corallover23
Member
please respond in this thread for my results my other thread was hijacked
Week 3 Water Sample Results!
- Thread starter corallover23
- Start date
corallover23
Member
lol i bought cc before i knew about this awesome saltwaterfish.com thing lol ,
lol yes i have my lights on for about 12+ hours lol
corallover23
Member
will all my little bug friends die during this cycle? i hope not they are all over my front glass!
mr_x
Active Member
some of your little bug friends will live, and some will not. the bad news is, alot of the little bug friends that live will end up being food for whatever else you put in the tank. the good news is, they love to breed!
i would remove that crushed coral now.
replace it with sugar sized aragonite based sand.
i would remove that crushed coral now.
replace it with sugar sized aragonite based sand.
corallover23
Member
WILL IT INTERUPT MY CYCLE?
john,jr
Member
Originally Posted by Mr_X
http:///forum/post/2575618
some of your little bug friends will live, and some will not. the bad news is, a lot of the little bug friends that live will end up being food for whatever else you put in the tank. the good news is, they love to breed!
i would remove that crushed coral now.
replace it with sugar sized aragonite based sand.
I agree completely on removing the CC and replace with live sand. If you don't you will regret it very soon. I know cause I just removed mine. The only good I got from my CC is I up graded to a larger tank and when I cleaned the old CC it was grouse.
http:///forum/post/2575618
some of your little bug friends will live, and some will not. the bad news is, a lot of the little bug friends that live will end up being food for whatever else you put in the tank. the good news is, they love to breed!
i would remove that crushed coral now.
replace it with sugar sized aragonite based sand.
I agree completely on removing the CC and replace with live sand. If you don't you will regret it very soon. I know cause I just removed mine. The only good I got from my CC is I up graded to a larger tank and when I cleaned the old CC it was grouse.
corallover23
Member
Originally Posted by Mr_X
http:///forum/post/2576085
it's a new tank..it won't interrupt your cycle.
i'd buy the dry sand instead of the "live" sand. it will become live soon enough.
ANY SPECIAL BRAND, DOES SALTWATERFISH.COM SELL IT ? MY LFS DOSNT SELL SAND!
http:///forum/post/2576085
it's a new tank..it won't interrupt your cycle.
i'd buy the dry sand instead of the "live" sand. it will become live soon enough.
ANY SPECIAL BRAND, DOES SALTWATERFISH.COM SELL IT ? MY LFS DOSNT SELL SAND!
sly
Active Member
Sigh... here we go again with the "remove your crushed coral" crowd. Will you please stop? You can keep anything you choose to keep. Sand, crushed coral, or bare bottom... they all can work in a tank and all have differing strengths and weaknesses. Instead of telling someone how to properly set up the tank they have, some people are telling them to set up the tank they have. If you keep crushed coral less than an inch deep and have a good cleanup crew it will be fine in a tank.
Here's a picture of my awful crushed coral tank. I haven't cleaned it in at least a year.
It would be a lot easier if people didn't have to fight even the some of the moderators over this one... as they seem to join in the "crushed coral is always bad" crowd as well instead of telling people how to properly set it up if that's their choice. IMO, this is the single largest disservice SWF.com does to the new hobbiest. The most common advice regarding substrate is "scrap everything and do it like I do".
Oh, btw... I've been snorkeling all over the Caribbean and Hawaii. Guess what is at the bottom of most natural reefs? Crushed coral. It's more common than people think. I'm sorry for ranting... it's just that this seems to come up quite a bit and people end up spending lots of money scrapping what they have instead of being told how to make it work.
As for your original question, you are only on your 4th week of cycling. If you are still showing ammonia and nitrites then you don't need to be adding anything to your tank. If you have any prefilters in your system, clean them out so that they won't add contamination to your tank. Do some partial water changes to lower your levels down and then see if they stay down. If they do then you are ready to add a few things... but slowly. Only add one fish per month or so as your tank will need time to adjust. If you want to switch over to sand then yes, it will interrupt your cycle some. Do a search for southdown sand. Aquarium grade sand is different from just ordinary play sand in that it does not release large amounts of silicate into the water and this helps to reduce algae. Lowes/Home Depot sell this kind of sand, or so I've heard.
Here's a picture of my awful crushed coral tank. I haven't cleaned it in at least a year.
It would be a lot easier if people didn't have to fight even the some of the moderators over this one... as they seem to join in the "crushed coral is always bad" crowd as well instead of telling people how to properly set it up if that's their choice. IMO, this is the single largest disservice SWF.com does to the new hobbiest. The most common advice regarding substrate is "scrap everything and do it like I do".
Oh, btw... I've been snorkeling all over the Caribbean and Hawaii. Guess what is at the bottom of most natural reefs? Crushed coral. It's more common than people think. I'm sorry for ranting... it's just that this seems to come up quite a bit and people end up spending lots of money scrapping what they have instead of being told how to make it work.
As for your original question, you are only on your 4th week of cycling. If you are still showing ammonia and nitrites then you don't need to be adding anything to your tank. If you have any prefilters in your system, clean them out so that they won't add contamination to your tank. Do some partial water changes to lower your levels down and then see if they stay down. If they do then you are ready to add a few things... but slowly. Only add one fish per month or so as your tank will need time to adjust. If you want to switch over to sand then yes, it will interrupt your cycle some. Do a search for southdown sand. Aquarium grade sand is different from just ordinary play sand in that it does not release large amounts of silicate into the water and this helps to reduce algae. Lowes/Home Depot sell this kind of sand, or so I've heard.
spanko
Active Member
Hee Hee. I agree with everything you said sly, until you tried to make the point at the end about the ocean having a crushed coral bottom. There is a lot more opportunity for dilution in the ocean than in a box of water. Bad analogy IMO.
Crushed coral was the accepted best practice for substrate many years ago and people kept beautiful tanks then, and it can be done now with the correct husbandry.
Crushed coral was the accepted best practice for substrate many years ago and people kept beautiful tanks then, and it can be done now with the correct husbandry.
sly
Active Member
I didn't say that the ocean has a crushed coral bottom. I said many reefs do. Have you ever been to the Florida Keys? That's definitely one place you don't want to walk around barefoot... Shards of jagged rocks and coral everywhere...
And I'm sorry, but what do you mean by dilution?
[edit] For the sake of clarity and for semantics, reefs are largely a mixture of coarsely graded sand and broken off pieces of coral and shells (similar to crushed coral). It is not just a smooth, white sandy bottom nor is it exactly like a crushed coral tank either...
And I'm sorry, but what do you mean by dilution?
[edit] For the sake of clarity and for semantics, reefs are largely a mixture of coarsely graded sand and broken off pieces of coral and shells (similar to crushed coral). It is not just a smooth, white sandy bottom nor is it exactly like a crushed coral tank either...
spanko
Active Member
When many on the boards talk about the "bad" CC bottoms they are talking about them being traps for unprocessed detritus, food, fish poop etc. because particles can be trapped in them. When I said dilution I was addressing this and the possibilty for ineffective dilution of the resultant nitrates etc. in a closed system without the correct husbandry. The shear volume of the ocean water helps to dilute these problems in the reefs you are talking about, but we don't have that volume assistance in our tanks.So we need to rely on maintenance and filtration to help. Sand substrate are a little more forgiving in that they do not have the large areas that CC has in them to catch detritus.
sly
Active Member
That's why if you use a very shallow crushed coral depth, it won't collect the ditrius like others have seen. I posted a photo... Like I said, I haven't cleaned the tank in a year and there is no more ditritus on the bottom than any other person's tank. That's what the cleanup crew is for.
Nitrates are at 0ppm and the tank has been running crushed coral for 7 years.
Nitrates are at 0ppm and the tank has been running crushed coral for 7 years.