Am I doing this right ?

[tigastt]

Hello experts and members :)

So In a week it would be my 6week of cycle, this is my first ever salt water tank. Cycle is taking forever!!!

This is how I started my tank.
Day 1 sand, rock, treated water, filter with biomax and sponge, heater set to 80, wave maker
2nd Week - 10 % Water change
4th Week - 20% Water Change. Installed new biomax, sponge, and activated carbon
5th Week - Installed Skimmer

On my 6th week I'm planning on putting 2 clowns and Zoa, granting water parameters are correct.

on the 8th week I'm planning on using chaeto and bed of sand as my filtration instead of the biomax, sponge, and activated carbon on my aquaclear. A lot of reefers prefer this esp for nano tanks. Then 20% water change 2-3 weeks.

My ultimate goal is easy to care corals, 2 clowns, 2 shrimps, 2 goby, easy to care inverts

Did I get the procedures correctly ?

ANy suggestions or criticism are welcome.

List of my equipment

32g hex tank
China Wavemaker - Aquatop CPS3
300W Heater set to 80
Aquaclear hang on filter for 50g tanks
Macro Aqua Skimmer
165W Programmable LED
Red Sea Salt

Thanks in advance!

 

[jaws789832]

I don't think you should have done the water changes. The whole idea behind a cycle is to let the nasty stuff build up a bit so the bacteria can reproduce and multiply. Are you testing? the only way to know for sure that your cycle is complete is to test the water. The cycle is done when you have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and your nitrates will be elevated. At that point you do a water change and add the cuc. I then let them do their job and clean up a bit, before I add any fish or corals. A cycle isn't cut and dry as far as it will take 6 weeks. sometimes it takes 3 weeks other times a couple of months. there is a lot of variables and testing is the only way to be sure

 

[redfishbluefish]

Agree....what's missing is testing.


And actually if you're curing the rock the same time you're cycling, water changes would be needed to knock the nitrates and phosphate numbers down....but again, wouldn't know that without testing.

 

[jaws789832]

Also did you use live sand? live rock? Did you add any bacteria in a bottle? Did you use anything to kickstart your cycle (eg ammonia, raw shrimp). these things will all come into play. If your rock and sand were dry, there would be nothing to start the cycle and your tank might not have even started yet. Is there anything growing in the tank yet (eg algae, diatoms, any discoloration on the sand or rocks)? These are all usually signs that the cycle is happening and things are starting to grow in the tank. If there is nothing I would wait and test to be sure your cycle is done.

 

[tigastt]

I don't think you should have done the water changes. The whole idea behind a cycle is to let the nasty stuff build up a bit so the bacteria can reproduce and multiply. Are you testing? the only way to know for sure that your cycle is complete is to test the water. The cycle is done when you have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and your nitrates will be elevated. At that point you do a water change and add the cuc. I then let them do their job and clean up a bit, before I add any fish or corals. A cycle isn't cut and dry as far as it will take 6 weeks. sometimes it takes 3 weeks other times a couple of months. there is a lot of variables and testing is the only way to be sure

The first water change was because of my salinity was too high and I had to balance it out. My Nitrates was elevated and that's why I did the 2nd water change.. whats a "cuc"

Agree....what's missing is testing.

And actually if you're curing the rock the same time you're cycling, water changes would be needed to knock the nitrates and phosphate numbers down....but again, wouldn't know that without testing.

I'm going to do a second water test later from our local petstore and post it here

Also did you use live sand? live rock? Did you add any bacteria in a bottle? Did you use anything to kickstart your cycle (eg ammonia, raw shrimp). these things will all come into play. If your rock and sand were dry, there would be nothing to start the cycle and your tank might not have even started yet. Is there anything growing in the tank yet (eg algae, diatoms, any discoloration on the sand or rocks)? These are all usually signs that the cycle is happening and things are starting to grow in the tank. If there is nothing I would wait and test to be sure your cycle is done.

Yes Live sand and Live rock from a local guy, when I got his rocks it was purple, now it's white lol. No bacteria or kickstart. My friend suggested to put a freshwater fish though, fat molly. Thought it would die, but it didn't.. Still orange and very much alive. Again for discoloration when I got the LR they were purple then as my cycle goes, they became white.. There is some coloration changes on 1 of the rocks though.. Do you think adding a raw shrimp now should help ?

 

[cmcoker]

300w heater? On 32g? Are you in a very cold climate? Do you have that on a controller?
Id recommend a controller if not that's a lot of watts for that size tank, IMO. I have a diy build of an itc 1000 heat/cool controller for my quarantine tanks and a finnex heater controller on my display

If your heater thermostat went out (or should I say when, instead of if..) it will cook your tank easily.

Agree you need some testing of ammonia, nitrate to check your cycle. And was rock dry or live?

Also see you mention "treated water" , are you using tap water?

 

[jaws789832]

cuc is clean up crew. snails and hermits and what not. Things that eat algae, diatoms and other nasty stuff that will grow in your tank. If you used live rock and sand from an established tank then your cycle is probably about complete, but testing for ammonia and nitrites is the only to be sure/ Investing in a reverse osmosis/ deionizizng system (RODI) is pretty crucial for you water, or using water made by your LFS (local fish store) that is prurified correctly. Using tap water (even if you condition it) will over time build up bad things (metals phosphates and other harmful stuff). Nitrates right now (while cycling) aren't necesarrily a bad thing. You of course want them to be lower when you add any critter, but they are a part of the cycling process.

If you added a shrimp right now it might kick off a little mini cycle (that's assuming your tank has already cycled) which I don't think would be a bad thing but it would make you have to wait a little longer.

Basically the cycle pattern is when you add any thing organ (raw dead shrimp, fish food, fish poop, ect) it rots and produces ammonia. bacteria then starts growing that consumes the ammonia and they in turn produce nitrites. until there is enough bacteria to consume the ammonia the ammonia levels will rise (which is extremely toxic to fish and most critters). Once there is enough of that bacteria the ammonia levels will fall off but the nitrite levels will rise. Now a different type of bacteria will have to populate to consume the nitrite. Your ammonia levels will be falling (rather quickly) but the nitrite levels will rise until that bacteria population is big enough. those bacteria produce nitrate. which is still a little toxic but it would have to be in large amounts. its main problem is it will grow nuisance algae (hence why I asked if anything was growing on the rocks and sand. Once the nitrites fall to 0 then the cycle is complete. The nitrates can be eliminated by several means but in your case a water change is is preferred.

So if you added a shrimp right now the bacteria might or might not be able to keep up hence the mini cycle. This is also why you should add everything slow at this point. the cuc should go in first, then wait a bit and then may 1 or 2 little fish.......

Durring this phase I test about every other day just so I know where I stand. Ammonia, nitrites nitrates and phosphates are usually what I am looking at. Ammonia and nitrites because I don't want to kill anything and nitrates and phosphates because I don't want a huge algae issue later down the road

 

[tigastt]

Went to two fish stores and the check came out no ammonia, a little low on PH, 30% Nitrate, so they did suggest the CUC.. Right now I have 2 turbo snails, hermit crab, and a emerald crab.. Lol they said see in a week if they live then I can get fishes

To answer your questions below

300w heater? On 32g? Are you in a very cold climate? Do you have that on a controller?
Id recommend a controller if not that's a lot of watts for that size tank, IMO. I have a diy build of an itc 1000 heat/cool controller for my quarantine tanks and a finnex heater controller on my display

If your heater thermostat went out (or should I say when, instead of if..) it will cook your tank easily.

Agree you need some testing of ammonia, nitrate to check your cycle. And was rock dry or live?

Also see you mention "treated water" , are you using tap water?

Well the tank is placed near an above AC vent, it is adjustable though and I'm monitoring the temp every time.

Treated water I meant I bought a water from the fish store, put salt on it, then checked salinity.

cuc is clean up crew. snails and hermits and what not. Things that eat algae, diatoms and other nasty stuff that will grow in your tank. If you used live rock and sand from an established tank then your cycle is probably about complete, but testing for ammonia and nitrites is the only to be sure/ Investing in a reverse osmosis/ deionizizng system (RODI) is pretty crucial for you water, or using water made by your LFS (local fish store) that is prurified correctly. Using tap water (even if you condition it) will over time build up bad things (metals phosphates and other harmful stuff). Nitrates right now (while cycling) aren't necesarrily a bad thing. You of course want them to be lower when you add any critter, but they are a part of the cycling process.

If you added a shrimp right now it might kick off a little mini cycle (that's assuming your tank has already cycled) which I don't think would be a bad thing but it would make you have to wait a little longer.

Basically the cycle pattern is when you add any thing organ (raw dead shrimp, fish food, fish poop, ect) it rots and produces ammonia. bacteria then starts growing that consumes the ammonia and they in turn produce nitrites. until there is enough bacteria to consume the ammonia the ammonia levels will rise (which is extremely toxic to fish and most critters). Once there is enough of that bacteria the ammonia levels will fall off but the nitrite levels will rise. Now a different type of bacteria will have to populate to consume the nitrite. Your ammonia levels will be falling (rather quickly) but the nitrite levels will rise until that bacteria population is big enough. those bacteria produce nitrate. which is still a little toxic but it would have to be in large amounts. its main problem is it will grow nuisance algae (hence why I asked if anything was growing on the rocks and sand. Once the nitrites fall to 0 then the cycle is complete. The nitrates can be eliminated by several means but in your case a water change is is preferred.

So if you added a shrimp right now the bacteria might or might not be able to keep up hence the mini cycle. This is also why you should add everything slow at this point. the cuc should go in first, then wait a bit and then may 1 or 2 little fish.......

Durring this phase I test about every other day just so I know where I stand. Ammonia, nitrites nitrates and phosphates are usually what I am looking at. Ammonia and nitrites because I don't want to kill anything and nitrates and phosphates because I don't want a huge algae issue later down the road

Check my reply above :) I guess I don't need the Shrimp anymore. I'm so happy my cycle is almost done..

 

[cmcoker]

I would recommend you look into a heater controller, many use the ranco brand. I have a finnex controller that ran me about $40.
These controllers have their own temperature sensor and cut power to the heater when the temperature goes above the set point. It is a fail safe, many people have experienced a tank over heating from a faulty heater getting stuck on.

Good luck with the new additions!

 

[Untamedrose]

IDK....

I really dont.
Ideally need to see testing though all that.....ammonia spiked, nitrates spiked, nitrites spiked.....
and its now 0, 0, and pretty low.

 

[tigastt]

I would recommend you look into a heater controller, many use the ranco brand. I have a finnex controller that ran me about $40.
These controllers have their own temperature sensor and cut power to the heater when the temperature goes above the set point. It is a fail safe, many people have experienced a tank over heating from a faulty heater getting stuck on.

Good luck with the new additions!

Okay I might get the finnex, thanks!

IDK....

I really dont.
Ideally need to see testing though all that.....ammonia spiked, nitrates spiked, nitrites spiked.....
and its now 0, 0, and pretty low.

Uhhhh what do you mean ?