End of cycle + Questions

[Shilpan]

Here is my cycle graph for those of you who wanted to see it. I have indicated on the graph when live rock and chaeto and purigen where added and all graph conventions are as standard. Also just a note, my dead rock was curing in a bucket of rodi water only with no salt for 2 weeks prior to this. 500g of LR added total. Dead sand.

I have a few questions,

1) since my nitrate is 20ppm I don't need to do a water change before adding my first pair of clowns. Is this correct?

2) Is it better to add 2 juvenile occellaris clowns? Or a pre-mated pair? I am planning on having just these two fish in the tank for a month by themselves before adding any other fish.

Thank you kindly,

 

[one-fish]

Thanks ..That is interesting I had higher Amm. a longer duration before NO2 was present. NO2 still present and my N03 has been way lower. Thinking I have stalled somewhere did have a 8.0 PH briefly and did lose power due to the hurricane for days. Think I will hit up the LPS for some rubble and chaeto. Let ya know in a couple weeks..If ya haven't done a WC yet after cycling, it will give you a chance to work out that routine. Thanks Again for the graph...

 

[beaslbob]

looks like your chaeto is working and the spikes (except nitrate) have passed.

What may be happening now is the chaeto may be consuming ammonia for nitrogen (which it actually prefers for nitrogen).

An in that process the chaeto will not consume as much nitrates hence the nitrate "spike".

If that is the case, after a week or two you should notice nitrates dropping down as more and more ammonia is being consumed by the aerobic bacteria so the chaeto is forced to use nitrates for nitrogen.

(This is the stabilizing action of the chaeto. The same thing happens for ammonia bumps from say a dead fish, over feeding and other shocks to the system. Basically the chaeto caused the system to have a nitrate spike verses the dangerous ammonia spike)

Before you try the clowns, I recommend you try a single male molly. The $1.99 FW type. They can be acclimated to full marine and are much less expensive to test out the system. Just don't add food for the first week.

Once you get a molly to live for 3-4 weeks then try the clowns.

my .02

 

[Shilpan]

Ok thank you!
Oh it's a bit hard to see, but I added the caulerpa and chaeto AFTER the ammonia hit 0. Because I wanted to ensure I had enough bacteria eating it. Then I ghost fed.

And yeah well nitrates were 40-60ppm, but they came down to 20ppm over a week and a bit with macro

Oh and one fish, my rock cured for 2 weeks in anaerobic conditions, so I wonder if that allowed time for bacteria to develop. Or if they all died off when put in saltwater I don't know.

 

[2quills]

Bacteria can wax and wane rather quickly depending on available food source. It's a constant cycle of growth and death.

Some tests were done indicating that on the average system bacteria populations can rise and fall as much as 50% on a weekly basis and is normal.

 

[florida joe]

"my rock cured for 2 weeks in anaerobic conditions" how did you accomplish this

 

[Shilpan]

The bin was sealed, and no water flow. So nice stagnant water.

I have some oxygen test kits from an old science fair experiment and it dropped quite low after 4 days, not 0 though, I'm assuming from the aerobic bacteria using it all up.

But I must've just killed most of the bacteria when I transferred it to saltwater eh? The rapid change in conditions and such.

Oh another thing the water was cold. So less O2 as you know.

Basically horrible growth conditions, I was really just trying to get all the dead crap to fall off. In retrospect it would've been faster with a heater and powerhead and salt eh?