2 weeks into cycle, need advice

[Thomsona]

Hey guys

I'm 2 weeks into my cycle with live rock, last couple days have noticed that my crushed coral base sand has got a orange tinge to it now and live rock has some aswell

All testing was going great
But last night nitrate and ph had spiked.

what should I do is this normal in cycling
Or do I need to change water or add something ?

Cheers
Andrew

 

[tjm80]

Everything I've read about the crushed coral substrate is bad. It does nothing for your biological filtration and collects dietrus. From what I've read, your nitrates will stay high with crushed coral.

 

[Thomsona]

What would u suggest then don't really want to start over

 

[tjm80]

I'm not the expert, I'm just getting mine cycled. But I would rather it be right from the start. If it were me I would scoop out as much of the crushed coral as possible and replace it with live sand. You have roughly a 40 gallon tank, so I would say about 35-40 lbs of live sand would do you good.

I would also consider ditching the canister filter and going with a sump. I started out with a 60 gal. aquarium with a canister filter. Then changed my mind and took down the 60 and returned it to the store (because I couldn't fit a sump in the stand) and started over with a 75 gallon and built my own stand. Just my opinion. But I think the crushed coral combined with the canister filter will mean uncontrollable nitrates.

 

[David S]

Diatoms,dont worry they will go as quickly as they appeared,just part of cycling a tank,is it crushed coral or sand you have?You can run a good tank with CC and a cannister as long as maintenance is kept up,but I would too reccommend replacing with sand if you have CC as your just cycling.

 

[Thomsona]

Ahh ok cheers for that

 

[newreefaddict]

I had the same problem and after two or three water changes i am really noticing that it is going away. I also got a cleanup crew in 3 weeks ago and that helps.

 

[Gti_Leo]

if you switch over from crushed coral to live sand you won't really need to cycle it and start over.
cycling is introducing an amonia source so that your live rock can creat its benificial bacteria so that it can do its filtering. as long as the LR is cycled if you decide to remove the CC and put sand that sand will eventually become live so there wuld be no worring