Cycling process...

[LuvMyPiggies]

Hello again! Well, I did as instructed by some of the members and removed my fish. Since then, I have left the tank alone. It has been about 2 weeks now and my ammonia level has decreased right down to nothing as you all said it would. But as we all know ammonia turns into nitrate. So now my ammonia and PH are fine but my nitrate and nitrite are extremely high. Do I leave it and allow it to do it's thing, or do I start doing regular water changes?
As for the fish, my long-spine urchin eventually died, not due to the ammonia, but I had him in the tank where I work and my boss treated the tank with coppersafe. On a good note, now that the tank is cycling, my feather duster is growing it's plume back and at a remarkable rate. It doubled in a day! I look forward to putting fish in the tank again. Any further advice you can give is appreciated.

Thanks.

[dustin_P74]

your half way through the cycle, just sit back and let it do its thing

[reeffreak]

Your cycle is not complete until both ammonia and nitrite are at zero.You can do waterchanges to reduce nitrite if there are animals in the tank otherwise wait until its zero,then do waterchanges to lower nitrate.

[Piggy]

Not time for a water change yet. You still have a few more weeks to go. Next time the boss goes near the tank break his fingers. lol

[dustin_P74]

well the tank is virtually uninhabitable for anything other then fish now and that live rock cant be reused unless it goes into a fowlr now

[LuvMyPiggies]

Why can't I reuse the live rock?

I took out the fish and urchin but I still have a feather duster, strawberry conche, and about 10 crabs in there. Everyone in there seems to be doing fine including the duster.

As for the tank, I will leave it for a while longer then. Would you recommend changing the green-x though? That is supposed to be beneficial for Nitrate, Nitrite and PH?

[dustin_P74]

because once copper is introduced into a tank it will get into every surface and if you reuse the live rock it has the potential to leech the copper which will kill all inverts and corals

[Piggy]

Is this the stuff he put in the tank?
http://www.pet-expo.com/Coppersafe.htm

[RyanG]

Dustin the urchin was in the tank at her WORK, LuvMyPiggies, just dont put anything that has copper in it in your system EVER! So long as your live rock hasnt had contact with the coppersafe(or any other copper treatment) then continue letting your tank cycle. You are doing the right thing as of now.

Dustin my friend, not being an ass just constructive criticism, you need to make sure you read posts well before you tell somebody that they cant use ________ because of _________. Especially somebody that is very new to the hobby. Seriously Im not being a jerk just trying to convey my point.

[dustin_P74]

im well aware that it was her work tank. it being a work tank doesnt negate the fact that using copper makes in non reef safe now