Hello all. I'm new to the hobby and have read many threads by you folks which have been most helpful. I have a few questions that I'm sure you guys can answer and I'm sure can also provide some good feedback. Please don't hesitate on the constructive criticism, I am all ears.
So here are my issues. I have a new 29 gallon Coralife Biocube. I took out the bioballs and put in the intank media basket with filter floss on top, purigen in the middle chamber and chem elite in the bottom chamber.
My friend has a 200 gallon tank and he gave me his tank water to shorten my cycle time. I went and bought 25 lbs of live rock and added about an inch on the bottom of live sand and then added his water. I know there will be some type of cycle period regardless. I checked the parameters at that time and they all checked good but I did anticipate some changes for a cycle. It has been running for 3 days and since then the ammonia has went up a good amount, the nitrate has went up and the salinity is now down to 1.021. I noticed some evaporation yesterday so I used some distilled water to top off.
I do have about 2 gallons of salt water I picked up when I bought the live rock and sand. I'm wanting to be patient but also want to know that I'm not making any mistakes. I'm trying to find out if I should just let it sit and keep testing or should I do a simple water change with the salt water I picked up which is only about 2 gallons. Sorry for the lengthy post and thanks for the pointers. Also, is it ok to use distilled water for evaporation?
So here are my issues. I have a new 29 gallon Coralife Biocube. I took out the bioballs and put in the intank media basket with filter floss on top, purigen in the middle chamber and chem elite in the bottom chamber.
My friend has a 200 gallon tank and he gave me his tank water to shorten my cycle time. I went and bought 25 lbs of live rock and added about an inch on the bottom of live sand and then added his water. I know there will be some type of cycle period regardless. I checked the parameters at that time and they all checked good but I did anticipate some changes for a cycle. It has been running for 3 days and since then the ammonia has went up a good amount, the nitrate has went up and the salinity is now down to 1.021. I noticed some evaporation yesterday so I used some distilled water to top off.
I do have about 2 gallons of salt water I picked up when I bought the live rock and sand. I'm wanting to be patient but also want to know that I'm not making any mistakes. I'm trying to find out if I should just let it sit and keep testing or should I do a simple water change with the salt water I picked up which is only about 2 gallons. Sorry for the lengthy post and thanks for the pointers. Also, is it ok to use distilled water for evaporation?