Cycling Process

[Nedim]

How do you know when your tank is cycled and ready for fish? What variables go into play to determine the duration of cycling? I took some water reading about 4 days ago, and heres what I currently have. (I assume I am months away from being able to stock the tank, seeing as its been running for all of a week and a half?)

Specific Gravity-1.025
Ph-7.7-8.0
Kh-11
Nitrite-<0.3 mg/l
Ammonia-1.5 mg/l


I added a green clown goby to cycle the tank, but he died just last night.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[bobby]

your still a bit away a my tank took a month but can be done sooner or take longer first your going to get a spike of amonia that will go down then you will get a spike of nitrites then when that goes down down to 0 along with amonia your tank is cycled and then you will have to keep you nitrates down buy doing water changes also natural nitrate reduction can help like deep sand bed mangroves macro algae etc. also your ph is low id bring it up to 8.2 and if your not keeping corals your salinity can go down a little 1.021 to1.025 since your new and if not keeping coral id put it at 1.023 to give your room for adjustments and mistakes the hardiest fish for cycling are damsles and there cheap for a 46 gal i would buy atleast 2 or you can even cycle with out fish youll have to add a little food to keep the cycle going that way your not puttting any uneeded stress on the fish good luck with your tank and keep use posted on how its going

 

[Nedim]

I was thinking of using Kent Marine buffer to bring my ph up. And actually, I want to add coral when the tank finishes cycling. Bad idea?

For nitrate reduction, Im doing live rock and of course a protein skimmer.

Thanks for the info bobby.

 

[bobby]

i am using kent marine buffer but was told to use kent osmo it will buffer and add alot of other things to your ro i cant remember who told me that on this site but do know they know a whole lot more than i do so i would probably try there suggestions you can add corals after the cycle i did and there fine but i would recomend letting the tank mature for at least 3-4 more months after cycling that way you can gain more exprience and aford to make some mistakes i know iwould have waited but i got a really good deal on my corals only $5 each i know i would hate to make a mistake and kill a lot more expensive animals but in the end its all up to you so just take it slow and easy good luck

 

[gasman]

Welcome to the forum!! In this hobby you need to take it real slow. Going to fast could get you later. Let your tank cycle before you add anything live to it there is no need to kill fish when there are other methods. once your tank cycles then add live stock but again slow. Your tank will cycle again and again as you add live stock to it. Read the helpful articals to get more insite on this hobby there are some good things in there to help you. When you are done read more things about this hobby else where. You can never have to munch info on this hobby. The main key is real slow on matter what real slow. I hope this helps. Also keep us posted on your progress.

 

[Bifferwine]

Like Bobby said, your tank is cycled once ammonia and nitrites hit 0. Of course, then you will have to deal with nitrates.

I would recommend waiting a while before you add corals. Make sure you can keep lots of fish and other inverts (snails, crabs, shrimp, starfish, etc.) alive before you invest in corals. They are expensive and difficult to keep in a new tank. It can be tempting to rush, but rushing is a sure fire way to crash a tank. I think it has happened to almost every one when they start this hobby! Once you feel comfortable with other animals, and have no deaths for a while, then you can start adding corals.

What kind of protein skimmer do you have? Even with live rock and a skimmer you still need to do regular water changes.

If you want to add a fish to help the cycle, get your pH up to 8.2. Keep your temperature stable, around 76 to 80. Once you do this, try a hardy fish, most damsels are very hardy but if they survive the cycle, they will bully and kill other fish (they're very territorial) and are difficult to remove from the tank. That being said, chromis are a less-aggressive type of damsel and are good for cycling. And pretty. Yellow-tailed blue damsels are also less aggressive. Clowns are also good for cycling. Try to avoid blue damsels, striped damsels and domino damsels though. Little terrors!

 

[Nedim]

I just got a seaclone skimmer tonight and installed it. Also, I have a uv sterilizer and double biowheel filter running. I gave into temptation and got a sebae clown and a green urchin. Theyre actually doing good, believe it or night. The clown is eating and is active. The urchin moves around considerably too.

 

[bobby]

i also bought the seaclone if you can i would try and take it back there not a good skimmer and buy a different one in my opinion you shouldnt have bought any animals yet and if you did buy one now i would go with a damsel there very hardy im not trying to be a jerk but just trying to help i wouldnt think those animals will survive a cycle i know it hard to resist sometimes but going slow and learning is the key to this hobby

 

[Bifferwine]

Yeah, the Sea Clones suck. They are probably the worst skimmer out there. If you don't keep too many fish you'll probably be okay, but if you want more than a few fish and if you want to keep any invertibrates you should upgrade to a better skimmer. Definitely clean it and return it before it gets too gunky to take back. Been there, done that. I wish I had known before I spent a hundred bucks on mine!

The clown might do fine through the cycle, the urchin, being an invertibrate, is much more sensitive and probably won't. Especially since it appears that your cycle just began (high ammonia, medium nitrites). I agree with Bobby, take it slower, it's not cool to kill animals needlessly. Better safe than sorry, for their sake and for your wallet's sake. Your tank is not ready for inverts at the beginning of the cycle.

 

[Nedim]

Wish I had known all that earlier. I think Im gonna keep the sea clone for now and update at a later time. Whats so bad about it? I though the "venturi" models were good?

 

[Bifferwine]

The Sea Clone just doesn't work. It's not that the Venturi model is bad, it's that the Sea Clone is just a bad product. I think that company has amazing marketing, because you wouldn't believe how many people have "heard" that it's a high quality skimmer. It just doesn't do the job it's supposed to do. Do a search for "Sea Clone" in these forums, that will give you more information.

 

[bobby]

mine is junk it only wants to work when the disolved organics in the tank are high and when it dose work it only work half @$%ed

 

[djnzlab1]

HI,
I to a newbie to this fish keeping, I thought keeping coral requires alot more care than just fish so I may wait a year or two to try, not to mention the cost of adequate lighting.
I prefer using a DSB reforgium sump for water conditioning and I also like the Coral life skimmer they are a little quirky at first but once you get the hang of it.
I have problems with water quality mostly stable spec grav due to evaporation from the skimmer/sump, so I have to add r/o water almost every few days not a big problem beings I work in a LAB.
Doug

 

[Nedim]

I noticed that mine isnt skimming either.




Im returning it tomorrow.


Whats a good skimmer for a 46g tank under $150?

 

[djnzlab1]

HI,
The coralife is around 85.00 and comes with pump and bubble trap, be careful when you set it up the closer the pump is to the skimmer overflow the higher the water will fill the skimmer , I put mine on my sump and shorted out my electrical during that learning curve.. yikes GFI is also a very good investment or a defrib station when you get shocked.
Doug
I ve noticed most skimmer only work after a couple days break in and skimmer water height will drastically effect performance if its real low you have a skimmer full of real yellow water , the higher the bubbles go the more wet foam but the less concentrated the foam, man it really stinks I dump my skimmer daily but try and not rinse all the foam and scum out it seem to start back faster a little dirty, be sure you keep the air intake higher than the skimmer or it may siphon when you power down the skimmer, they so great work but are pretty tricky to get set up then it all makes sense and you go DUH. my model if you fill the over flow it allows water to run back into the tank thru a special hole over the return don't block that device ..

go here >>>

Coralife Needle Wheel and Venturi Super Skimmer - Marine Depot - Marine and Reef Aquarium Super Store

With a small tank it would be wise to buy a small tank maybe a 20 gal tall and put in a DSB to add water and good bacteria to slow down any drastic changes to your water . I made my own for about 100 bucks for parts and used a small pump as a return,the only part I bought was the overflow box I found one locally for around 40 bucks it dosen't auto-start but I am used to that and it works and I also used two types of plain old construtction type sand all that fuss over that arogonite sand it only will work if the water PH is less than 8 and that will kill most animals.

 

[JellyMan]

Patience is the key virtue I practically gave all my tanks away now I have started over from scratch with a 30 which will be my quarentine tank its been up for 7-8 months with nothing in it just so that I can be sure when I buy it wont die by my hand. At this moment it has sand water and LR thats it been that way since March. Eventually I will have a 55 coral tank and the 30 will be my sump till then its my quarentine.

 

[Nedim]

Ok, Ive been adding 1/4 tsp biozyme every day for the past 3 days.

I think my water has started to cycle finally. i took some readings and they are as follows:

pH-7.7

Nitrite-0.3 mg/l

Kh-8

Ammonia-1.5 mg/l

CO2-4.0 mg/l



Any suggestions?


*How can I raise my pH and stabilize it?

 

[JellyMan]

Baking soda 3/4 of a tsp at a time I beleive is the formula.

 

[jhnrb]

In order to properly adjust your water parameters you 1st must determine why they are out of whack. Just raising Ph with baking soda will get the Ph up but will not stablize and can give you a false sence of security for long term success. I do not advocate the use of baking soda, carbonated water, and the like as a remedie to poor water quality. The must be something lacking in your salt mix, or reason your Ph is so low. Lots of hobbist do use baking soda and the idea has been around a long time, I personally do not advocate it for reason stated. A series of helpful articles have been written addressing just this item. check out the newbie articles and well as the ph articles. with co2 levels where they are at you may have an oxygen defficientcy caused by poor circulation, overload of bio load/additives added to system for cycling speed up, etc. I recommend you review the articles and also feel free to pm me if you have specific questions. You will need to provide your system equipment, all additives, water circulation, temp, how you prepare your makeup water, how your prepare your new salt water for water changes. Im sure others will also weigh in here and may dissagree with me, and that is ok, no one does it exactly the same. Good luck keep us posted.

 

[Nedim]

Its a 46 gallon tank. Im running a double bio-wheel powerfilter, gamma UV ray Sterilizer which is powered by a marineland powerhead, and a temporary bubble wall until I find one that can run the length of my tank. I've been adding 1/4 tsp biozyme daily for the last 3 days. I also added one dose of red sea pH/dkh buffer. The substrate is 35lb of crushed coral. The live rock Im curing is not in the tank, it is in a seperate container. The temp is a steady 78-80. When I first added water to the tank, I added chemicals to clear the water. If theyre important, I can get the names tomorrow monring. Ive only filled the tank once, so I just mixed in the salt with the water in the tank. Im not sure how to go about doing water changes, I could use some help with that. I've kept a very accurate journal since day one of adding water to the tank. If it helps, I can post my entries tomorrow morning.