Cycling

[reefsforme]

I restarted my 6 gallon nano cube, It has live rock, live sand, 1 blue legged hermit crab, 1 red scarlet reef hermit crab, 1 nerite snail, 1 nausarius snail, and a hawaiian feather duster. It's been on for 1 whole month. The rock is starting to get some nice purplish, redish, and greenish color. How much longer should I cycle before I get corals?

Parameters:
Specific Gravity : 1.024
Amonia : 0ppm
Nitrates : 0ppm
Nitires : 0ppm
pH : 8.2

 

[HN1]

It appears cycled to me. What corals interest you? What lighting? I think it's time to add a frag or two.

 

[reefsforme]

The ights are the ones that come built in it, its a flourecent 50/50 compact light fixture. I am hoping to get some zoos, red or blue mushroom, a toadstool coral, and a star polyp. What would you suggest, and how would you suggest placing them, in the rock crevics, or using epoxy on rock?

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

You say you "restarted" it... does that mean the tank was empty to start with? Dry rock? Not sure what restarting means in your situation - if you were starting with wet, cured live rock, or dead dry not-so-live rock.

Your parameters are all zeroes, but did you ever do anything to kick off a cycle? With no ammonia to start with, your ammonia/nitrites/nitrates will stay at zero for eternity... so those numbers alone don't really mean anything without knowing how they got there.

Gotta have an ammonia source to start a cycle... either from die off from live rock, the cocktail shrimp method, fish food, or (eek!) fish in the tank.

 

[HN1]

Good point Kurt. I missed the restarted part. Assuming it was cured LR or an ammonia source was added, it's cycled. Otherwise you may need to cycle. If you are cycled, I'd suggest picking one of those you listed and just placing them into crevices for now so that you can evaluate their placement and move if needed.

 

[reefsforme]

By restarting it, I meant that i took the liv rock into a different aquarium, cleaned this one out, due to all my live stock died, and restarted the whole reef processes, as putting in new sand, and i put in the rock there. I usd bio enzyme, and that helped alot with cycling. The amonia first week was high, but then second week, nitrates were high, 3rd week nitrites were high and 4th week, all parameters 0, and 5th week all parameters 0.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Ahhh... OK. Then yeah, you're cycled. No reason to let it go any longer. Personally, I'd add one SMALL fish (assuming you want fish in it!) first and wait a couple months before adding corals. That will give your bacteria a source of ammonia and you won't have to "feed" your tank just to keep the ammonia alive. If you're going for a fishless tank, then you can probably add corals anytime you'd like!

 

[reefsforme]

I would like some fish, what kind of fish would you recomend, i am thinking of a watchman goby or damsel, or somewhat.

 

[reefsforme]

I dont have to quarantene the fish, right?

 

[HN1]

The first fish doesn't need to be QT'd. I'd avoid the damsel and go with a goby in that size. You could get a shrimp goby and shrimp to pair them up. Their behaviors are extremely interesting IMO.

 

[reefsforme]

Any other suggestions on fish?

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

The first fish doesn't need to be QT'd....

Why not?

I mean... sure, it's not going to get any other fish sick. But if it comes down with ich, your main now has it. And if it comes down with anything you want to treat with meds, you don't want to treat the main tank with meds. In a quarantine tank, your main tank stays free from disease and you can easily treat any illness that may crop up.

Regarding type of fish... look on the liveaquaria.com site under their "nano" fish. You have a few to choose from, but don't think you can put a tang or dwarf angel in there! Firefish and gobies come to mind.

 

[reefsforme]

Any suggestions on fish?