Cycling question

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intranet

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jun 15, 2003
Messages
11
Location
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
I have a 30 gallon saltwater tank that I setup about 2-3 weeks ago. In the beginning I added Fritz-Zyme #9 after a couple of days, then about a week ago I added about 4 pounds of live rock and even more recently about the same of live sand.

Two or three days ago the ammonia and nitrite readings were literally off the chart, yesterday the ammonia read at .5 nitrite at 1 .. today ammonia is at .25 and nitrite is still at 1.

The ammonia has dropped dramatically, is that normal? I have noticed a brown "tint" to everything, and my lr is really live, could it be coming to the end of the cycle or did I mess up along the line?

Thanks :)

intranet
 
Sounds fine to me.

The brown is probably a diatom bloom due to the excessive level of nutriets.

Your cycle will be complete when ammonia AND nitrite are 0.0
 
There isn't much of the brown stuff, hardly enough to notice on anything but my lr, but the tank just seems to have a "tint" to it. if the ammonia stays down is it safe to add a fish or two? was thinking of starting of with some cleaners or something until I am more comfortable with the tank and am more sure of the cycle etc..
 
As long as there are detectible levels of ammonia and nitrite you should not add fish. Both are much more toxic to saltwater fish than freshwater.

Starfish are to delicate in my book to be the first item in a tank. Your best bet is to have the first addition to be a fish and once gain not add that until ammonia and nitrite are 0.00 on the test kit.
 
great, thanks for the advice. I thought some cleaners may help the tank out a bit ( its looking pretty rough since I haven't been doing water changes, cleaning the glass, etc.. ), but I will wait till both are gone. I guess the "dirty" look to the tank is making me impatient.

I'm really glad I asked, I probably would have started with cleaners.

much appreciated,
intranet
 
Putting in a clean up crew at the start after the ammonia is gone is fine. Just would not make that clean up crew include a starfish at this point.

Snails and hermits are fine to be added when no ammonia. Look around the site for some acclomation methods for inverts.
 
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