Couple of questions

[jmsilhy]

Hi everyone! First mistake and question of my reefing comeback. I accidentally increased salinity to a sg of 1.032, for some reason my refractometer was very off even after a previous day's calibration. There's nothing in there except rock and sand, so how is the best way to bring it down to 1.026? Just a big water change, or gradual ones?

Second question is about cycle. I had 20% live rock, and for a week now I've been ghost feeding and three days ago I threw a raw shrimp which now looks like a ghost. Ammonia is at zero (salifert tests) and today nitrates were at 10 ppm. Should I just keep at it until ammonia spikes, or continue feeding but remove the shrimp or what is your recommendation?

Thanks!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Doesn't matter on the salinity. It'll take as long as it takes, with the tools you've got. With live rock, and the fact that you're already getting nitrates, suggests your cycle is near completion. Remove the shrimp if you want, keep ghost feeding. Did you test for Nitrite? That should have spiked before Nitrate. You may have missed it with an apparent super-fast cycle. I'd go another week to be sure, but then you should be ready to add some fish, if ammonia and nitrite are zero. Cheers!

 

[Sk8r]

As a general rule, critters cope pretty well with a salinity dip, even a rapid ones---that business of coping with rain, I suppose. What they don't cope well with is a rapid salinity rise. So whatever's lived through the high level will likely survive the drop to a good level.

 

[jmsilhy]

Thanks guys. Today I will test again for all levels and report back on cycle status.

Happy Father's Day to all of you wonderful dads!!

 

[jmsilhy]

Well today (and yesterday) I had the same results. No ammonia, 0.1 NO2 and 2.5 ppm NO3, perhaps because I've been changing water (10-15 gal per day) to decrease salinity to the right level. Still ghost feeding daily and there's still a small piece of shrimp in there (I removed the big one this morning but later found this and decided to let it ride for a couple more days).

I'm thinking on adding a small CUC per SK8r recommendation in the stickies (2-3 snails and 2-3 scarlet hermits), and start my first fish in QT. Good plan?