New Tank Cycling?

M

madbomb20

New member
I'm new to this, I thought I had it licked, but here comes my first BIG cycle.
I started with 29 gallon, live rock (probably 20 lbs) and live sand (20 lb bag)
I had a Marineland Bio Wheel 100 filter running.
I have a Coralife 2x65 PC light fixture.
I have a cleaner and peppermint shrimp, a valentini puffer, 2 damsels, a turbo snail, 3 tiny snails, 10 small blue hermits, a scooter blenny, and a 6 line wrasse.
Before today I also had a lavender tang.

A few days ago I got a deal on a Magnum 350 Canister Filter, and jumped on it. I was tired of the Biowheel filter splashing salt on my light fixture, so I thought, ok I'll just use the canister for filtering.
I also added about 20 more lbs of live rock, one piece being very big with lots of purple on it...
Today my tang was floating around looking all sickly. She seemed to have ick. I got some ick medication from the pet store and dipped her in it for a while , but she was too far gone.
She died, and shortly after I noticed my Valentini puffer stuck to the side of my powerhead. He is swimming around all slow and running into things, and one of my damsels also looked sickly.

So I decided to run some tests. My salinity came to 1.023, well within limits.
My ph seems to be around 8.0
My nitrite is dark Purple on the test, indicating 1ppm or more... which is very bad from what Ive seen.
Nitrates were also about .5ppm, which is bad too.
My ammonia also registered somewhere between .25ppm and .5ppm

So after my tang died, I upped my temperature from 78degrees, to 80 degrees to make it harder for the parasites to survive. It wasnt long after this when I noticed my fish gasping for air at the top of the tank. I have since put 2 air stones in either corner (I guess the bio wheel splashing agitated the surface and put oxygen in the water)
I also put the bio-wheel back on (it has a carbon filter in it, and I kept the bio-wheel in a bag of salt water, so hopefully the good bacteria I had on it is still alive)
My damsel is already more active, but I put the puffer in a different tank.

Before this, my tank was set up for about a month, and I would get small ammonia spikes that were quickly back to 0. Are these new rocks dying off? Or by not agitating the top of the water, did I kill off a lot of things on it. My turbo snail is also changing to a darker color. I'm guessing the lack of oxygen is at fault.

If I did kill off a lot of rock, how long will it take to replenish? I don't have a protein skimmer yet, but am desperately trying to get one (see other post).

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!
 
the new rock you you added and the removal of the biowheel with all your bacteria on it probably caused your tank to do a major cycle again.
 
In hindsight, you shouldn't have added your livestock until you were certain your tank had cycled completely. It sounds like your tank wasn't done cycling in the first place.

Also, you might want to check out liveaquaria.com as it has pretty good descriptions of fish, compatability charts, and tank size requirements. I'm not a member of the Tang police by no means, but putting that fish in that small of a tank probably stressed him out big time.

Lavendar tangs require a tank of 100 gallons. You could probably get away with putting one in a 75 if you had plenty of open swimming room. A 29 isn't even close enough to have him be happy.
 
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She was a very tiny tang.. I thought it would be OK. Isn't live rock supposed to be better than a Bio-Wheel for filtering? My other fish are looking much better today. Is it possible lack of oxygen saturation caused some dying of fauna on the rocks/sand and spiked nitrite?
 
yes rock is better than the bio wheel but you put live uncured rock in your tank which probably had some die off which caused a spike. Im not the tang police either i have 4 in my 120 but that tank is wayyyyyyyy to small for any tangs they need room to swim. You need to slow down give your tank at least a month until it completely cycles and add slowly.

your nitrates are fine you want to wait until there are zero nitrites and 0 ammonia until its safe. Id be worried about those shrimp and the hermits your probably going to lose some, i hope not but be prepared if anything else dies get it out asap so the ammonia doesnt get any higher. Your most likely always gonna have some nitrates its completely normal its the end result of the biological process. You bring those down with water changes.
 
I am hopefully picking up a skimmer tonight. I was trying to figure out how to build my own sump/refugium.. they are so expensive to buy complete :P
My fish are swimming around much healthier today with the air stones producing many bubbles today. Id rather inject bubbles under the tank in a sump as they are unsightly in a display tank.
I don't know that the rock was uncured, as the LFS had it curing in a tank for a while. I think the lack of oxygen caused some death.. makes sense right?
 
Sumps are easy to make, just need some silicone a caulk gun and some panes of glass that are cheap from the local glass shop. I got 3 panes of glass for the baffles in my sump for $7 plus $4 for silicone and $32 for a new 20g long from pet store. Total cost for my sump $43. I'm not putting a fuge in mine but if you did you would just need 4 pieces of glass instead of 3.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15336776#post15336776 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chuggy
yes rock is better than the bio wheel but you put live uncured rock in your tank which probably had some die off which caused a spike. Im not the tang police either i have 4 in my 120 but that tank is wayyyyyyyy to small for any tangs they need room to swim. You need to slow down give your tank at least a month until it completely cycles and add slowly.

your nitrates are fine you want to wait until there are zero nitrites and 0 ammonia until its safe. Id be worried about those shrimp and the hermits your probably going to lose some, i hope not but be prepared if anything else dies get it out asap so the ammonia doesnt get any higher. Your most likely always gonna have some nitrates its completely normal its the end result of the biological process. You bring those down with water changes.
Click to expand...

+1 for slowing down. Rushing cost you an expensive fish and hassle you shouldn't experience if you take it slow.

Also, if you happened to tell the LFS where you got your Tang the size tank you have, and they still sold you it, I would be hesitant to go back. No LFS should have sold you that size fish for that size of a tank anywhere.
 
I was just buying cheap damsels and seeing small ammonia cycling (it had been a month) when I purchased the other fish.
They are much happier today, but my nitrites are still up (1ppm as far as I can tell)
Raising the temp and the lack of oxygen must have been the culprit.
Anyways, I am committed now with all the $ I've spent on this equipment, so I may as well get it right. Are there any good DIY websites on sumps?
 
Lowes has an aquarium safe silicone for about 5 bucks and nice sized sheets of acrylic got baffles for about 13 dollars.
 
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