cycling

[jester]

I have fish only with live rock my tank apparintly never cycled all the way so i am cycling it now with 1 damsel he is mean and attacks my other fish my other fish are in the qt my tank has been cycling for 5 weeks and still no nitrites any idea on why this can be my tank is covered in alge and the sand has turned all brown and green the amonia is still very high someone please help me thank you Jester
oh ya i have a wet dry with the bio media still in i a uv sterilizer and a protien skimmer not pluged in

 

[excited_newby]

Well first of all I would plug you protein skimmer in for sure. Since proteins break down into ammonia, that very well could be your problem. If your tank has ben cycling for five weeks I would assume that you are probably should be done. And how about a cleaning crew for the agae and the sand. Do you have some snails, or shrimp?

I would suggest that first od all you turn your skimmer on, important for ammonia, and next start on some serious water changes. That should put you on the right road.

If there is anyone else with mre suggestions that would be great, cause I am definately not the expert.

HTH!

 

[jester]

is it safe to put my shrimp in there I have snails in there now but my shrimp are in my qt i dont want to lose themand i did plug my skimmer in

 

[excited_newby]

Allright, well I will leave the shrimp questions to the experts. Why id you have your skimmer off?

 

[quarryshark]

Yes definately do a couple water changes. Do you have any live rock?? That would help.

 

[excited_newby]

Yah he has 25 lbs of LR I think. He also has some live sand, but there rest is play sand. I assume that that is still true, it is just in his signature.

 

[jester]

yes that is all true i am getting more live rock soon probley another 25 pounds should i just do a 25% water change and see wat that does

 

[excited_newby]

That sounds very resonable. And keep doing them say every four day maybe until the problem levels decrease. Also what type of water are you using for water changes? I believe that RO/DI is the best, just try to avoid tap water, and if you do use it make suer that you treat it with some chlorine/chloromine stuff.

 

[jester]

yes i am using tap but i do use kordon amquel plus I let the water sit for a week before i use it i have lots of buckets will it still cycle if i change the water every 4 days thanks once again

 

[excited_newby]

I will leave this one to the pro's but I think that your tank will still cycle with water changed as long as you only do like a 30% change. I am not sure, but 5 weeks sounds like a really long time to cycle. Hope there are other that are more knowledgable but I would start the water changes and keep the skimmer running. BTW keep us updated on how it is looking. Did turning on the skimmer make any difference so far?

Good luck!

 

[jester]

I had to dump the skimmer once already i pluged it in lastnight and it was full today and i already changed the water lastnightit is a 60g and i changed 12g is that good im not good with math lol

 

[excited_newby]

Haha, I don't think that I would waste my time doing exactly 30% lol I remember when I was doing freshwater I would just eyeball about a third and that was good enough for me lol.

Wow a full cup in just a day, shows how much crap was floating around raising your ammonia levels. What kinda skimmer you got?

And also could you test the water and check out the levels to see if that ammonia is on its way down.

PS - that was a 20% change but I don't think that it matters...

 

[jester]

my amonia was at about 6 before the water change it was off the charts the skimmer was a costum one built into my wet/dry filter I will let yas know how it is comming alone

 

[excited_newby]

Alright, it's nice to see that it is coming down.

Keep us posted!

 

[Xhilr8]

Did you get any increase in nitrites or nitrates over the 5 weeks? Or did the levels remain at zero all the way through? I had a similar problem where the gravel was all brown and the water turned green...but correct me if I'm wrong, seems lik eyou have an algae bloom happening and you need to reduce the nutrients by reducing your feeding and siphon out any uneaten food from the substrate. Introducing algae eaters and hermit crabs are a definate help and its basically a "must" in helping to keep your algae levels lower.

Also try reducing your lighting to less hours per day until the algae is more managable. ANd check that your light tube has been replaced every 6-8 months as they lose their spectrum output and helps grow algae after a while