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- Feb 18, 2020
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Hello,
I recently setup my 240 gallon tank with roughly 30 gallons in the sump. I used turbo start 900 and ammonia to get the cycle process start, the sand I used was 80lbs of ocean direct and 40 lbs of dry sand. Roughly about 100lbs of dry rock. I used some cycled bio media from an established tank. I also added some two of the algae barn bacteria. Everything is running fine and I still daily test:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate:11
Phosphate:0
PH: 8.1
Temp:77.2
I was not testing for phosphate until I added some one my corals and noticed I was at zero. I added them on Wednesday of this week. I feared I may get dinos so I dosed the tank with neophos last night in order to get it up to 0.01. I checked this morning and is back at 0. I do have fish in the tank: 2 clowns, 3 tangs, and 2 two Toby puffers. I even added my zebra eel in an attempt to get my bioload up. I have not seen diatoms and this is week 3, this is my 5th tank I cycle but first at this size. Should I continue to dose neophos or will this create a huge headache for me down the road? I don’t plan to buy new fish for at least 2 months. I started to feed the fish 4 times a day and turned off the skimmer. Only chemical filtration is carbon and my refugium will be setup at a later time.
I appreciate any advice.
I recently setup my 240 gallon tank with roughly 30 gallons in the sump. I used turbo start 900 and ammonia to get the cycle process start, the sand I used was 80lbs of ocean direct and 40 lbs of dry sand. Roughly about 100lbs of dry rock. I used some cycled bio media from an established tank. I also added some two of the algae barn bacteria. Everything is running fine and I still daily test:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate:11
Phosphate:0
PH: 8.1
Temp:77.2
I was not testing for phosphate until I added some one my corals and noticed I was at zero. I added them on Wednesday of this week. I feared I may get dinos so I dosed the tank with neophos last night in order to get it up to 0.01. I checked this morning and is back at 0. I do have fish in the tank: 2 clowns, 3 tangs, and 2 two Toby puffers. I even added my zebra eel in an attempt to get my bioload up. I have not seen diatoms and this is week 3, this is my 5th tank I cycle but first at this size. Should I continue to dose neophos or will this create a huge headache for me down the road? I don’t plan to buy new fish for at least 2 months. I started to feed the fish 4 times a day and turned off the skimmer. Only chemical filtration is carbon and my refugium will be setup at a later time.
I appreciate any advice.