Finally got my first sw tank cycling. Thanks to those who gave me advice.

[W Ellis]

Thank you hxn. I hope he makes it too. And thank you for all the rock i have gotten from you. I have add the other 23 lbs and its looking good. I will get some new pics soon and will call you when the tank is done cycling to pick up the clown. And thank you for the sand to help seed my sand.
Well i now have a total of 224 lbs of LR and its looking awsome. As of yesterday the ammonia is at 0 and the nitrite/nitrate cycle is in full swing.
Finished my second side job today and as soon as i get the check ill be heading to oldsmar. Cant wait to see what the new lights are going to look like.

 

[W Ellis]

Heres the new pics. I need to break down and buy a digital camera so i can get a full tank pic.
LEFT

MIDDLE

RIGHT

 

[W Ellis]

Hey guys just wanted to update the progress. I picked up some livestock in the past few days. Got my cleaners...blue leg hermits, snails, got a sally light foot crab that is doing an amazing job of gettin rid of algae. HXN gave me his 5" maroon clown. THANK YOU again HXN. I picked up a powder grey tang. And had to get a ouple small corals.
Powder grey eatting away at algae.

Maroon clown in his corner that he hangs out in

Green zoo bunch...the rock has a couple blues on it too

Orange/Purple zoos

Small frag of the orange/purple zoos...

I also got some green star polyps that have not opened yet but when they do i will post a pic.

 

[Acolin]

did you test the niotrogen cycle before adding livestock?

 

[W Ellis]

Yes all has cycled already. the only thing that is still up is nitrate which is about 15ppm. I will be doing another water change probably tomorrow to bring that down. I was amazed at how fast the tank cycled.

 

[Gimplar]

yeah my tank cycled within a day or two....(used old liverock ect ect)

 

[W Ellis]

I used bagged live sand, and completely uncured live rock... John from FAOIS gave me a little trick to help with the curing and the cycle and to me i guess it worked wonders.
If someone has a ricordia polyp or something they would like to trade for the little frag of orange/purple zoos let me know. I want to add some other colors and diff. corals.

 

[Acolin]

15 PPM is a tank cycling, not cycled yet
what was the trick?

 

[W Ellis]

Just tested again and nitrate is down to 10ppm. I may have jumped the gun a little on adding live stock but everything is doing great and ammonia and nitrite have not changed from 0 and nitrate is steadily coming down. I dosed vodka daily. Its supposed to help accelerate die off and help with the bacteria.

 

[Acolin]

oh yeah, seems like I heard about this once:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-11/eb/feature/index.php

so I did

 

[Acolin]

and this:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=288714&perpage=25&pagenumber=36

 

[W Ellis]

I only used 5ml a day on a 200g tank. I stopped dosing wednesday and only used it for the die off and cycling purpose. I believe it works the tank has only had rock and sand in it for 2-2.5 weeks and the only thing that hasnt leveled off is nitrate which is steadily dropping. I didnt have a single bit of clowdiness. Oh and again the rock was completely uncured i started buying it the day it was taken out of the box. In my opinion it works and to me it worked wonders as i understand it normally takes upwards of 6 weeks for LR to cure.

 

[Acolin]

my guess then is that your nitrification cycle is only beginning...
but I don't know, it depends on the bioload, water changes and biological filter...

 

[W Ellis]

I already got the nitrite and nitrate spike they were off the chart. I thought when i added the couple fish it would spike again but it hasntand its been 4 days and its just continued going down. I may be in for a surprise but so far so good.

 

[Acolin]

4 days is way too soon, and most spikes are way too quick, for most test kits to accurately show what is happening, does not mean you will have prpblem, just warning you to watch it and be prepared for 20-60% weekly water changes to keep levels down....

 

[W Ellis]

Ive been checking it twice a day. Once in the morning and again in the evening. I actually just tested again and looks like nitrate has come down a little more. I am always checking the levels and am prepared to have to change water if need be.
As soon as my check comes in i am going to be upgrading my lighting. I will be going with T5's and will be getting 6 of them. Does anyone have any suggestions on what i should go with for the bulbs? Should i do a 1 to 1 ratio of daylight to actinic?

 

[CanadianReef]

You are totally done cycling, but you are going to have a slight dieoff of bacteria so your filtering capacity is not god-like so still be careful. Reason I say this: I cycle tanks in 2 weeks all the time using sugar additions once a day for 2 weeks. Only once got burned because I forgot that everything is a balance and I waited too long then put too many new fish at once. Before you get a new fish, increase your feeding 4 days before to match what you will feed the new fish. This will cause the bacteria to increase before the new fish and thus by the time you get the fish your DSB nitrate eaters will be increasing instead of ammonia eaters (very technical terms ).

 

[Acolin]

what are the nitrogen levels?
is there a measurable difference between night and day?

ummm, 4 days to grow new, larger nitrification cycle? (I don't think so)

 

[CanadianReef]

Acolin, not 4 days for a new/larger cycle. 4 days lead time for bacteria growth will cause the process to be jump started and the use of sugar (left that part out) acts as a stimulant to bacteria activity and multiplication. The benefit is simply that the new fish will not cause a change in ammonia levels because the filtering capacity of bacteria colony growing larger will outpace the increased waste of the new fish.

 

[Acolin]

yes, but once you begin a new higher bioload, whether it is sugar or fish food or fish waste, isn't it almost 2 weeks for the ammonia cycle to peak, then even longer for the nitrite and nitrate cycles to run (without water changes) and the bioload to establish itself at the new higher level?