Help out with Beginning tank parameters

[Ghost415]

Have a couple questions here but first sum info

-10g tank
-side note- for Tuesday’s and Wednesday I messed up testing for nitrites so that’s just an fyi

My questions
1) Can anyone just help me out and see if my params are good to begin stocking livestock
2) should I start out with corals first or fish?

livestock list
-pair of clowns
- goby and shrimp

Coral list (in general)
-softies (zoas, gsp etc etc)
-sum LPS (like euphylia and other things)

 

[BighohoReef]

Your parameters look good from your Friday record... how long has your cycle been happening? I count 6 days, is that correct? If it really has only been 6 days I would still wait one more week before adding anything. Test your parameters again at the end of the week to make sure you’re still getting the same results.
I’m of the camp that ammonia should be 0 before adding anything, it’s toxic and will stress the fish with the likelihood of them dying. Also that parameters are stable.

Your order should be fish first, clean up crew (CuC) and then corals I would introduce them week at a time.

I can’t preach this enough, the most important rule to successful reef keeping is patience, rush never leads to good results. With the size of your water column things can go sideways quickly if parameters change
in the tank.

 

[andrewey]

Have you re dosed your ammonia and seen if your tank can process it? Otherwise, everyone is just guessing

By the way, you didn't list how you started the tank. Did you start with live rock, did you seed the dry rock with bacteria, etc.?

 

[Ghost415]

Have you re dosed your ammonia and seen if your tank can process it? Otherwise, everyone is just guessing

By the way, you didn't list how you started the tank. Did you start with live rock, did you seed the dry rock with bacteria, etc.?

I forgot that part lol, used dry rock but I used fritz turbo start 900 and ammonia chloride to control the ammonia in the tank, also I used live sand from Carib sea

 

[andrewey]

With the first part, you should redose your ammonia and test to see that your tank can process it in 24 hours.

 

[Ghost415]

Your parameters look good from your Friday record... how long has your cycle been happening? I count 6 days, is that correct? If it really has only been 6 days I would still wait one more week before adding anything. Test your parameters again at the end of the week to make sure you’re still getting the same results.
I’m of the camp that ammonia should be 0 before adding anything, it’s toxic and will stress the fish with the likelihood of them dying. Also that parameters are stable.

Your order should be fish first, clean up crew (CuC) and then corals I would introduce them week at a time.

I can’t preach this enough, the most important rule to successful reef keeping is patience, rush never leads to good results. With the size of your water column things can go sideways quickly if parameters change
in the tank.

I started the tank the previous Sunday, as of right now (Saturday 27 of June) the ammonia is at 0.
Nitrates are still 10 or possibly 11-13
idk cuz I’ve been using the Red Sea test kit and it goes from 0 to 5 to 10 and I belive 15 I’m not sure but there’s no reading for in between But it’s for sure not 15

 

[Ghost415]

With the first part, you should redose your ammonia and test to see that your tank can process it in 24 hours.

With the first part, you should redose your ammonia and test to see that your tank can process it in 24 hours.

should I do a water change and redone ammonia? Or just leave it as is and just dise with the same water in the system

 

[andrewey]

No need for a water change. Just redose and test. If the tank can process the ammonia, then you know it's met the MINIMUM, and I can't stress that word strongly enough, checkpoint before any life can be introduced into the tank. Most seasoned reefers would wait a bit longer as BighohoReef pointed out. I've never met a reefer that regretted waiting an extra week with a cycle (as there is more to reefing than the ability to process ammonia), but if you check my message history, about 10% of my posts concern reefers that rush some aspect of reefing and are always playing catch up.

 

[Ghost415]

No need for a water change. Just redose and test. If the tank can process the ammonia, then you know it's met the MINIMUM, and I can't stress that word strongly enough, checkpoint before any life can be introduced into the tank. Most seasoned reefers would wait a bit longer as BighohoReef pointed out. I've never met a reefer that regretted waiting an extra week with a cycle (as there is more to reefing than the ability to process ammonia), but if you check my message history, about 10% of my posts concern reefers that rush some aspect of reefing and are always playing catch up.

I’ll give it another week before I do add somthing or until ammonia reaches 0 again thanks for the heads up! (Facebook groups were no help with my questions lol)

 

[andrewey]

No worries. Some like them- I haven't been overly impressed. I prefer the group on reef2reef or some of the other forums.

 

[Ulm_nano_diybudgetreef]

I’ll give it another week before I do add somthing or until ammonia reaches 0 again thanks for the heads up! (Facebook groups were no help with my questions lol)

This is the best for questions and sharing hands down. I've tried several forums which were useless and with little to no local help I was starting to feel the pressure of a first timer... till I got on here

 

[Ghost415]

This is the best for questions and sharing hands down. I've tried several forums which were useless and with little to no local help I was starting to feel the pressure of a first timer... till I got on here

Hey from 1 week later! Srry to bother but I’m confused, so like I said a week ago, that I would dose again, I dosed ammonia chloride back up to 2ppm (dr Tim’s) and today Friday (July 3) there hasn’t been a change in ammonia, since Tuesday it’s been 0.2 ppm and it’s Friday? Any info why?

 

[andrewey]

Did you test your nitrites or nitrates by any chance during this last week?

 

[andrewey]

It also looks like the advice from BighohoReef was right on point! As your tank took >3 days to process the ammonia, it would not have been ready for either fish or coral- waiting a week was a good piece of advice as in this case as your biological filter was not ready (the population of nitrifying bacteria was not large enough to process the ammonia).

There's a chance you're done with your cycle and there's a chance your cycle is not yet completed and your bacteria need more time to divide. The safest way is to continue testing as you saw in this case - anything else is just a guess that may risk your pet's health and well being. When there are animal's lives at risk, it's better to be safe than sorry .

 

[Ghost415]

It also looks like the advice from BighohoReef was right on point! As your tank took >3 days to process the ammonia, it would not have been ready for either fish or coral- waiting a week was a good piece of advice as in this case as your biological filter was not ready (the population of nitrifying bacteria was not large enough to process the ammonia).

There's a chance you're done with your cycle and there's a chance your cycle is not yet completed and your bacteria need more time to divide. The safest way is to continue testing as you saw in this case - anything else is just a guess that may risk your pet's health and well being. When there are animal's lives at risk, it's better to be safe than sorry .

Did you test your nitrites or nitrates by any chance during this last week?

I didn’t test for nitrites or nitrates this time as I didn’t think it was that important, I knew there would already be nitrate so I knew there was bacteria to break down the ammonia to no2 then to no3.
As for what to do next, maybe add another week? Or what are your thoughts

 

[andrewey]

If it were a larger tank, I would wait a week and test again, as I'm not usually in a rush to cycle a display tank and I don't want to build up excessive nitrate from repeated ammonia dosing.

However, as your tank is 10 gallons, I'm less concerned about nitrate building up from your ammonia dosing (as it's simple enough to change out 100% of your water after your cycle). As such, you can simply repeat the experiment again today/tomorrow and see if your tank is quicker in processing the ammonia (assuming you don't mind running lots of tests). If you don't want to use up the testing reagents so quickly, waiting another few days or a week seems like a good solution.

 

[Ghost415]

If it were a larger tank, I would wait a week and test again, as I'm not usually in a rush to cycle a display tank and I don't want to build up excessive nitrate from repeated ammonia dosing.

However, as your tank is 10 gallons, I'm less concerned about nitrate building up from your ammonia dosing (as it's simple enough to change out 100% of your water after your cycle). As such, you can simply repeat the experiment again today/tomorrow and see if your tank is quicker in processing the ammonia (assuming you don't mind running lots of tests). If you don't want to use up the testing reagents so quickly, waiting another few days or a week seems like a good solution.

i think I’ll wait a couple more weeks, since I’m leaving town next Saturday for buisness for about two weeks, should I dose ammonia up again before I leave next sat?

 

[andrewey]

If I were in your shoes, I would probably dose it back up to 2ppm once or twice before you leave, then let it be while you're gone. Depending on how long you are gone, make sure you have planned for any evaporation and salinity changes. In truth, you can go without ammonia at this point and the tank will be fine. The converse isn't true (you can't dose 10ppm ammonia in the tank to "feed" the bacteria while you are away.

The good news is that the time away will allow the tank to not only cycle, but start to stabilize! I find it a lot easier to stock a tank that's started stabilizing as opposed to a tank right after cycling that's still a bit volatile, but that's just a matter of preference.

The great news is that you will most likely come back to a cycled aquarium and you don't have to worry about the inhabitants while you were away as if you had stocked the tank already- a win win!

 

[Ghost415]

If I were in your shoes, I would probably dose it back up to 2ppm once or twice before you leave, then let it be while you're gone. Depending on how long you are gone, make sure you have planned for any evaporation and salinity changes. In truth, you can go without ammonia at this point and the tank will be fine. The converse isn't true (you can't dose 10ppm ammonia in the tank to "feed" the bacteria while you are away.

The good news is that the time away will allow the tank to not only cycle, but start to stabilize! I find it a lot easier to stock a tank that's started stabilizing as opposed to a tank right after cycling that's still a bit volatile, but that's just a matter of preference.

The great news is that you will most likely come back to a cycled aquarium and you don't have to worry about the inhabitants while you were away as if you had stocked the tank already- a win win!

Very tru, I guess now my course of action is probably dose back up again to 2 ppm tomorrow Saturday, and then again next Saturday before I leave. I have evaporation covered with a XP Aqua, (hopefully it doesn’t flood my room) but I’ll just fill up the reservoir and and extra bucket of RODI for precaution, I’m pretty sure once I come back I can do a water change, and then begin stocking.

 

[Ulm_nano_diybudgetreef]

Best thing is to let it cycle for 21-30 days especially if your using dry rock and sand. The longer the better to allow bacteria to well establish in the tank