Cycling

[Hayjay]

Hello, well now we know all about cycling, but didn’t before adding fish....so wondering....my son did not add an ammonia source. After 3 weeks, all parameters were good In his mind so he added fish (good meaning zero nitrites and nitrates,less than .25 ammonia, ph right on). The 32 biocube contains about 25 pounds live rock and 60 pounds of live sand (About 4 inches). He added a bottle of Dr Fitz’s bacteria. Diatoms are evident for a few days now. The tank was set up 5 weeks ago and 2 clowns added 3 weeks ago And 3 cardinals 2 weeks ago. One clown and one cardinal are the survivors. The others died on different days, but suddenly. There one minute gone the next.
Questions: is there such a thing as too much live sand and rock?
Is there a way to know if our tank has even cycled yet. We have nowhere to quarantine fish. Do we just hope the fish are helping cycle the tank at this point? Thank you!

 

[brandon429]

Your cycle is done, disease or acclimation stress killed them. It’s too confusing to discuss the nine ways your cycle was ready...live rock etc

just focusing on the fritz part, two day bacteria, and fish waste already running it all for weeks, you no longer have a cycle issue you have a fallow/ quarantine disease issue. Even though it seems on cursory view you didn’t cycle, every measure stated above shows you are cycled, depending on your umpire. 100% of fish will die in an uncycled tank, not just a few. If it happens at all it will be within the first 48 hours but you dosed two day bacteria, thankfully, and it’s been weeks.

all cycling charts are written to show what your real ammonia level currently is at.

cycles do not stick, stall or run halfway in reefing. We either have enough to run the bioload we want or we don’t, and the whole tank dies in 48 hours. Any form of staggered loss rules out cycling issues, cycling charts for ammonia control are the same across pages because it’s this reliable, and the ammonia was the only portion we cared about. The other two can’t burn your fish.

post a picture

if the remaining fish are swimming in clear water, and they eat food, ammonia was never the case no matter what your test says.

 

[Hayjay]

Your cycle is done, disease or acclimation stress killed them. It’s too confusing to discuss the nine ways your cycle was ready...live rock etc

just focusing on the fritz part, two day bacteria, and fish waste already running it all for weeks, you no longer have a cycle issue you have a fallow/ quarantine disease issue. Even though it seems on cursory view you didn’t cycle, every measure stated above shows you are cycled, depending on your umpire. 100% of fish will die in an uncycled tank, not just a few. If it happens at all it will be within the first 48 hours but you dosed two day bacteria, thankfully, and it’s been weeks.

all cycling charts are written to show what your real ammonia level currently is at.

cycles do not stick, stall or run halfway in reefing. We either have enough to run the bioload we want or we don’t, and the whole tank dies in 48 hours. Any form of staggered loss rules out cycling issues, cycling charts for ammonia control are the same across pages because it’s this reliable, and the ammonia was the only portion we cared about. The other two can’t burn your fish.

post a picture

if the remaining fish are swimming in clear water, and they eat food, ammonia was never the case no matter what your test says.

Thank you.

 

[Rmckoy]

The only thing I see .
not sure how new to reef keeping .
4” sand bed is lovely and looks amazing but can cause a world of issues later on . Research deep sand beds and know there Are good and bad for livestock .
For shallow or deep sand bed there are posts here .

as for rocks .
it really depends on what you want to stock
later .
that being said on average 1lb per gallon is a good start
Any more you’re displacing from the total volume and restricting swimming

 

[Hayjay]

Thank you!