I know you have heard this a million times, then your buddy with 25 yrs experience tells you he cycled his new reef tank in 3 weeks and is in the process of buying corals. The difference is experience, he has already faced all the issues and knows what he is looking for and when to panic and when to just monitor. Either way there is no replacement for time. As some of you may have seen recently, my first attempt at keeping corals was a flop and my "reef" tank has been sitting in neglect as an external refugium for the last two years. This fall I looked at the tank and decided to give it a second chance, so I cleared out the Macro algae and GHA, rearranged my frag rack, made some more dry rock, and installed a $20 gallon aquarium as a sump from the Petco $1/gallon sale. Now my set-up is far from envious or ideal, and is very much a budget tank, but everyday my parameters stabilize a little more and another organism I didn't know was alive in my tank pops up from some dark corner of the tank. Everything is quickly being encrusted in Coraline that had been dormant in the tank. THe only inhabitants I have added to this three year old tank are an Ocellaris Clown, Haitian Condy Nem, CUC, and one "LPS" coral that is not what I thought it was at Petco. Everybody looks awesome, and unlike last time my coral is actually growing, I even have a couple mushroom coral I thought had long died that have tripled in size since the macro was removed. Now I have had to do some water changes, dose little ALK/Cal/Mag to get some things balanced, and occasionally do a little carbon dosing to deal with nutrients, but most of the progress I am seeing from the tank is simply the tank's age showing through and a diverse microfauna dealing with minor fluctuations from day to day.
Noobs take it slow..
- Thread starter Walla2GSP
- Start date
joshbrookkate
New member
So true!
Wish I knew then what I know now....
Wish I knew then what I know now....
Bishopsnet
New member
I'm a cluster. I've had my tank setup with cured live rock/live sand for a week. No ammonia, no nitrite and no nitrate. All the LFS say to go ahead and add a fish. Cured live rock means its cycled. I tried to find pure ammonia. no dice. I have limited access to LFS. A so so local pet store with saltwater tanks, the next actual fish store is half an hour drive and he rarely has what I need. The next store is 45 mins away and they keep weird hours. 3-6 pm maybe. So I said screw it. I bought a $15 Clownfish to cycle it. I know I will get negative comments. I was afraid the tank won't cycle if I don't do something. Probably a noob mistake. I pretty much butchered the acclimation. Hopefully it doesn't die. I couldn't figure out how to drip acclimate and keep the temp up. The temp dropped whenever I took the bag out of the water to drip acclimate. So I left the bag in the water and used a syringe to drop my water in.
joshbrookkate
New member
You can cycle with fish food. Feeding the tank as if you had fish in it. The rock builds up the bacteria needed to deal with the ammonia created.
Can you take the fish out until the tank is cycled? That would be the most humane thing to do.
And by the way, I think you'll see how much more reliable the information on this site is than what you get from a fish seller.
So keep asking questions. And read the stickies at the top of the "New to the Hobby" section of this site. Lots of great info there, too!
Good luck with your cycling. Do things slowly in this hobby so you can learn how things work as you go.
Michelle
Can you take the fish out until the tank is cycled? That would be the most humane thing to do.
And by the way, I think you'll see how much more reliable the information on this site is than what you get from a fish seller.
So keep asking questions. And read the stickies at the top of the "New to the Hobby" section of this site. Lots of great info there, too!
Good luck with your cycling. Do things slowly in this hobby so you can learn how things work as you go.
Michelle
Noobs take it slow..
The live rock has beneficial bacteria which helps convert ammonia to nitrite then to nitrate. You may not be seeing ammonia because there wasn't much die off from the rock. Take all the fish out and use fish food or a shrimp and let it decay in the tank until you begin to see ammonia register in your tank. Since you have live rock already the cycle shouldn't last long just be patient.
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The live rock has beneficial bacteria which helps convert ammonia to nitrite then to nitrate. You may not be seeing ammonia because there wasn't much die off from the rock. Take all the fish out and use fish food or a shrimp and let it decay in the tank until you begin to see ammonia register in your tank. Since you have live rock already the cycle shouldn't last long just be patient.
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Next time, float the bag for 15-20 minutes, then dump the bag into a clean bucket and start the drip.
Reeferz412
Coral Hoarder
If you can find a dollar store, find yourself some small sand castle pales. The square ones that are flimsy. Get yourself some dollar store plastic clamps and clamp the bucket to the tank. This way, the bucket remains the tanks temp and you can pour a little water into the bucket every 5-10 minutes and acclimate the fish. You could have thrown a cocktail shrimp into your tank and leave it over night. It would have started the cycle. Or some fish food. The dollar store is my #1 spot for tank cleaning supplies, specimen holders, and DIY projects.
Bishopsnet
New member
I was gonna do the dead shrimp thing but I got overwhelmed with varying opinions. A couple of buddies who have done saltwater tanks for 20+ years both said to cycle with a clown. Someone told me the shrimp will make the tank reek. I was gonna ghost feed and someone said that will add phosphates. The cured live rock thing confused me. I was told if the live rock is cured and you use live sand, you can add fish because the bacteria is already built up enough. I'll just have to see what happens to this fish. I'm worried about stressing the fish out with ammonia. I'm hoping there is enough bacteria to handle the ammonia and the fish is ok.
schnebbles
New member
Maybe some seachem stability or Bio-Spira? Can't hurt
Bishopsnet
New member
With cured live rock? Is there not enough bacteria in live rock/Sand? Will the biro Spira help keep the ammonia at bay?
Okay, you are missing the whole point of my post. SLOW DOWN, nothing in this hobby happens fast except things dying. But if you have the clown fish in the tank and the live rock, just stop take a step back and think about it for a minute. At this point, I don't recommend the dead shrimp or ghost feeding to cycle the tank as it will FORCE ammonia levels high. Just keep testing for Ammonia, and be ready to get the fish out if levels get above 2ppm. Clownfish are hardy and can take a small ammonia hit if they are healthy, but prolonged exposure will kill even the hardiest fish. Live rock is typically only kept live if kept in saltwater, once you remove it to put in another tank you will experience some die off, and your beneficial bacteria will have to repopulate once you set up the new tank. I hate live sand because I always end up with a half live slurry, but you should have at least some live bacteria. My recommendation settle in for the long cycle and start testing daily. This also is a good time to work on testing for alk/cal/mag weekly to get the experience. Start doing some research on carbon dosing, and look at the many ways out there to accomplish this, it is in it's simplest form feeding your beneficial bacteria to reduce die off and maintain a strong biological filtration system. Since you are possibly starting with a weak system, this may be beneficial information to have once the ammonia cycle has run it's course. Keep feeding your clown once or twice a day, start looking at CUC but don't order quite yet, keep testing, and make arrangements for a hospital tank to put the Clown in or have a LFS or fellow reefer on speed dial to take the clown for a couple days if have a strong ammonia cycle. For a hospital tank, a 5 gallon bucket or 10 gallon aquarium with a powerhead or HOB filter will get you by for a day or two and just do 2-50% water changes a day till you get the fish back in your display.
Bishopsnet
New member
I have a test kit for coral. It has calc, kh and mag tests. No alkalinity or ph test. Should I get a ph test kit? I heard ph is important for coral and fish. That's alkalinity also righ. One and the same?
Get a pH test, but no rush. kH is the scale of alkalinity so this is a alkalinity test kit. Alkalinity and pH are related as they tend to move together and are dependant on each other, but testing for one is not a replacement for both. I tend to doublecheck my pH once a month, but once a week would be better. pH shouldn't change much till the tank is completely cycled, and then again as you add corals.
