First Saltwater Tank (HR15)

[Avgwarhawk]

Follow up on a water supply for the ATO. I did purchase a 2 gallon refrigerator water container. It is thin and fits the HR stand fine. I will send a link of the container if you like.

 

[Jon B.]

Follow up on a water supply for the ATO. I did purchase a 2 gallon refrigerator water container. It is thin and fits the HR stand fine. I will send a link of the container if you like.

I ended up getting a cereal container from Walmart that works for now.

 

[TX_REEF]

@Jon B. by the way, if you decide to add pods once your tank is up and stabilized, I highly recommend @Reef By Steele - his products are awesome and he's very active on the forum: https://reefbysteele.com/collections/copepods

 

[Jon B.]

Finally starting into see some Nitrite in the tank! I thought maybe the cycle had stalled/failed to get going based on how much ammonia it's been showing. Small victory! Tomorrow will be two weeks since it's been running, I figure another week before it can consistently cycle out ammonia? Maybe two?

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Finally starting into see some Nitrite in the tank! I thought maybe the cycle had stalled/failed to get going based on how much ammonia it's been showing. Small victory! Tomorrow will be two weeks since it's been running, I figure another week before it can consistently cycle out ammonia? Maybe two?

Tank doesn't really stall, it's usually the amount of bacteria is greater than the food supply. Meaning the amount of ammonia being converted is to little and the bacteria that coverts nitrite into nitrate is us processing it faster than produced. So while you may not see any they are being consumed. Establishing bacteria can be confusing at times.

Think of an assembly line with a bottle neck. The bottle neck initially is the ammonia consuming bacteria. They produce little nitrite until there is more. This allows the bacteria that consumes nitrite to establish and initially consume the initial trickle of nitrite soon as it's available. When using dr Tim's or other methods where you slowly ramp up bacteria.

While you may see some nitrate and no nitrite, if your seeing ammonia, your still establishing and may still see a nitrite spike. If you have no ammonia and nitrite but some nitrate then you are cycled if no nitrite.

The trick is do you have enough bacteria? This is why depending what and how you plan to stock maybe beneficial to add slowly. There are other methods but this pertains to dosing with Tim's or similar.

 

[Jon B.]

While you may see some nitrate and no nitrite, if your seeing ammonia, your still establishing and may still see a nitrite spike. If you have no ammonia and nitrite but some nitrate then you are cycled if no nitrite.

With my only other experience being our freshwater tanks, I was assuming I would see the "spike" in Nitrite which would then be followed by it going "away" with Nitrates showing. The Dr. Tim's method has been a little odd in that the amount of Ammonia that gets introduced seems like a LOT. Which was why I kinda thought it "stalled" until there could be a buildup of more bacteria to handle it. I've never had any of our freshwater tanks test with 2-4ppm Ammonia. But, that's the other cool thing about learning these different ways to go about stuff. I'm trying to be an open book about the journey, so I appreciate the input from everyone.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

With my only other experience being our freshwater tanks, I was assuming I would see the "spike" in Nitrite which would then be followed by it going "away" with Nitrates showing. The Dr. Tim's method has been a little odd in that the amount of Ammonia that gets introduced seems like a LOT. Which was why I kinda thought it "stalled" until there could be a buildup of more bacteria to handle it. I've never had any of our freshwater tanks test with 2-4ppm Ammonia. But, that's the other cool thing about learning these different ways to go about stuff. I'm trying to be an open book about the journey, so I appreciate the input from everyone.

I may have missed but did you add any live rock? If so then you may not even see a cycle. But also depends on amount of live rock vs tank size. Sorry if I don't remember reading this

 

[Jon B.]

I may have missed but did you add any live rock? If so then you may not even see a cycle. But also depends on amount of live rock vs tank size. Sorry if I don't remember reading this

Nope, no live rock. Basically just what the HR "kit" comes with but I had to source salt and sand separately since I bought it secondhand and they had traded those off to a friend and then didn't set up the tank at all.

 

[Jon B.]

Still not seeing "0" ammonia. I'm using a Fritz testing kit, and the color will change from a pale yellow to a very light green which corresponds to ~.50ppm I believe. So, not a lot, but not none. I've been waiting on it to get to zero so I can dose ammonia again to check the cycle.

Not a big deal, it's giving me time to put together a quarantine tank, and buy an rodi booster which showed up today.

 

[Jon B.]

Decided to see if maybe my test kit wasn't able to accurately tell me if the ammonia was gone so I picked up a Salifert kit on my way home.

Guess what? Sure looked like zero to me! So I just dosed the tank with Dr. Tim's Ammonia to see if it'll go away by tomorrow. Feeling good about this.

Also, time to buy a quarantine tank! That's probably on the to-do for tomorrow. Then it's livestock time.

 

[Jon B.]

Nope. Did a full test with Nitrite and Nitrate, still showing a bunch of Ammonia, some Nitrite and basically no Nitrate. I'm also not sure I trust this Salifert kit. The Fritz showed way more Ammonia, and the Salifert essentially showed none. So, back to the Fritz.

The wait continues!

 

[Avgwarhawk]

Nope. Did a full test with Nitrite and Nitrate, still showing a bunch of Ammonia, some Nitrite and basically no Nitrate. I'm also not sure I trust this Salifert kit. The Fritz showed way more Ammonia, and the Salifert essentially showed none. So, back to the Fritz.

The wait continues!

Salifert are very good kits. Did you use a pinch of fish food with the Dr. Tim's? I ask because my 15 gallon did cycle in 8 days using the HF method. Fish went in day 9 and have thrived.

 

[Jon B.]

Salifert are very good kits. Did you use a pinch of fish food with the Dr. Tim's? I ask because my 15 gallon did cycle in 8 days using the HF method. Fish went in day 9 and have thrived.

Yes, but I also added the Dr. Tim's ammonia. So, really no reason the Salifert should show nothing when there was clearly Ammonia in the tank. It's possible I just got a dud even though it's not even close to it's expiration. This Wednesday will be a month since it's had the Dr. Tim's Bacteria. I'm likely to never use this method again, and will rely on live sand/rock to get it done (which I might add anyway). Tampa Bay Saltwater has a small package I'm thinking of adding (Jar Package) to ensure I have the biome that's needed.

It's also possible my included bottle of Dr. Tims bacteria was bad. I don't know how this tank package was treated/stored prior to me getting it from the person I bought it from. Not a big deal, it's just taking longer than expected. I've also been adding Microbacter7 here and there, and frankly only noticed anything happening once I started using that.

 

[Avgwarhawk]

It is quite possible it already cycled. Mine did in 8 days.

 

[Jon B.]

It is not. Testing at ~2-4ppm ammonia, and ~1-2ppm Nitrite. Since I dosed Ammonia on Friday, it should be gone today if it were cycled. I'm at least glad it's showing Nitrite, as about two weeks ago I saw a teeny amount, and it seems that the bacteria is just taking it's sweet time to take care of everything. Sometimes it just takes a while, again, live rock/sand would have had this sorted pretty much immediately which is just what I'll do from now on.

Our Cichlid/Tetra, and Betta tanks are nice and clean though. So that's some positive news.

 

[Jon B.]

We're gonna do one more dose of ammonia today (smaller) and see if it's basically back to testing at .5ppm on my fritz kit tomorrow or Monday. That seems to be where that bottoms out. My Salifert test kit is 100% garbage. I even added drops of ammonia to it to see if it would pick up anything and it doesn't. Glad it was so cheap, but man I hate wasting money.

Also, got my lid from Top Lids today. Super nice! Highly recommend if anyone has the room in their budget.

@Top§Lids

 

[Jon B.]

No photos, but a bit of an update. There is now life in our tank! I added Copepods (Algaebarn 5280) about a week ago, and today added Nassarius, Cerith, and Astrea snails in addition to a Tailspot Blenny. Hopefully all will have moved around as of tomorrow. I think there were two that had stayed stationary ever since bringing them home, acclimating, and even now checking the tank in the dark. Time will tell!

 

[Jon B.]

Ugh. Found our Tailspot dead in the filter sock today. I guess it was small enough to fit in through the overflow holes. I feel like I failed this little guy because I didn't think it would be able to fit.

Note to self (and others), if you don't think your tiny fish can fit though a pretty small opening chances are it can. I'm looking for a cover/screen for that as I type this. If anyone has something they know that fits I'm all ears.

I'm kinda leaning towards just having a pair of clowns at this point.

 

[Jon B.]

 

[JumboShrimp]

They are nice looking fish