Benefical Bacterica

[madstyle1]

So refractometer reading was a little off ( it is now fixed) but my reading on salinity is high about 1.045.. will this affect my benefical bacteria? Im still in cycling stage

 

[melosu58]

I don't think so. How big is this tank? If it is over 55 gallons maybe take a gallon or two out and replace with FW.

 

[coralbandit]

Get your SG straight .
IMO you are not growing the bacteria you want (if any) at that level.
My reasoning is that freshwater(1.0) has different BB then Brackish water(1.009ish),and full marine yet another different set of bacteria (at 1.025).
So at 1.045 if you had bacteria I think you killed it and if you are trying to cycle the level is in no way helping you at all.
No reason IMO to adjust slowly beside accuracy.
Get your sg right.
How are you cycling?

 

[melosu58]

Per this report


Nitrifying Bacteria Facts


It says


Salinity

Freshwater nitrifying bacteria will grow in salinities ranging between 0 to 6 ppt (parts per thousand) (specific gravity between 1.0000-1.0038).
Saltwater nitrifying bacteria will grow in salinities ranging from 6 up to 44 ppt. (specific gravity between 1.0038-1.0329).
Adaptation to different salinities may involve a lag time of 1-3 days before exponential growth begins.

 

[madstyle1]

Yeah read up on that report after i posted the thread. I am currently fishless cycling. I threw in 4 jumbo raw shrimp. Im on my 3rd week of cycling. I also threw in some dr tims one and only. Im not in a rush here so i have lots of patients and i want to do it right. I want to make sure i have enough benefical bacterica and sg to be stable before i add anything.

Also i recalibrated my refractometer again by using arrowhead mountain spring water from the grocery store. Is that good enough? As far as recalibration. The manual said to use distilled water.

 

[madstyle1]

Btw its a 75 gallon tank

 

[Reefing Madness]

Refractometers should be calibrated using solution
Pond Testing Solution: American Marine Inc. 53.0 mS Calibration/Reference Fluid

 

[54seaweed]

when you remove a few gals of saltwater to replace with fresh it will take at-least 8 hrs to get another accurate reading , you may need to do this several times to get the proper salinity of 1.025 .

 

[madstyle1]

I will get the pm2 salinity module from neptune to get some better readings. At this point i just used rodi water to calibrate my salinity at 0.

After adding more freshwater im at 1.026 sg and 35 ppt now. I just hope i still have benefical bacteria still in my tank. Worst case ill add more nitrifying bacteria in my tank. Maybe do a 10% water change in two weeks.

 

[melosu58]

No 100% water change needed. Just gradually move it down. Maybe do a 1/4 change with water is low on salinity say 1.015. Than wait a while and test again.

 

[madstyle1]

Right on .. thanks everyone

 

[madstyle1]

Yeah ill check again when i get home from work.. its slowly going down, i just hope i still have some beneficial bacteria so i dont have to start all over

 

[madstyle1]

Update: i removed about two gallons worth of tank water and replaced it with fresh rodi water. Current reading is now 35 ppt @ 1.026.

I also added more beneficial bacteria to help more grow. ( sea chem stability)

 

[madstyle1]

Tank started to smell with some odor. Is this a good sign? Could it be just the raw shrimp I threw in?

 

[Sniperhank]

It's the shrimp decomposing.

 

[madstyle1]

OK update on the water test again.

Ammonia .50ppm
Nitrite 5.0ppm
Nitrate 20ppm

So if these go down or undetectable I should be good to go?

 

[melosu58]

You should be good to go slowly. Start off with two or three fish. Also the nitrates will not go to 0 in a new tank. It will take a mature tank to get your nitrates to 0. Ammonia and nitrites need to be at 0.

 

[madstyle1]

yeah i was aware of that. ill probably start my quarantine this week.