Although I am not new to saltwater aquariums, it's been 5 years since I have had one up and running. I just put up a 29 gallon tank and I am working through the cycling process. A few questions have come up, but some background info is here for you: I had a 90 gallon for 5 years, when i tore it down i let all my live rock dry out (essentially killing all the liveness!) When i set up my 29 gallon, i used many of the old rocks. After a few hours, the water immediately started getting cloudy and yellowish. My theory is that all the dead stuff in the holes in the rocks actually started the cycling process. I tested the ammonia and nitrites and they existed and were low. That was 3 days ago. On day 2 i added live sand and of course it's still pretty cloudy. So, 1. Do you think it was the rocks that made the water cloudy and 2. will the water clear up on its own after the cycle? I just cannot remember this happening to me the first time i set up a saltwater tank, so thats why i just want some advise! Thank you!!
Cycling
- Thread starter mmfrock
- Start date
little_fish
Moderator
i wouldnt use your skimmer while cycling, and the cloudyness should go away eventually. I would also put some table shrimp in the tank to get the cycle going full time.
That's what i thought about the skimmer, it has been off! Glad i still remembered to do something right! I actually put in a product called cycle that has bacteria in it, i used it in the past and it seemed to work fine, so im going to go with that instead of the real shrimp...only b/c i dont eat seafood and dont want to go buy 1/4 lb to get one shrimp!! THanks so much for your advice, i appreciate your post.
little_fish
Moderator
you can also toss in some some fish food as well, and if you do use those cycle products you have to put something in to feed the bacteria that are supposably in the bottle. Otherwise there the bacteria dies and your tank never actually cycles.
little_fish
Moderator
yep that will work fine! Just toss some in!
Smitty
Reef pro
+1 lil fish
