keljim's Posted December 10, 2003 Share Posted December 10, 2003 Well, I guess I maybe screwed this up some...wish I would have found this site sooner. On the advice of my LFS owner I have already put several animals in my tank, but now I wonder if it has even cycled yet. I started it about 4-5 weeks ago. I did not get pre-cured live rock, and so I just put it in and added water. I buy premixed water from LFS. I always get a 0 reading for ammonia, pH is always 8.2, nitrites 0, I have had a little nitrate +/- 10, after which I did a partial water change. My tank is 12 gallon eclipse with a small air driven skimmer and 2 small powerheads. The skimmer was just added last week after taking out the bio-wheel and filter unit (also on the advice of LFS owner). I currently have 20 lb LS, 23 lb LR, cleaning crew, small carpet anemone, small long tentacle anemone, 1 small clown fish, a little bit of leather coral and a little bit of mushroom coral. My concern after reading some of the posts is that my tank hasn't even cycled yet maybe? Is my stuff gonna die? Link to comment
fishtankbabe Posted December 10, 2003 Share Posted December 10, 2003 You said in another thread that you started this tank with a mature bio-wheel. I'm assuming you meant one that was already colonized with bacteria from another salt water tank, right? If this is the case then the bacteria on the bio wheel took care of the ammonia and nitrite. Unless your test kits are completely wrong, your tank never cycled because it didn't need to. The bacteria were already present. Trust me, if it's already been a month and you're still not reading ammonia or nitrites, you're not going to. It would have happened right away, like a day after putting the lr in the tank. That said, most people on this site will tell you to ditch the bio wheel, as it tends to be a nitrate factory. I would wait a few more weeks to do this though, just to make sure everything is stable. Link to comment
keljim's Posted December 11, 2003 Author Share Posted December 11, 2003 The bio-wheel is already gone, I'm just using the skimmer and powerheads now. The tank was actually previously a freshwater tank and I made it into a salt tank. It's good to know though that this would have happened already...I guess it's beginner's luck, huh? Thanks for your info! Link to comment
fishtankbabe Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 Wow, no kidding. The bacteria in freshwater is different than salt water, the salt water would have killed everything on that bio wheel. Are you sure the live rock wasn't cured? If it was cured that would explain the short / non-existant cycle. How big a skimmer you got on there? That's another possibility. If the skimmer is sucking everything out before it has a chance to break down, that could account for your tank not cycling also. What does everyone else think? Link to comment
keljim's Posted December 11, 2003 Author Share Posted December 11, 2003 My skimmer is really small, it's one of those Lee's Counter Current air-driven ones. I only put the skimmer in last week. The rock came straight out of the tanks at the LFS, and is full of bristle worms, fire worms, algae, little sea stars and tiny brittle stars. Heck, one peice even had a little carpet anemone on it. This leads me to think that the rock is not what would be called 'cured'. I brought it straight home wrapped in news paper to keep it moist and put it into the tank with the live sand and the water. I did use some ACT which is supposed to be a bacterial culture starter for either salt or fresh water tanks. I kept the bio-wheel in and changed the filter pad becuse it was soaked with fresh water. I tested my water daily, and never got any readings at all until a couple of days ago I got a little bit of Nitrate, but I've got a good amount of stuff in there. I'm now really just freakin' out because the stuff I'm reading here on this site is making me scared that my stuff is going to die. As I said, I took the entire filter set-up off last week, and now I'm just using the skimmer and the 2 tiny little powerheads. I am ordering a retro-fit kit to replace my light as you guys said though. I've been advised all around that the CustomSeaLife Supernova is the way to go for the Eclipse System12. If anyone else is looking, it's available at the marinedepot.com site. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all my little creatures will be OK. Link to comment
fishtankbabe Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 Don't freak out. If the live rock was at your lfs for any length of time, chances are it was already cured by the time you bought it. Plus if you took it right home and put it in water very little on it would have died. You're fine. The fact that you have nitrates means your tank is cycled. Link to comment
keljim's Posted December 11, 2003 Author Share Posted December 11, 2003 Well, that's good to know. I'm gonna do better setting up my new 29g show, I promise. I sure am glad for all the support from you guys. Now if my poor, poor anemone will just recover from the little powerhead accident it's had............ Link to comment
fishtankbabe Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 Poor anemone! :*( Link to comment
keljim's Posted December 12, 2003 Author Share Posted December 12, 2003 Yeah, he looks a little frayed...wait he IS frayed! Link to comment
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