Am I ready?

[duderubble]

20 Gallon Long. 10 gallon sump/fuge w/ macros. Cycling cured LR for a week. Amonnia spiked, dropped to zero. Nitrites went up to 1 ppm and hung out there for three days. Nitrites are dropping fast and stand at >.25 ppm. I hadn't been testing Nitrates during the week (they started at 20 ppm) because I figured what's the point til the nitrites drop. Now the nitrates are reading 5 ppm. so current numbers are:

 

Ammonia 0

Nitrites .25

Nitrates 5

 

I've had hermits and snails in this week and plan to go today to get a redleg hermit for my lovely glass anemone. It's tough for me to get to the LFS during the week, am I safe for fish or corals?

 

I've been thinking about a pair of Ocellaris clowns (I was thinking of naming them Nemo and Martin since everyone around here gets off on that ) and a yellow tailed blue damsel.

 

Any other suggestions for tankmates or warnings about those choices?

 

Of course I know to add livestock slowly. I have a 125 gallon Goldfish tank with a 45 gallon fuge (yeah, you didn't know anyone ran a fuge for goldies, huh?).

[LoBo]

well, what lighting do you have?

and how old is your tank?

[duderubble]

well, what lighting do you have?

and how old is your tank?

 

 

Just 1 week, I'm thinking the macro in the fuge sped up the cycle--or at least chowed on the nitrates. My LR came from thatfishplace and came straight home so I guess that good cured rock sped things up.

 

Lighting is 48W T5 10,000K/Actinic (1 each @24W each)

[eklikewhoa]

I would at least wait till all the ammonia and nitrItes go away....then wait another week or two for things to stabilize.

[kkyyllee]

dont add anytihng till your nitrites are at zero

[duderubble]

dont add anytihng till your nitrites are at zero

 

OK, I'm sure I'm overthinking this but...

 

I get that the die off of the LR jumpstarts the cycle: Dead junk=>Ammonia=>Nitrite=>Nitrate. But without any additional bioload, what are those newly hatched nitrifying bacteria living off of once the die off is complete?

 

In the FW world we tell newbies that they've wasted their cycle if they don't get bioload in because they'll be starting all over.

 

So what's going on in a tank with LR and nothing else to feed those little guys until we get around to putting a fishy in?

[dshnarw]

OK, I'm sure I'm overthinking this but...

 

I get that the die off of the LR jumpstarts the cycle: Dead junk=>Ammonia=>Nitrite=>Nitrate. But without any additional bioload, what are those newly hatched nitrifying bacteria living off of once the die off is complete?

 

In the FW world we tell newbies that they've wasted their cycle if they don't get bioload in because they'll be starting all over.

 

So what's going on in a tank with LR and nothing else to feed those little guys until we get around to putting a fishy in?

 

 

The difference between FW and SW is that freshwater doesn't have live rock. Live rock, in itself, has bioload. There are tons of pods and worms of various types in there that create the waste to produce the continued nitrogen cycle. In fact, if you leave the tank alone, and do no water changes, you'll see the product of that when ammonia and nitrite are 0, and your nitrate continually increases.

 

Some of the nitrifying bacteria will die off after the initial cycle, which is why you should slowly add livestock - to let the bacteria have time to multiply again after each bioload increase.