Cleaning and Water Changes During Cycle

[salvatore]

The LFS said to leave the tank completely alone during the cycle (except for topping off for evaporation).
The water in the sump is starting to look pretty loaded down with something; there's alot of 'stuff' on its surface.
Ive been testing the water on a regular basis, and last night the levels were:
pH - 8.2
ammonia - 2.0
nitrite - 0.25
nitrate - 0.0
(This is day eight of the cycle)
Im not trying to rush anything, just making sure I dont need to do anything to it until after the cycle completes. No washing the media? No water changes? The live rock, invertebrates, and damsels all appear fine.
Pictures of the setup and inhabitants are on the web site in my signature.
Thanks.

 

[fishymissy]

I am absolutely stunned that the LFS would suggest putting a starfish in a cycling tank. If it was me, I'd be looking for another store!!!
Since you have the starfish and all those poor fish in there, and you don't want to lose all the life on your rock, I would definitely do some water changes and bring the ammonia, nitrite levels down.
OR....you could take the starfish and fish back to the store and just let the tank finish cycling by itself....
This is just my opinion.......good luck......

 

[salvatore]

Interesting. You're the first one Ive spoken to that's mentioned that. Another board as well as a few friends mentioned the inverts would be fine.
The LFS did nix the shrimp idea this early due to cycling water conditions, and so far everything else is doing well. I expect the ammonia to have spiked and it should be on its way down now.

 

[pgreco]

I'm with fishy on this one. Eight days into the cycle, i would expect your levels to rise a bit more before they go down again. Changing some water would be fine espically of you are going to keep the inverts in the tank.

 

[sinner's girl]

question? if Salvatore does a water change won't that prolong or delay the cycle? or even interfear with the cycle completing?
The lfs was right on saying no water change during cycle, they were wrong in telling you to use damsels and inverts to cycle the tank. next time use a piece of dead shrimp from the store.
the fish and invert might live...I don't know what inverts you have so I can't say..

 

[ckkihei]

My tank has been up and running only since last December, so I'll be the first to admit I'm a "newbie", but I've got to add my 2 cents worth on cycling.......I set up my 55 ga tank with about 3" of ls and let it run for about 2 1/2 weeks. I then added 4 damsels and let the water cycle SLOWLY. From what I have learned from others as well as through my own mistakes NOTHING BEATS PATIENCE. Whenever I broke this cardinal rule I lost something. A common mistake is to rush the cycle and begin adding to the bio-load. Not wating long enough after adding something before adding anything else is a big no-no. I found out the hard way!! Adding fish can and will cause small spikes that the tank has to catch up with......I call them mini-cycles. If you try to rush it, these mini-cyles can end up crashing your tank. I would also suggest testing your water more frequently. I check mine every other day. It gives me the chance to respond quickly if something is amiss.
55 ga
Emporer 400 dual bio-wheel
UV sterilizer
3 - 4" ls
15 - 20 lbs lr
2 Sand Stars
2 Horseshoe Crabs
Banded Shrimp
Diamond Goby
Blue Damsel
Blue Fin Chromis
Royal Gramma
Dwarf Fuzzy Lion (aka Bumblebee Lion)
Purple Tip Anemone
Feather Duster
Engineer Goby

 

[fishymissy]

Doing water changes will not stop the cycle from completing. It might slow the cycling down, but it sure won't be by much. Maybe a couple of days at the most. What a water change will do though, is help the fish from sustaining permanent gill damage from the toxic ammonia, nitrite. It might even help the blue linkia starfish although I can't say so for sure, as everything I have ever read about linkias suggests they are very sensitive to water conditions. Water changes will also help all the inverts on that nice LR too!

 

[fshhub]

to answer the question, i would not do ANYTHING during the cycle, except as mentioned, top offs
next, i would not have any thing alive(especially inverts, and definitely ESPECIALLY a star fish) in a cycling tank, NOTHING AT ALL!
take the star to a safer location and let the cycle go on it's way
but if you can't return it then try and gain a non lethal balanced medium(do water changes), however my bet (sorry) is still against the star doing well

 

[kyarnkid]

Where did you get that colorful live rock, everywhere around here has dull looking rock <img src="graemlins//confused2.gif" border="0" alt="[confused2]" />

 

[salvatore]

The live rock is from a LFS named Aquatic Realm in Tallahassee, Florida. Nothing online for them, though.
As far as the stars go, how long before we see them doing poorly? They are all over the tank and seem fine (no discolourations or anything else visible).