dubious49 Posted June 20, 2003 Share Posted June 20, 2003 just looking for a little advice here. i set up my tank over a month ago. after the first two weeks the amm, trites and trates had never moved from zero. so i added a few pinches of food which raised the amm to 0.25 for about 2 days and then it dropped again. trites and trates remained at zero. a week later i added a decent sized piece of cocktail shrimp which fully decomposed in about a week. again, the amm nudged up to about 0.25 and then back down. the trites never rose above 0 and now the trates are just starting to show up. my 10 gallon tank is stocked with 15 pounds of fiji rock and 20 pounds of live sand, 2 powerheads and a HOB filter with carbon. the lighting is a 96watt pc quad (50/50) and runs for about 8 hours a day. i have TONS of growth on the rocks. no coraline algae yet but plenty of green, red, brown and diatoms. there are also a bunch of little critters that come out of the rock when the lights are off. not sure what they are or what they do. anyway, can someone point me in the right direction for my next step? obviously i'm in no rush and want to do things the right way the first time. are these small spikes normal during this type of cycle or should i keep monitoring the tank and look for bigger spikes? should i change the water and add some type of hardy cleaner livestock as a next step? and if so, any recommendations? thanks in advance. Link to comment
Dennis_said Posted June 20, 2003 Share Posted June 20, 2003 Hmm.... when did you do your first test... after 2 weeks? Is your rock cured? Or was it uncured or precured? Maybe you had a REALLY quick cycle and it finished off before your first test. Link to comment
dubious49 Posted June 20, 2003 Author Share Posted June 20, 2003 thanks dennis. actually, no. i started testing the water the day after i added the rock and sand. according to the LFS the rock was fullly cured when i bought it. they have them piled up in three 75 gallon tanks with plenty of circulation and a cycle of light so i think it's pretty safe to assume that the rock is cured. i also didn't think i'd get too much die off from the rock since the LFS is only about a mile from my house and i put it in as soon as i got it home. which is why i decided to jump start the cycle with the food and the shrimp. Link to comment
TiGs Posted June 20, 2003 Share Posted June 20, 2003 Seems like your tank cycled fast, as did mine. If your test are showing everything is ok, you can start stocking your clean-up crew. Before you stock do a 10% water change. Stock slowly so your tank can catch up to the bio load. People suggest getting the clean-up crew 1st, corals 2nd, and fish last. Link to comment
chufa Posted June 22, 2003 Share Posted June 22, 2003 I set up my tank with cured aquacultured live rock and it never cycled. There were enough bacteria in the rock from the beginning. After two weeks of testing and finding nothing, I decided to stock slowly. Still tested, and nothing showed up (except 5-20 ppm nitrate from time to time). Link to comment
dubious49 Posted June 22, 2003 Author Share Posted June 22, 2003 thanks chufa. can you tell me what you started with to stock the tank? i'm assuming i should start with some cleaners. maybe a couple snails or crabs or both? thanks again. Link to comment
chufa Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 yes, after 2 weeks I added some hermits and snails, then the next week a damsel, a month later an ocellaris clownfish, and so on, little by little. Link to comment
FlyGTI Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 A few years ago, I set up a 29 for a friend, using fully cured live rock, and there was zero cycle. I put in a pair of clowns that same day. Might have stressed them a little bit, but certainly not much. They behaved well, and were just fine! Using fully cured live rock is always preferable, as it shortens the cycle to almost nothing. Link to comment
caja Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 I agree with fly. I've set both my tanks up with cured LR and next to no cycle. You will more than likely have the diatom bloom and probably a cyano outbreak before too long. Those little critters are pods - good guys, they are industrious liitle guys that help with the housekeeping. Link to comment
moorediddy Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 I'm having a similar "problem"... Tank has been cycling for two weeks, and ammonia spiked to about 1.0, and went back down to about .3 after about 5 days and has stayed around there since then. Nitrites have never spiked that I know of, and Nitrates are still zero. What's the deal? -moore Link to comment
seabass Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 Moore, to make sure that your cycle is complete, put in some food. If your tank can handle the increased load, than you are ready to start slowly adding livestock (your bacteria are working properly if your Ammonia and Nitrites remain near zero, but your Nitrate levels increase slightly). Link to comment
moorediddy Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 Well, I added 4 blue-legged hermits about a week ago, to curb an algea outbreak. And a couple days after that, 1 bumble bee snail, 2 astreas and 1 margarita. All are very active and seem to be doing well. I thought if the cycle were complete, after adding these the nitrates would rise a little, but everything is still locked at Ammonia (somewhere between .25 and .5 is my best guess), Nitrites 0, Nitrates 0. -moore Link to comment
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