Unhappy customer...

[NoobieNemo]

The TBS rock is great, I'm very satisfied...... maybe I'm over reacting, I always read on here that all of you all go through good cycles...etc.etc....My ammonia is 0...Tank temp is apprx 80...salinity 1.024...algae all OVER the freakin' place...So I asked HD what to do, he told me to get a turkey baster and softly blast the algae, so I did, and I'm glad I did, because it worked, but on only one rock, when I blasted it, it sorta blew up, and it's pitch black underneath where it blew up...What do I do about that?Do I get it all out?not worry about it???

like I said before, ammonia is 0...but my nitrites are still high, plus 10 or something, I've done water changes like hell...Should I keep doing them?On the TBS letter it says just don't let the ammonia get over 1ppm, i've done that successfully...Ahhh I don't want to kill all this rock/money....

any recommendations would be appreciated...

My VHO 440w lighting is coming on tuesday...I built a canopy yesterday

30 lbs of live rock, 55 lbs of live sand...55 gallon tank

the little creaters that look circular and have little flagellates seem to be doing fine...so I'm sorta hopeful that that might be a good sign...

help...

-NoobieNemo

[kfra]

how long do you have your lights on? I gather that this is a new set up. You are going to go though some cycle's. Just be patient Cut back on your lights you really don't need much right now. Everything will come around take it slow.

[NoobieNemo]

what do I do about the black stuff???why won't the nitrites come down???is there anything I can do???

[hdtran]

I've never experienced nitrites as high as you have, but my advice is:

(1) Continue doing water changes until you get your nitrites to below 5ppm (or nearest reading to that with your test kit)
(2) Let the tank bacteria do their stuff once your nitrites are below 5ppm.

You may need to do a very drastic water change (e.g. 50%) to get reduction of pollutants.

I'm not concerned about tap water impurities at this stage for making change saltwater. Be sure to equilibrate temperature and salinity before doing the change. It's nice to always have some premade water on hand.

Algae is not bad, your cleanup crew in Part 2 will take care of them. They'll chow down on most of the algae.

Describe the black stuff better, please. Is it a film, or does it look like somebody scribbling on your rock with a black crayon, or ...?

[docklink]

If you haven't already, you may want to take a sample of your tank water to an LFS and have them test it to verify your A,N,N readings. It seems strange that you'ld have 0 Amm and high nitrites. FWIW

[nuts590]

sounds like a perfectly normal cycle to me... do some water changes to keep the nitrite under control.

As for the algae, it's not aesthetically pleasing, but it's mostly a good thing.. let the clean up crew worry about it when you get your 2nd shipment. Think of it as growing food for your live critters. :)

Ultimately if you're that worried about it, call TBS, I'm sure they will be glad to help!

just as a post script:
this will give you the short version of the nitrogen cycle:

http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html

[NoobieNemo]

I get my VHO lighting tomorrow, should I put it on?maybe 440w will make things happier?

[hdtran]

I personally would only do a few hours of full lighting per day. Once your cleanup crew is in, you can gradually increase from 'a few' to 10 hrs/day (1 hr/day increase until you're at 10 hrs/day).

[ttmitsu]

i had a whole rock the size of a cantalopre covered in green hair algea , one of those red crabs cleaned the entire thing off in a few hours. can the nitrites really get that high without the ammonia spiking extremely high?
are you using rodi water the system are only $63 on ebay you might as well buy one

[jeffbrig]

Originally posted by ttmitsu
can the nitrites really get that high without the ammonia spiking extremely high?


If you have enough ammonia-processing bacteria, but not enough nitrite-processing bacteria (2 different species), absolutely.

Think of it this way....you have enough bacteria to immediately process ammonia into nitrite. But you don't have enough of the other type converting nitrite to nitrate to keep up. Give it time...