Very Fast Cycle?

dustintx

dustintx

Member
Hey guys. So a week ago today I finally put my tank together. It's a 20 gallon with a 10 gallon sump and overflow I built myself. I live close by a salt water fish distribution and purchased their premixed salt water,live rock and also a bag of sand. I also bought their Caelerpa that's in my refugium.
I ghost fed my tank daily and on the 5th day I started to get brown diatoms. Water test at 7 days,showed 0 amm and about 4ppm nitrites and nitrates.
It seems that my sump is keeping everything under control as I've noticed some brown algae is going away on its on in spots.
This tank has 0 fish. Only living things are bacteria and caelerpa algae.
Does this cycle seem fast? My LFS said its probably due to using water and rocks from their tanks.
 
silverado61

silverado61

Well-Known Member
Is the day seven test the only test you've done and what brand of test equipment did you use? Even if, I doubt it was because of the live rock your LFS gave you. I would let it keep cycling for a few more weeks and keep testing the water. And do your own testing. If your letting your LFS do the testing for you I'm willing to bet that it's an API brand test kit since they're the least expensive but they don't give accurate results in my opinion.

What are those other rocks that are in your sump? The flat one in front and the round one in back? You should never put rocks in a saltwater system that you don't know for a fact came from a saltwater environment. There could be trace elements in them that are dangerous to fish or inverts. Copper, iron and lead, for example, are tank killers. If you don't know where they came from, I would get them out ASAP.

Be careful with Caulerpa (grape weed) algae. They tend to go sexual and when they do, they release all the nasties that they've collected back into the water column crashing your tank and in a twenty gallon that wouldn't take long. Chaetomorpha (Chaeto, Spaghetti Algae are more common names.) is more widely used for a few reasons:

1- It's the only one that doesn't go sexual.
2- I think it does a better job on Ammonia and Nitrates.
3- It grows fast.
4- When it gets large enough you just grab a hand full and pull it out.
5- Most LFS that keep them in their filtration systems gladly give it away because it grows so fast.

Just a thought.
 
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silverado61

silverado61

Well-Known Member
Can we get a wider picture of your sump and how you have it set up?

Actually, a picture of your tank and sump together would be cool too.
 
lmforbis

lmforbis

Well-Known Member
It may be the capulara is using the ammonia before it has a chance to be changed to nitrite then Nitrate. I don’t generally think it is a good idea to add macro algae until the cycle is mostly complete and all you have left is the nitrate.
 
silverado61

silverado61

Well-Known Member
lmforbis said:
It may be the capulara is using the ammonia before it has a chance to be changed to nitrite then Nitrate. I don’t generally think it is a good idea to add macro algae until the cycle is mostly complete and all you have left is the nitrate.
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Good point. I forgot about that little tidbit.
 
dustintx

dustintx

Member
I removed the 2 rocks you spoke of. I had them laying around for years,didn't give it much thought I guess and your very right about metals. Hopefully it's not leaked anything. Lets say it leaked metal in tank,can it be removed or do I have to start completely over?????

LFS told me Calerpa is much better. The only problem it gave me so far is it seems to break off and float around and get sucked up the pump and back into display,which sucks. I may see if they will trade it out for chaeto.

My little sump is not completely full of Calerpa so I doubt it's the only reason I have 0 ppm of ammonia.

Almost forgot. I do believe they use the $30 test kit you mentioned. Is there a better one that I should purchase?
 
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lmforbis

lmforbis

Well-Known Member
2quills said:
Of the algae consumed the ammonia then where's the nitrite coming from?
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It probably isn’t consuming it all plus there is some live rock. The nitrates are only 4. That’s pretty low for a full cycle and no water changes.
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
It isn't stable if you're still detecting nitrite then bacteria isn't well established yet. You're still at high risk of ammonia spikes if you were to add livestock at this point.

But yes, adding live rock that is already colonized with bacteria and ofcorse the algae puts you ahead of the game quicker.

I'd continue to feed and monitor for a few more weeks.

.02
 
dustintx

dustintx

Member
2quills said:
It isn't stable if you're still detecting nitrite then bacteria isn't well established yet. You're still at high risk of ammonia spikes if you were to add livestock at this point.

But yes, adding live rock that is already colonized with bacteria and ofcorse the algae puts you ahead of the game quicker.

I'd continue to feed and monitor for a few more weeks.

.02
Click to expand...
Yeah ,Agreed. Im actually going to wait until refugiun is established as well. Like to see caulerpa growing well and pods growing nicely. Plus parameters as well.
 
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