scorphntr
New Member
This is my first post on this forum, I've been reading many posts and feel like this is the best salt water forum on the web!
My dad was kind enough to give me his 60 gallon reef tank, I had to transport it from So Cal to my home in Arizona. My dad let the tank pretty much go to sh*t. We managed to save a little more than half of the water that was already in the tank, when I got home I added tap water just to get the tank up and running. Being ignorant about Salt water tanks I didn't dechlorinate the water as I added it. It has since been dechlorinated though. I was told by my LFS that I most likely killed the bacteria in the tank by adding tap water. I recently added some bacteria he sold me.
Surprisingly the 5 fish made the trip and seem to be doing just fine (5 days later). I tested my water yesterday and every thing was almost perfect exept for my nitrates were sky high. Would this be because I added so much tap water?
My plan of action is to do a 10 gallon water change using R/O water (doing 10 gallons because that is the size of my containers).
I guess my main question would be this, since I brought most of the cycled water with me from california and only added a little more than a 1/4 tap water, would my tank be considered cycled?
My dad was kind enough to give me his 60 gallon reef tank, I had to transport it from So Cal to my home in Arizona. My dad let the tank pretty much go to sh*t. We managed to save a little more than half of the water that was already in the tank, when I got home I added tap water just to get the tank up and running. Being ignorant about Salt water tanks I didn't dechlorinate the water as I added it. It has since been dechlorinated though. I was told by my LFS that I most likely killed the bacteria in the tank by adding tap water. I recently added some bacteria he sold me.
Surprisingly the 5 fish made the trip and seem to be doing just fine (5 days later). I tested my water yesterday and every thing was almost perfect exept for my nitrates were sky high. Would this be because I added so much tap water?
My plan of action is to do a 10 gallon water change using R/O water (doing 10 gallons because that is the size of my containers).
I guess my main question would be this, since I brought most of the cycled water with me from california and only added a little more than a 1/4 tap water, would my tank be considered cycled?