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Please help me. I am relatively new to the hobby. My new tank is a five gallon. It’s been cycling for 3-4 weeks. I have been adding a bit of fish food to feed the nitrifying bacteria. Ammonia was high originally, but it’s gone down with nitrites too, to 0ppm. I now only have 20ppm in nitrates. But I noticed a little bit of algae (small flowy white hairs) on the glass sides of the tank (it appears to be hair algae but I’m not entirely sure). Is this normal and harmful? Should I just remove it? Is my water chemistry not correct or something ? My tank has just been receiving natural light as I have not installed any light, I have aqua soil, but this wasn’t a problem a couple weeks ago. I just want to be careful with the steps I take from here on out as to ensure I do not mess up my cycle. All help is greatly appreciated. -
Yes I know it’s been asked a million times. (Tank cycling)
Adamsjus002 posted a topic in Nano Reef Journals
Hello! I’m new to the hobby. I’m in the process of cycling a 29 gallon tank. Have live rock, dry rock, live sand. And by recommendation used Fritz Turbostart 900. But I’m confused. added ammonia to get things going. I’ve been testing the last five days. As of today ammonia is present and between .25-.5ppm. 5-10ppm of nitrate is present. But I never saw any nitrite. I need guidance. Am I doing something wrong? I’m sure this question has been asked a million times. I just don’t want to screw anything up. -
A Guide to Cycling This topic is almost as old as reef keeping itself. But within the past decade, governments have placed restrictions on live rock collection, and there's been a shift to starting new reef tanks with dry rock. In this guide, I'll discuss the nitrogen cycle, as well as methods to cycle both live and dry rock (something which every new hobbyist should be aware of). I'll be using the following definitions: Bio-load noun - The wastes produced by the biological organisms in your tank Biofilter noun - The nitrifying bacteria which make up the nitrogen cycle Curing verb - The process of removing dead organics (an ammonia source) from your rock Cycle noun - The nitrogen cycle Cycle verb - To establish the nitrogen cycle And even if commonly used, I'll try to avoid using confusing terms like "cycle" to describe an ammonia spike. The Nitrogen Cycle The nitrogen cycle doesn't change, so I won't spend a lot of time on this well documented topic. When it comes to the cycle, we are primarily concerned about nitrifying bacteria and ammonia. However, nitrite and nitrate are also part of the nitrification process: Ammonia is produced by animals, including the breakdown of dead organic matter by heterotrophic bacteria. Nitrifying bacteria oxidizes the ammonia into nitrite (which isn't considered toxic in marine aquariums). Then nitrite is oxidized into nitrate (a critical nutrient for all photosynthetic life). Finally, excess nitrate can be exported via water changes. Nitrate can also be taken up by phytoplankton, macroalgae, seagrass, and animals with zooxanthellae (a symbiotic algae living within corals and other "photosynthetic" animals). More advanced methods of nitrate reduction include: supporting consumption by dosing liquid carbon, and by providing anaerobic zones for denitrifying bacteria. Notes: Nitrifying bacteria reside on the hard surfaces in your tank (like rocks, sand, equipment, and tank walls). Therefore, water changes will not remove this critical bacteria. In addition, you can transfer the biofilter from one tank to another tank by moving the rocks, filter media, etc. Cycling Live Rock Rock that has been taken from the ocean, or from another reef tank, is called live rock. When you purchase it, the nitrifying bacteria get transferred along with the rock. Plus, it usually contains more than just bacteria (including things like pods, worms, and coralline algae). This biodiversity can often help prevent pests like dinoflagellates from taking over without biological competition. For this type of rock, we should generally wait until total ammonia drops to a safe range (of 0.25 ppm or less) before adding livestock. Note: Fully cured live rock will produce less ammonia than it can process, so it won't elevate ammonia levels. Uncured Live Rock Since collection restrictions have made it harder to acquire uncured live rock from the ocean, you might find aquacultured and maricultured rock to be acceptable alternatives. To keep costs down, live rock is often shipped to you (or your local store) wet, but not submerged in water. This usually results in some die off, which will produce ammonia. As the name suggests, uncured live rock has not gone through the curing process (where heterotrophic bacteria breaks down the dead organic compounds). But generally, there's already enough nitrifying bacteria on these rocks, so it's just a matter of waiting until the dead organics are broken down and ammonia reaches safe levels (which could take a few weeks). During this time, there are usually temporary spikes in both ammonia and nitrite. The following graph represents a typical cycle when using uncured live rock: Figure 2: Nitrogen Cycle With Ammonia Spike[1] Note: Ammonia levels might remain slightly elevated following an ammonia spike. In addition (like in the ocean), tanks with livestock will always have some level of total ammonia, even if it's not detectable by our test kits. Cured Live Rock This rock has already been cured; so it has little to no die off, and is capable of processing more ammonia than it produces. On the other hand, rock which hasn't been fully cured, or has experienced die off during transport, can produce elevated ammonia levels. If it does, simply wait until total ammonia reaches a safe range (of 0.25 ppm or less) before slowly adding livestock. Cycling Dry Rock Dry rock is a term used for any reef rock which is currently dry. It doesn't contain any marine life (including nitrifying bacteria to process ammonia). This rock could have been manufactured or mined from the ground, or have come from someone else's tank or collected from the ocean (and then dried out). Because of this, it might or might not have dead organic matter on it. If you have any question about whether or not your rock might contain dead organics, I recommend testing it, and curing it if necessary. You can test it by soaking it in some water for a few days. If the water becomes discolored or starts to smell, the organics are probably starting to break down (and ammonia is being produced). You can test the water for ammonia to be certain. Curing Dry Rock If it turns out that your rock has dead organic matter on it, you should cure it like you would cycle uncured live rock. When you are done, and depending on how much ammonia was produced, it should have a working biofilter capable of handling a light bio-load. Adding Nitrifying Bacteria You can use a bottled bacteria culture (such as Instant Ocean BIO-Spira) to introduce or add nitrifying bacteria strains to your dry rock. The bacteria is immediately capable of processing ammonia, even when it's still free floating in the water column. And within 5 days, the bacteria should colonize onto the hard surfaces in your tank; after this, water changes will no longer remove the newly added bacteria. Uncured rock will produce ammonia; if it does, simply wait until the level of total ammonia reaches 0.25 ppm. If you stop there and slowly add livestock, your fish will usually be fine; although the ammonia levels could still become elevated until the the bacteria populations increase. This is sometimes referred to as cycling with fish (where the ammonia from fish is used to help build up the biofilter). However, if the ammonia level gets too high, it can be harmful to your fish. So prior to adding livestock, I typically suggest using the following fishless cycling method to build up the nitrifying bacteria on dry rock; although you might not always have time for this step when setting up something like an emergency quarantine tank. Fishless Cycling The idea behind fishless cycling is to use a clean source of ammonia to build up the biofilter on pre-cured dry rock prior to stocking your tank. This can be done in your display tank, or in a separate container with a powerhead for flow (a heater or light isn't required). While fishless cycling can be done without adding bottled bacteria, dosing nitrifying bacteria beforehand is recommended to speed up the process.[2] The ammonia source used, will feed the bacteria and promote its reproduction. Fishless cycling is a simple process of: dosing, waiting, and testing. The number of days that it takes isn't important; simply wait until your rocks are ready for the next step before proceeding: Dose ammonium chloride or another clean source of ammonia to elevate total ammonia up to 1 ppm (don't overdose). Wait for total ammonia to drop to 0.25 ppm (if the level of total ammonia continues to go up, your rocks weren't fully cured, which will add time to this step). Repeat until your rocks can process 1 ppm of total ammonia down to 0.25 ppm within 24 hours. When finished, your tank will have a working biofilter capable of handling a typical initial bio-load. Notes: Don't add ammonia or ammonium to rock containing non-bacterial life (like pods or other inverts). If using a pure ammonia cleaner as your ammonia source, make sure that it doesn't contain scents, surfactants, detergents, or dyes. Ghost Feeding Ghost feeding is an alternative method for adding an ammonia source to build up a biofilter. It involves adding fish food to a tank (without any fish in it) until the biofilter can process the ammonia being produced. And while effective, it's harder to control the level of ammonia, and the rotting food adds organics and phosphate, which could lead to future problems like cyanobacteria. Cycling a Combination of Dry and Live Rock We can add live rock to dry rock in order to introduce biodiversity. The longer that you keep the dry rock and live rock together, the more life (like pods, bacteria, and coralline) will spread to the dry rock. However, if the dry rock is uncured, you might choose to cure it separately, so as not to expose this beneficial life to the ammonia that is produced. Post Cycling After cycling your rocks (but before adding livestock), you can adjust the water's nutrient levels by: performing water changes to export excess nutrients, or by dosing nutrients if they are too low. If you won't be keeping corals, I'd change out enough water to reduce nitrate to less than 20 ppm. If you will be keeping coral and anemones, I recommend trying to maintain nitrate levels between 3 and 10 ppm (dosing up to 3 ppm, or exporting down to 10 ppm). Likewise, I recommend trying to keep phosphate levels between 0.03 to 0.10 ppm (dosing up to 0.03 ppm, or exporting down to 0.10 ppm). Once the cycle is established, and after you've adjusted the tank water's nutrient levels, I recommend adding livestock in smaller groups (waiting at least a week between additions). This will give the bacteria populations some time to adjust to the new bio-load before adding more livestock. Resources https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/content/post/md-2019-01-how-to-cycle-a-saltwater-tank-tips-to-help-you-succeed-with-your-new-aquarium https://www.drtimsaquatics.com/resources/library/quick-guide-to-fishless-cycling-with-one-and-only/ Also check out: A Look at Ammonia.
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So tank has been up and running for 10 days now I have added turbostart900 at a high dose around day 5. So I dosed ammonia up to 2ppm 24 hours ago and about 12 hours in I was down to 1ppm then now 12 more hours witch is the full 24 hours is down to 0.50 I believe (hard to tell with this stupid kit) so should I dose ammonia back up to 2ppm? And keep doing that? Or what’s the next move and my nitrites and nitrates are both high so I know the cycle is doing it’s job. Dry rock live sand. or should I wait for ammonia to drop to 0-0.25ppm then dose back up?
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Hi, it’s been at least 2 year since I’ve had a saltwater tank so I’m wondering if it’s possible to finish a new tank cycle in a week? I have an Innovative Marine 20g with one clownfish. I setup the tank on Sep 16th 2021, I used instant ocean live nitrifying bacteria. Today Sep 21st I’m reading 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites around 10-20 nitrates. The first picture is one from Sep 21st and the second is from the night before is this possible? And what should I do after, should I do a water change or continue to wait?
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Afternoon everyone, Been out of reefing for a couple years now due to some life changes. Getting ready to finally start a new nano AIO tank. The tank I purchased I also got the skimmer fr the back chamber. Is it wish to run the protein skimmer during cycling or wait until it is a little more established? With older tanks I use to have I never put the skimmer in/on until after the cycle and live stock was added. Any assistance would be awesome. Many thanks
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As the title says, I need help cycling my pico tank. I messed up the original cycle by removing every last bit of phosphate somehow, so I tried to add it back by putting some dry fish flakes in. The problem now is that, within roughly 12 hours, the food disappeared, Nitrates spiked, ammonia stayed at 0.5, and nitrites at nearly 2. However, the phosphates did not increase in the slightest bit. I only dosed two things in that time period: aquavitro's remediation (since there was a lot of seemingly organic things floating around) and Seachem's prime (to see if it would help the ammonia level). I have been adding Seachem's stability as well, but not within the 12-hour period that the food was in the tank. Also, I used live sand and live rock in the tank set up, and it's still in there of course. I'll upload a picture of my test results here so anyone may be able to interpret them. They look a little lighter in person, so consider that bit. I also increased the temp to about 82 to help with the bacteria effectiveness. Is that wrong? Did that throw off the whole cycle again? Also, any ideas what happened with the flakes? From left to right (not considering depth) is: ph - ~8 | Nitrates - ~40 | Ammonia - ~0.5 | KH - ~14 | Phosphates - 0.00 | Nitrites - ~2.0 Edit: Just did about a 50% w/c and ammonia dropped properly to about 0.1. Nitrites are at 0.4. The phosphates are actually at 0.1 roughly, I believe. Nitrates are at 20 now, KH at 12. I plan on getting my water digitally tested today, so I'll come back later with those results.
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Hello nano-reef community I recently made my dream transition from fresh to saltwater. My setup is a 14gallon (52L) IM peninsula with dry rock and live sand on day 34. The current equipment on the tank is an ato, biopure gems and recently added my skimmer to begin nutrient export and breaking it in. Lighting also got turned on recently for 6hrs a day, AI Prime 16hd. I am also running floss right now. I also make my own ro/di water and there is also no fish yet. Cycled with Dr.Tims+Ammonia and supplemented with microbacter7. Also covered the tank for 3 weeks with lowered salinity and raised temp to grow the beneficial bacteria. Levels: NH3/4: 0 N02: 0.25 N03: 10 Phosphate: 0.0 My question is about identifying the growth that is on my entire tank(-sand)(it was on the glass but recently cleaned it, doesnt look malicious but i want to know if i should take action. Some forums i have found suggest it might simply be the bacteria, as it is slimy to the touch. Or that it might be bryozoans or foram, or possibly hydroids. They are invisible until you get close, they are tiny white growths that move in the water flow, i will attach some images and a video. Have I just been successful in colonizing the bacteria (and it will die off with time and scavenging) or is this a pest i should take action against?
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Hello, I am semi new to this hobby. I started a few years ago when I purchased used aquariums in Hawaii. The cycling process had already been completed and I just had to learn to maintain the fish. This time I’m starting new. Years down the line after I had let go of the tanks and move with the army. Now I’m back and I want to learn all I can about cycling my tank. I have a 32 gal coralife BioCube. I thought since the sump was already built in it wouldn’t be too much of a problem to get started back up. So far the tank has been put together with carab sea arag live-sand and life rock. I have done lots of research on what’s best to help jump start the cycle. I also added This Fritz-Zyme turbo start bacteria. The only thing is I’m still confused on what media I’m supposed to use. I seen a bunch of in tank videos and love to watch BRS. But I feel like they only tell you about what to use after the cycling is complete so what type of media do you use? I’m pretty sure the media I am using is for after the tank is cycled. Right now I have chemi-pure elite and Purigen in media bags my sump I also bought a comline doc 9000 skimmer but I’m not running it right now. What should I use to cycle with and do I keep my skimmer off like I have been doing? My parameters have not really changed except for my nitrites which went up to .50 and it’s been about a week. PH Range 8.2 Ammonia .50ppm Nitrite 0 Nitrate 10ppm
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Just another Salt noob with a biocube I haven't had an aquarium for 10+ years, but I'm ready to get back in the game. Had plenty of freshwater setups, so I want to give salt a go this time. I decided to start with a biocube 32, with the hope of some day starting a 150 G + tank. I have been reading forums and watching YouTube for weeks, and I finally got my cube started on Monday night (June 29 2020). I may have bought more than I needed right away, but I figure why not start with a few extra bells and whistles. I live about 3.5 hours from any salt shop, so I am pretty much figuring all this out online. I started the cycle with API quick start and a couple small pieces of Argentina Red shrimp (it's what I had in the freezer). The ammonia is starting to rise and I can see some small white hairs growing on the live rock piece. No immediate questions at this moment, but I am sure to come up with some here soon. For now I will post my set up and a few pics. Let me know if you see any problems here. Biocube 32 LED Home built stand - Walnut with Koa stain. (I have a young child, so I needed something extra sturdy - not the stock junk) Aquatic Life twist in RO/DI system CaribSea Alive Special grade sand 20# Natures Own 40# coral base rock (amazon stuff) - Two huge chucks, broke one up into smaller pieces. I swapped a few pounds of the dry with one live rock hunk from a shop to help seed the rest. Instant Ocean sea salt Jebao OW-25 Wavemaker w/controller (currently running at about half power on wave setting 2) RFG random flow generator InTank Media basket - Only running some filter floss at the moment, but I have chemi blue for later, as well as a small LED light/timer - with chaeto coming once the cycle is complete. Tunze 9001 skimmer - It's in the tank next to the media basket but not running yet, waiting until the cycle finishes Eheim Jager 100w heater, running through a inkbird digital thermostat w/ sensor AutoAqua Smart ATO - hooked up to a 4g portable water container Salinity refractometer API saltwater test kit API reef test kit Python vacuum Biocube algae magnet and some other random things.... 7/1 - Day 2 stats Ammonia between .5 and 1 Nitrite - 0 Nitrate - 0 PH - 8.0 Salinity 1.022 Temp 79
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Hello everybody, I’m looking for help/advice in setting up a brand new nano reef tank. So I allowed my daughter to bring some hermit crabs home from Florida and turns out they were marine thin stripe crabs. After much groaning, I find a Fluval 13.5 online and it arrives broken. I’ve already had these crabs is a makeshift container for over a week so I bought a Coralife BioCube 16 from a local fish store at a great price. I set up the cube last night with Arag-Alive Bahama sand and Imagitarium Pacific Ocean water and set the crabs inside. This morning the water has cleared up and I have some CaribSea life rock coming today. The heater is working well and has the water at 80 degrees. I tested the water and got the following with my API master saltwater kit. PH: 7.9 Amonia: .25-.50 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 0 Is this normal? Do I need to add any of these additives I see? Thanks in advance. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.
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Alright guys. I've been out of the hobby for 8 years and was fully inactive. I had been doing pico reef tanks in grad school and then sold off everything when I moved out-of-date. Now I'm married, employed, and ready to get back into the hobby. This time around, I am remembering all of the things I used to do wrong. I'm building a 5g pico reef that will be very low tech and minimalist. I will focus on biostability over filtration whenever possible. I got a Fluval Evo V tank. I'm upgrading the stock pump to an MJ 606 (180gph). I'm going to avoid any more power than that because my old experience was that it stressed fish out and I had jumpers, etc. I'm avoiding an electronic ATO because I once had one overflow and It was no bueno. I also just hate having wires everywhere. In my photo you can see that I have a gravity evian bottle ATO that works perfectly. There's a 100 watt Aqueon preset heater in the back. I have a custom glass cover with rubber risers to allow gas exchange and to limit evaporative losses. I found that a 4-5mm gap also avoids condensation buildup on the lid from the heat of the light source (also learned from experience). The glass piece was cut at Ace Hardware and cost $11 total for the glass and risers. I got some live rock from my local LFS Golden Aquarium In Chicago. I'm on day 4 and my ammonia level has been chilling at 0.25 for 2 days and I'm starting to register a little bit of nitrite so cycling is underway. I might keep filtration very low tech. Probably just carbon once soft corals go in. I'm planning just a juvenile clown and a small cleaner shrimp once everything is established. There is one nasarius snail and an emerald crab that hitchhiked in the middle of the big live rock. The emerald crab emerged yesterday I assume because it was sick from the cycle and died almost immediately. The snail feasted on his corpse today. I hope the snail survives the cycle. I am certain he is stressed. Im going to say one more controversial thing. I used to do all my top-offs with RO/DI. However I'm going to be adventurous this time around and do them with....tap water. I checked parameters on my tap water yesterday and found the following: CaCO3 hardness: zero (impressively) Chlorine: zero (shockingly) Carbonate ppm: zero Alkalinity ppm: 120 pH: 7.2 Ammonia, nitrite, nitrates all zero as well of course. Hit me with your thoughts. And thank you for visiting.
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Hi everyone, My name is Baptiste, i’ve been in freshwater aquarium since a while now and wanting to start a pico reef, i heard this is not ideal to start with a pico but as i had a Dymax iq5 i wanted to give a try :). Before that i’ve been researching a lot, watching videos, reading books and forum ... I bought a RODI filter set it up and tried it, all good. Come the time to buy sand, live rocks and salt. So i went to the nearest store (30mins drive) and bought all. When i came back home, i realised i forgot to buy salt so i decided to go back quickly but took time. My live rocks were in a bag closed at home without water. When back home, i started setup everything but took me at least 2h. So basically the live rocks were sitting during 3-3.5h in bag without water. I setup the aquarium, water at 1.025 ppm salinity, temperature 26degrees and i have a small protein skimmer wich i start it. 2 Days after, the water got very cloudy and the aquarium was smelling really bad like rotten eggs . A lot of worms and little shrimps died from the rocks. i’ve searched online to fix it and saw i needed to cure the live rocks to eliminate the died and start again the cycle. I cured it in a bucket closed with a pump during one week and after one week rocks were not smelling anymore and water was pretty clear. I’ve decided then to start again the cycle and put everything back in the aquarium. So here we are, it’s been 4 days since i’ve started again and my live rocks doesn’t look normal ... Again i’m a beginner so maybe everything is ok but i haven’t seen anything like that on internet ... i’ve done 1 water test and got : 1.0 ppm Ammonia 0.25 ppm Nitrite 0 ppm Nitrate 8.2 PH I haven’t done any other test as i don’t think it matters now ... Do you think my live rocks are dead and will never cycle ? Should i buy new one or wait and see ? Thanks for your advices :) Baptiste Ps: Sorry for the picture not the right side :/
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8 days ago I put live sand, live rock, and a premixed saltwater into my 24 gallon tank. It has a built in sump in the back with various media and a skimmer. I have been regularly testing salinity, ph, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, and alkalinity. PH always reading between 7.8 and 8.0 ammonia hasn’t budged from .25ppm nitrate and nitrite are both 0 alkalinity at 180 I noticed my salinity was low which surprised me since the water came from my local fish store. I played around, taking about half a gallon out and adding more concentrated mix of Red Sea salt and regular RO water. It’s at 1.0235 Per the advice of someone at the fish store I added chemi pure elite to my filtration media tonight. What am I missing here? Should I put a piece of raw shrimp in there? Am I just being impatient? I didn’t expect my tank to be cycled already, just some noticeable changes in ammonia at least. Any suggestions?
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So. I ended up going to a few pet stores today. I couldn't actually find a 2.5 gallon tank in stock or the EVO I was looking for. But, I did end up with a 5.5 gallon. Just waiting for the sand to settle and i'll post a picture!
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Cycling RSR 170 - Zero Readings, Reef Mature Snake Oil?
sylocal posted a topic in Beginners Discussion
Hi Folks, I'm currently in the cycling process of my Red Sea Reefer 170. This is my third tank. I started this tank with BRS Dry Rock, and live sand from BRS. I added a shrimp 3-4 days ago. It's beginning to disintegrate in my filter sock, still no ammonia readings. I added a small live rock and some chaeto yesterday. Before adding shrimp I began with Red Sea Mature Pro cycling kit however my readings using API & Salifert show to be 0 on everything Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite. This is after seven days... 77.3 *F 8.17 ph 34.2 salt 233 ORP Visually, the tank looks clean. No signs of diatoms. Where the $#%* is my ammonia haha?! Either this tank is cycling very efficiently and it's undetectable or Red Sea's Mature Pro cycling kit is pure snake oil. Prove me wrong. What to do next... Edit: I added the live sand and dry rock one week before beginning the cycling product from Red Sea. -
They came on my live rock. Are they problematic? If not, how do I keep them alive? Are they going to die as my tank cycles? Thanks!!
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I started my new reef tank earlier this week (a fluval evo 13.5) and I added live rock, live sand (about 1.5 inches), and premium reef saltwater that my LFS mixed up for me. I’ve also been adding fluval cycle concentrated biological booster at the rate they suggest for a new tank. I have some questions regarding cycling. A lot of the videos I have watched online suggest first adding live rock, sand, and water, the next week adding a clean up crew, and then once the cycle is completed to add fish. However I’ve spoken on the phone with three of my LFSs and all three have told me to start my cycle by adding a fish. There is a lot of conflicting information out there, I was hoping that you guys could weigh in and give me some pros and cons with each option. If I decide to cycle with a fish, can I add a banggai cardinal fish? Additionally, when can I add coral?? This tank is primarily for coral, i'm just adding a fish or two for fun. A lot of articles that I have read say that I can add my coral now if I want, and that they won't be impacted by my tank cycling. Is this true? Lastly, if anyone has some suggestions on easy to care for corals, i'm always happy for more suggestions. Thanks so much!
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DIY 15 gals AIO in the middle of cycling. stalled maybe?
neyes_ice posted a topic in Beginners Discussion
hey guys, started cycling almost 2 months now. i used dr tims fishless method with dry rock and dry sand . i may have overdosed ammonia on the 1st time and dosed too soon for the 2nd, misread the instructions. (my bad) . (never got to measure my real water volume too) got a nitrite spike. did a water change once or twice. after a couple of weeks added some marine pure spheres and added one more bottle of dr tims. nitrites just kept sky high, even bought a second set of test kits just to be sure. (1st API then Salifert) then i read i could do a almost 100% water change and bacteria would still be there, which i did, and dosed a little bit less of the recommended ammonia dosage. now im sure there is bacteria present because tests detected presence of ammonia then none after a couple of days. but now my nitrites are skyhigh again. should i just leave it be or do daily small water changes? i'm also trying to break in my santa monica ats 22 hrs a day schedule.so far, a week or so later no algae growth. i also have my display lights on a schedule. no algae growth also. any thoughts? thanks -
My ammonia has been a 0.0 for the past two days, and this morning my nitrites were also 0.0. Of course nitrates were sky high so I did a 75% water change, and lowered it to 10-15. My pH is at 8.2. Does it seem like my tank is done cycling? If it is, this may be a stupid question ,but do I have a certain amount of time to add livestock before the nitrifying bacteria start to die off?
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Added ammonia and bacteria to cycle my tank, now what?
antigonus posted a topic in Beginners Discussion
Having had my Biocube 32 running for almost week without an ammonia spike, I resolved to "jump start" the process by buying ammonia and live bacteria from my LFS, and adding it to my tank, following the instructions. I will test my water soon to make sure the initial spike has happened, but my question is, do I need to continue adding a small amount of ammonia everyday to make sure the bacteria has something to feed on? Or is that not necessary? Sorry is this is a rookie question but i'm still most certainly a newbie and am just curious what the best course of action is. -
Hey guys I’m almost a week into cycling my 10 gallon. I have 10 pounds dry rock and 10 lbs or live sand. I added some Dr. Tim’s ammonia as well as some nitrifying bacteria to jump start the tank. Everyday I’ve been testing ammonia, Nitrite, and pH. I’ve noticed small bubbles on my dry rock, today I came home to see a lot more than yesterday.. should I be worried?
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Hey guys so my tank has just finished cycling after 5 weeks.. Now I have a few questions.. My tank has 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrite, and rougly 5-7ppm nitrates, I did a 70% water change and was curious how long I should wait before adding the clean up crew? Also.. while my tank was cycling I developed some red slim algae, should I be worried? Another question I have is: In my aquarium I have a very coarse sand (my tank is a 10gallon cube) the return pump I have is at 125gph and does a good job of keeping the bottom free of detritus, I have a power head that is at 257gph and it makes the tank a sand storm.. Do i need a power head for corals and keeping a healthy tank with the current return pump?? And last question.. In the 10 gallon tank I understand its 1 fish per 5 gal. Im curious if I got 2 fish, 5 nassarius snails, 10 hermits, and possibly a skunk shrimp? I appreciate you guys taking the time to read through my questions. I'm very excited to get in the hobby! Thanks in advance guys!
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Just Started Cycling...BioSpira Seems to Really Work
boxster1990 posted a topic in Beginners Discussion
So...just set up everything last night. Rocks, sand, RODI, filter floss only in the media rack.... Poured the whole bottle of BioSpira into the tank, put some pure ammonium chloride (literally a pinch approximating 1/10 tsp), and let it swirl overnight. Tested this morning showing 4+ppm of Ammonia, 0 nitrites and didn't bother testing for nitrates. Came home from work and ran the full set of tests...and I am pleased to report that my tank is already showing signs of cycling... Temp at 81F Salinity ticked up to 1.027 pH at 8.1 Ammonia down to 2ppm Nitrites at 5ppm Nitrates at 40ppm Is it normal to see levels change this quickly? Plan to let this keep cooking....let me know if any of you advise anything else (e.g. partial water change) -
Hello, I’m cycling my tank and the ammonia’s ranging between 2-4 ppm. I bought a damsel fish and a chromis from my local fish store because the worker said they were hardy and would be fine through the cycle. I purchased a bottle of “complete bioculture - for establishing biological filtration and rapidly improving water quality in all marine and freshwater aquaria”. I also purchased a small container of fish pellets. Picture of both included. I just want to make sure I’m doing everything right. Please help! (I also have a trochus snail, 2 stomatella snails, and a baby peppermint shrimp.)
