New aquascaping and questions

[ccso139]

Quick back story: I added 36 pounds live rock and 40 pounds dry (marco) rock, plus 10-12 pounds (dry lr that came w/ system) in refugium, along w/ sand (60 pounds live that came w/ snails and hermits), and 2 green chromis (long story, but they were being "put to death" anyway, so I threw them into a brand new tank). All this was last Thursday, so a week ago. I rearranged rock yesterday, still not really happy w/ it, but liking it better.

I have been doing a 5g water change daily. My temp runs between 76-78 (depending on if all equipment is running or not). My salinity is between 1.025 and 1.027 (depending on how well I mix my water) tested w/ hydrometer until my refractometer arrived today. Took water to LFS today: ammonia @ 0, said all other parameters were fine...didn't give me specific numbers.

Ok, so now long story short: everything seems to be doing fine, including the anenome that hitchhiked in on the LR. Where is my cycle? Has it not happened yet? Anyone have any ideas?

 

[saltycreefer]

Sometimes the ammonia takes close to 2 weeks to appear. Wait another week, test again, and then come back with your results.

 

[ccso139]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11909167#post11909167 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by saltycreefer
Sometimes the ammonia takes close to 2 weeks to appear. Wait another week, test again, and then come back with your results.

Thanks, not exactly what I wanted to hear, but thanks anyway. :strooper:

 

[ccso139]

Any others?

 

[scbadiver]

Sit tight, it WILL happen. I'd even hold off of water changes until it does. JMO. Good luck with the set up. it looks nice.

 

[saltysteven]

the only signs youll get aside from testing your water is brown algae growing. im pretty sure once you have that your through the cycle but it could take a while, well not really with those fish in there. nice tank though

 

[Dustin1231]

id stop the water changes.

 

[Aquadam]

You shouldn't do any water changes untill the tank has cycled, the chromis should be hardy enough to survive. Was the rock cured before putting it in the set up? If it wasn't the die off should start the ammonia. You could also use Nitromax to speed the process up.

 

[jonnydalejunior]

yeah there really is not a reason to be doing water changes yet. if anything that is slowing things down. you ve gotta give it time. you are essentially turning a "non living" tank of water in to a "living" system in a very real sense. the whole cycle is about the life in your system balancing out its intake and out put of various byproducts of life i.e. trates, trites, nitrogen. it just takes time for it to become like one big living breathing system.

"that isnt really what i wanted to hear"
are you looking for a specific answer?

 

[alve]

You will definitely have a cycle.
Even if your live rock would be completely cured, adding 40lbs of dry marco rock will give you one if you didn't cure the marco rock.
Doing water changes now will stretch your cycle and it will take longer. If you do water changes then it could be that you won't have a big spike.
As far as I have read here on RC anemones will not do well in a new tank. Since it was a hitchhiker I know you didn't add it yourself. Hopefully it will make it.

 

[ccso139]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11912434#post11912434 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by saltysteven
the only signs youll get aside from testing your water is brown algae growing. im pretty sure once you have that your through the cycle but it could take a while, well not really with those fish in there. nice tank though

Got the brown algae covering everything....didn't really notice it until this morning, but it is going pretty good now.

 

[ccso139]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11913273#post11913273 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by alve
You will definitely have a cycle.
Even if your live rock would be completely cured, adding 40lbs of dry marco rock will give you one if you didn't cure the marco rock.
Doing water changes now will stretch your cycle and it will take longer. If you do water changes then it could be that you won't have a big spike.
As far as I have read here on RC anemones will not do well in a new tank. Since it was a hitchhiker I know you didn't add it yourself. Hopefully it will make it.

Stopped doing water changes (was advised here on RC to do them daily to have a "soft cycle"). Just gonna sit back, wait it out and hope for the best. Thanks for all the advice from everyone!!

 

[saltysteven]

if you see brown your on your way! look for it to change to green- then maybe purple.

 

[Toddrtrex]

I personally think you should be doing water changes, especially if you want that anemone to have a chance to make it. (( plus the fish )) Doing a water change will not slow down the cycle, in the end your tank will be better for it.
Every time that I have cured live rock -- either in a bin or in a newly set up tank, I have done water changes. The ammonia doesn't need to get sky high to start the cycle. The odds are against that anemone making it as it is, but they are even less if you don't do any water changes.

 

[ccso139]

Ok, so I have got stop doing water changes and keep doing water changes. What about just skipping a day between water changes to soften the cycle? (knock of wood) the anenome seems to be doing really good. It has more than doubled in size since putting it into the tank and stays open and full all the time now.

 

[Myrphie]

Regarding the whole cycling thing, I don't want to derail the thread by starting a debate, but it is entirely possible to start a tank and never have testable levels of ammonia or nitrite. That's not to say your tank didn't cycle, but "cycling" is really just establishing a working nitrogen cycle. While a large ammonia spike followed by a nitrite spike is typical, if your tank had a decent bacteria population to begin with and you were slow in adding your fish it's entirely plausible that the level of their ammonia output was entirely kept in check by the existing biological filtration.

Also, the comment about adding the dry rock to the system causing an ammonia spike confuses me as there's no reason purely dry rock would cause a spike on its own unless it had die-off, but that doesn't seem to be so in this case. Sure, the bacteria will populate the dry rock over time, but that will not cause a spike in and of itself.

Regarding water changes, I'd just test the water and wait and see if you get a spike before resuming the changes. Doing water changes if you get a spike will delay the tank reaching equilibrium, but they can be used to keep levels safe for livestock.

 

[alve]

Myrphie, dry rock like for example the Marco rock still has all kinds of stuff inside the crevices. On some of the rock I received I saw dried up sponges inside the crevices and I don't know what else that came out when I rinsed it after being cured for several days. Whatever is stuck inside the rock will start decaying once it gets submersed again.
When I started curing my marco rock in a trash can in my garage the smell was pretty bad after a few days, until I did a couple water changes.

I aggree that doing water changes during the cycle could prevent a spike and cause less die off and stress to all livestock ccso139 has in his tank. It will just delay the complete cycle.

 

[ccso139]

I aggree that doing water changes during the cycle could prevent a spike and cause less die off and stress to all livestock ccso139 has in his tank. It will just delay the complete cycle. [/B]

So, I guess I just have to sit back and be patient (not a virtue that I have achieved yet). I am in no hurry to run out and add bunches of fish, just trying to save what is already in there. I have the luxury of being out of work right now (broken ankle), so I am here all day and can keep a close watch on tank... Can always do a quick water change if needed.