There is a mist kind of thing in the water

[Charith1986]

2 minutes ago, Tired said:

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. 

yes true, my mistake.

[Charith1986]

is there any chance of adding a fish to the tank with this condition ?

 

[Tired]

NO. 

 

Your tank absolutely MUST be fully cycled before you put fish in it, or any animals. That means you should have seen ammonia rise and fall, nitrites rise and fall, and be seeing nitrates that are NOT from your original water. If you have ANY ammonia or nitrites, the tank isn't cycled. You may be able to speed your cycle along, or finish it right now, if you can get some good-quality live rock with a lot of bacteria and life on it.

 

If you have fish in another, un-cycled holding tank, do big water changes at least every couple of days to keep ammonia down. 

[Charith1986]

I will buy both ammonia and nitrite kits on Tuesday as tomorrow and Monday the whole country is locked down.

Do i need to do all three tests again on Tuesday ? as i have done nitrates and ammonia today, only doing nitrite would be enough ?

 

And the meantime should i keep the tank like this without doing any water changes until i see the next test results ?

[Charith1986]

I have the leftover of Aqua Forest Pro Bio S bacteria. That I added to the tank before and stopped doing it since the bacteria bloom.

 

Shall start adding it one drop daily or keep the tank like this ?

[Tired]

You should test the water for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates at least every few days, to follow the progress of your cycle. 

 

The bacteria you have in the bottle are a different kind than in the bloom. You can go ahead and keep adding the bottled stuff. Though it may not help too much, if it's too old. 

[Charith1986]

its only three weeks old and i keep it in the fridge. Instructions say to finish it within three months after opening the bottle.

[Tired]

Well, you don't know how long it was on the shelf before then, or if it was stored and handled properly during shipping.

[Charith1986]

18 hours ago, DreC80 said:

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.

During the bacteria bloom my fish were there in the tank. After few hours when tank getting cleared a bit i saw my Damsel has died and i removed it. I dont know for how many hours it was dead in the tank. 

 

Was that be a reason for the ammonia ? now there are no fish in it.

[Charith1986]

Hi, I checked Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate just now. Results are looking good.

 

Ammonia - zero (most probably) or if not 0.15ppm range.

Nitrite - zero

Nitrate - 25ppm

 

I added one drop each pro bio s bacteria today and yesterday.

Does the tank cycled now ? i have attached two photos of Ammonia result.

[DreC80]

6 hours ago, Charith1986 said:

During the bacteria bloom my fish were there in the tank. After few hours when tank getting cleared a bit i saw my Damsel has died and i removed it. I dont know for how many hours it was dead in the tank. 

 

Was that be a reason for the ammonia ? now there are no fish in it.

Ammonia could have been from the dead fish if it was decaying.

[DreC80]

I don't know that it's cycled yet....how about we wait a day and test all three again on Monday?  Can you post your results tomorrow?  Keep adding the bacteria daily.

[Charith1986]

yeah i can do all three tests tomorrow.

[Tired]

You have to keep adding an ammonia source. Otherwise, there being 0 ammonia just tells us that you haven't added ammonia, rather than that the ammonia was used up. What were you using for ammonia during the cycle? 

[Charith1986]

I did these tests around 6.30PM today, my LFS told me to do all tests again tomorrow at day time.

 

Is that just because of the proper light available on day time ? 

[Charith1986]

I added some frozen mysis only one day when it was set up three weeks ago, there after there were 3 fish in it till last Tuesday.

So there should be ammonia in the tank and yesterday it was 0.5 based on the result of LFS, Nitrate was 50. I added bacteria yesterday and today, in the evening results were like i mentioned.

 

Couldnt it implies the tank is cycled now, zero ammonia and nitrite and 25 nitrate ? 

I used to feed Hikari S, twice a day.

[DreC80]

3 hours ago, Charith1986 said:

I added some frozen mysis only one day when it was set up three weeks ago, there after there were 3 fish in it till last Tuesday.

So there should be ammonia in the tank and yesterday it was 0.5 based on the result of LFS, Nitrate was 50. I added bacteria yesterday and today, in the evening results were like i mentioned.

 

Couldnt it implies the tank is cycled now, zero ammonia and nitrite and 25 nitrate ? 

I used to feed Hikari S, twice a day.

No, I doubt that it's cycled.  You have to have an ammonia source.  The ammonia feeds that bacteria that converts ammonia to nitrite.  If there is no ammonia source, then the bacteria die and your tank won't cycle.  Cycling takes anywhere from 2 to probably 6 weeks.

 

Keep ghost feeding...putting little bit of food in the tank each day or two and let it turn to ammonia for the bacteria to feed on.

 

The cycle process will show ammonia first...with no nitrites.  After a while, ammonia will go to zero and you will see nitrites.  A little while later, nitrites will go to zero and the end result is only nitrates.  

 

This is why it's easier to start out with RO/DI or zero TDS water...because when you start seeing nitrates, it's a good indication the tank is cycled...the end result of the biological processes.  You have nitrates right now, but it's only because of your tap water.

 

Example:  If I make mix some clean saltwater right now and put it in a tank, it will show zero ammonia and zero nitrites on a test kit...but it doesn't mean the tank is cycled.

 

Cycling is just building up the different types of bacteria that process waste.  You just have to be patient.

 

You don't want to put your fish in yet and have them die.

[Clown79]

Did you use liverock(wet rock) 

 

Or dry reef rock

 

 

This is a very important detail as it will determine how to cycle your tank and the steps you need to be taking at this point.

 

Adding a cube of mysis would decay with nothing eating it, therefore adding an ammonia source to the tank.

 

I have cycled a tank in this method, after 3 days I removed the mysis and never continued feeding the tank and my tank still cycled.

 

Actually even leaving dry rock with NO ammonia source will still cycle, it's just a longer process.

 

Adding an ammonia source is just a faster process.

 

If you started with wet liverock- there is no need for an ammonia source.

 

Another factor here, you had fish in the tank which already added an ammonia source by their presence alone

 

[Charith1986]

Yes, I used wet rock. And soon after added mysis once. In two days I put Pro bio S bacteria and continued for 10 days.

During the first week I put a fish in the tank, and as you said the fish waste generates ammonia. Then I checked Nitrate and it was 100 and I did a water change with well water (20Litres) which the nitrate is 100ppm. 

 

In order to reduce nitrates and to fasten the process I added a one fourth of sugar (table spoon) to the tank and then the bacteria bloom appeared. On the same day my fish were start shaking and that tells there was a quite a high amount of ammonia in the tank. I did a 40Litre water change for two days and on the last day I checked Nitrates were 50 and ammonia was 0.5. 

 

Ystd results showed zero ammonia and nitrite and 25ppm nitrate. I will do a test today as well.

 

I am confused now. What should I do ?

 

[Charith1986]

One important thing i forgot to update. When I did 40 Litre water change i added ammonia detox to the tap water because it removes chlorine and chloromine in tap water.

And may that could be the reason ammonia is zero, it is effective for 72 hours. 

[Tired]

If the water you started the tank with had nitrates of 100, then seeing nitrates of 100 after a fish has been in the tank does NOT mean the tank has cycled. 

 

Sugar in the tank is not going to help the cycle. Who told you to do that? 

 

You need to add ammonia to the tank, and see if the ammonia gets converted into nitrites, and the nitrites into nitrates. If so, your tank is cycled. The rule of thumb for a cycled tank is that 2ppm ammonia should turn into 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and some nitrates within 24 hours. So, you should add ammonia until you have 2ppm of it, then test in a day. If you see 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and more than 25 nitrates, the tank is cycled. 

[Charith1986]

Okay noted.

[Charith1986]

Frozen mysis would be fine for an ammonia source.?

[Charith1986]

Tested in the morning. Ammonia reads 0.15 and nitrite reads zero.

 

Don`t know last night`s ammonia reading was correct because the test was done in the night.

[Clown79]

6 minutes ago, Charith1986 said:

Tested in the morning. Ammonia reads 0.15 and nitrite reads zero.

 

Don`t know last night`s ammonia reading was correct because the test was done in the night.

No matter what time the test is done, you want to see 1-2 ppm of ammonia process within 24hrs.

 

When you purchased the rock wet, what condition was it in? 

 

Good liverock is normally already cycled but if the rock had decaying matter, lots of detritus, it itself will provide an ammonia source.

 

At this point its very hard to determine why you have ammonia present after this long with adding food and even fish

 

The easiest method to determine if your tank has cycled would be using Dr Tim's ammonia, that would be far better as you can dose a certain amount and see if the tank processes 1-2 ppm ammonia in 24hrs.

Unfortunately I don't know how to do that with food