Tank Cycling

[alti]

first let me tell you what should happen through the cycle.
1.ammonia will rise
2.nitrites will appear
3.the ammonia will start to decrease as the nitrite increases
4.then as the nitrites begin to decrease look for the nitrates to appear. ammonia should be gone or very low at this point.
5. when the nitrite and ammonia are gone and you only detect nitrates the cycle is done, but you should still wait a few more days before adding fish, just in case.
you really need to get some more ammonia in the tank. that small ammount is really not enough to feed a substantial ammount of bacteria.try to put some of your frozen shrimp in there tonight. keep me posted on your results and ill let you know if anything is going wrong.

 

[sggavin]

k, thanks alot, you've been ALOT of help

 

[alti]

any time

 

[fshhub]

also, PH is low
and dead coral is like adding dry rock, no life. The bacteria will need to colonize it(part of the cycle). Until this happens, you will more than likely have unstable water conditions, ammonia and trites will probably rise adn fall but never quite stabilize. This happens often, when there is more dead stuff than live in a tank.
there is a chance that your ammonia has spiked since you are showing signs of nitrites. But it also may not have. The ammonia spike can kill many fish, even damsels. Actually ammonia in any amount can do this.

 

[bdhough]

sggavin,
looks like your ammonia/ph did the fish in. You need around a 8.2 ph and no ammonia. 7.8 wont hurt much in the short run but over time it can do some damage. I had the same problem happen to my fresh tank. Ammonia went high and the ph went low. Only 2 lone survivors and some happy snails....

 

[alti]

his ph should have been a little low. he checked it in the middle of the night when it is normally lower.
check the ph during the day sggavin and it should be a little higher. even if it isn't, just leave it alone for now. as long as you are withing an acceptable range of PH, keeping it stable is more important.

 

[sggavin]

i've been keeping the light on all the time now (after the fish died), does this have any effect on the chem.?

 

[alti]

i wouldn't leave it on all the time. it will make more algea grow.

 

[sggavin]

i've been told algea can be good for a tank, I've been told that the color of the algea can tell weather it is good or bad algea

 

[bdhough]

You don't want your lights on 24/7. Do a 12 hour cycle. Turn them off a couple hours before bed and right as you wake up in the morning.
From what i've heard properly curing live rock is supposed to be done without the lights on for 3 weeks. I never did that and things turned out fine, so do things at your own discretion. I belive the 3 week thing should be done if you have alot of die off. I woudln't worry about it beacue you don't have fish anyways.