klsi Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Hello, everyone i need some help, i'm very confuse and lost ! I have a 90 gallon reef tank with refugium with 70 pounds of good quality indo LR ( with lot of corline algae) and have 30 pound ready to put in but not yet ( not time). My LFS teach me to use live fish to cycle tank (now i know is a DUMB idea) and most of the fishs is now dead which is a month ago. Now i only have a black clown and a yellow tang which eat well and active. And the fish that is dead is from that store too. The other one that survive is from other LFS. And 2 months has past already, im not sure i have gone through the cycle process or the cycle is not even started. My water test shows now i have amonia - 0 - 0.25 nitrate - 0 phosphate - 0 Calcium ( 440-460) dkh (10) The problem is from the start till now, my nitrate is always 0 and my amonia is always below 0.25. These number never spike. And nitrite is always 0 too. shouldnt these number spike up during cycling process. Now i found myself middle of no where. I don' know my tank is cycled or not. For now the amonia test result is not stable sometime it shows 0 sometime is 0.25. It is API test kit. Does that mean my tank is not cycled or i don't know, im so confuse please help Thanks you in advance Kelvin Link to comment
cdr5y7 Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 you have me confused too. so what is the remaining 30# of liverock in? cause if its just sitting out you will have a cycle again. if thats the case take your fish back. throw the rest of the rock in and wait. Link to comment
TimWarchol Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 my question is why would you use some pricey fish for the "inhumane" way of cycling a tank? Link to comment
theheaddon910 Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 +2 use $5 damsels Link to comment
cdr5y7 Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 dont even use damsels, just let it cycle itself. Link to comment
OClownsandNanos Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 If you have live rock, there's no need to use fish at all to cycle. Inhumane is inhumane, whether we're talking about a $5 fish or a $1000 one. My guess is the reason you never saw nitrates is because you've got a fuge with a bunch of macro in it which has been consuming the nitrates the whole time. It would have been more useful to have measured ammonia and nitrites during the cycle. Given it's been two months chances are you are over your big cycle, esp. since you saw your last fish deaths about a month ago. Out of curiosity, how many and what kind of fish did you have in there when your bioload was at its peak? Am curious about the 30 lbs you haven't added yet too. Are you curing it? Link to comment
Michelle s Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 dont even use damsels, just let it cycle itself. Hi all, my tank has been cycling for 5+ weeks . I have a jbj 28 gal nano cube I started with only one inch of live sand, then 2 inches of fine white sand and 25 lbs of dry rock. Of course, now I know, it would have been lots better for me to use mostly live rock. Started with tap water treated for chlorine and red sea salt. The tap water is very good here in Austin and LFS said it was fine. Also, my son has had a fish tank for years and always uses treated tap. I added some raw shrimp about 3 1/2 weeks ago. I brought a water sample to the LFS and they freaked because ammonia, nitrite and nitrate were off the charts. So I did a five gal. water change and added 1 lb of live rock. Readings still high, so did a 10 gal water change a week ago (using premixed salt water fro LFS) and added 1 lb live rubble. Ammonia was falling, finally. But now ammonia back up to 0.6 though Nitrite and Nitrate are near 0. Ph is 8. Water temp constant at 76.6 and gravity fine at 1.024. Nothing live in the tank yet but lots of algea on the rocks and brown detritus like a dust cloud. Clears up if I don't clean the glass. Should I put a power head in? like a vortech mp10? right now filter is basket that came with the tank: sponge, charcoal and ceramic rings. Should I switch that out for a skimmer (Tunze 9002)? I am wondering whether their is enough air in the water with the tank cover right on top of the water. Want to watch something in my tank besides the algea!! Can I get some snails yet? Link to comment
myjohnson Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 add snails and corals. Link to comment
klsi Posted February 11, 2011 Author Share Posted February 11, 2011 Thank for your interest in help me everyone, im very appreicated. The extra rock i have is sitting in another tank and everything is cured waiting to be added. The fishs that is sacrifice is 3 baby ocellaris clownfish. I'm sorry i know is inhuman and im still regret it. So my tank has gone through the cycle process? Link to comment
cdr5y7 Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 michelle, you need to take out all the stock media they gave you and run some filter floss or chemipure and carbon. and i would check out an bigger media rack. michelle,i would start a tank thread in the all in one section so that way you can get specific help to your needs. Link to comment
Michelle s Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 michelle, you need to take out all the stock media they gave you and run some filter floss or chemipure and carbon. and i would check out an bigger media rack. michelle,i would start a tank thread in the all in one section so that way you can get specific help to your needs. Thanks, will do about the forum. Link to comment
herranton Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Thank for your interest in help me everyone, im very appreicated. The extra rock i have is sitting in another tank and everything is cured waiting to be added. The fishs that is sacrifice is 3 baby ocellaris clownfish. I'm sorry i know is inhuman and im still regret it. So my tank has gone through the cycle process? No, Your tank has not cycled yet. Step 1: Return the remaining fish to the LFS. Try to get your money back. Step 2: Add ALL of the live rock that you have for the tank and remove any macro algae. Step 3: Wait for all Amonia and nitrites to be at zero (probably 3 weeks or so) Step 4: Do a 20% water change Step 5: Add fish slowly, no more than 1 large or 2 small fish every month. Link to comment
klsi Posted February 11, 2011 Author Share Posted February 11, 2011 No, Your tank has not cycled yet. Step 1: Return the remaining fish to the LFS. Try to get your money back. Step 2: Add ALL of the live rock that you have for the tank and remove any macro algae. Step 3: Wait for all Amonia and nitrites to be at zero (probably 3 weeks or so) Step 4: Do a 20% water change Step 5: Add fish slowly, no more than 1 large or 2 small fish every month. this is how i restart the cycling process? do i add raw shrimp? Link to comment
herranton Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 this is how i restart the cycling process? do i add raw shrimp? No, there will be enough die off on the rocks to start the cycle. Do not use any Mechanical(like protien skimmers) or chemical(like chemipure) filtration during the cycle. they will just make it take longer. Link to comment
klsi Posted February 12, 2011 Author Share Posted February 12, 2011 No, there will be enough die off on the rocks to start the cycle. Do not use any Mechanical(like protien skimmers) or chemical(like chemipure) filtration during the cycle. they will just make it take longer. thank you for your advice Link to comment
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