First saltwater tank

[Marco V]

Thanks Mr X .

 

[Marco V]

When should I do my first PWC ? Since my last test I've added 12 turbo snails and 2 ghost shrimp and today's test results are
PH 8.2
Ammonia .25pp
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10pp
Really do appreciate all the help.

 

[mr_X]

I would do one now. There should be no detectable ammonia in a cycled tank.

 

[Marco V]

Did a water change today , going test tomorrow .

 

[Marco V]

Just tested and I think I got ahead of myself. I added a candy cane and a montipora that a friend gave me but my test results were
Trite .25
Trate 10ppm
Ammonia .50
Ph 8.2

 

[Mr. rY]

Ur tank isnt cycled yet u shoudve waited. I would suggest to give it back for now until ur cycle is done. Just be patient. Dont do pwc until cycle is done, if u do, ur actually taking out some of the beneficial bacteria that converts ammon. To trite and trite into trates. So ur basically delaying the growth of ur benif. Bac if u do pwc.

 

[Supra]

He's doing fish in cycle, he needs to do lots of water changes
Supra

 

[Marco V]

Yea... I'm going to give them back . So your saying that with a "fish in cycle" I have to do more PWC's ? How often ? Thanks for the reply.

 

[Supra]

Everytime ammonia rises

 

[mr_X]

Do you still have 6 damsels in the tank? As far as I know fish in or fish out is the same- you have to let ammonia peak and then fall. The reason why people choose damsels to do this is that they are cheap, but also a little more resilient than other fish and can possibly survive the toxic ammonia.
I don't know if I would want to do water changes to lower ammonia levels if I was trying to establish a strong bacteria colony, though I've never cycled a tank this way.

 

[Marco V]

I'm actually down to 4 damsels , how often should I test ? Right now I'm testing once a week .

 

[Marco V]

I read on another thread that having a filter sock will lengthen the cycle , is this true ?

 

[mr_X]

No. I don't see how that would matter at all. Once a week is fine IMO.

 

[Marco V]

It's been a month now and here are my latest test results , how do they look?
Aquarium my tank parameters are:

Temperature: 80.8
Salinity: 1.025
Ammonia, NH4: 0
Nitrate, NO3: 20
Nitrite, NO2: 0
pH: 8.2
Alkalinity, KH: 9
Calcium, Ca: 360
Magnesium, Mg: 1,440

for date: June 6, 2012

 

[Jlsardina]

Looks good. Water change to get rid of the nitrates and then dose for calcium. You want it in the 420-450 range

 

[Readingexcalibur]

This was a lesson learned. You went threw allot to get this cycled properly. IMO, you would have been better to do a fish less cycle (future reference). Your water looks alright now, and even tho it was at the cost of life, I would say you can comfortably "restart" adding after a water change. If you use reef crystal, you won't need to dose calc.

 

[Marco V]

Yes it was a hard lesson learned , now I know for my next tank . Fish less cycle is definitely the way to go.i bought the bionic calcium, alkalinity and magnesium concentrate but I think I will till this weekend and do a water change before I start dosing . Of course if I do I'm going to ask first what's the best way to go about it. I have my RO/DI unit set up and I bought RED SEA salt . Is that salt good ?

 

[Jlsardina]

Yes it is. Just make sure to mix your water over night. Maybe do a 30% water change to drop those trates

 

[Marco V]

Should that be 30% of the DT or overall ?

 

[mr_X]

Do not does for calcium unless you are also buffering alkalinity. Adding calcium to the tank right now will lower the alk and you do not want that.
I agree with using a reef grade salt mix and not needing to dose much of anything. Having the calcium level at 360 is not going to hurt anything immediately. It will just slow the growth of coral skeletons. You can raise it slowly with weekly water changes if you like.