One Month In

[cmor1701d]

You do not want a circular flow in the tank. You want the power heads pointing at each other or across each other (X patthern) or at the front middle glass to create a chaotic water flow (not a singular direction, but from many directions).

Plastic plants will need to be removed and cleaned of algae often, as will that plastic structure. You would be better off with more rock. Base rock will do for now as it will become LR in no time at all.

[CluelessInNY]

I have a question. I was just wandering around the site and noticed a guy had just recently set up a micro system he bought in a box...a kit with everything, and it appeared to include even polyps and corals. Within a month, he's got about 4 fish, a loaded LR tank, inverts galore. If I'm reading the advice right from my book, I can have about 1 inch of fish per 4 gallons of tank. So I'm limited to maybe two fish in my tank! How is it that the guy with the bio-cube of 14 gallons has an entire zoo of fish, and I can only have two? And how did his cycle so quickly? It looks in less than a month, he's already done and flourishing? I'm confused.

New Oceanic BioCube 14gallon!!!

[Kurt_Nelson]

Don't be confused... just two different people going at it two different ways. I don't think that only after a month or two of a tank being up and running, anyone can say anything is "flourishing". It takes a while for things to go south. But when it does start, it can go in a hurry. However...

Looking at that post and reading between the lines, it sounds like the person started out with cured live rock. (Either that, or it was really expensive rock!) Starting out with enough precured rock can avoid a cycle because you have a lot of bacteria coming in with the rock to start with. In addition, they were doing a couple water changes a week. Those two things probably helped tremendously.

That's different from your scenario because you started out with minimal (if any?) live rock, and started your cycle with a damsel. So you had to keep doing water changes during the cycle to keep the ammonia/nitrite levels down to a bearable level for the fish. That prolongs things. Doing a fishless cycle allows you to just let the ammonia/nitrite do it's own thing and go as high as it wants, more or less.

Would I personally recommend to folks to start up a tank like that? No... but that's just me. I'm a slow, methodical type and while I'm not the most patient person in the world, I am with my tank because I just don't want to risk screwing it up. But you're right... that's a lot of fish in a 14g, and adding that many corals that quick before the water parameters have stabilized for a few months runs the risk that they might die if the water parameters start becoming an issue. But there's very few "right" answers in this hobby - just a lot of different ways to get there.

[CluelessInNY]

Thanks for clarifying Kurt. I'm so lost in this new hobby that I get frustrated by all my own questions. It's good to know you guys are here with the patience to guide me through. It's meant a lot. I was looking at some clowns and gobies today. I have to confess, the waiting here is the hardest thing about this whole process.
I want desperately to start my livestock experience

[cmor1701d]

I remember your frustation. When I was cycling my 125 I was getting desperate to add some life to it. I was instructed by the originators of this site to get a rubbie duckie if I had to have something in my tank before the cycle was complete

After a while I did start noticing some life in the tank on the LR. It's amazing what can survive the cycle, come back and flourish.

Patience my friend!

[CluelessInNY]

LOL! Waiting and waiting!
I tested this morning, and my Ammonia went up a bit, but my nitrites are now 0.0, and my nitrates are 2.5. I am going to do the 10% PWC I was usppose to do yesterday, tonight. I hope to have a fish swimming around in there in a about a week or two

[roka64]

Ammonia no nitrItes and nitrAtes? Have you tested your source water for ammonia?

[CluelessInNY]

Yeah, I was perplexed myself. I'm glad you caught that! I had almost zero ammonia for weeks and now I have a 0.50 again! No idea what has happened. I added LR and plastic plants. No idea what is casuing the ammonia.

[Kurt_Nelson]

Originally Posted by CluelessInNY

Yeah, I was perplexed myself. I'm glad you caught that! I had almost zero ammonia for weeks and now I have a 0.50 again! No idea what has happened. I added LR and plastic plants. No idea what is casuing the ammonia.

You added rock that wasn't cured fully. Expect to see a little spike each time you add rock that isn't fully cured. That's why folks suggest adding all the rock you want in one shot. Otherwise it just prolongs the cycle.

[CluelessInNY]

Thanks Kurt. The LFS guy swore it was "cured" rock....maybe it was semantics and I should've asked if it was "fully cured" LOL I'm not too upset. The ammonia didn't spike out of control, and the nitrIte and nitrAte is are both good to go. Just waiting on the ammonia to die down.