cycle questions.......is my LFS giving good advice?

[thepirate]

hi,

130 gallon tank
30 gallon sump

i have had my tank cycling with a shrimp for i week now. i introduced 40kg of live rock on day 2.

i did the tests on day 5 and they were:

ammonia .2
nitrite .3
PH 7.6

how long should it take for my ammonia and nitirte to peak, and at what sort of levels. also, my PH is really low, should i try to increase it now?

My LFS has told me that because i have put fully cured live rock in the tank will not go through a cycle. is he correct? he said that i can introduce fish and corals straight away, building the load up slowly.

the LFS is well established and well respected, they have a very good setup.

this is their theory:

day 1 - add water salt and let stabilize
day 3 - add fully cured live rock (lots of it)
day 6 - add corals
day 9 - add a couple of fish

then every month add a couple of fish slowly building up the biop load.

i'll do a couple more tests tonight day 7.

regards

Mark

 

[JPloman]

My LFS has told me that because i have put fully cured live rock in the tank will not go through a cycle. is he correct?

'Tis true. You did the shrimp thing though, so you will have a cycle.

day 1 - add water salt and let stabilize
day 3 - add fully cured live rock (lots of it)
day 6 - add corals
day 9 - add a couple of fish

I disagree with adding the coral. I would just skip day six and put day 9 in its place. You have a skimmer, thus you will not have a lot of waste, that is what corals eat. Add the fish first, make sure they are doing good, then in a month add the coral.

Keep in mind this is just my opinion. I am not an expert.

 

[EJS4]

Your pH should be 8.1 -8.4 so yes it needs to be raised. Do you have a glass cover over tank? If you do you need to open CO2 may be building up lowering pH.
Pretty sure your still cycling. Nitrite should be zero at end of cycle. dont rush it.
I would not put corals in first they require the best water quality. Snails & hermits are my first choice (cheap, clean algae and debris, low bioload).
Have you made a list of fish you want and checked compatibility. First fish should be most docile.

 

[runway1]

I too would add a cleaning crew first and wait a couple more weeks before anything else. Take the cover off. Your pH needs to stay above 8.0

I have a three month old setup and I learned from some mistakes. Even if your NO3's read 0, I'd wait two weeks after that to add fish. It was in that two week period, after all the bad stuff 0, that I lost several fish - one at a time.

I'm convinced that even when ammonia and nitrites read 0, that your tank still needs to mature before fish can thrive well. Now, I have chromis, clowns and blennies that love it. Several soft corals as well. Sure wish I'd waited those two weeks.

 

[runway1]

Correction; meant NO2's (nitites), not NO3's.

 

[thepirate]

thanks guys,

i'll take that advice at wait until everything has settled down. i've ran out of money anyway!!

how do i rasie the PH.

i brought the PH issue up in the shop and they said that becasue i had used RO to fill the tank most of the minerals had been removed. they said that i should add a mineral additive to the RO and this will bring my PH back up and also act as a buffer.

by the way i have used aragonite sand in my set up, will this affect it in any way?

once again cheers for the help.

mark

 

[badfish]

Your pH should be 8.1 -8.4 so yes it needs to be raised. Do you have a glass cover over tank? If you do you need to open CO2 may be building up lowering pH.

I too have a low PH of 7.9. My tank is 2 1/2 weeks into cycle and i have a glass canopy over my tank. Should i lift the cover for a certain amount of time a day? I have a cat so i need the glass canopy on, can i just lift it for a couple hours a day? If so how long? Anything else i should be doing

TIA.

 

[RMPD109]

Replace the glass with lighting eggcrate to allow for gas exchange. If you are still cycling I would not worry much as the pH is not stable through this time

said that i should add a mineral additive to the RO

Using a good salt mix will be adding the only things needed.

 

[thepirate]

i do not have the sump or the tank covered.

i use kent marine salt.

so, i don't need to add these mineral additives to my tank right now? i'm fed up with being told a load of old cobblers by shops.

so i shouldn't worry about my PH right now then.

cheers

mark

 

[Phyl]

I wouldn't worry about anything but watching the cycle at this stage. Your pH will go up and down (especially depending on where you are in the light cycle and how you're testing), your Alk and Ca will do some crazy flip flops until you're diatoms have come and gone. Waiting it out is the best course. If you're "not going to have a cycle" you'll know in a week or so anyway.

As for corals, I certainly wouldn't add corals knowing that the end of the cycle is all but sure to leave you with nitrates in the 30-40 range. That's the last thing that your corals want. I'd wait until after the major water change before adding them. The longer your tank has been up the more you'll know your tank and how often you need to do water changes in order to keep your trates in check.

Sounds like you're doing all the right things in *spite* of your LFS. Kudos to you!

 

[thepirate]

cheers for the help everyone.

well i took my another set of readings today (day 8)

nitrite - 0.1
amonia - 0.1
ph - 8.3
phosphates - 0 - 0.1
nitrate - less than 5

i'm not sure whats going on, the shrimp is decomposing well. i must have got the ph reading wrong before.

i think i'll monitor it for a couple more weeks.

i can see this hobby isn't going to be easy!!

mark