AdamHorton
Aquarium Advice FINatic
After something wrong with my 150G tank that killed nearly everything, it's about time to start over. I don't know exactly what happened before, but there's a thread...
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f16/problems-120791.html
...about it. I have five damsels left in a 20G quarantine tank, which is cycling right now. I have a couple of measurements from the quarantine tank:
5 fish placed in QT on Saturday 9/12 (then I went on vacation, so that's why no measurements)
Saturday 9/19:
Ammonia 2.5 ppm
Nitrite 0.2 ppm
Nitrate 8 ppm
Monday 9/21:
Ammonia 2.5 ppm
Nitrite 0.5 ppm
Nitrate 10 ppm
I had seeded the filter I'm using for the QT from my original display tank, so that leads me to believe that my display tank never cycled, or if it did, there was not enough load on the tank for it to really support anything. The fish in the QT are doing very well.
Anyways, since I have no idea what the problem could have been before, I want to be extra careful in setting up the DT again, and I have several questions:
1. I'm looking to buy a RO/DI unit. Does anyone have any suggestions on what is a good brand or certain type?
2. How should I clean the tank, the sand, and the 100 lbs live rock so that I can be certain that whatever caused the problem before won't still be there? If that means killing off the LR and the sand, that's fine, but I'm not sure what the safest way is...
3. For this next run, I want to use LR for filtration, and get rid of the bio-balls in my old wet-dry filter (but keep the mechanical filtration part and use it for a refugium). Maybe there are articles about this, but what all will I need to cycle a 150G tank with uncured LR? I'd like to have about 250 lbs of LR total, along with about of 75 lbs of sand that I already have. What else should I have for the cycling process?
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f16/problems-120791.html
...about it. I have five damsels left in a 20G quarantine tank, which is cycling right now. I have a couple of measurements from the quarantine tank:
5 fish placed in QT on Saturday 9/12 (then I went on vacation, so that's why no measurements)
Saturday 9/19:
Ammonia 2.5 ppm
Nitrite 0.2 ppm
Nitrate 8 ppm
Monday 9/21:
Ammonia 2.5 ppm
Nitrite 0.5 ppm
Nitrate 10 ppm
I had seeded the filter I'm using for the QT from my original display tank, so that leads me to believe that my display tank never cycled, or if it did, there was not enough load on the tank for it to really support anything. The fish in the QT are doing very well.
Anyways, since I have no idea what the problem could have been before, I want to be extra careful in setting up the DT again, and I have several questions:
1. I'm looking to buy a RO/DI unit. Does anyone have any suggestions on what is a good brand or certain type?
2. How should I clean the tank, the sand, and the 100 lbs live rock so that I can be certain that whatever caused the problem before won't still be there? If that means killing off the LR and the sand, that's fine, but I'm not sure what the safest way is...
3. For this next run, I want to use LR for filtration, and get rid of the bio-balls in my old wet-dry filter (but keep the mechanical filtration part and use it for a refugium). Maybe there are articles about this, but what all will I need to cycle a 150G tank with uncured LR? I'd like to have about 250 lbs of LR total, along with about of 75 lbs of sand that I already have. What else should I have for the cycling process?