Noob question during cycle

[CaliforniaREEF]

I understand during the cycle that no fish would survive, or mabe damsels might make it. Question is, how about "seaweed"? would it make it through the cycle. any suggestion for the kind of sea weed that would? thanks in advance.

 

[john37]

when you say "sea weed" do you mean macro algae? The stuff thats growing on your live rock?
If so, then yes. But if you're planning on throwing sea weed in there, no.
There are a lot of things that you can do to make the cycle on your tank less harsh.
Such as, when you buy liverock smell it. and inspect it for any dead or even live algae, sponges or black gunk. If the rock looks and smells clean, you're less likely to have much die off, meaning your water wont be as bad.
Take off any dead or dying tissue off your liverock and throw it away.
It would be more helpful if you gave us your info on your tank size, equipment you're using, what you plan on keeping, and maybe even what kind of rock you bought. Pictures would be best.
Good Luck!

 

[CaliforniaREEF]

I didn't want to mention caulerpa taxifolia "seaweed". I was given some by a hobbyist, because he has too many growin in his sump. my tnak is only a 40 gallon size, but with the built in sump that takes up about 1/3 of the tank itself. Lots of pond sponged, then bio balls, Rio 1700 as the pump. Found it in a trash can, and since the wife wanted salt water fish, I made it, it's been two weeks. Rock are collected from local hobbyist selling for $2.00 a lb. I think they are tongan, and fiji. They do have some "algae" growin in it, but that is not the "seaweed i was referring to. Also, a very small Xenia pop up from one of the rocks, it seems to be doing OK. The nitrite reading yesterday was at 5.0 ppm, with ammonia at zero. Hope it is about two more weeks or so. Had five damsels, only one is left, and also placed two pieces of raw shrimp. hope it works out great. I only two 24inch flourescent light, but I think they are the coral lights.

 

[Zaphod]

If the rio was in the trash it was proabably for a good reason. I would just buy a better pump rios have a pretty bad wrap and if someone through it out it is probably junk and will give you a lot of problems possibly nuke the tank.

 

[john37]

take out the bioballs and sponges

 

[NicoleC]

I would nuke the caulerpa and trach any rock it has EVER grown on. It's a major pest if it gets in the display.

The exception is FO tanks where you don't care, sea horse and specialty display tanks where you want it as part of a biotope. If you ever want to keep corals, it will be a pain in the butt.

(The lights you mentioned are not adequate for corals unless it's a small tank.)

 

[CaliforniaREEF]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6793662#post6793662 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by john37
take out the bioballs and sponges

How come? what would be the media to house the bacteria???

 

[Zaphod]

after time they can acumulate ditrus and nitrates along withthat. If you have live rock and good flow it isn't needed.

 

[evolution8888]

All the live rock and sand if you have any would house the bacteria.......

 

[CaliforniaREEF]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6793662#post6793662 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by john37
take out the bioballs and sponges

This is bad advice. I removed the sponges and the bioballs, and had a spike in ammonia and nitrite. all the fish in my tank, including my clown tang, is dead. Don't give this type of advice if you don't know what you are talking about.

 

[Spartan081]

You shouldn't be putting any fish in there before your cycle ends and all ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate is zero. Your bioballs and sponges aren't doing any good. Your cycle is not complete yet if you have an ammonia spike.

 

[Spartan081]

You shouldn't be putting any fish in there before your cycle ends and all ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate is zero. Your bioballs and sponges aren't doing any good. Your cycle is not complete yet if you have an ammonia spike.

Dont' blame other people for your mistake.

 

[john37]

I'm sorry if i gave you poor advice or came off like i don't know what i'm talking about. I understand you're upset bc you lost your fish. But there are a couple things i'd like to know.

how many fish did you have in your 40gal?
you said you were cycling the tank and you only had damsels. why did you get a clown tang?(they're not very hardy and are too much for a 40gal)
if he died first then it was probably too much of a bio load for your tank to handle and killed the rest of your fish.
When you took out the sponges and bioballs did it release or kick up a bunch of detrius?

sorry about your loss, let me know where you're located and i'll give you a 3" gold stripe maroon when you get your stuff back together.

 

[CaliforniaREEF]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6847413#post6847413 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Spartan081
You shouldn't be putting any fish in there before your cycle ends and all ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate is zero. Your bioballs and sponges aren't doing any good. Your cycle is not complete yet if you have an ammonia spike.

Dont' blame other people for your mistake.

Here is another person that doesn't know what is going on, and spilling his beans. You think you know everything. I am not as stupid as you think I am. The cycle is over. The tank is doing fine. So I decided to remove the bioballs, since that is the advice that I saw.

The only fish I have there are two percula clowns, one damsel that survive the cycle, and now I just got a clown tang. My mistake was following an advice that I thought had some merit. Sigh...

So many of you are so quick to put up a post pretending you guys know what you are talking about. I bet everyone in here is just waiting for someone to ask a question and bombard them with suggestions that just comes out of your behind. geez. I am in a bad mood because all my fish that were happily swimming, are now frozen stiff.:mad2:

 

[saltyESQ]

wow, a tang in a 40g. I can see you know what you are doing!

and bio balls and sponges are terrible, it was good advice.

 

[saltyESQ]

BTW, I do believe that this thread is a joke.

 

[saltyESQ]

there is no bandwagon, you were very rude when given valid good advice. This hobby has changed a lot since the 80's. And sorry to tell you, juvi tangs can be hard to raise.

 

[pro5816]

Ok, ok, ok Let me get this straight....

You have a 40 gallon tank, with a clown tang in it? You also had bioballs? You also were trying to find out if "seaweed" would live in your tank while its cycling....

To me it sounds like you are a noob that bought a brand new tank threw a bunch of fish in right away and they died...So you blame everyone else for YOUR mistakes....

If your tank isnt cycling then why would you ask if "seaweed" would live in a tank thats cycling?

BTW: You could have a 1000 gallon freshwater tank and not know anything about saltwater tanks....They are 2 different worlds

 

[Spartan081]

Just because your upset that YOU killed all your fish doesn't give you the right to say that people are giving you bad advice.

I don't think two weeks is enough time for your cycle to be over. You've recently had a lot of death in your tank and it'll take a while for your parameters to stabalize. I wouldn't put anything else in your tank if I were you. Also, do a big water change. You should also turn up your skimmer if you have one running.

Why don't you use this time to do more research instead of blaming other people.

 

[CaliforniaREEF]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6847575#post6847575 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bergamer
BTW, I do believe that this thread is a joke.

I see, everyone is joining in on the bandwagon. You are right, it is beginning to be a joke, thanks for your unintelligent post. The tang is only about 3 inches. I am hoping to grow it, and start a bigger tank. You must think I only have one tank? I have other tanks, the biggest being 330 gallons, another at 240, two 180's, and other 125's. I am trying my hands on this saltwater thing to see how it goes. I've done saltwater keeping ages ago, like in the 80's, but back then, there was not many reef tanks that survived, and even fish keeping was not easy. LOL.

John, sorry for the quick snap. I was just not too happy to see my fish going through the agony of dying. Like I said, it pretty much ruined my day. Hope the tank recovers.

Anybody else, feel free to bash me....