New to the Saltwater World

[Nicko86]

Hi everyone. I have 29g Oceanic Biocube with 30 pounds of live sand, 25 pounds of live rock, and is on its 3rd week of cycling. Everything has been going great it seems. Algae has died off and turned brown on the rocks and really hasn't been a problem for over a week now. I did find out today that I have hundreds of Amphipod's in my tank today and read that they should not pose any problems for me. Now here are my readings using the API and Red Sea test kits.

Salinity-1.025
Ammonia-0.10-0.15ppm (Almost Yellow/hint of green)
Nitrates-0
Nitrites-0
PH-8.2

Calcium-470 (I know a little high)
Magnesium-1400 (I know a little high)
Alkalinity-9.8

Now my ammonia has been staying around those levels for about a week now. I've been patient about it and just waiting for it to go away. I did expect the ammonia to officially drop by now but it's been locked in it seems. I've been making sure my skimmer has been staying clean and dumping the bi-product out everyday. Any idea's on why my ammonia levels haven't made any changes?

I use Tropic Marin Mersalz Pro-Reef Sea Salt for those who are wondering and I do want this tank to be a FOWLR.


Lights i'm using- Stock 10k florescent and blue actinic florescent light. 1 True Lumen Pro LED Strip Light 12k Diamond white LED and 1 12K White/453nm Actinic Blue.

 

[redsea]

From what I have heard, you really don't neeed to run your skimmer while cycling, maybe that is helping the problem.

What do you plan on stocking your tank with? Do you have any ideas yet? If not, I could offer some.

 

[Grizz]

I'd turn the skimmer off and let the ammo build to 4 ppm There's no need to use reef salts if your goin FOWLR reg sea salt will be fine

 

[Mrc8858]

Are you adding any ammonia to even cycle the tank or are the ammo readings just from die off

 

[Nicko86]

Well 2 weeks ago I had a really bad algae problem. That lime green algae was everywhere and it finally died off and my tank was cloudy for a day or so. It cleared up and I really haven't had any problems algae wise so I'm guessing it could of been from the die off. I have not been adding any ammonia to the tank cycle. Just been letting it do it's own thing since I already have live rock and sand in the tank. Now I was using a product which I'm sure you guys have heard of and possibly have used before and it's that seacham stability. I've stopped using it because I figured it was causing a lot of my algae problem. Should I continue using it or just keep allowing the tank to cycle?

Now I mentioned how I have Amphipod's in my tank. It honestly looks like I have thousands in my tank. Would their waste keep my ammonia levels up and not allow it to reach zero?


Redsea here is what I was planning on adding to the tank once it was done cycling.


Fish/Invertebrates
2 black clownfish
1 goby with snapping shrimp
1 Cleaner shrimp
1 Conch
2 Nassarius snail
5 Turbo snails


Reef wise
Devils hand
Brain coral
Lavender Mushroom
Hammer Corral (once tank is mature)
Frogspawn (once tank is mature)
Blue Acro (Way down the road)


With this tank I'm looking for a lot of different bright colors and movement to catch peoples eyes. Definitely know it's going to be a year or so before I even get close to what I want it to look like if my tank can handle it. Your opinions help also, I don't like losing money like everyone else so give me some feedback if I need it.

 

[Mrc8858]

Without adding more ammonia to the tank you BB has nothing to feed off of. You can do so by either dosing pure ammonia, dropping in shrimp or fish food, or fish in cycle hut it needs ammonia to cycle