I got lucky but I also added 3 cups of sand and a sponge from the bc to accelerate the bacteria growth.

[E.Y.]

My friend was taking his tank down. He had already sold his fish and corals. We filled up buckets with 15 gallons of water, and then took a 4th bucket half filled and lifted the submerged rock out of his tank and submerged it under the water in that bucket.

 

Between that and the minute or so it took me to submerge it in my tank that had his water in it, that was all the exposure it had to air.

 

Sand out of a new bag. Not live sand.

 

I'll take the frag to a local lfs we have down the street and they won't mind holding it until I get my parameters under control. I will go with the suggested 25% water changes as well.

 

I appreciate all the feedback. I'm sure it gets repetitive in this discussion room. Sometimes it's just hard to nail down a solid answer when researching. Thanks y'all.

[Mariaface]

Prime (or another similar product, but Prime is quite concentrated) will detoxify ammonia for short lengths of time between your water changes. It's also an oxygen reducer, so overdosing it won't help you, but it helps to tide over while things are cycling just in case you have live organisms in there. Dosing bacteria may also help.

 

If you remove anything sensitive, though, you can do a hard cycle? Just don't keep the lights on without photosynthetic animals to use it, because that'll fuel algae growth and give you lower readings so you believe you're further along the cycle than you actually are.

[Clown79]

You're in the beginning of a cycle.

I have always left water changes till after the ammonia has dropped to 0. Then I proceed to water changes. The best advice is to go slow.

 

The LR you used may only cause a small cycle. I used mainly cured LR in my tank and cycled in 2 weeks using livesand.

 

The frogspawn may or may not make it.

I had a damaged brain i put in my 10g while it was cycling(i needed to remove the brain from my shrimp in my 15g)not only did it sit in a cycling tank for 3 weeks but it repaired itself and grew.

I've had hitchiker corals and pistol shrimp in my rock make it through a 4 week cycle. Its not something advisable but obviously things survive.

 

Die off doesn't happen as quickly as ppl think. If the LR is left out of water for hrs, die off will begin.

[E.Y.]

Slow and simple is what I am shooting for. I was born to be slow and simple, so this works perfect.

[RayWhisperer]

If the rock stayed in water and did not dry out you might be alright. Brandon469 swears the bacteria is indestructible except for full drying. If the bethnic life died on it from exposure, it's rotting away will give you aneed ammonia spike.

Perhaps I'm too cautious, but I don't fully agree with that statement. While bacteria like nitrossomma and nitrobacter are absolutely indestructible, there are many other bacterial colonies and other mieofauna (spelling?) that perform the same functions and more. How tough are they, really? I don't know. Not really here to argue that point though, so I guess I'll shut up now.

[cruiZe]

that's how I brought my LR home from LFS when I first started (submerged in a bucket) and never saw ammonia. My guess is your frogspawn will be fine. I think the visual of how it looks with lights on is important. Water change never hurts.

 

Just take it slow , sounds like you're off to a good start.

[E.Y.]

Same readings when I got home today. Tested the water I had left over in one of the buckets and it came out with the same ammonia reading.

 

Tested R/O water and it also resembled the same hint of green in the tube, though it wasn't cloudy like the salt water that was tested.

 

Went to three different pet stores looking for a test other than API, and couldn't locate one. Read a lot on the internet about the API having issues with reading .25.

 

Nitrites: 0

Nitrates: 10PPM

 

Frogspawn is out and about again, looking happy. Going to post a few pics...

Here's the spawn.

And one more.

[squamptonbc]

I for one cannot decipher the color chart on the API test on the low end, always looks like 0.25 to me, my wife says 0. and other test kits confirm its 0.

 

If it sticks at 0.25, consider ordering a different brand maybe on amazon or elsewhere if you cannot find one locally.

[E.Y.]

I think I'm going to order one today, and just continue to monitor the parameters.

[cruiZe]

I think I'm going to order one today, and just continue to monitor the parameters.

 

if you're really super curious, go ahead. I wouldn't bother getting a better ammonia test kit, you won't ever need it again. I highly recommend the salifert kits - I have Nitrate, Phosphate, CA, ALk, and MG - those first 2 might be relevant for you now -

 

frogspawn looks nice. I feed mine little tiny pellets, 1 per head - seems to enjoy it.

 

nice aiptasia . (not) do not allow them to have food. Look up ways to kill them (cover with super glue works great if you just have a few) blasting them with boiling water might work or might make them spread, jury is still out . propane torch works if you pull the rock out of the water. - scraping it can be dangerous to make it spread.

 

i really suggest getting rid of those aiptasia ASAP. I started with 3 and had 150-200 within a year

[E.Y.]

Which one is the aiptasia? The small white ones, or the pinkish colored one in the first picture. I was hoping those were feather dusters.. Bummer.

 

I'll try super gluing them today.

[smeagol108]

Honestly ur not going to have a cycle. U used established rock. Give it a few days the tank will be fine and so will the frogspawn. If anything u will experience die off as there is more bacteria on the rocks than the bio load in ur tank supports. Using established rock from another tank equals instant reef with no cycle as long as u didn't let it dry out.

[E.Y.]

Honestly ur not going to have a cycle. U used established rock. Give it a few days the tank will be fine and so will the frogspawn. If anything u will experience die off as there is more bacteria on the rocks than the bio load in ur tank supports. Using established rock from another tank equals instant reef with no cycle as long as u didn't let it dry out.

I was thinking along those lines as well. It's kind of like adding a seeded sponge filter to a new freshwater tank.

 

Berghia nudibranchs a good idea to order just to make sure all of the aiptasia is killed, or just stick with glue or lemon juice for now?

[cruiZe]

I was thinking along those lines as well. It's kind of like adding a seeded sponge filter to a new freshwater tank.

 

Berghia nudibranchs a good idea to order just to make sure all of the aiptasia is killed, or just stick with glue or lemon juice for now?

I finally had to get Berghia because i had an absolute infestation- 150-200 aiptasia like I said. They were 100% effective, but also $100 - So try the $5 approach first- if you just have a few of them, and you poke them - they usually retract in a hole, then fill the hole with super glue gel . I use Super Glue Ultra control Gel. works great underwater , just clean the spout thing when you're done

 

 

just for fun... hopefully in 7 years your frog will look like this

 

 

 

[E.Y.]

Thanks for the visual assistance. That frog is sweet!

[Clown79]

Get aiptasia x, it works better than any other method. You may need to try a few times but it gets rod of them

[E.Y.]

Those aiptasia are a pain. Was able to glue over most of them, but some are in difficult spots, so it definitely got a little interesting.

 

Ammonia and nitrite still at 0, nitrate is at 10ppm.

 

Frog is happy and we are starting to see more life. Last night we saw a decent size asterina moving over one of the live rocks.

 

Going to wait it out and when some algae develops I'll add some snails. Thanks for all the assistance so far.