new to this world.....

[Darren&Candace]

Hello, My wife and I are very new to all this, and we have had some advice from the store where we got the aquarium from, but they always seem soooo very busy and not soooo very helpful with our questions. I realize that some of our questions may seem quite basic, but they are still questions that we are struggling to get the right answers for. We had our lovely aquarium delivered and set up about 6 weeks ago .... since that time we have seen the water cycle take place as our nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia all zeroed out. We were then told things were good and we should put in the clean up crew .... they have now been in there for 2 weeks, and while our nitrite levels still are showing very low - zero ... our nitrate and ammonia levels have begun to rise. ammonia levels I would say are around 4 - 4.5 and nitrates are maybe around 10 or so. I understand that to lower the nitrate level to do a water change, but I'm more concerned right now about the ammonia levels - first off as to why they have risen so much, and secondly is the partial water change the best way to cope with this? We were thinking to be adding fish soon, but now am very hesitant as we can't seem to figure out if its time or not. Can someone please help us out .... are we on the right track??

 

[d2mini]

Hello and welcome! :cool:

First, I suggest you take a long hard look at the articles here on living reefs.

Second, yes... definitely do a water change! Nitrate levels of 10 is not too bad, but you shouldn't have ANY ammonia if your tank completed the cycle. A tank with a completed cycle should be fully processing ammonia into nitrite and nitrate. How did you cycle the tank? Any fish, chunk of table shrimp or anything? You need something in there to kick off the cycle, which is now your inverts.

Third, you should start a showcase! :)
Get some pics and other details up so we can see what you've got.
Would be good to hear what equipment you have too.

Oh and one more thing... PATIENCE is key in this hobby. And lots of research. Don't feel bad, you did what most people do... buy the tank and do the research later. It really should be the opposite. There is a ton to learn in this hobby and nothing good comes from going fast. But don't let it get you down. Now is the time to make mistakes and learn... not when you have a tank full of livestock. :)

 

[Aquarian]

Hi and welcome. I agree with Dennis take it slow and do lots of research. You will much happier with the outcome.

 

[Darren&Candace]

Thanks so much for the good info last night .... we did do a water change and nitrate & nitrite basically went to zero .... the ammonia is still up a little, but im thinking to put in some more 'prime' to eliminate it?? maybe a good idea ...
and to cycle our tank ..... wellllllll I guess its like this .... when they came and put it in, the guys brought some stuff that was called start up, or something like that .... and with the live rock in it, they said that would make it cycle and we could put fish in it in 24 hours or something like that ... I now realize that isn't the case at all, and am very glad we didn't put any fish in!!! we have our crabs & snails in there now, and am hoping that if we just pay attention to water quality that things will start working out ..... ????? so after they put that stuff in there, we tested the water after a couple weeks, and nitrate, nitrite and ammonia were all at zero .... things looked good and we were told we could put in the clean up crew .... now looking back, im not 100 percent sure that the water did ever cycle, or if there was anything really in there to make it cycle .... anyway, that's all in the past, we are moving forward, did the water change ... got our nitrates down to basically zero, and ammonia has come down considerably. But i'm almost thinking that we are still watching and waiting for another cycle ... or perhaps the first cycle hehehe
and 3rd .... I would love to get some pics up, it does look really beautiful, but am now struggling with a light issue, we have 3 radion xr30w ... and when first plugged in they all turned on, tried to program them through the computer and it picked up 2 of the 3, but now the third one wont even turn on manually .... the led indicator blinks red and green, and customer support is not open on the weekend ... maybe someone here has and idea, but most likely pics will have to wait until I can get the lighting issue fixed :((

darren

 

[d2mini]

Ugh. :(

The saltwater reef hobby is completely different than freshwater. NO PRIME! No "startup", no other magic potions, no nothing. You really want to go au-natural in this hobby. Or as natural as we can get in a small enclosed environment. Not only do you not want to put in a bunch of chemicals but you want everything to be as clean and pure as possible. No tap water for instance. RO/DI only. Either buy it from your LFS or make your own. A RO/DI unit will be one of the best investments you can make, especially on a bigger tank. What size is yours? I started off with a 46g bow front and even going to the lfs for water for that size tank got tiresome.

That is a bummer about ectotech on the weekends, but give them a call monday and they will get you all fixed up. They'll even connect in to your computer remotely if they have to. Great bunch of guys over there. And no worries anyway... you don't even need light at this point. Right now you just want the tank to fully cycle.

And don't go to your LFS for any more advice, mmmkay? :thumbsup:

 

[Aquarian]

Well said Dennis

 

[Darren&Candace]

Thanks Dennis!! and the chances of us getting any valuable info from our LFS seems slim to none now ..... reading here, and listening to you I've learnt more than multiple chit chats with their 'helpful' advice givers!!! needless to say, we aren't too impressed with them at the moment ..... we've started out with a 180gal tank, diablo skimmer, and pump, vortec mp40w .... 50 gal sump, we do have ro/di system in place, also a tunze auto top-off (which is totally awesome!!) about 240lb of live rock ... live sand a couple inches thick ... some snails and hermit crabs .. and one lovely red fire shrimp!!! that's it for now ... any advice as to how we know when we are ready for fish? do we continually water test, watch the nitrites rise and fall, and watch the nitrates rise?? and just keep changing water to lower ammonia?? or is that how we know we are actually ready for fish is when the ammonia & nitrites are at zero? ... it all seemed so much easier when our advice consisted of dumping in some of this & some of that!! presto ... wave magic wand and add fish!!! hahahahaha

 

[d2mini]

Sounds like they set you up well, equipment wise!

I think one of the articles goes into more detail on the cycle but normally you should see an ammonia spike and then nitrates. The ammonia should settle down first and eventually disappear. Nitrates should come down but may never zero out. My tank is well over a year old and i always have nitrates at around 4ppm. I properly cycled and well maintained tank should never see ammonia. And honestly, i never test for nitrites.