Hey guys! So I think I'm officially coming to a close to the cycling of my 32 gallon bio cube. I've posted a few times with questions and all of yous have been a great help! I do have one last question in regards to cycling. So my ammonia has been at 0 for a few weeks and same with my nitrites being at 0 as well. I was dealing with nitrate levels sky high around 80-100. I was able to lower them to 20 ppm by changing my filtration ( currently running with chemi pure and purigen and also switched to a filter floss rather than the filter pad the tank came with) and a few decent size water changes. From my knowledge all levels have to be at 0 ppm correct ? What else should I being doing to get the nitrates down to 0 ppm ?And am I able to added anything in the tank for at the stage I'm at as of now ? Thanks again guys !
Cycling
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Elementalj
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In my opinion you don't have to have zero nitrates. You just have to be below 10ppm I believe. Removing the nitrate producers was a good idea indeed, but I'd do a couple of water changes to bring that under control. There are reef organisms that consume nitrate for energy production but at levels higher than 10 they become stressed.
What are your current levels in relation to magnesium and alkalinity?
pdt7361
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Nitrates typically won't be at 0...5 or less would be best. Many corals like the extra nutrients in the water, so you can actually kill them by having 0 nitrates. What are your phosphates at?
Elementalj
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Get some kits! [emoji6]
What do you have available to test? I saw the main three during cycling, but what about the others? Magnesium is the first thing you bring into correct parameters after a cycle, then alkalinity and calcium.
If you've got nitrates of 20ppm you seem to be doing pretty good getting the hang of things, but you also need to test the other parameters.
What have you intended to keep in this setup? Fish, corals etc.
bobbyg04
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Will do ! And I'm fairly new to the hobby but yea I plan do doing a reef set up with fish. Wanna start of slow and take my time by starting with corals and fish that are on the easier side to care for just to kinda get my feet wet first rather than bite off more than I can chew haha
Elementalj
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I'd assemble a grouping that works, pay attention to every setup you see. Read read read read. It'll save you time and money. [emoji6][emoji106][emoji1611]
Elementalj
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We all have kits and products that are our favorites. I prefer salifert because they've been consistent throughout my entire span in the hobby. They're relatively inexpensive and easy to understand and interpret. Get a timer app if you don't have one and begin logging your results according to date.
There's a great group of apps in either app stores that will help with logging results and timing procedures. I'd suggest all of them. [emoji122][emoji6][emoji106][emoji1611]
There's a great group of apps in either app stores that will help with logging results and timing procedures. I'd suggest all of them. [emoji122][emoji6][emoji106][emoji1611]
What are you using to make saltwater. What salt and what water? Are you using RODI? Are you buying it?
Clowns are easy and fun. Damsels are easy but can/will be very aggressive with other fish. I took all three of mine out.
I read through your other posts and have followed your progress.
I'm unsure about your sump setup. I think your running a skimmer in chamber 1?
If so, do you still have the bio balls in chamber 2? If you do I'd get rid of them now, they'll eventually collect enough detritus to be a source of Nitrates.
I saw you're running chemipure and Purigen?, or Phosguard? I'm unsure, but anyway - do you have the InTank media basket and fuge baskets? If not, check their site, they have many useful items to set up in chamber 2
including a light for growing cheato. I used to run all 3 - Chemipure, Purigen and Phosguard along with filter floss. The media basket comes with a flow diverter that fits on the wall between chambers 1 & 2 and channels the water nicely into the top of the media basket. Place your filter floss on top of the Chemipure at the top of the media basket and it'll run silent. You'll be able to easily see when the floss needs changing - change it often and don't let detritus build up to release Nitrates.
As for test kits, I like the Salifert kits because they use a definitive dilutional color change that is easy to see and you read the amount of remaining reagent in a syringe to get your results off a chart.
No comparing colors - I'm really bad at that, so these tests are the easiest for me to use and get repeatable results.
At this point you need to test for Nitrates, Phosphates, Alkalinity, Calcium and Magnesium.
Cycle - this is something that starts with bacteria and an ammonia source and hopefully never stops unless you do something bad. So a properly running tank is always cycling ammonia into
nitrates and you have to have a nitrate exporting plan. Skimming in a Biocube is inefficient at best. I just did 5 gal water changes every week and that was sufficient for a light bio load.
If your Nitrates are still high (>10ppm), just do more water changes........ don't panic or rush it, it will come down.
I waited until my Nitrates were < 5ppm to add my 2 clown fish. Then test weekly to see if your live rock/sand and Nitrate exporting method is keeping up with the bio load.
I saw you put a piece of live rock in after you were already set up and trying to get the cycle going.
I would take it out and soak it in H2O2 now. Rock is only dry rock until you get it wet, then after the cycle gets going its live rock.
No need to boost the ugly phase of a tank set up like you did by introducing live rock. You were already well on your way to a well cycling tank by using the BioSpira and ammonia - in my opinion that was a good move.
Go slow with adding livestock. I'd add an appropriate nano fish or 2 first. Hopefully you've researched what you want.
The clean up crew can be added when there's something to clean up. Right now your tank doesn't have anything to clean except maybe a little algae - but again, I'd soak that rock in H2O2 to deal with that.
If you get the refugium going in chamber 2 with cheato and a light, then get yourself some pods and dump those into the refugium - they will make their way into the display. They will add some biodiversity to the tank and pods can be a great foundation to any clean up crew. Eventually I had about 10 snails, 4 micro blue leg hermits and a fighting conch in my BioCube 29.
With weekly 5 gal water changes that was plenty to keep my Nitrates under control.
Sorry, I'm long winded.
Good luck with your reefing adventure.
I'm unsure about your sump setup. I think your running a skimmer in chamber 1?
If so, do you still have the bio balls in chamber 2? If you do I'd get rid of them now, they'll eventually collect enough detritus to be a source of Nitrates.
I saw you're running chemipure and Purigen?, or Phosguard? I'm unsure, but anyway - do you have the InTank media basket and fuge baskets? If not, check their site, they have many useful items to set up in chamber 2
including a light for growing cheato. I used to run all 3 - Chemipure, Purigen and Phosguard along with filter floss. The media basket comes with a flow diverter that fits on the wall between chambers 1 & 2 and channels the water nicely into the top of the media basket. Place your filter floss on top of the Chemipure at the top of the media basket and it'll run silent. You'll be able to easily see when the floss needs changing - change it often and don't let detritus build up to release Nitrates.
As for test kits, I like the Salifert kits because they use a definitive dilutional color change that is easy to see and you read the amount of remaining reagent in a syringe to get your results off a chart.
No comparing colors - I'm really bad at that, so these tests are the easiest for me to use and get repeatable results.
At this point you need to test for Nitrates, Phosphates, Alkalinity, Calcium and Magnesium.
Cycle - this is something that starts with bacteria and an ammonia source and hopefully never stops unless you do something bad. So a properly running tank is always cycling ammonia into
nitrates and you have to have a nitrate exporting plan. Skimming in a Biocube is inefficient at best. I just did 5 gal water changes every week and that was sufficient for a light bio load.
If your Nitrates are still high (>10ppm), just do more water changes........ don't panic or rush it, it will come down.
I waited until my Nitrates were < 5ppm to add my 2 clown fish. Then test weekly to see if your live rock/sand and Nitrate exporting method is keeping up with the bio load.
I saw you put a piece of live rock in after you were already set up and trying to get the cycle going.
I would take it out and soak it in H2O2 now. Rock is only dry rock until you get it wet, then after the cycle gets going its live rock.
No need to boost the ugly phase of a tank set up like you did by introducing live rock. You were already well on your way to a well cycling tank by using the BioSpira and ammonia - in my opinion that was a good move.
Go slow with adding livestock. I'd add an appropriate nano fish or 2 first. Hopefully you've researched what you want.
The clean up crew can be added when there's something to clean up. Right now your tank doesn't have anything to clean except maybe a little algae - but again, I'd soak that rock in H2O2 to deal with that.
If you get the refugium going in chamber 2 with cheato and a light, then get yourself some pods and dump those into the refugium - they will make their way into the display. They will add some biodiversity to the tank and pods can be a great foundation to any clean up crew. Eventually I had about 10 snails, 4 micro blue leg hermits and a fighting conch in my BioCube 29.
With weekly 5 gal water changes that was plenty to keep my Nitrates under control.
Sorry, I'm long winded.
Good luck with your reefing adventure.
Forgot to mention: in my opinion you should not add any livestock to the tank until you research tank transfer method (TTM) and quarantine methods.
I added a few soft corals first while my 2 clown fish were going through TTM and QT for 6 weeks.
Try not to let ich or other parasites into your tank.
I added a few soft corals first while my 2 clown fish were going through TTM and QT for 6 weeks.
Try not to let ich or other parasites into your tank.
bobbyg04
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Thanks for the response ! Yes the bio balls are out and I have the media basket. I ended up taking the piece of live rock out since the dry rock seems to be coming "Alive" lol. But yeah I was looking into cheato, is there a submersible light I could use ? Because the tank set up is pretty close to the wall and the hang on the back light for the biocube won't fit. And by the way thanks again!
Growing chaeto in chamber 2 won't do a lot to control nutrients but it's a great place to have a healthy pod population.
As for the light, the JBJ nano glo light is pretty thin and only $40.00 on Amazon.
If the setup is too close to the wall, just drain the tank 3/4 down and scoot it away from the wall............. a good excuse to do a massive water change to get the Nitrates down.
As for the light, the JBJ nano glo light is pretty thin and only $40.00 on Amazon.
If the setup is too close to the wall, just drain the tank 3/4 down and scoot it away from the wall............. a good excuse to do a massive water change to get the Nitrates down.
JMLewis
Active Member
This! Save yourself tons of hassle, for the first time in 15 years I have a parasite free tank using TTM (tank transfer method)
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