Gradleg Posted March 5, 2017 Share Posted March 5, 2017 So last night me and my buddy (who has lots of experiance in saltwater) setup my 10 gallon. I started with the basic 10 gallon aquarium. Then painted it black on the back. Then i got 10 pounds of indo-pacific live sand and then 10 pounds of dry rock. He had a brand new biowheel filter and a topfin 25 watt heater. My light and powerhead is coming in this coming week. We let everything settle down and then added "seed". I read the back and will be dosing the tank for the up coming week with the right amount for my tank. My only question is will the seed start the cycle or do i need to do the shrimp method? My salt level is was correct and we filled up the tank and filter and this morning it was crystal clear. My plans for the tank is one clown fish and then a yellow watchman goby paired with a shrimp. I hope im going in the right dirrection. Any imput or critique will be greatly appreciated:) advice on cycling with the "seed" or if i should take another route. Thanks in advance!! Link to comment
Gradleg Posted March 5, 2017 Author Share Posted March 5, 2017 Also, should i expect a spike in ammonia or will the seed just build up benificial bacteria? Link to comment
Lawlboom Posted March 5, 2017 Share Posted March 5, 2017 If it's out of the bag sand and new dry rock you will have to cycle it. I personally use Biospira. Some love it (me) others hate it. The safest way would be to fish food / shrimp method. If everything you have was bought new I'm not too sure what you mean by 'seed'. Seeding would be if your buddy gave you some live rock or live sand out of his/her established tank. Without that, everything being new, you need to start at the beginning. Link to comment
Gradleg Posted March 5, 2017 Author Share Posted March 5, 2017 47 minutes ago, Lawlboom said: If it's out of the bag sand and new dry rock you will have to cycle it. I personally use Biospira. Some love it (me) others hate it. The safest way would be to fish food / shrimp method. If everything you have was bought new I'm not too sure what you mean by 'seed'. Seeding would be if your buddy gave you some live rock or live sand out of his/her established tank. Without that, everything being new, you need to start at the beginning. I attached a picture of what we used So should i just go ahead and drop in a piece of shrimp to get the cycle to start along with using the aquavitro seed? Link to comment
Lawlboom Posted March 5, 2017 Share Posted March 5, 2017 Yep, or fish food (shrimp is easier). Make sure it's fresh raw shrimp. Don't use anything that has any kind if preservative or flavoring. You might see an ammonia spike, you might not. Shrimp+Seed will be the faster way. There's plenty of articles on here and other sites for a more in depth explanation of the process. Link to comment
Gradleg Posted March 5, 2017 Author Share Posted March 5, 2017 So just a little piece of shrimp? Will it smell? Link to comment
Lawlboom Posted March 5, 2017 Share Posted March 5, 2017 Just now, Gradleg said: So just a little piece of shrimp? Will it smell? Yes, and Yes. Decaying shrimp will smell bad after a few days. Just monitor the cycle and remove it when it starts the smell. You can replace it with a new one if you need to. Link to comment
Gradleg Posted March 5, 2017 Author Share Posted March 5, 2017 So how long should i keep a shrimp in for? Link to comment
Lawlboom Posted March 5, 2017 Share Posted March 5, 2017 Sounds like you could benefit from reading some articles on cycling a saltwater aquarium. The articles here on website are very good. Link to comment
gonebad395 Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 1 hour ago, Lawlboom said: Sounds like you could benefit from reading some articles on cycling a saltwater aquarium. The articles here on website are very good. I agree your buddy that has lots of experience in Sw should have helped you out on this. just talking to him if his experience is a lot then picking his brain should have these simple questions answered. The worst thing to do in this hobby is to act like you or someone else knows the only things that suffer are your wallet and the live stock. In no way is this to be mean or belittling but through out the years this is a question asked over and over and it's a simple read online. And if you have a friend that has years of knowledge then it's a question you shouldn't have to ask if he helped you set the tank up? Link to comment
SantaMonicaHelp Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 Hi Gradleg, Congratulations with the set up Looks great! Is it your first tank? Zhenya Link to comment
Gradleg Posted March 6, 2017 Author Share Posted March 6, 2017 1 minute ago, SantaMonicaHelp said: Hi Gradleg, Congratulations with the set up Looks great! Is it your first tank? Zhenya Yes this is my first saltwater tank. Im pretty proud of how its looking already and i cant wait to get a few fish in it. I figured everything out about the cycle and now i just need to be patient Link to comment
Gradleg Posted March 6, 2017 Author Share Posted March 6, 2017 My stocking plans are as follows: for certain 1 clown then either a firefish, royal gramma, or a shrimp goby pair and of course clean up crew. Any imput? Link to comment
Clown79 Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 The best way to cycle with dry rock is: Ammonig dosing or adding piece of liverock. The shrimp method will work but the cons; it stinks, its messy, it creates higher nutrient levels which can produce issues in the present and future. Link to comment
Gradleg Posted March 9, 2017 Author Share Posted March 9, 2017 I just got my light in and since im not gonna be growing any corals i went with a $30 one off amazon and i also got a fluval 240 powerhead. Everything is coming along great im just gonna be looking into a custom acrilic lid or a lid made out of netting. Any imput? Link to comment
lkoechle Posted March 9, 2017 Share Posted March 9, 2017 dose ammonia to do the cycle (no additives, no surfactants) and add the bacteria to help break it down. As others have said, read all you can around here. You can buy a window screening kit and us that to make a lid. We bought "netting" from an LFS and then a window kit from lowe's. Link to comment
Gradleg Posted March 11, 2017 Author Share Posted March 11, 2017 I tested my water and my ammonia is starting to spike Link to comment
Gradleg Posted March 20, 2017 Author Share Posted March 20, 2017 Yesterday was a very exciting day for me i got my first clown and i put him in my friends quarintine tank so we can make sure he isnt carrying anything like ich. I havent named him yet bc i dont want to get super attached incase something happens. But i picked the livelist out of the bunch and the shop i got him from claims that they quarintine all fish for 2 weeks. And the tank that the clowns are in are seprate from all the other tanks. Hopefully he does good. My cycle has about a week or two left if im correct. My ammonia has risen and then fallen and then my nitrites have risen and have started to go down. Sorry about the low quality pic but it was all i could get before my phone died. Link to comment
Gradleg Posted March 26, 2017 Author Share Posted March 26, 2017 Can anyone tell me what type of algae this is? And is there anyway to get rid of it? Could it be my light? I have a nicrew led light? And thats my little frag of green star polyp i got yesterday. Im asking about the algae that is on my rocks Link to comment
Gradleg Posted March 26, 2017 Author Share Posted March 26, 2017 Is it a diatom bloom? From what ive been reading it says that it should go away naturally but should i add 1 trochus snail to start my clean up crew? Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 Your tank is mew so it's most likely diatoms. I wouldn't add a trochus yet, they eat quite a bit of algae. The diatoms will exhaust their food source and will go away on their own. Perhaps a cerith snail? Link to comment
Gradleg Posted March 26, 2017 Author Share Posted March 26, 2017 16 minutes ago, fishfreak0114 said: Your tank is mew so it's most likely diatoms. I wouldn't add a trochus yet, they eat quite a bit of algae. The diatoms will exhaust their food source and will go away on their own. Perhaps a cerith snail? You read my mind... and my LFS? I got one cerith snail and he is already chomping away at the mess. Link to comment
Lula_Mae Posted March 27, 2017 Share Posted March 27, 2017 Yes, it looks like it's probably diatoms. They will go away but the cerith will help. Link to comment
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