Rachelle's 180 gal build

[Gti_Leo]

Some people say it doesn't matter if you run the skimmer or not, I'm in the other camp. I just can't see how removing proteins which become ammmonia nitrite and nitrate will help the process at all. I would shut it off and if your ammonia doesnt go up from that tomorrow add some shrimp or dose. If you want to dose Ill send you the equation to find out how much to use

it doesn't remove protiens, the skimmer removes desolved organics which i na way will be needed for you to cycle quickly because they will eventually start to decompose and turn into an ammonia source .


i'm currently cycling soem Lace rock in a buck in my basement. it has some sort of moldy fungusy moss type stuff on it so i'm using that as my ammonia source. its still currently in the depompsing stage and in the week its been cycling for it developed a nice stink to the water and i'm getting 1ppm of ammonia, not nitrites yet

 

[RandJ]

Today's test:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5

I've been all over town but no pure ammonia anywhere. Part of me thinks we may have only had a mini cycle since I brought part from established tanks and part from totes with powerhead, heater, and old filter media.

 

[carey]

That would be my first guess as well. It happened in 2 of my 3 tanks. I always like to err on the side of caution though. lol

Do you have an ace hardware store? Thats where I got mine from. or any other hardware type store? It's janitorial grade.

 

[hackteck]

you wouldnt have nitrates if you didnt have ammonia converting to nitrites

 

[Gti_Leo]

you can get cleaning ammonia from your local grocery store, and possibly homedepot also.

 

[carey]

cleaning ammonia is a no no. nothing can be added to the ammonia.

The nitrates came from her live rock die off, small as it was.

 

[hackteck]

wouldnt the die off have created ammonia as well?

 

[RandJ]

So do we think we are cycled here or no?

We don't have ace or true value here. We have lowes and everything they had has surfactant in it. Same with grocery. Well they had one with no surfactant but had perfume.

 

[hackteck]

just drop a shrimp from the grocery store in there that will create ammonia

 

[carey]

Then she has to wait days or weeks to be sure.

 

[hackteck]

if she cant find any locally what other alternative does she have lol

 

[RandJ]

I feel really good that we are cycled. I did everything I could to ensure a short cycle with the live rock transfer and such.

Do you think the nitrates are too low is that what makes you think I should go ahead and add the shrimp.

 

[carey]

With the size of your tank your nitrates would be low this early on i would think.

 

[RandJ]

I know you said 2 of your tanks cycled this way Carey. When you started adding fish etc how many did you add at a time? Did you do corals too or just fish and cuc?

 

[carey]

I always started with cuc. To be honest, I think with your established LR you probably only mini cycled. I waited usually 2 weeks and tested every day before adding anything else. I did get alot of hermits and snailsa t first too, I just fed the tank flake food for them. i also had live sand from established tanks so there was that i also had going for me.

 

[RandJ]

I had part of my sand in the totes with the rock. Ok I may just add some crabs and shrimp today. I'm debating starting with 2 small fish. I would think the bio load would be small for a tank that size and just watch real close to be extra careful.

 

[Henry405]

you could always sprinkle some fish food into the tank to test for ammonia tomorrow.

 

[RandJ]

So if I put in some fish food and tomorrow ammonia is still zero then that means bacteria is sufficient to handle it?

 

[Gti_Leo]

i doubt the fish food would decompose that fast but its possible. you could always add some cheapo converted molly's and see how they do. fresh water fish are more hardy then saltwater fish and will be able to take the ammonia spike if there is any a little better

 

[RandJ]

So unrelated to cycling but curious how long I should run each set of lights and in what combination. It has a built in timer just need to figure out how to set everything.