Cycling Question

[Mr Crabs]

I have a 75 gal tank. Put 90lbs of Carib Sea aragonite sand (Not live) last monday. I put 30lbs of Fiji LR in yesterday and I have 60lbs more lbs of gulf and keys on the way to go in early next week (wanted to wait to get it all to put in together but found a LFS with a great sale on the Fiji and couldnt resist). PH is low at 7.8 - 8.0 (hard to tell the color exactly) Ammonia is 8.0 Nitrite 5.0 and Nitrate is 40 just tested it now, about 24 hours after the live rock went in. The water color has a yellow tint to it now. Is this normal? If so why is it yellow? I saw several places that said you should not run AC while cycling. Is this correct? Am I jumping the gun since I only have 30lbs in there now? Should I wait to put in the rest of the live rock in a few days before actually calling it cycling, testing or putting in a PH buffer? TIA

 

[seaham358]

No, on the Ph buffer let the tank do its thing.... Not run AC? air conditioner?? Never heard of this...... so your gonna go 4 weeks w/out Ac if you start a tank in the summer.. NOT.
When you get the new stuff just dump it in and watch the cycle keep going and going.. If you leave it out of the water your just gonna have more die off. Having 30lbs of some what cured Lr may help out the new stuff.
Yellow??? could be from the die off , could be from the sand, just wait and see what happens.

 

[seafan]

I used to have a tank that was yellow. (It was caused by eggs being released into the water by bivalves. I don't think this is your problem.) Make sure your protein skimmer is working properly. Or you could try running a diatom filter for like an hour. Also sometimes kalk leaves orange residue. If none of this works then you're on your own.

 

[Atari]

lol seaham.. ac = activated carbon.

I think it's fine to use carbon BTW.. won't get much of a cycle with the LR anyway.