My first reef tank - please help

[andrek787]

Hi All,

After few years of doing freshwater I decided to make the jump to reef keeping. I purchased an established 120 gallon reef aquarium off Craigslist along and picked a few upgrades. Moving it did not go as smoothly as I had hoped. Liverock and livestock ended up sitting in 35 gallon tubs for almost 4 days and its been a bumpy ride since then.

Equipment:
120 gallon (48x24x24) Aqueon dual overflow tank and stand (2 years old)
40 gallon (36x16x16) Aquatic Systems refugium sump w/ 4 x 4" socks
2 x AI Hydra w/ Director
AquaC EV-180 Skimmer w/ Jebao DCT-4000 pump
Maxspect Gyre xf150
Jebao DCT-4000 return pump
2 x Phosban 150s w/ GFO + Carbon\Zeolite on Ehiem Compact+ 2000
Kore 5th PRO w/ AWC kit
ReefKeeper Elite Net - temp, salinity, ph
BRS 150gpd Water Saver RO\DI w/ extra DI module

Livestock:
60lb Livesand
80lb Liverock

2 x Percula Clowns
1 x Yellow Eye Kole tank
1 x Purple Tang
3 x mixed Damsels
1 x Sixline Wrass
1 x Basslet
1 x Urchent

30 x Green Zoa
15 x Ricordia
10 x Mushrooms
5 x Tree coral
1 x Plate Coral

The fish and the remaining coral seem to be doing good. The urchent lost 50% of its needles while it was bin and is still not very active. There was a large green brittle star that made it for about a week before exploding. There was also a large leather coral that appears to have died during the move, which I left in the tank until yesterday hoping it would recover.

The issue I am having is I cannot seem to get the tank to cycle. I did a API water test yesterday and ph was 8.4, 4ppm ammonia, 0 nitrite and 0 nitrate. Have had to neutralize ammonia with max dose of seachem AmGuard a few days ago but have turned that down to 3ml daily trying to keep ammonia there to allow the tank to cycle. I have also been dosing stability and pristine daily for the past two weeks...

 

[CafeReef]

Hi All,

After few years of doing freshwater I decided to make the jump to reef keeping. I purchased an established 120 gallon reef aquarium off Craigslist along and picked a few upgrades. Moving it did not go as smoothly as I had hoped. Liverock and livestock ended up sitting in 35 gallon tubs for almost 4 days and its been a bumpy ride since then.

Equipment:
120 gallon (48x24x24) Aqueon dual overflow tank and stand (2 years old)
40 gallon (36x16x16) Aquatic Systems refugium sump w/ 4 x 4" socks
2 x AI Hydra w/ Director
AquaC EV-180 Skimmer w/ Jebao DCT-4000 pump
Maxspect Gyre xf150
Jebao DCT-4000 return pump
2 x Phosban 150s w/ GFO + Carbon\Zeolite on Ehiem Compact+ 2000
Kore 5th PRO w/ AWC kit
ReefKeeper Elite Net - temp, salinity, ph
BRS 150gpd Water Saver RO\DI w/ extra DI module

Livestock:
60lb Livesand
80lb Liverock

2 x Percula Clowns
1 x Yellow Eye Kole tank
1 x Purple Tang
3 x mixed Damsels
1 x Sixline Wrass
1 x Basslet
1 x Urchent

30 x Green Zoa
15 x Ricordia
10 x Mushrooms
5 x Tree coral
1 x Plate Coral

The fish and the remaining coral seem to be doing good. The urchent lost 50% of its needles while it was bin and is still not very active. There was a large green brittle star that made it for about a week before exploding. There was also a large leather coral that appears to have died during the move, which I left in the tank until yesterday hoping it would recover.

The issue I am having is I cannot seem to get the tank to cycle. I did a API water test yesterday and ph was 8.4, 4ppm ammonia, 0 nitrite and 0 nitrate. Have had to neutralize ammonia with max dose of seachem AmGuard a few days ago but have turned that down to 3ml daily trying to keep ammonia there to allow the tank to cycle. I have also been dosing stability and pristine daily for the past two weeks...

I would sit back and let the tank do it's thing, with the liverock and sand that you have already, and the ammonia spike you saw at 4ppm, you are starting to see your cycle start up. by neutralizing your ammonia spike you are shooting yourself in the foot from what it sounds like to me. With it being an established tank already, just sit back, be patient and the tank should cycle itself in the coming days or couple of weeks. Be careful with your dosing at this stage or you might end up nukeing your tank.

 

[soulpatch]

If I read that right he has to dose to keep ammonia down as he has his livestock in the tank already...

 

[anthonys51]

i agree. it takes 24 hours i believe for the good bacteria to double. you want to make sure you don't take away there food source. leather can stay in for a long time when moved. i had a leather that stayed in for 2 weeks, really thought it was a goner, not 2 months later its double in size and split in 2. be patient, in salt water water especially when new sometimes the best thing to do in nothing

 

[andrek787]

Thank you all for your advice.

The 12" Leather colony has been removed from the tank. Once I saw necrosis on the surface, I took it to a friend to recover in his tank and it started to disintegrate. He found it had rotted from the inside and even the frags didn't make it though the night.

I think the dead coral might be to blame for the ammonia. The live rock was kept in the original water with heater and 3 power heads blasting water though it, so I don't see how it could have lost any of it filtration capacity. I did screw up the live sand, as I left sitting in buckets and ended up rinsing it with RO/DI.

The previous owner used a bio-pellet reactor and I am not sure if taking that off was a good idea. I still have the pellets sitting in stability. Any thoughts???

Since I do have some nice livestock, I really cant let ammonia get out of control. Can you guys suggest a safe ammonia level that would still let the tank cycle? There are instructions for AmGuard to only remove 1ppm at a time.

 

[anthonys51]

you rinsed your live sand with fresh water, i would never have done that. honestly when you buy a used tank, its probably best to throw out the gravel, sand or whatever is on the bottom . buy rinsing the live sand in fresh water, you killed all of the good bacteria while most likely not really cleaning the sand that well leaving dirt behind, this will cause a problem

 

[andrek787]

My LFS pointed out that mistake and told me to disturb the sand bed to prevent any gas build up and let new bactera in. I am checking the bottom glass for any black areas.

 

[anthonys51]

how deep is your sand bed

 

[anthonys51]

also when you stir it up, does a lot of dirt come out.

 

[andrek787]

how deep is your sand bed

The sand bed is about 2" thick and bay be 1" under the liverock.

also when you stir it up, does a lot of dirt come out.

I use my ehiem gravel vac and it pulled some detrious out but not much. It was vacuumed once before and once during the tank breakdown. I only took the top layer of the original sand bed and washed it mulitple times until water started to clear. That's probably why I don't see any black areas growing yet.

I tested the water when I got home and results were: 1ppm total ammonia, 0ppm nitrate and 10ppm of nitrate. I am starting to see brown algae growing on sand and glass. I have a little bit of macroalgae in the refugium and I will get more from LFS.

 

[anthonys51]

Do feed too much during this time

 

[scooter31707]

This may be a dumb question, but shouldn't he be doing water changes and some type of water conditioners to keep the ammonia from being toxic to the livestock.?

 

[gone fishin]

This may be a dumb question, but shouldn't he be doing water changes and some type of water conditioners to keep the ammonia from being toxic to the livestock.?

Personally this is what I would be doing since the tank seems to be stocked wit fish and coral. Just my two cents worth.

 

[andrek787]

Re-tested the water this morning and ammonia stayed below 1ppm without any water conditioner. Still no nitrite and nitrate seemed to have dropped a little but these API test kits are crapshoot. Going to LFS for titration tests tonight.

I have been told by the LFS not to do water changes for a while. I have AWC ready to go so I can start slowly swapping out water from the tank.

I also want to get ahead of the algae bloom that seems to be starting. I have GFO already running. 20 pounds of MM coming in by the weekend and I will pick a much more macro. I know I am getting ahead of myself here but what about carbon dosing?

 

[BigCountry74]

Why so less live rock? only 60lbs?

 

[andrek787]

There is 80lb of live rock in the DT and another 10lb of rubble in refugium. The previous owner gave me another 20 pounds of dry rock. Our best LFS here in Albuquerque recommends 2/3 lb of liverock per gallon of DT to maintain required flow around the rock. With the Gyre fx150, flow is not much of an issue in 4 foot tank.

 

[andrek787]

Checked the water again. Looks like ammonia dropped to 0.5ppm but now there is nitrite at 0.25ppm. More and more brown algae on the sand and rocks. Urchent started to move about.

 

[Bpb]

Because of the rough start, expect some serious algae blooms to come and go for the next 6 months or so. Just be aware they're coming. Not much you can do to prevent them

 

[andrek787]

Quick update, the ammonia levels are still sitting 0.5ppm, nitrate went back to zero and nitrate is still between 5 to 10 ppm, probably because I have a bag of puregen in the sump. I picked up red see test kits yesterday and my calcium is a 550ppm, so I may have to do a water change to bring that down.

 

[mitch91175]

Water changes are going to be your friend while getting the tank up and going again (like someone else mentioned). 20% every 2 weeks is what I do for my 210. Also something else that will help is the type of salt that you are using. I made the switch to Red Sea Coral Pro and in a month I have noticed an big different from the Kent Marine salt that I was using. The Red Sea Coral Pro cost a little more, but I haven't had to add any 2 part since making the switch. Heck in a few months if this continues to be the case, I will get rid of my doser.