Bad Cycle

[alti]

its not a very big swing in salinity. how big is the tank and how often do you top off? how much do you top off?

 

[buzz]

I think you need 20 posts. You're almost there.

 

[mxracer572501]

its a 72g bow front i try not to put in to much water because it fills up in the fillter and i dont want it to cover more than half the balls so when it gets low i pour some in i have the level marked

 

[alti]

with a tank that size im surprised the sg moves at all with that little ammount of topoff water. my sg in my 90 never changes when i top off. what kind of hydrometer r u using?

 

[mxracer572501]

hey buzz whats up with the fish in your pic why are they allways in that stuff

 

[mxracer572501]

sea test full range gravity meter, it allso reads sallnlty ppt and gravity

 

[alti]

plasic with a swing arm, right? not the most accurate, so i would not worry about the shift in salinity.

 

[buzz]

In my avatar? That is a Bubble Tip Anemone that my Tomato Clown won't leave. He won't swim more than 6 inches away from it. That was taken when it was in my 29g. It is now in my 60g, and happy as can be.

 

[mxracer572501]

right now its above 1.024

 

[pirate_bob]

how do I go about lowering them with nothing in there... should I throw a couple of cleanup guys in there while i keep throwing food??

 

[mxracer572501]

thats weard how they wont leave that thing

 

[alti]

the hydrometer is bad, you are not using it right, or you dumped the salt in the tank when u mixed it instead of mixing it outside the tank.

 

[alti]

hey pirate bob,
you can lower your nitrate with water changes, but dont do one until you tank is fully cycled.

 

[buzz]

Bob, I just re-read your initial post. Are you regularly feeding an empty tank? If so, I would stop. You don't need to do that.
I agree with Alti on the addition of LR and LS. That will help.

 

[mxracer572501]

i put in liquid calcium and pro buffer dKH in every day do i need to do that it says to one the bottle i think its for the rock

 

[alti]

racer,
are you testing your calcium, ph and alk levels? if not, stop putting them in. dont dose anything unless you are testing the levels. you can throw your whole tank out of whack.

 

[pirate_bob]

what do you think feed it every other day,, or like once a week.. what will be the clue of the tank done being cycled??

 

[mxracer572501]

ya when i set up the tank i filled it with water then did the salt but with nothen else in yet so i mixed up all the salt and tell it all desolved then a couple hrs later we put in sand and rock

 

[mxracer572501]

ive tested the ammona and ph but thats it

 

[buzz]

If you have no fish in the tank, there is nothing to feed.
Don't feed anymore until you are through cycling. And the thought of adding calcium and buffer every day makes my skin crawl mxracer...I can only imagine what your levels are like right now. Test alkalinity and pH, and calcium.
Your tank is done cycling when ammonia and nitrites are 0, and nitrates are low.