Looking for peoples opinions

[curtis12282]

Ok, first off my LFS is total crap; they jack up their prices ridiculously high and only offer advice that makes them money. They sell LR at my LFS but I had to ask 3 different employees before I could find anyone who could tell me if the LR they sold was cured or not. When I first decided to do saltwater I went in there and asked the people what I needed. They sent me home with a bag of LS some salt, LR, test kits and some damsels. Needless to say all the fish dies in 2-3 days and when I went back they just tried to sell me more fish. This is my tank setup:
55 gal Glass Tank
Hang on filter - 330gph
Prizm Protein Skimmer
2 300 gph Mini Power heads
2 inches of LS
1/5 of the tank is LR
4 Damsels
3 Turbo Snails
3 Hermit Crabs
3 Blue Leg Hermit Crabs
2 Emerald Crabs
Water Conditions:
QDS - Quick Dip Strip
LTK - Liquid Test Kit
PH - QDS: 7.8
LTK: 8.0 - 8.2
Alkalinity - QDS: 300
LTK: High
Nitrate - QDS: 40
Nitrite - QDS: 0
Ammonia - QDS: 0.25
LTK: 0.25
Tank Conditions:
The 4 Damsels I have in there now appear to be doing well. One has become the dominant of the group and kind of sort of chases the others around (but not bad) (I understand that the damsels will become more aggressive with time). They have each steaked out a little piece of LR for themselves. Brown algae has begun to appear on the glass and some of the base rock I have in the tank. Basically I’m just looking for any advice and to find out if my tank is headed in the right direction. I would normally go to a LFS but like I said above the only Saltwater LFS is HORABLE.

 

[reef fool]

except for having the fish in there to cycle your tank, it seems like your parameters may be headed in the right direction. Your nitrates are high and your ammonia should be 0 to be good.
Damsels are tough little guys and may live through it, but I regreted making damsels my first fish. Tough to get out later and if you keep them in, you will be limited on your choice of small fish you can add. They are SOB's to other fish.
You came to the right place for advice. At least nobody here has financial gain in giving you advice.

 

[curtis12282]

Do you think mabey I should go ahead and take the damsels out now and go ahead and use the shrmip method considering i dont plan to keep the damsels in there once the tank is cycled?

 

[dburr]

How long has this been set up?
40 nitrate leads me to believe this tank has cycled but now you have a mini cycle going on with .25 ammonia.
What kind of water are you using? tap, ro, or di?

 

[curtis12282]

The tank has been running for 3 weeks now with LR and LS from day one
The water im using is Tap, but after reading a bit on here did a water change with some bottled water and plan on continusly doing so
Also, the .25 ammonia has been constant for the past 1½-2 weeks. I think it may be some of the uncured LR i put in. I asked my LFS if i needed to do anything and they told me i could just drop it in. But after reading around a bit i think i should have cured it first

 

[birdy]

In a new tank it is perfectly fine for uncured or partially cured rock to be put in (it's my prefered way of cycling a tank). Since you are over the hump in your cycle I would just leave the damsels in until the tank is done cycling. Then I would get them out. Really it looks like you are on the right track to me.

 

[curtis12282]

I read somewhere that a good indication that a tank has completed its cycle is that the brown algae turns green. Is this a good rule of thumb?

 

[oregonbud]

I may be mistaken but I believe that the brown diatom algea you have is a direct result of a high nitrate to low nitrite imbalance (ideally you want these levels to be 0 or as close as possible), with that said, it would be possible in theory to use the algea bloom as an indicator of your cycle being over.
However algea blooms can be caused by other things(lighting, bacteria, etc) as well, so unless you were 100 percent sure that the algea is being caused by the tank cycling and not some other cause, it would not be a prime indicator of your cycle completing. The only thing you can use as a sure fire definitive answer of where your cycle is, is to test your water

 

[dburr]

Bottled water? What kind? Some bottled water is not good like your tap. R/O or distilled would be good.
I would keep the cycle going as stated. Find out what water your using and post it.
Algae could also be from the water your using.

 

[curtis12282]

The type of water I am using now comes from a machine in front of a local grocery store. It says in big bold letters "distilled water" And some brand name, i cant recall at the moment

 

[tarashane]

so dillstilled water is the best water to use??

 

[cowbuoy]

no distilled water is DEAD
You need RO water
My grocery store has a machine with RO water
It is maintained by the same company that puts out the water cooler in the office water 'round here (Gordons)
It is $2 at the grocery but $3 if I go to Gordons - I sometimes pay more 'cause they probably take better care of the machines at their offices
oh and thats for 5 gallons
Your ammonia test might be off too
mine was
take a sample to lfs for testing and consider buying another ammonia test (dont need the whole kit - can just buy ammonia or whatever
My Wardleys brand was not giving good results
i have since switched to FasTest