togitnj
New Member
Two days ago, I removed about 99% of the water from a 3-year-old system that I inhereted and replaced it all.
There was nothing in the system anymore but about 150 pounds of live rock, a 2" sand bed, 2 tangs, a pajama cardinal, and a couple mushrooms. Everything else had long since died off.
I made new water with an RO unit and Coralife salt, heated and aerated in giant buckets before being added to the tank. The fish got moved to a sick tank, as did the few pieces of coral. The live rock and every tank surface was covered in slime algae, which I removed.
Unfortunately, my "30 gallon buckets" weren't 30 gallons, and I was short about 30 gallons for being able to use the tank's filtration system, so the live rock was stored in unheated and unaerated buckets for 2 days, and the live sand bed sat in about 50 gallons of unheated and unareated water for the same time period.
Once the tank was full, I replaced all the live rock and let the tank run for two days before moving the three fish back in. At first the water was absolutely pristine in every way, though it's got more Calcium than it should (I've never had that cause a problem, though). Yesterday, the ammonia went up to .5 ppm, which isn't exactly what I would call a "spike." Today, it's back down to about .2 ppm. Is it possible, given the unique nature of the tank's setup, that that's all the cycling it's going to do? I wasn't sure it would cycle at all, what with all the live rock and live sand simply being cleaned off in tank water and returned to the system, though there are 120 gallons of new water to consider. I want to take the corals out of the 10 gallon sick tank they're in now and put them back in the main tank, and I also want to buy a cleanup crew, but I want to make sure the tank either doesn't cycle or completes its cycle first.
Anyone have a similar experience who could tell me if I should anticipate a real cycle or if the mini-cycle is all I'm going to see (or none at all)?
Thanks!
Racje;
There was nothing in the system anymore but about 150 pounds of live rock, a 2" sand bed, 2 tangs, a pajama cardinal, and a couple mushrooms. Everything else had long since died off.
I made new water with an RO unit and Coralife salt, heated and aerated in giant buckets before being added to the tank. The fish got moved to a sick tank, as did the few pieces of coral. The live rock and every tank surface was covered in slime algae, which I removed.
Unfortunately, my "30 gallon buckets" weren't 30 gallons, and I was short about 30 gallons for being able to use the tank's filtration system, so the live rock was stored in unheated and unaerated buckets for 2 days, and the live sand bed sat in about 50 gallons of unheated and unareated water for the same time period.
Once the tank was full, I replaced all the live rock and let the tank run for two days before moving the three fish back in. At first the water was absolutely pristine in every way, though it's got more Calcium than it should (I've never had that cause a problem, though). Yesterday, the ammonia went up to .5 ppm, which isn't exactly what I would call a "spike." Today, it's back down to about .2 ppm. Is it possible, given the unique nature of the tank's setup, that that's all the cycling it's going to do? I wasn't sure it would cycle at all, what with all the live rock and live sand simply being cleaned off in tank water and returned to the system, though there are 120 gallons of new water to consider. I want to take the corals out of the 10 gallon sick tank they're in now and put them back in the main tank, and I also want to buy a cleanup crew, but I want to make sure the tank either doesn't cycle or completes its cycle first.
Anyone have a similar experience who could tell me if I should anticipate a real cycle or if the mini-cycle is all I'm going to see (or none at all)?
Thanks!
Racje;
