Tired Posted May 22, 2020 Share Posted May 22, 2020 You need to keep your live rock. It's where your beneficial bacteria, the ones you're trying to grow with the cycle, live. It's not the problem, your problem is your well water, possibly the sugar, and probably an incomplete cycle. Quote Link to comment
DreC80 Posted May 22, 2020 Share Posted May 22, 2020 Just start your cycle again. Keep the rock and sand. Use tap water for now, but try to find distilled for the future. You'll need the test kits to track progress of your cycle. Quote Link to comment
xthunt Posted May 22, 2020 Share Posted May 22, 2020 100ppm in ground water? I don’t know what the usual range is but that seems kinda high. I would double and triple check your testing, just to be sure. Quote Link to comment
Charith1986 Posted May 22, 2020 Author Share Posted May 22, 2020 Test results are accurate as when i check the levels twice on tap water and very minimal range of nitrate. But well water its 100ppm. Will start the cycle again, shall i remove my existing filter floss and ceramic rings ? i meant by coral sand mean small coral particulars which i put in the sump to grow bacteria. I dont think there is a risk in keeping them, but i am not sure. Quote Link to comment
DreC80 Posted May 22, 2020 Share Posted May 22, 2020 How much live rock do you have? You may not need the ceramic rings. Filter floss is something that should be reaced regularly anyway, so you can remove or replace it. Not sure what you mean by coral sand in the sump? Can you get a pic? Quote Link to comment
Charith1986 Posted May 23, 2020 Author Share Posted May 23, 2020 I have about 3 KG of live rock and most of them are green and purple to some extend. Yes I can remove the ceramic rings. At the moment i have removed filter floss as well cs they are two weeks old now. I dont have a big mixing container to do a full water change at once. So what i did was 20L two water changes in two days. The result in the morning turned a bit better. And it looks like in the 50 range. I have attached a photo of my test results and the photo of coral sand which i mentioned. Should check for ammonia and nitrite today. Quote Link to comment
Charith1986 Posted May 23, 2020 Author Share Posted May 23, 2020 Is it necessary to do a full water change at the situation ? or shall we wait till today`s test results as well ? Quote Link to comment
DreC80 Posted May 23, 2020 Share Posted May 23, 2020 Ok, I see now. The water change is to get your no3 down. You don't have to do it all at once....maybe do three of them. As far as the pieces of coral rubble in the back chamber go, is there anyway you can put them in a filter bag? I'm worried that you are going to get a lot of detritus build up back there. If you put in a filter bag, you can pull the bag out to clean the back compartment every once and a while. Were you able to test your ammonia or nitrite? Quote Link to comment
Charith1986 Posted May 23, 2020 Author Share Posted May 23, 2020 Yeah you are right, i will try to put them in a one bag. But there is quite a lot of small pieces there. Ammonia and nitrite checking today ? according to the nitrate test photo i uploaded its not in the range of 100ppm right ? Quote Link to comment
Charith1986 Posted May 23, 2020 Author Share Posted May 23, 2020 This all implies how important your tank should organize. In my tank the filter is on the back which is a bit difficult to clean such thing when compared to a sump filter. There is lot to think in this hobby before starting. 1 Quote Link to comment
DreC80 Posted May 23, 2020 Share Posted May 23, 2020 35 minutes ago, Charith1986 said: Yeah you are right, i will try to put them in a one bag. But there is quite a lot of small pieces there. Ammonia and nitrite checking today ? according to the nitrate test photo i uploaded its not in the range of 100ppm right ? Yes nitrate looks less than 100. Quote Link to comment
DreC80 Posted May 23, 2020 Share Posted May 23, 2020 I'd be interested to see what your ammonia and nitrite levels are. This will help us figure out if tank is cycled or not. Quote Link to comment
Charith1986 Posted May 23, 2020 Author Share Posted May 23, 2020 sure will update in few hours. the shop opens at 11 am. Quote Link to comment
DreC80 Posted May 23, 2020 Share Posted May 23, 2020 Ok sounds good. I'll be asleep by then 😉, but post your results here and we can figure out if the tank is cycled or not. Quote Link to comment
Charith1986 Posted May 23, 2020 Author Share Posted May 23, 2020 sure thing, thanks for all the guidance. 1 Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted May 23, 2020 Share Posted May 23, 2020 You should really get a test kit so you can determine ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates at a moment's notice, rather than relying on someone else to test them. They're arguably the most important parameters (aside from salinity) to be able to rapidly check, since ammonia and nitrites in particular will harm and eventually kill your livestock. 1 Quote Link to comment
Charith1986 Posted May 23, 2020 Author Share Posted May 23, 2020 Yes, i visited a LFS and did a Nitrate test again, their result was 5ppm and he will give me the ammonia result soon. Just now I checked nitrate again from my salifert kit and i can confirm it is in the 50ppm square. So That 50 range means from 26 ppm to 50 ppm ? so i would fall somewhere in between. Quote Link to comment
Charith1986 Posted May 23, 2020 Author Share Posted May 23, 2020 Ammonia is 0.5, Nitrite kits are over. so couldnt do a nitrite test. Quote Link to comment
DreC80 Posted May 23, 2020 Share Posted May 23, 2020 Cycled tanks don't normally have any ammonia, unless something has died, etc. .5 could also be a testing error or a kit that doesn't read well. Now we need to find out what your nitrites are. Hopefully you can buy an ammonia and nitrite test kit as you will need to be measuring those regularly during the cycle. Quote Link to comment
Charith1986 Posted May 23, 2020 Author Share Posted May 23, 2020 There are some white small things on my front glass, they are sticked to the glass and moving. What could be that ? Quote Link to comment
DreC80 Posted May 23, 2020 Share Posted May 23, 2020 Can you get a closer pic? Google hydroids and see if that's what it looks like. Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted May 23, 2020 Share Posted May 23, 2020 If they're tiny white dots that are moving around in small hops and jerks, they're probably copepods. You want those! They act as live food for your fish, provide some minor cleanup benefits, and are an important part of your biodiversity. Quote Link to comment
Charith1986 Posted May 23, 2020 Author Share Posted May 23, 2020 Oh shit, i cleaned it up with my magnet cleaner Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted May 23, 2020 Share Posted May 23, 2020 They probably swam away, and anyway there should be more in the rockwork. As a general rule, don't remove things if you aren't sure they're harmful. You'll see plenty of weird little things that are harmless and potentially helpful, they come in on the live rock. Quote Link to comment
Charith1986 Posted May 23, 2020 Author Share Posted May 23, 2020 yes they are copepods, but they are dead i guess now Quote Link to comment
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