Cleaning tank before full cycle?

[inawe]

I've just restarted my 37g tank with dsb. Added fish food for last couple of days. It hasn't started it's cycle yet, so I wanted to get opinions before it did. The first time around my tank had begun to look pretty good, although the levels were high and the cc I had was horrid, so I took the advice of ONE person at my lfs, and vaccumed...changed about 30% of water. The tank then went into cycle AGAIN, and all went downhill from there. When I went back to lfs, ANOTHER person said..."you shouldn't have vaccumed...you got rid of a lot of your good bacteria". I did some terrible things to my tank...ie. cycled with fish and limited LR, added Biospira, used a lot of Ammolock IMO with few water changes...all at the advice of multiple LFS people. New beginning...fish relocated, dumped cc for sand, 25 lbs LR and 12 lbs base, added powerhead and skimmer, RO water instead of tap. Fish won't come back until all is safe. Questions - 1) When do I do my first water change? 2) When do I do my first vaccum, and how often should it be done? 3) I know the idea is to get good bacteria to grow, but where does it grow and what should I just leave alone when cleaning? 4) When I clean the tank, do I clean off algae from ph, heater, filter intake? 5) Filter is Eclipse with carbon filter and biowheel (

, but I didn't know any better). How often should the carbon filter be changed?
Thanks for any advice.
cc in tx

 

[hot883]

If you do not have water testing kits I would pick some up. especially nitrite, niTrate and ammonia. A level of ammonia will kill any beneficial bacteria in the rocks and live sand.
Do not vacumn the sand, IMO you will lose all the beneficial things in that area as that one person at the LFS told you.
You can put in a raw shrimp from the store for like a week and let it decompose. It will really get the cycle started for you.
I did only 1 water change and that was at the end of my cycle 3-4 weeks. I changed 30% or so.
I'm not familar with your type of filters so I will stear clear of those questions. Good luck and welcome. Barry

 

[saltn00b]

hereOriginally Posted by inawe
Questions - 1) When do I do my first water change?
after you have cycled, your ammo and trite should be zero with a good deal of trate. your do water changes most commonly for the purpose of removing trates.
2) When do I do my first vaccum, and how often should it be done?
dont vaccuum, not necessary
3) I know the idea is to get good bacteria to grow, but where does it grow and what should I just leave alone when cleaning?
it grows all over your LR and in your LS. there is no cleaning with SW tanks. the only thing you might want to do is scrape the front/side glass. i am guessing you are coming from a FW background, but SW is a seld contained ecosystem, so there is no need to clean in the same sense as FW.
4) When I clean the tank, do I clean off algae from ph, heater, filter intake?
see above. and no, the colored blotches of green and red and purple are coralline algae. they are very good to have in your tank and are signs of mature tanks. many people feel it helps those eyesores blend in as well.
5) Filter is Eclipse with carbon filter and biowheel (

, but I didn't know any better). How often should the carbon filter be changed?
carbon should be changed out about once a month.
Thanks for any advice.
cc in tx

 

[d0 thy d3w]

i agree..and also u should look into a skimmer unless u plan on getting more LR....skimmers arent 100percent needed but they are worth the money..mine pulls coffee colored gunk all the time!

 

[saltn00b]

you can wait around 4-6 months before getting a skimmer, but after that point i think its 100% necessary, as it is the only mechanical filtration in a LR system.

 

[inawe]

Do not vaccum...EVER? Water change from top of tank only?
Also, looking at the box my powerhead came in...it is a JBJ submersible SP 1800. All it tells me is for the the flow is about 100 L/H (i assume liters per hr?), with a lift of a little over 1.0 m (meters?). My tank is 37g, about 22 inches tall and 30 inches long. Is this enough, or do I need more? It is positioned about 1/2 way up the the back side on the right. This is also the side where my water comes back into the tank from the filter. My other option, obviously, is on the left side, next to the filter intake. Would that be a better choice? And is 1/2 way up (down) back wall ok? Any higher, I can't see it adding current to the bottom, but any lower makes my sand blow.

 

[saltn00b]

100 L/H must be a very small PH. a general rule of thumb , varying on what you may want to keep, is that your total turn over should be close to 15-25 times the volume of the tank for a healthy, and cyano / detritus -free tank. so in your case 550-925 GPH would be a good target. you can count return pumps and skimmer pumps in that equation but you want a large portion of that as 'active' flow in the DT.

 

[inawe]

I'm sorry...I said 100 L/H...meant 1000 L/H! So I guess that is ok? what about its position in the tank?