Cycle done!

[BretCreager]

Or atleast I hope it is. My ammonia has been at zero for atleast a week now. Nitrites have always been zero as far as I can tell. PH is usually around 8.2, ALK is right around 8.5 (I cant get green to really pop before it goes yellow).

My Nitrate seems to be between 5 and 10 every day but only started about a week before my ammonia went to zero.

I had a faulty API test kit in the beginning, it always showed ammonia I bought a RedSea kit and have been using that for a little over a week, so the timing of spikes and falls are a little misleading.

Anyway, hair algae is on the rise, and the three snails that came with the sand are loving it, but are losing the battle so i believe it is time for my reinforcements and get a full cleanup crew.

I think I have figured out that the nitrates i have will not go away on there own and that is what a large WC is good at this point, I was thinking 25% saturday and 25% sunday.

So If that plan is a go, I have one more question, I think I know the answer but might as well ask anyway. I have maybe 20 gallons or so of mixed salt water, I tested that and it is a little out of sorts, (alk - 9, Nitrites - .5, Nitrates - 5, Ammonia - .2, PH - 8.55, SG - 1.028)


so Questions:
1) am I done with the cycle, it has only been 1 month. I started with 60lbs dry reef flakes, 60 lbs dry rock, 25 lbs live sand, and 25lbs live sand.
2) any suggestions on CUC, I know a lot of people like reefcleaners, and the deal seems great, but it seems like a lot of livestock for that amount of space
3) Is there any saving my stored water or should I cut my losses and dump the water and make a fresh batch to do the water chages and set up the QT

 

[Darth Polymnus]

so Questions:
1) am I done with the cycle, it has only been 1 month. I started with 60lbs dry reef flakes, 60 lbs dry rock, 25 lbs live sand, and 25lbs live sand.
2) any suggestions on CUC, I know a lot of people like reefcleaners, and the deal seems great, but it seems like a lot of livestock for that amount of space
3) Is there any saving my stored water or should I cut my losses and dump the water and make a fresh batch to do the water chages and set up the QT

1) if you have traces of ammonia and nitrite, you're still cycling.
2) what size tank do you have and how much live rock?
3) is your saved water RODI? If so, how long has it been stored?

 

[BretCreager]

The dt has no ammonia or nitrites, its a 70 gallon with a 20 gallon sump, about 60 lbs dry rock went in, about 25 lbs live rock, 60 lbs dry sand, 25lbs live sand.

I did have to get rid of two of the rocks due to some nasty algae on them so I would say about 15 lbs live rock now.

Yes I started with rodi for everything, stored water is maybe rounding about 4 weeks, had been heated and circulating the whole time

 

[jamesbaur13]

You shouldn't be testing any ammonia, nitrite or nitrates from a RODI SW mix.

It sounds like something became contaminated... the stuff you have sitting doesn't sound much better than the water you used to cycle with.

I like the API kits for just starting out. Once you get to the point of keeping corals though I'd advise getting Salifert Nitrate and Phosphate test kits and a Hanna Alkalinity tester. The API PH and Calcium test kits I have are equal to the Salifert ones I also have. If you're not using a refractometer to test salinity, get one.

 

[BretCreager]

Yea, I think my stored water may have started to cycle, I bought a redsea test kit and I have much better and easier to read results than the api, and I have a hanna ph tester right now. And I have a refractometer from BRS. Thanks for the help, I'll just dump the current batch and start fresh

 

[hogfanreefer]

Something is rotten in Denmark! Several things I can't understand.

You had to have a Nitrite spike if you have nitrates in your tank. How high did the Nitrate get? 5-10 doesn't sound like a very robust cycle to me.

How can newly made salt water cycle? It would have to have a source of protein/ammonia added to get those numbers.

I would add a source of ammonia again to the display tank and see how long it takes ammonia to go to zero. I'd also throw away the standby water you have and clean the container well if those numbers are right.

Just a newb but that's what makes sense to me.

 

[BretCreager]

To start my test kit was a few years old, didn't think much of it at the time because it was brand new, but when my tests never changed I thought I was reading it wrong, then I figured out it was probably an old test kit issue, so I bought new and most commented that I probably missed my ammonia spike, what would I use to add an ammonia source to test, what would I be looking for and how much to ii put in?

 

[MinnFish]

Use a raw shrimp wrapped in medium bag or feed the tank (as if u had fish). This would be your source of ammonia. Look for ammonia and nitrite to spike. And, then back to zero.

 

[BretCreager]

I have been putting fish flake food in the take every day since day one

 

[BretCreager]

I think I just missed the spike

 

[keithhays]

Or atleast I hope it is. My ammonia has been at zero for atleast a week now. Nitrites have always been zero as far as I can tell. PH is usually around 8.2, ALK is right around 8.5 (I cant get green to really pop before it goes yellow).

My Nitrate seems to be between 5 and 10 every day but only started about a week before my ammonia went to zero.

I had a faulty API test kit in the beginning, it always showed ammonia I bought a RedSea kit and have been using that for a little over a week, so the timing of spikes and falls are a little misleading.

Anyway, hair algae is on the rise, and the three snails that came with the sand are loving it, but are losing the battle so i believe it is time for my reinforcements and get a full cleanup crew.

I think I have figured out that the nitrates i have will not go away on there own and that is what a large WC is good at this point, I was thinking 25% saturday and 25% sunday.

So If that plan is a go, I have one more question, I think I know the answer but might as well ask anyway. I have maybe 20 gallons or so of mixed salt water, I tested that and it is a little out of sorts, (alk - 9, Nitrites - .5, Nitrates - 5, Ammonia - .2, PH - 8.55, SG - 1.028)


so Questions:
1) am I done with the cycle, it has only been 1 month. I started with 60lbs dry reef flakes, 60 lbs dry rock, 25 lbs live sand, and 25lbs live sand.
2) any suggestions on CUC, I know a lot of people like reefcleaners, and the deal seems great, but it seems like a lot of livestock for that amount of space
3) Is there any saving my stored water or should I cut my losses and dump the water and make a fresh batch to do the water chages and set up the QT

The cycle is not done, you have many more weeks to go. Ammonia and Nitrites should always read zero. With most nitrate kits, the reading will be incorrect if you have nitrites in the water so I wouldn't bother measuring nitrates until both ammonia and nitrites measure zero.

 

[BretCreager]

They do, they both read zero and have been for over a week

 

[BretCreager]

ok i think i will add a piece of raw shrip wait til I get atleast over 1 with the ammonia test and see how quickly it rebounds

 

[BretCreager]

how long does it take for a large raw shrimp to start making the ammonia spike?

 

[keithhays]

They do, they both read zero and have been for over a week

ahh..yes sorry about that I got your extra water and your tank confused. Dump the extra water out and do as large a water change on the main tank as you can manage. There is no benefit on a new tank in doing two smaller changes. One 90% water change is best, but if not, as large as you can manage.

As far as CUC, I am going with Tampa Bay's list, but I am buying it from live aquaria:
1 Serpent or Brittle star per 50 gal.
2 Tiger Tail Cucumbers per 50 gal.
1 Blue Leg Hermits per gal.
1 Peppermint shrimp per 50 gal.
1/2 Turbo Snail per gal.

 

[BretCreager]

I like that list... im a little afriad of the cucumbers, head a lot of horror stories about them. ill read up and see if it is fact or fiction.

anyway, i added my shirp last night, this morning i read a spike of ammonia at (6:30 am).8, then 1.2 closer to 10am, tonight (the shrimp still in there) reads between a .2 and .4 (i tested it twice) So im going with the fact that I am cycled... I just tossed the shrimp and am letting the take recoup for a couple days. Im guessing tomorrows test will show zero across the board again (except for nitrates) I have 40 gallons of fresh new salt water heating up to do a water change... I can mix as much as another 40 gallons if I need to, would it be best to drain out almost all the way down to the sand and refill or should I not let the live rock get exposed to the air? if i leave rock under water, i can move some of it down, and maybe get about 30 gallon change and do it twice in a row. what do you think?