NewB Intro and Break-in Cycle Status

[EdReefer]

Hi guys,
After doing a hell of a lot of research for weeks, I decided to startup a new saltwater tank. Here's my equipment:
-135 Gal Glass Tank, stand, and canopy
-2 in-tank in-sump filters, each 480 gph
-2 250 watt stealth pro heaters
-Seaclone 100 protein skimmer
-Coralife Lunar Aqualight 72"- 2X96 watt actinic; 2X96 watt 10K

Here's my livestock:
-100lbs (apprx) live sand (3" bed)
-120lbs tonga live rock, cured
-8 damsels
-12 red leg hermit crabs

History: Mixed salt and water, added sand on May 3rd. Added live rock and 3 damsels May 7. Added Nitromax nitrifying bacteria as well. 1 damsel died May 10. Added 5 green chromis on the 17th. Added 12 hermit crabs on the 21st. 1 green chromis died the 22nd. 1 green chromis died the 23rd. Tank has been blooming with the brown algae since about the 10th or so. I've taking readings using the quick dip tests, don't know how accurate they are, but they've shown my nitrate levels increasing in the last 5 days or so. Salinity is at 1.025. Temp is 78-79 deg.

Please correct a doubt I have: When my damsels have died, I've intentionally left them in the tank thinking it would introduce more ammonia sources to feed the nitrifying bacteria and help speed up the cycling process, so I've watched that first dead damsel decompose day after day. Today, I spoke with the local fish store guy and he urged me to remove the dead fish immediately, so I did. Do you guys think I did wrong?

I don't plan on adding any more fish or corals for at least another 2 weeks or so, unless I still notice any traces of nitrites and nitrates in the water. Am I on track?

Thanks for the awesome sources of info. Look forward to hearing your comments.

[Palting]

Heh-heh, you may just have ruffled a few feathers in this forum, EdReefer. Added fish same day as live rock. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Compounded that by adding more fish and inverts after the poor thing died, without a decent mourning period. Tsk, tsk again. And not even a royal flush burial, but watched him decomp instead :eek:. Oh, yeah. Are you using tap water rather than RO/DI, too?

Had to tease you there :). No matter. Welcome to the aquarium addiction!

If there were no other fish in the tank, it would have been OK to let dead things rot. BUT, there were other fish in there, and they were being suffocated by ammonia and nitrite spikes.

I would suggest catching the fish and inverts and give them back to the LFS for safekeeping until you finish your cycle. If you have any damsels left (I lost count), leave them with the LFS as they look pretty but are lousy tank mates in the long run.

If you do not want to do that, then do more frequent water changes to at least keep your nitrates below 20, nitrites below 0.3, ammonia at or close to zero, and hopefully no more fish will die. You are getting close to the end of the cycle, so it may just work.


Oh. And, slow things down. Waaaaaay down.

[mike_cmu04]

you need to slow down you are adding things way to fast you should not have any fish until the cycle is complete. The dead fish should be removed and you should take the fish back to the store until your cycle is done.

[EdReefer]

Thanks for the advice guys. And by the way, the damsels went in only for the break-in cycle, although I was planning on keeping the green chromis... And yes, I plan on taking it slow from here on. Especially since I have no choice... I'm broke now! About 2K easy so far!

[Ryno368]

no matter what anyone says AKA the LFS it is not nice to cycle fish, even if they are mean damsels lol.

just some advise don't cycle fish!

[Palting]

$2K? With what you've gotten so far, that's cheap!

Rather than fish or livestock, I suggest your next purchase should be an RO/DI unit and the associated plumbing. You can make a water tank out of a 55 gal garbage can to hold the water. These will save you a lot of hassle down the line. A close second, or even before the RO/DI unit, would be one or two circulation pumps, like Vortech or Koralia, to make sure the water circulates around your 120 lbs of live rock and 100 lbs live sand to avoid dead spots and potential source for a crash. Next up would be a refugium. Somewhere in there you should get a good testing kit. I would not bother with the saltwater type, but go straight for the reef type that comes with calcium and better phosphate, alk, and pH capability.

Once you've got those, the RO/DI unit, the circulation pumps, the refugium, the testing kit, then you can go to town on fish and corals.

You've made a good start with equipment, but lots more to spend on! :) . Welcome to the slippery slope of our addiction known as reefkeeping!!!

[EdReefer]

Yeah I was thinking about that RO/DI unit. Too bad I don't work for a RO manufacturer anymore, could've gotten it for free!

Here's some pics of my tank. One of them will show you the brown algae. I hope the pics show, this is the first time I upload some.

http://i342.photobucket.com/albums/o428/edwardromero/photo.jpg[/IMG]

http://i342.photobucket.com/albums/o428/edwardromero/photo2.jpg

[Palting]

Nice! Like your rock work.

The brown stuff are diatoms, a lower kind of vegetation than algae. By the looks of things, you're well on your way to completing the cycle. It seems like your remaining fish just may survive the cycling ordeal, you meanie :)

[notjhh]

Good luck getting the damsels out of your tank.

[Reefir]

any atemp and money spent is worth a good lesson learned good or bad . keep going and find things out the hard way . you will never forget tragedy .