Ok yea pry a no on the seahorses lol but anyway got another 5gal of water today and mixed in my salt... got the salinity upto 1.022, what do y'all think about that? Tomorrow believe I'm going to get another 5 gal and a base rock so I can start getting the cycling process going... then after a week get a live rock and some inverts?? Someone tell me my schedule is on target or what needs to be changed about it plz and thank you!
Saltwater Startup Advice Plz
- Thread starter SC350Z
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Crystal A
Aquarium Advice Addict
Get a test kit. You don't want to add livestock till after the cycle is complete. In order to see this you will have to test the water.
spoonman
Aquarium Advice Addict
No inverts or any other living thing until the cycle is over!! It will die!!
carey
Aquarium Advice Addict
Yep, nothing alive goes into the tank until it's fully cycled. 
No pods, snails or crabs. :-(
No pods, snails or crabs. :-(
carey
Aquarium Advice Addict
Live rock should be in the tank from the beginning. It has beneficial bacteria on it already so it will help with the cycle. The rock can take the ammonia spikes much better than critters can.
Crystal A
Aquarium Advice Addict
Not nessisarily. You want to put on all the live rock at the beginning, 1pound per gallon, then you put in a raw shrimp from the grocery store. The decaying shrimp will start the amonnia cycle. You put the live rock in at the begging so that any die off will happen when there is no livestock in the tank. The die off can start mini cycles which is stressful to fish.
Crystal A
Aquarium Advice Addict
Carey you type faster then I do! Lol
carey
Aquarium Advice Addict
lol. sorry. hehe...just lending a hand!
Crystal A
Aquarium Advice Addict
Yup we are defiantly on the sme page.
Ok so I got a big base rock and 2 live rocks and a coral skeleton (for free totally awesome!) Its very cloudy again... I filled it up all the way now and have the filter running so we'll see what happens but like for real the water has this weird swirly look to it whenever I move it around I feel like there's way to much salt in it or something but yet I'm reading very low salinity so I dumped some more salt in and swirled it around and it barely went up I've done that like 5 times now finally upto 1.020... any thoughts... what do you think of the scape?
Ingy
Aquarium Advice Addict
I don't remember what tester you have for salinity, but if it's a needle hydro, don't trust it. Get it tested at the LFS.
Using instant ocean salt you should need 2.5 cups to raise 25 gal from 1.02 to 1.025.
Cloudiness should go away as cycle works thru. BB will help the very fine particles stick into you sand bottom.
Using instant ocean salt you should need 2.5 cups to raise 25 gal from 1.02 to 1.025.
Cloudiness should go away as cycle works thru. BB will help the very fine particles stick into you sand bottom.
Ok so I went to go drag racing but it got cancelled due to rain so I come back and turn the light on and wow! The filter and 3hrs time did alot! Put in more salt and got the salinity upto 1.023 (thanks Ingy for the calculation it helped out) now since only rock is in there to help it become more colorful and grow more. Everything seems good so far now to goto the PetSmart and get the test kit tomorrow so I can start logging the cycle process... here's a pic after I mixed in more salt so not quite as clear as before but very good compared to before!
Attachments
Day 2 of testing:
pH: still 8.0
Ammonia: 0.5
Nitrite: 0.0
Nitrate: 9.0
Salt Hydrometer: 1.023-1.024
So Nitrate went up and so did ammonia but no nitrites yet.... Is this normal for cycling? Day 2 of testing, day 3 of base rock and live rock, day 4 of sand and water.
ALSO!!!! Noticed a Brittle Seastar growing on one of the live rocks!!!! Awesome!!!
What should I do about the pH level?
pH: still 8.0
Ammonia: 0.5
Nitrite: 0.0
Nitrate: 9.0
Salt Hydrometer: 1.023-1.024
So Nitrate went up and so did ammonia but no nitrites yet.... Is this normal for cycling? Day 2 of testing, day 3 of base rock and live rock, day 4 of sand and water.
ALSO!!!! Noticed a Brittle Seastar growing on one of the live rocks!!!! Awesome!!!
What should I do about the pH level?
Joe5688
Aquarium Advice Freak
SC350Z said:
when did u check the Ph? Apparently if the lights are off and u test before they come on the Ph will be a little lower. Check after they have been on for a while.
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