fishgirl
Member
Hey guys! tons of q's here!
I have a newly set-up 75 gallon with 80 lbs of nature's ocean live sand. Since this is of course NOT a dsb, should I leave the sand alone and not touch it, or should I buy sifters and detritivores? It make just under a 3" layer.
I have had my prizm skimmer, rio powerheads, and pc lights on the whole time since I put the 75 lbs of rock and the sand in the tank a couple weeks ago. Now I read that you're not supposed to put the lights on while you're cureing the rock b/c of an aglea bloom - well I sure have one - brown everywhere!! It rubs off easily, but underneath the rock looks white and chalky - I see no signs of plants, corraline, anything live on the rock but brown diatoms!! I'm mad at the company that sent me the rock - I was suspicious when I diudn't see much on the rock - but I fugured I knew nothing cuz I'd never seen live rock that had just been shipped before. Now I think it's beacuse the company took a week to ship it to me! My life's savings as a teenager down the drain!?!?!?!?
It's been over a couple weeks and I tested today and there is 0 ammonia, trace of nirtites and 20 on nitrates! I thought the cycle would go pretty fast, what's with all the 'trate's? I want to order my clean up crew to clean up the algea, but there's still trates! Why? Shouldn't all that LS be taking care of that?
There still seems to be tons of dirt in there (the skimmer's getting a workout) so today I put on a mechanical filter with no carbon or bio sponge; just the white filter medis to catch some more large wast particles - is this bad? IT will only be for a few days but I did not know if it would mess up the whole berlin system I was going for?
PLEASE! Any answers will be a lifesaver - thank you!
-Jean
I have a newly set-up 75 gallon with 80 lbs of nature's ocean live sand. Since this is of course NOT a dsb, should I leave the sand alone and not touch it, or should I buy sifters and detritivores? It make just under a 3" layer.
I have had my prizm skimmer, rio powerheads, and pc lights on the whole time since I put the 75 lbs of rock and the sand in the tank a couple weeks ago. Now I read that you're not supposed to put the lights on while you're cureing the rock b/c of an aglea bloom - well I sure have one - brown everywhere!! It rubs off easily, but underneath the rock looks white and chalky - I see no signs of plants, corraline, anything live on the rock but brown diatoms!! I'm mad at the company that sent me the rock - I was suspicious when I diudn't see much on the rock - but I fugured I knew nothing cuz I'd never seen live rock that had just been shipped before. Now I think it's beacuse the company took a week to ship it to me! My life's savings as a teenager down the drain!?!?!?!?
It's been over a couple weeks and I tested today and there is 0 ammonia, trace of nirtites and 20 on nitrates! I thought the cycle would go pretty fast, what's with all the 'trate's? I want to order my clean up crew to clean up the algea, but there's still trates! Why? Shouldn't all that LS be taking care of that?
There still seems to be tons of dirt in there (the skimmer's getting a workout) so today I put on a mechanical filter with no carbon or bio sponge; just the white filter medis to catch some more large wast particles - is this bad? IT will only be for a few days but I did not know if it would mess up the whole berlin system I was going for?
PLEASE! Any answers will be a lifesaver - thank you!
-Jean