My first Saltwater tank. Cycle question.

[watermydoing]

I have a 72 gall bow. On May 5th, I started a FOWLR tank, my first saltwater tank (Hence my Member name), I have 4 bags of live sand, roughly 80plbs of Live/Base rock. Let the tank run for a day. The next day I picked up the bio start liquid which would make the tank safe for Damsels. I added that along with 3 Damsels. Did my water testing prior to adding the Damsels. No Amonia and no Nitrates present. Water temp is 74deg, PH is 8.2. Nitrate at 0ppm. Salinity at 1.022. Performed a second water test 3 days later on May 8. All areas where pretty much the same except the Nitrate has risen from 0ppm to 5-10 ppm. Does this sound normal? I was expecting an amonia spike?

[chad316]

5-10 ppm nitrate is tolerable. You are probably going to get a lot of grief on RC for using fish to cycle...just a forewarning. As far as not seeing the ammonia spike, I am not sure. (still an amateur for the most part) I would reference the stickies (often) in the "new to the hobby" section.

[watermydoing]

Thanks Chad.
Appreciate the warning, that advice actually came from the owner of the Petstore.
I know there where 3 days in between my first initial test and my second test. I wonder if it's possible that somewhere in between I missed the ammonia and Nitrite spikes? Or if it's just gonna take a week or two to build up enough ammonia to start the cycle. I'll keep monitoring daily up until the weekend and see what happens.

[bellis31]

With that much live rock and live sand and the fact that you already have nitrates you may never see a cycle. Just keep watching for ammonia and or nitrites...

[Reeferz412]

You should not add fish when your tank is cycling. Especially Damsels. You put them alone in a nice 72 gallon tank and they quickly make territories. Now when you add another fish down the line, you will run into issues. They will terrorize your tank because they are simply defending their areas. On top of that, you should let the tank mature a bit, your parameters will be prone to change since the system is so new.

[chad316]

That was one thing I forgot to mention....I added yellowtail damsels as my first fish initially...like Reeferz said they terrorize everything (including themselves) once they establish territories, and they are pretty hard to catch. Green chromis are pretty hardy and not nearly as territorial.

[sponger0]

Well take this as some of the best advice you can get. Dont trust your local fish store. Ask reef central first.

Also, second piece of advice, be patient

[watermydoing]

Yes, i was warned about the damsels terrorizing issues, i was hoping to take them out prior to adding new fish if i can catch them. There is alot of room in the tank, so im hoping i can snatch em. But not seeing a cycle, thats a new one. I guess i will keep monitoring it. Im afraid if my nitrates continue to rise and i have to do a water change i might screw up the cycle if in fact i do see one. When topping off tank, should i use fresh water and put in sump rather than tank?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

FWIW, the nitrate may not be as high as you report if there is any substantial nitrite. A little nitrite can mislead some kits into reporting a lot of nitrate.

In either case, neither the nitrite nor the nitrate is worth worrying about right now. Only ammonia. :)

[Reeferz412]

Oh and I am sorry if I came off negative, I just saw first hand what damsels do (3 in my girlfriends 125 at the time) and they would jet through the holes of the LR and avert all nets. Basically, any LR structure she had, tumbled due to trying to catch these things. Damsels are awesome if you introduce them later on to a system with fish, but man they can cause problems. As for topping off an aquarium, It is best to pour into a sump, you do not want to pour the water on top of corals (personal experience/laziness dont do it).

[TjwBlake]

You can still do small waterchanges for the nitrates and it shouldnt affect the cycle. There are some people who actually do waterchanges during the cycle so I wouldn't worry about it, make sure your fish are happy at least.

And as said.. top offs in the sump

[watermydoing]

Thank you all soo much for all your input, I really appreciate it. I will keep you updated on how it's going. For now, I will stay patient, keep monitoring water params and see if I see any significant changes before adding anything. My other issue is, I would eventually like to at minimum, double the rock poundage in the tank. I couldn't afford to buy as much as I would have liked. So I was hoping to cycle the tank with what I had and then add more when the cycle has completed. But I thinking I would have to do that just as slow as I would if I were adding new livestock. And then not add any livestock until I was done adding the rock. Thoughts?? Chad, what did you wind up doing with your Yellow Tails?

[chad316]

I sold my yellow tails back to the LFS...I think the going rate is like 50% of retail. You might not have that option depending on the store.

[watermydoing]

Well, I meant, how did you get them out?
I actually was running a freshwater cichlid tank for 2 years prior to starting this tank and I got $107.00 store credit for 18 cichlids. That paid for my pump.:hmm2: