Nitrate/Nitrite HIGH...help!

[Bowels]

If I were you i would go get a little 10g tank and put the CUC and corals in there until your tank cycles...the cycle is a process that lets the tank recover from die off and gives needed bacteria time to propagate to a level that can sustain a healthy tank. adding any livestock before this is complete is asking for death

 

[Delprincipe]

We have blue legged hermits, 2 cucs, 1 brittle star, a starfish, decorator crab, 3 black spiny urchins, 1 pincushion urchin, arrow crab (?), snails, and hitchhikering minthax and porceline crabs.

Looks like we have 2 amenones, misc sponges, tunicates, and items we don't know yet.

 

[Delprincipe]

If I were you i would go get a little 10g tank and put the CUC and corals in there until your tank cycles...the cycle is a process that lets the tank recover from die off and gives needed bacteria time to propagate to a level that can sustain a healthy tank. adding any livestock before this is complete is asking for death

We have a 10 gallon that we are going to use as quarantine... do you recommend doing this withot any sand or rock?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'd probably add something like Amquel if it were me, rather than try to relocate everything. The QT won't be cycled either, I presume.

 

[reef4life07]

Adding live stock while tank is cycling is just wrong, fish food alone would have started the process...

 

[Bowels]

yes no sand or rock needed in QT, thats a lot of life to add to an un cycled tank. At least your gonna save em thats all that matters. You will find keeping a SW tank is much more complicated than a FW one. I did too when I first started lol. This forum is the best, there are always so many ppl with great ideas and experiences to help you out.

I would do a 2g or so water change every few days in the QT to export unwanted nutrients, and pick up some seaweed... I believe its like kori seaweed or something like that... without rocks and such to pick on you will want to put a piece in every week or so to keep the hermits and the urchins fed. your cycle should be over in a few weeks. also you will want some flow in the QT, a regular carbon filter should be plenty. Good luck

 

[Delprincipe]

yes no sand or rock needed in QT, thats a lot of life to add to an un cycled tank. At least your gonna save em thats all that matters. You will find keeping a SW tank is much more complicated than a FW one. I did too when I first started lol. This forum is the best, there are always so many ppl with great ideas and experiences to help you out.

I would do a 2g or so water change every few days in the QT to export unwanted nutrients, and pick up some seaweed... I believe its like kori seaweed or something like that... without rocks and such to pick on you will want to put a piece in every week or so to keep the hermits and the urchins fed. your cycle should be over in a few weeks. also you will want some flow in the QT, a regular carbon filter should be plenty. Good luck

Thanks for your supportive help It appears now we have copepods swimming around the tank. Is the fact that they are out and about a turn in a positive direction or would they have appeared regardlessly?

 

[Delprincipe]

Adding live stock while tank is cycling is just wrong, fish food alone would have started the process...

While I completely understand where you are coming from here we purchased a very successful product from TBS. I truly feel that we complicated the whole process by feeding during the tank's cycle so now we just need advise on how to backtrack our goof up. I have no problem owning up to our rookie mistakes but please provide us some advise. Trust me, we are already beating ourselves up about the dilemma we are in.

 

[heckfire]

While I completely understand where you are coming from here we purchased a very successful product from TBS.

The only constant in this expensive hobby is patience,, remember TBS is in this to make money,You have some of the very advanced and difficult life forms in your tank...id say bring them back and let the tank really cycle

 

[Delprincipe]

The only constant in this expensive hobby is patience,, remember TBS is in this to make money,You have some of the very advanced and difficult life forms in your tank...id say bring them back and let the tank really cycle

That's not an option considering TBS is in Florida. While it might work if we'd bought everything at a LFS it won't work in this situation. We'll have to work through it.

 

[meco65]

Wait Delprincipe Some of Them here do not understand the TBS process, all your rock is good Live Rock and should not have to much of a cycle, if you follow the TBS procedure. They sale lots of complete LR setups with great success. IMO slow down do the water changes TBS recommends, e-mail or call TBS if you need to but follow there advise.

 

[freetareef]

wow, i can't believe nobody has suggested reading the stickies in the new to the hobby section.
hey dude,
read ALL the stickies in the new to the hobby section, Then you should read them 6 more times, because we remember 7% of what we read word for word, that way you will remember 49% of what you have read.

 

[Delprincipe]

Thank you all for the helpful advice.

 

[whodeydan76]

DelPrincipe...I am fairly new to the hobby of keeping a Sw tank as well (2mos 3 weeks). When i started my tank I was running blindly and listening to a partially unreliable source. I started with 90# of live rock in my 75 gal tank, mixed my instant ocean with tap water (w chlorine remover), and was running only a fluval canister filter.
I was not testing for the cycle until I had already put my first livestock in the tank (3 weeks). I added 60 snails, 30 red leg hermits and live sand from garf.org once I started testing for the cycle progress it was almost complete. I added 5 blue/green chromis and a red fiddler crab from a lfs at 5 weeks... they all survived.
I slowly found this website and started learning of my mistakes...boy did I feel stupid! Once I found out why tap water was bad...it was too late, brown diatom algae had already started and my snails worked on it but only did so much. That is when i added my first 2 powerheads and my Skimmer and started doing 10 gal a week water changes with ro Sw from my lfs. This really improved my water quality. At 6 weeks I added a established tomato clown and a rock with gsp on it...the fish was dead in abt 30 hours. I also added a store bought tomato clown and a diamond goby to the tank at the same time. The established clown killed my young one before it passed. The goby is still going strong...even tho he did cause a rock collapse at one point...until I learned that the rock needs to be set before the substrate was added...
Go super slow, read the stickies, ask a butt load of questions, don't EVER suggest you will flush a problematic fish, and don't get too attached to the livestock you have currently, you will be lucky if all of it doesn't die.... Wait at least 6 weeks before you try a hearty fish or 2.
I work at a pet store now and I've learned so much between a guy I met on craigslist by posting and the helpful folks on here...its unbelievable. Good luck to you fellow newbie. Stay with it...you will eventually get through the cycle

 

[Cloudburst2000]

Adding live stock while tank is cycling is just wrong, fish food alone would have started the process...

These are LIVE ROCKS and LIVE SAND he was using from TBS who aquaculture rock in the Pacific Ocean. TBS ships the first round of live rock via air and won't ship the second round of rock that contains all the organisms until the cycle of the first round is complete. Their instructions are very simple. Every time you see ammonia go over 1ppm, do a water change to bring numbers back under 1ppm. I only had to do two small water changes with my first shipment of rock. When I let Richard know that the cycle was complete, he air shipped the second round of rock that came with all the critters. The instructions were similar to the first round of rock. Do water changes when ammonia goes over 1ppm. I again only had to perform two small water changes. I believe the problem the original poster had was feeding the tank. The instructions specifically say not to feed until all cycling is complete. There is enough food on the rocks and in the sand to support any life in the tank. TBS is one of the premiere places to buy aquacultured live rock and has been in business for years and years and they have a stellar reputation. I'll take Richard's advice over yours...sorry.

 

[Cloudburst2000]

wow, i can't believe nobody has suggested reading the stickies in the new to the hobby section.
hey dude,
read ALL the stickies in the new to the hobby section, Then you should read them 6 more times, because we remember 7% of what we read word for word, that way you will remember 49% of what you have read.

And maybe you should be a little less condemning when you obviously don't grasp the entire situation. This is true live rock and live sand that Tampa Bay Saltwater has aquacultured in the Pacific Ocean. They ship all their rock overnight air submersed in water so there is very little die-off. I showed very little ammonia with my two shipments (they ship in two parts) and only had to do a couple small water changes. The OP is not using base rock that needs to come alive. It is already alive. He was using live rock and live sand. TBS is very specific with their instructions and I had nothing but success by following their instructions.

 

[Cloudburst2000]

While I completely understand where you are coming from here we purchased a very successful product from TBS. I truly feel that we complicated the whole process by feeding during the tank's cycle so now we just need advise on how to backtrack our goof up. I have no problem owning up to our rookie mistakes but please provide us some advise. Trust me, we are already beating ourselves up about the dilemma we are in.

I suggest emailing Richard and asking him what to do. He answers emails promptly. I think you should leave the live stock in the tank and just do the needed water changes. As long as you keep the ammonia below 1ppm like TBS suggests, you should be okay. But I would verify with Richard since you did start feeding before you were supposed to.

 

[Cloudburst2000]

And I still don't feed much. I have some algae in the tank and the CUC that TBS sent are chowing on that right now. You really don't need to feed too much. There is food on the rocks/sand still that they can eat so definitely don't overfeed as it will just lead to algae problems. And if you want to keep the sponges alive and well, I would look into ordering some phytoplankton. They are filter feeders and feed from the water column. Phytoplankton is the one thing I have been feeding regularly. Sponges still looking okay after a few weeks. I just ordered my first fish. It should be here tomorrow and will go into quarantine for about six weeks. I haven't gotten any coral yet as I have been out of town alot in the last few weeks. I'm planning on snagging some frags from my brother-in-law's tank. He owes me since I gave him practically all his corals as frags that have now grown out. And there is a frag swap coming up where I plan to spend a bit of moolah...probably on acans mostly. I love acans

 

[f3honda4me]

When you ship liverock or live sand "overnight", there is die off, which causes a cycle. That cycle needs to be completed before you add coral or CUC.

Any ammonia/nitrite means your tank is cycling and you should not be having coral/CUC in your tank. I don't care where you buy it from or what their "process" is, that's just the basics of cycling a new tank.

 

[Cloudburst2000]

When you ship liverock or live sand "overnight", there is die off, which causes a cycle. That cycle needs to be completed before you add coral or CUC.

Any ammonia/nitrite means your tank is cycling and you should not be having coral/CUC in your tank. I don't care where you buy it from or what their "process" is, that's just the basics of cycling a new tank.

Well, since I and tons of other aquarists have had amazing results with TBS rock by using their instructions, then I will stick with that. There is a reason why TBS has such a stellar reputation. And they have very little die-off since they ship all their rock and sand submersed in water...not just wrapped in moist towels.