New tank setup - pitch black.

[mitchelliii]

Rinsed the sand and have the skimmer running. I hope I have not fouled the water with old sand. I saw the thoughts on a quicker cycle but will 160 gal RO water and the rest rinsed sand and live rock make a happy tank?

I mean it was pitch black for first hour:yuk:....starting to clear some now. Any thoughts on how long to wait before putting fish or inverts in? week, 2 ? month ?

 

[xyzpdq0121]

A tank cycle take 4 week to do.. No if ands or buts about it. Sometimes you can get it down to 3 but usually it is not done cycling and you will see spikes later. Using "rotten" sand does not really make the cycle faster (well you already have the ammonia so it is faster because of that but it take longer to process all that ammonia so you loose the saved time there!). What using old sand does for you, IMHO, is lead to a "stronger" cycle and gives you more bacteria.

 

[kappaknight]

If you rinsed the sand enough to where it looks clean, it really should feel and act like new sand (no life). I'm not sure what you mean by pitch black... was the water pitch black or was the light not on? If the tank is void of life, you can throw some live rock in to kickstart the cycling process; otherwise, there really isn't anything cycling.

 

[mitchelliii]

Somehow I still get the feeling there is plenty of bacteria in the tank now. Thanks for input.

 

[burdundi]

"I am a meat popsicle.".... Fifth Element?

nice...

Andy

 

[wbholwell]

I would suggest testing your water paramaters on a regular basis so that you can monitor the progress of the cycle. If you need any help, just let me know- I'm right down the road in Sugar Hill

 

[cgill311]

Yeah, nice 5th element reference. I won a Hawaiian hula girl manakin and named her Leilu.

 

[dakota]

Well, I could be wrong here, but the tank will tell you when it has cycled. And even after your test kits tell you that it has cycled, it will take a long time before it is stable enough for any higher life.

I waited one month before I put my cleanup crew in, two months before I put lights on and a month to bring it up to a regular light cycle, four months before any corals and seven months before any fish.

I'm a very impatient person, and one of my reasons for getting into this hobby was to learn the importance of patience. So I was verrrry patient at the beginning. It paid off. That tank is very stable, and has no nuisance algae and healthy fish.

Not saying that you should do the same as me, but there is a big difference between a tank that has cycled some ammonia to nitrate and one that is a stable enough environment to support healthy fish and corals.

Patience, Grasshopper.

 

[mitchelliii]

I will need to get the rock and sand set again at some point since it is just stacked in there right now as fast as I could get it in good water. Should I get it like I want it now, or wait a few weeks since I have a month or so before anything "goes live" in the tank?

 

[kappaknight]

I would do it sooner rather than later. No one ever claimed they are 100% happy with their aquascaping the first time they did it so play around with it until you're satisified.

 

[dakota]

Over the next month, I'd guess that you will rearrange it about 8 times, decide you liked the way it looked the fourth time the best, never be satisfied that you replicated it, be kicking yourself for changing it, and then finally find somethinf you can live with.

Just be sure to give it a good shake and that it is stable enough so it wont fall and crush livestock and/or crack glass.

Have fun!!

BTW- I hate aquascaping. I live in an apartment, and I'm surprised my neighbors haven't called the cops after hearing me shout " I need more ROCK!!" or "I hate this ROCK!!" or "RRRRROCK!!!!" for hours. LMAO

 

[mitchelliii]

started water testing - .8 mg/l ammonia! Off the chart! I suppose it was to be expected. Given there is so much dead material, should I vacum off the debris on the rock as I shape it? There is a lot of algae-looking dead material. Thanks for everyones' input for the new kid. Am setting up an online cam for it and will put it up soon.

 

[wolfie]

It would help to take out any dead materals and 10% WC weekly or byweekly as you can while your tank are cycling.

 

[mitchelliii]

Ammonia spiked for a day when I added the sand and re- added all the live rock. Now there are snails all over the place and small worms etc. coming out. No nitrates, no nitrites, 0 ammonia.

Problem is - only a week or so in. Did I just have a small cycle and not a full one since I used half of the original water in the tank and 1/2 RO water?

Will still wait 3 more weeks I suppose and have been adding liverock from the livestock tank..


Anyone anyone?

 

[showtime305]

It does sounds like your tank just went through a mini cycle. You probably won't see another ammonia spike until you add to the bio-load or provided some other source of ammonia. You can added a small amount of fish food to the tank every few days provided a food source for the bacteria colonies that are forming. Do that for a few week, keep watching your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels and then you should be ready to begin adding livestock.

 

[cameron]

Xyzpdq0121;26710 wrote: A tank cycle take 4 week to do.. No if ands or buts about it. Sometimes you can get it down to 3 but usually it is not done cycling and you will see spikes later. Using "rotten" sand does not really make the cycle faster (well you already have the ammonia so it is faster because of that but it take longer to process all that ammonia so you loose the saved time there!). What using old sand does for you, IMHO, is lead to a "stronger" cycle and gives you more bacteria.

Depends on if your source for sand and rock. I bought my rock from an established tank and used new sand. I had no cycle and never had a single ammonia spike. I am not disagreeing with a most or a usual statement, but not ALL new tanks will have a four week cycle.

 

[jessezm]

That really has been true for me, too. The last two large tanks I've set up never saw a visible spike in NO2 or Ammonia, and both were set up with at least some established live rock. I tested every day and not a thing. The amazing thing was that with my current tank, after two weeks I added another 60lbs of totally rotting rock fresh from the ocean with more crud on it that you could imagine, and I STILL didn't see an additional cycle. Out of necessity I had some SPS and LPS in there already, and they never had a problem...

Not that I'm advocating this by any means... It's just that sometimes, waiting for a cycle can be like waiting for Godot....

 

[FutureInterest]

Cameron why are you digging up a 2 month old thread?

 

[showtime305]

We aren't keeping him busy enough with new threads.

 

[siege]

I had old, dead but well washed and sifted sand that was cycled 2 weeks on, performed a 98% water change in 4 stages, added new water, cycled again 2 weeks, performed another 98% water change, cycled 2 weeks, added live sand, cycled 4 weeks, added established live rock, and have never once had an ammonia spike, or any ammonia problems AFAIK, but then, I have a deep sand bed, plenum, and have never had much in the way of stock or bio-load, either.