29G up and cycling!

saltymarine

saltymarine

Member
Well the nightmares have begun. I woke up this morning to a diatom outbreak and so I went through the usual testing procedures. For some reason my SG went through the roof in the matter of a week. I tested it last week using a refractometer and it was 1.027 I am sure I calibrated it properly and all was going well. I tested it this morning and it was 1.035 and I am sure it killed off anything in the LR. I was trying to figure out why the ammonia has stayed so high and I think I know now. I just did a 25% water change and retested it and it is still off the charts. I have not topped off any water or anything so now I am trying to figure out why there is a big disparity in the weeks time. I went and bought a hydrometer just to make sure that the refractometer was not faulty and they both tested close to the same. I have the salinity back down to 1.026 because I added 6 gallons of RO/DI water only. Now let's hope the rock isn't dead completely.
 
worrballer

worrballer

Member
Did you do any top offs thru the week or just leave it? 'Cause if you let it evaporate it'll raise the SG. Water evaps, salt doesn't.
Other than that I have no clue why it would go that high.
Your ammonia should settle down soon, I'd just do weekly 5 gallon water changes.
 
coastie5685

coastie5685

Member
if your using pre mixed sw from the lfs... then you shouldnt see a salinity spike if your doing correct water changes ( take 2 gallons out place 2 gallons right back in of same sw..
if your mixing your own then it ould be your mixing to much salt for the tank.
its cycling diatom and brown algae is going to cover the tank.... its normal. let diatom build up on glass.. i learned if u take sponge and do wipe by wipe from bottom to top of glass cleaning sponge every time youll get diatoms out of the tank instead of using magnet and just putting it back into water... keep doing 3 gallon water changes... add a fish... some say crewl but they will survive.. 2-3 weeks add fish.
 
hlcroghan

hlcroghan

Active Member
Honestly you do not need to add fish.......put in a dead shrimp and wait. Everything will be fine. The algae is normal. Look at it this way. You want the things that you put in your tank to have something to eat right?
 
saltymarine

saltymarine

Member
I definitely will not be adding anything until the cycle is completed. I have live rock and I am cycling with that. But thanks for the input............
 
saltymarine

saltymarine

Member
Well time for an update! The cycle is going well. I had a crazy fight with ammonia for about a week and now it is at 0 and now we are in the Nitrite phase. They are about 2.0 at the moment and I am hoping to get them down soon. I have been doing 25% water changes weekly and the diatoms outbreak has all but disappeared. SG is at 1.026 so all is well there as well. Trates are right around .25 at this time and I am hoping they will drop and soon as well. It has been about 2 1/2 weeks and so far so good!
 
monalisa

monalisa

Active Member
Very fun!! Don't forget to do the "flashlight dance" after lights out in the evening. That's a very fun part of starting up a new SW tank. You get to see all the little critters out and about from the live rock...copepods, bristleworms, sometimes a hitch hiker or 2. I love that part. After you add livestock, the flashlight dance is over out of respect for your inhabitants and their needing to rest.
Have a great time with this. And most of all, take your time with everything. It's worth it!!
Lisa
 
saltymarine

saltymarine

Member
Yes I agree about the flashlight thing. The bad part is that I have done it for the past couple of weeks and there is nothing but rock to look at. Unfortunately I don't think I have one single hitchhiker of any kind or at least not yet. I know that patience is important and I will take my time. Thank you for the input.
 
hlcroghan

hlcroghan

Active Member
Awesome!!! Looks great!! I am starting to wonder about a cycle myself to be honest......my tank has been up and running for over a week and there hasn't been any changes to the ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate........I have even been ghost feeding to get some bacterial changes but who know?? Plenty of algae though...LOL. How long was it before your ammonia started to rise?
 
saltymarine

saltymarine

Member
Do you have any live rock in there? If you don't start with a piece of shrimp and that should start the cycle. You did mention that you had algae so it sounds as if it is starting to cycle. What do you mean no changes for Ammonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates? What are they at currently? One of them should be out of whack and if it is then it is cycling. As soon as I added the LR the ammonia spiked and it took a week and two water changes to get it to 0. Some details about your tank would help.
 
hlcroghan

hlcroghan

Active Member
Sorry...I actually have a tank build thread on the nano site but here goes....
set it up on the 14th of feb, then added live rock that day. i prolly have about 20 pounds....it is a 29 gallon rectangle. I am gonna get about 10 more pounds but all the rock has been already cycled at my LFS and I got my new test kit on the 19th and the parameters have all been 0 from the start and my ph is about 8.4.......maybe it never needed to cycle?? I actually talked to them today about it and they said that it was very clean rock and that it was cycled for several weeks before they ever sold it to me.
 
saltymarine

saltymarine

Member
I would say that if you have gone that long and parmaters are still at 0 then the cycle if there was one is completed. I would say that you are done with the cycle portion. Did you buy it local and transport it in water? If so then that is why there was never a cycle. I wish I had the same opportunity it seems like months that this cycle has been going.
 
hlcroghan

hlcroghan

Active Member
Yep.....i talked to the lfs and that is what happened.........no cycle at all....I actually bought my first cuc last night. it is really neat to see some movement........my emerald crab is awesome. super active and scratches his hairy little legs like every five minutes while he's eating. funny as hell......lol.
I also got 3 astrea snails and 3 tricolor hermit crabs. I prolly need to get some extra shells for them to go into as they grow.
It does seem like it takes forever....grrrr. I was only cycling for like a week and a half and I was impatient.
 
saltymarine

saltymarine

Member
Ok just an update: The cycle is finally finished and I added two false percs to the tank the other day and I believe that one of them was hurt because he would go crazy and forget how to swim after the lights went out or were turned on. He acted like he would forget how to swim. Needless to say he finally kicked the bucket yesterday so I lost one of the fish.
Every thing else with the other one has been going fine.
Amm 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
PH 7.8
 
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