New tank

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So as I was reading on the shrimp cycling technique, it says to not have filtration going? Just circulation. I’m curious on why you don’t want the bacteria to go on the filter media? I only have a penguin 375 HOB. It’s not going but I’m curious as it didn’t go into explanation.
Todays test results
Salinity 1.026
Ph 8.1
Ammonia 0.50 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 5ppm

api test kit ( I know it’s not the best kit)
 

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Todays test results
Salinity 1.026
Ph 8.1
Ammonia 0.50 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 5ppm

api test kit ( I know it’s not the best kit)
Awesome seems like you have some ammonia! I would test ammonia ever couple days. You should see it go up then down. That will be your cycle. You will want it to cycle twice, if you can wait that long! Once to establish the bacteria and second to mature them. Allows them to handle a larger bioload (it will continue to grow) the longer you wait now (hardest part) the quicker you can add many things at once! (IMO).
 
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60 kidney stones a year!!!! oh man I’m so sorry for your wife! My wife has had 4-5 in the 15 years we’ve been together and I thought that was a lot for someone to go through.

As far as the water top off, you’re off to a good start. Sounds like you’ve got a plan but I’ll say it anyway. Having an automatic top off once you put coral in the tank will increase your chances for success substantially, unless you are religious about adding water constantly. Also, your water parameters look good enough for cycling the tank and I know someone mentioned it already but I’ll reiterate, you might want to consider bumping up the salinity to 1.026/35ppt. And your heat could go up a touch as well. 77-78. Leaving it 76 isn’t going to kill anything but coral will do better a couple degrees warmer.

As you mentioned, everyone has their way of doing things. Here’s one I use if you’re looking for a common method to cycle the tank. Im sure you’ve read about it. Put a chunk of frozen shrimp (or fish food as mentioned) in the tank with some bacteria boost. Which you’ve done the bacteria already. Test a few days later, write down the ammonia level. Test a few days later, write down ammonia level. Repeat... And then as soon as you show no ammonia test for nitrites and nitrates (though I don’t really see the need for a nitrite test kit. It starts as ammonia and ends as nitrate so there’s really very little need to know nitrite). Once you test 0 ammonia and can show a nitrate reading. Throw another chunk of shrimp or fish food in and test for ammonia and nitrates the next day. Once you’re there you’re pretty much cycled. Should take 2-4 weeks. Be careful not to get hung up on low ammonia readings not showing 0. I see people post all the time about their cycle getting stuck because their ammonia is at 0.5-1ppm. Ammonia test kits are finicky and sometimes won’t test at zero. That’s why it’s important to test along the way and to test for nitrates. Once you can prove that it goes from ammonia to nitrates. It’s cycling. How fast it can do that is why it’s important to wait before you add fish. Some people will add fish as soon as they see proof of the cycle and then they end up with an ammonia spike because the tank hasn’t matured enough. That’s why I say 2-4 weeks. 2 weeks it should be cycled and another 2 weeks to let it mature a bit.
Showing signs here’s a picture of my crappy hand writing. Shrimp is still in there, enveloped
 

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adittam

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Hey Thank you!
I’d like to have a couple clowns, a six line wrasse, maybe a watchman goby, definitely some corals but later on. The family is set on clowns for sure. I still need to do some research, and what I can put together for the tank size and compatibility. Working out a CUC list but this is what I’ve come up with so far for fish. I want to put together a decent CUC. Research research research. I have a pretty successful koi pond that is for the most part self sustaining (minus feeding) that I use for aquaponics (5 years old). I love challenges.

First of all, welcome!

Secondly, do you have a plan for quarantining your fish? You can set up a second smaller tank (10 or 20 gallon tanks work well) and QT yourself or find a LFS that does actual QT with copper treatment at therapeutic levels or an online vendor that does the same. Some people don’t QT at all (including me when I started), but a large majority of those people switch to some sort of QT process after they bring home a fish that wipes out half or more of their livestock. It’s not possible to effectively treat for diseases in your display tank because inverts and corals don’t tolerate copper, which is the only effective treatment against many parasites, and your rock and sand will absorb copper that’s added to the display tank, leaching it out slowly over a long period of time afterwards.
 
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First of all, welcome!

Secondly, do you have a plan for quarantining your fish? You can set up a second smaller tank (10 or 20 gallon tanks work well) and QT yourself or find a LFS that does actual QT with copper treatment at therapeutic levels or an online vendor that does the same. Some people don’t QT at all (including me when I started), but a large majority of those people switch to some sort of QT process after they bring home a fish that wipes out half or more of their livestock. It’s not possible to effectively treat for diseases in your display tank because inverts and corals don’t tolerate copper, which is the only effective treatment against many parasites, and your rock and sand will absorb copper that’s added to the display tank, leaching it out slowly over a long period of time afterwards.
Yeah I was thinking about that the other night, I do have a 10 gallon tank in the garage from a fresh water setup, I’m planning on washing it throughly and using that. I’m going to have to read up on the treatments though. Thank you for your insight.
 

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Yeah I was thinking about that the other night, I do have a 10 gallon tank in the garage from a fresh water setup, I’m planning on washing it throughly and using that. I’m going to have to read up on the treatments though. Thank you for your insight.
All of the stickied threads in the “fish disease treatment and diagnosis” forum are helpful, but especially this one:

 
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Hey everyone, I’ve been doing some research for some time. A while back I had 10 freshwater tanks for many years going successfully when I was single haha (12 years ago). I’ve always wanted a saltwater reef tank. The family is pretty excited to get into it now. So we are starting with a 40 gallon breeder, rodi filtration to have great water. Mixed the salt to 1.021 salinity. Caribsea live sand 1” depth and 20lbs Carib sea life rock with spores. Temp about 76 degrees F. I added biological booster to get the cycle going. PH 8.1 ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 0. I do have a small circulator pump in there as well as a penguin 375. Will upgrade over time (not the best course I know).
image.jpg
Update.
todays tests (API, I know not the best)
Ammonia 0ish near 0.125 I would guess.
Nitrite .5 ( half of what it was 2 days ago)
Nitrate 20ppm (half of what it was 2 days ago) looking like it’s doing what it’s suppose to, just about 2 weeks using shrimp method, and the first initial does of bacteria.
 

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Wanna get this thing cycled quickly?Drop the salinity to 1.015. Crank the temp to 85. Get some Dr. Tim's Ammonia and add a half dose. Add some Dr. Tim's One and Only according to the directions. Test to see what Ammonia levels you hit. You are shooting for around 1.5 PPM.

There IS a science to cycling a tank quickly. Check out this video and take notes.



After it's cycled 10 days or so and the Ammonia disappears, check your Phosphate. If it's higher than 0.25 PPM you are going to want to do something about it BEFORE you add fish.
 

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Update.
todays tests (API, I know not the best)
Ammonia 0ish near 0.125 I would guess.
Nitrite .5 ( half of what it was 2 days ago)
Nitrate 20ppm (half of what it was 2 days ago) looking like it’s doing what it’s suppose to, just about 2 weeks using shrimp method, and the first initial does of bacteria.
Doing great! Soon you will be good to go! Just keep in mind your cycle as your number might fluctuate a little with it!

Glad you are off to a good start. Keep it up! Slow and steady are what get you to an amazing tank! Also, if you haven't yet. Look up "ugly stage" of new tanks. Do not want to be caught off guard by that haha
 

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Update.
todays tests (API, I know not the best)
Ammonia 0ish near 0.125 I would guess.
Nitrite .5 ( half of what it was 2 days ago)
Nitrate 20ppm (half of what it was 2 days ago) looking like it’s doing what it’s suppose to, just about 2 weeks using shrimp method, and the first initial does of bacteria.

If you want to add a couple fish now, they will be 100% fine. If you want to try to get everything perfect first, you could wait a couple more weeks, but it’s definitely not necessary. Your tank is processing ammonia now.
 
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Doing great! Soon you will be good to go! Just keep in mind your cycle as your number might fluctuate a little with it!

Glad you are off to a good start. Keep it up! Slow and steady are what get you to an amazing tank! Also, if you haven't yet. Look up "ugly stage" of new tanks. Do not want to be caught off guard by that haha
Hey Thanks, I k ow it’s not necessary, but I’ve been testing almost everyday, out of curiosity of the cycle working and parameters changing. It’s interesting. I am taking it very slow, I practice patience all the time so it’s pretty easy for me. I’ve briefly been looking up posts of the “ugly stage” especially when it’s a new first tank and people freak out without doing the research. I still have that shrimp in the tank, fully enveloped with bacteria. No smell, no algea so far, no issues. I’m definitely excited to get fish and coral, but slow is best from what I read, and the help of all of you!
most likely going to start with a pair of clowns and go from there.
Thank you for the response
 
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If you want to add a couple fish now, they will be 100% fine. If you want to try to get everything perfect first, you could wait a couple more weeks, but it’s definitely not necessary. Your tank is processing ammonia now.
Perfect, I may wait because I’d like to get a QT tank up and going by putting one of the rocks in my 10 gallon, which in theory even though the rocks aren’t mature they should have some bacteria on them to get it going. Unless the LFS that I’ve been looking at does QT, I need to call them. Staying away from Petco fish. That is great to hear, and Thank you for the response.
 
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First of all, welcome!

Secondly, do you have a plan for quarantining your fish? You can set up a second smaller tank (10 or 20 gallon tanks work well) and QT yourself or find a LFS that does actual QT with copper treatment at therapeutic levels or an online vendor that does the same. Some people don’t QT at all (including me when I started), but a large majority of those people switch to some sort of QT process after they bring home a fish that wipes out half or more of their livestock. It’s not possible to effectively treat for diseases in your display tank because inverts and corals don’t tolerate copper, which is the only effective treatment against many parasites, and your rock and sand will absorb copper that’s added to the display tank, leaching it out slowly over a long period of time afterwards.
I fully agree with QT, I had an experience getting a new KOI fish years ago, and plopped it in our pond (we). It wiped out the 11 other koi plus itself. Learned the hard way. After we did our research and found a place here that sells to people who fly from japan to buy koi, we haven’t had any issues. Great facility, and a ton or respect and love go into their fish. Thank you for the input! I have a 10 gallon tank laying around I’m going to use as QT. I plan on using a rock from the DT to get the QT cycled, then remove the rock and have bare bottom QT once cycled so the rock doesn’t absorb copper
 

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Seems like you're taking the right approach for the most part. I concur with the comments that you could use some more rock, and the salinity is low at 1.021. I'm pretty new at this too so I recently went through your stage. Started my 55g tank almost 6 months ago and waited about 45 days before adding any livestock. Got my cycle going using ammonia. I too used the API test kit which most don't give high marks too, but it sufficed to monitor the cycle for me. Eventually I did get frustrated trying to determine my nitrate levels by reading the color chart. I was never confident that I could read it very accurately and so about a month ago invested in a Hannah LR nitrate checker and feel much better about the measurement results.

I started adding livestock at around 45 days, a pair of clownfish, then added one fish weekly (which may have been a little too rushed, but the tank seemed to handle it ok) along with various CUC critters until I felt I was about maxed out on fish. Other than a little parasite trouble with some green chromises it has gone quite well. I finally got to add my first coral almost two weeks ago and it is doing pretty good as well. While it's not a perfect tank, all in all I'm pretty happy with the way things are coming along. Hopefully you have good success as well.
 
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Seems like you're taking the right approach for the most part. I concur with the comments that you could use some more rock, and the salinity is low at 1.021. I'm pretty new at this too so I recently went through your stage. Started my 55g tank almost 6 months ago and waited about 45 days before adding any livestock. Got my cycle going using ammonia. I too used the API test kit which most don't give high marks too, but it sufficed to monitor the cycle for me. Eventually I did get frustrated trying to determine my nitrate levels by reading the color chart. I was never confident that I could read it very accurately and so about a month ago invested in a Hannah LR nitrate checker and feel much better about the measurement results.

I started adding livestock at around 45 days, a pair of clownfish, then added one fish weekly (which may have been a little too rushed, but the tank seemed to handle it ok) along with various CUC critters until I felt I was about maxed out on fish. Other than a little parasite trouble with some green chromises it has gone quite well. I finally got to add my first coral almost two weeks ago and it is doing pretty good as well. While it's not a perfect tank, all in all I'm pretty happy with the way things are coming along. Hopefully you have good success as well.
Thank you, yeah I added more rock day 2 and raised the salinity to 1.026 as well. I’m very happy to hear about your success! That’s awesome. Definitely taking it slow. No rush here thank you for the insight
 

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