My cat & I

[huma-huma]

You're not gonna see a spike in all three at once, more than likely you will see a spike in ammonia, then later on a spike in trates. Don't worry about any mistakes you make we all do it. Best thing you can do is learn and ask questions..it'll save your fish a lot of stress now in terms of cycling, you could remove the inverts and put them in a separate container while you cycle (as I previously mentioned) and if you have enough room, the same for the damsels. Upside to this is you'll avoid putting your waterfriends through any cycling spikes, downside is its a couple seperate containers and a lil more physical labor. Orrr you could simply nurse the tank as a whole through cycling, this would entail obsessvie parameter testing and more than frequent pwc's ......I would suggest removing them to cycle but if you can't, go the second route

 

[amosora]

You're definitley heading in the right direction!
Chin up and keep strong, ask plenty of questions!

Thanks for uplifting my spirit anyways, i'm still positive that we (fishes, inverts, & i) can make it through without casualty. Coz i can't take that they will soon be soo shocked due to cycling. As of now, whenever they see me, they jump out of their caves to meet me xcept for the nassarius & turbo lol

 

[amosora]

You're not gonna see a spike in all three at once, more than likely you will see a spike in ammonia, then later on a spike in trates. Don't worry about any mistakes you make we all do it. Best thing you can do is learn and ask questions..it'll save your fish a lot of stress now in terms of cycling, you could remove the inverts and put them in a separate container while you cycle (as I previously mentioned) and if you have enough room, the same for the damsels. Upside to this is you'll avoid putting your waterfriends through any cycling spikes, downside is its a couple seperate containers and a lil more physical labor. Orrr you could simply nurse the tank as a whole through cycling, this would entail obsessvie parameter testing and more than frequent pwc's ......I would suggest removing them to cycle but if you can't, go the second route

Mmmmm.... This is a good suggestion. Is it not nessesary that the QT be cycled also?
If so, I try to catch them. But if they don't want, i'll nurse thier tank very diligently.

 

[huma-huma]

If you split them up, and only if you can. Because other than the damsels, the inverts and such don't have but a tiny bio-load, therefore it shouldn't start a cycle in a qt. Once main tank is cycled, you can then acclimate and add everyone back in

 

[thominil]

Yikes, sorry inmate, looking back I think my posts may have beed a tad rude. What test kit are you using? If the tank has been set up that long with damsels in there for the majority of the time, you should be seeing something such as nitrates at the very least. Anyone else think so?

 

[SHARPiE]

You should be seeing some nitrates if you have live rock in there. My cycle with live rock only took a week... Others have experienced 2+ month cycles.

I had a bit of die off when I first added my rock in and only saw trace amounts of ammonia and nitrite and then they were gone and replaced with nitrates.

 

[ReefPhan_Harpua]

How much live rock did you put in?
It is entirely possible that if you have one and a half to two lbs. of rock and some of it was live to start with you avoided the cycle if you had all your equipment circulating and filtering the water.Many people will disagree but my 75 gallon was set up that way with deep sand bed with a little seeded sand and 130 lbs of base rock and 35 live rock.Ran all equipment for three weeks with no lights and then one week with lights.It does work.I would just add a couple corals and fish and keep a check a few days to be sure.

Same here. Been doing it that way for years and never had a problem. I'd never heard of the dead shrimp method until I joined these forums. I guess I haven't heard of a lot of things though. Just one of those things that makes me go...huh?

 

[amosora]

Yikes, sorry inmate, looking back I think my posts may have beed a tad rude. What test kit are you using? If the tank has been set up that long with damsels in there for the majority of the time, you should be seeing something such as nitrates at the very least. Anyone else think so?

Using Api marine test kit. I'll post a pic of my test tomorrow. I

 

[amosora]

You should be seeing some nitrates if you have live rock in there. My cycle with live rock only took a week... Others have experienced 2+ month cycles.

I had a bit of die off when I first added my rock in and only saw trace amounts of ammonia and nitrite and then they were gone and replaced with nitrates.

Yap that part i know i should be seing nitrate atleast but there was none as in 0. Now i'm growing small plants not moss or algae but plants. Such a weird start.

 

[SHARPiE]

The sign of algae means there is nitrate in there for them to feed off. There may only be traces of nitrates but they aren't appearing on your test as the aglae consumes it before it's present.

 

[amosora]

The sign of algae means there is nitrate in there for them to feed off. There may only be traces of nitrates but they aren't appearing on your test as the aglae consumes it before it's present.

Is it a bad or good news?

 

[SHARPiE]

I'd say it's good news!
Your cycle is underway!

 

[amosora]

Here are my parameters as of yesterday evening the one w/0 the chart card is the phospate. Is my tank safe? Anyways i change water 15gal of water every day, but i dont touch the sand nor the crushed corals in the subtank.
Do you want to know what i have inside my tank.... I guess you'll kill me for having so much in a 1 month & 1 week tank.

 

[huma-huma]

I hate blackberries!!! I can't read a single one of those lol. Anyways what's the exact numbers?

 

[amosora]

Ph 8.8, ammo 0, trates 0, trites0, still wondering why do i get 0 while i have algae. Guess sharpie was right, the bacteria done their job before the result appear. Just a weird tank, just like me

 

[huma-huma]

Yeah that's strange, and wow a ph of 8.8? That's a tad high isn't it?

 

[amosora]

Yes i know but it is stable though, since i set it up it was always like that. do u have something in mind to lower it down. Thanks in advance.

 

[thominil]

Leave your pH where it is at. Adding chemicals to play with parameters can cause more problems both short and long term than they will solve. A stable pH is better than one that is constantly changing due to inconsistent amounts of buffers.

You are fine listing what you have in your tank, no one will bash you for it. If you stocked too quickly, big deal, we all make mistakes at one point or another. We, as a community, are here to help each other overcome these mistakes as quickly and easily as possible.

 

[amosora]

So here are my live stocks. 2 urchin, 10 nazzarius snails, 10 turbosnails, 1 hermit, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 fire shimp, 3 feathr duster, 1 clam. 1 anemone (green), 6 kinds of corals (small cut), 1 clown fish, 2 damsels (neon velvet, bowtie), 1 chromis, 2 tangs, 1 dottyback, 1 blenny, & 1 dartfish. All in small sizes just 1 medium size (tang). Don't worry they live in peace & harmony. I got scientific when it comes to the tang. Installed 1 wave maker good for tank twice as mine & 2 regular. And they love swimming in front of the wave maker.

 

[huma-huma]

Def don't wanna try lowering, because it'll cause swings, was just a lil shocked by the number. And that's an impressive stock list is that a blue hippo tang I see in the last pic? If so, I'd plan on eventually getting a bigger tank or possibly returning him, the hippo can get massive and needs a ton of swimming space. I just can't remember off the top of my head your specific size tank