I'm beyond frustrated, I'm disappointed in myself, and really need some help please. I haven't had a saltwater tank in quite a few years, so maybe my skills are rusty, I don't know. I wanted to get back into reefing, and I am planning a larger tank, but I decided I wanted to get started with a small tank and that I wanted to try the aquacultured live rock and sand from Tampa Bay Saltwater (who were fantastic to work with!). I've never used aquacultured rock before, but have always been intrigued by it. And, I have always wanted a mantis and I noticed that TBS also offers N. wennerae mantids as well.
I decided to start 2 small tanks, an IM Nuvo Fusion 15 gallon as kind of my "main" tank, with the intention of upgrading that in the very near future. And, an IM Nuvo Fusion 10 gallon as a dedicated Mantis tank. I placed an order with TBS for a mantis as well as some rock and sand, I forget exactly but I got about 14 pounds of the sand, 8 pounds of base rock, and 6 pounds of nano premium rock. And this is to divide over the two tanks, filling in with dry base rock as needed, though I've not added any dry rock as of yet.
I actually researched and asked about the best way to start these tanks. My plan was to get the tanks running in advance of receiving my TBS order. I thought I would fishless cycle them using Doctor Tim's One and Only, his ammonium chloride, and some plastic bio media. Several R2R members told me that the whole fishless cycle was unnecessary. One even called the Doctor Tim's stuff snake oil. I was told that when using the aquacultured live rock and sand that you can literally fill the tank with saltwater, add the rock and sand, turn the filter on, and basically instant tank, with little to no nitrogen cycle.
That seemed like sound advice from more experienced members, but I was still skeptical, so I decided to fishless cycle my tanks anyway. They ran for over three weeks following Doctor Tim's paradigm (lower salinity, higher temp, etc.) before I received my TBS order, so the tanks had at least a baseline bio filter going before I added the rock and sand.
I received my TBS order on Monday 11/13, I did my best to carefully unpack, inspect, acclimate and add the rock, sand, mantis, and handful of critters to the tanks, following the instructions from TBS. I absolutely expected to have some ammonia spikes, and I had a Brute 32 gallon going with heated saltwater in anticipation of doing some water changes.
I'm now about 5 days in, and my ammonia has been out of control the whole time. I'm doing as close to 100% water changes as possible not once but twice a day on both tanks, and it's killing me already. For example, I did a large water change on both tanks late last night, and this morning not even 12 hours later my ammonia was ~1.2 mg/L, nitrite ~0.5 mg/L, and nitrates just barely registering in the 10 gallon mantis tank. This is with the Red Sea test kits.
This seems crazy to me. I didn't think that 5 days in and I'd still be dealing with this much ammonia. In fact, I think the tanks are getting worse, I think they are crashing before they even got started, and I don't know what to do. Part of me thinks that by doing so many water changes that I'm removing the ammonia and not allowing the bacteria to populate. I'm so frustrated that I'm tempted to dose some Seachem Prime, but I know that will bind the ammonia, and the bacteria won't populate. Again, I started the tanks with Dr. Tim's One and Only and for the last four days I have been dosing Brightwell's Microbacter7.
I haven't seen the mantis since Wednesday. I feel like I may have killed him, and it sucks, honestly. I pulled the rock pieces apart this morning, and still couldn't find him, alive or dead. I don't know if he's holed up in a piece of rock, or maybe he got out of the tank and the cat got him? I really just don't know, but I feel horrible that I may have killed my mantis already. Is there any chance he's just been hiding for two full days? Is there a chance he could live through such high ammonia and nitrite? I mean, they used to hitchhike on boat rock that was in shipping for several weeks, but I fear the worst for mine.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance!
I decided to start 2 small tanks, an IM Nuvo Fusion 15 gallon as kind of my "main" tank, with the intention of upgrading that in the very near future. And, an IM Nuvo Fusion 10 gallon as a dedicated Mantis tank. I placed an order with TBS for a mantis as well as some rock and sand, I forget exactly but I got about 14 pounds of the sand, 8 pounds of base rock, and 6 pounds of nano premium rock. And this is to divide over the two tanks, filling in with dry base rock as needed, though I've not added any dry rock as of yet.
I actually researched and asked about the best way to start these tanks. My plan was to get the tanks running in advance of receiving my TBS order. I thought I would fishless cycle them using Doctor Tim's One and Only, his ammonium chloride, and some plastic bio media. Several R2R members told me that the whole fishless cycle was unnecessary. One even called the Doctor Tim's stuff snake oil. I was told that when using the aquacultured live rock and sand that you can literally fill the tank with saltwater, add the rock and sand, turn the filter on, and basically instant tank, with little to no nitrogen cycle.
That seemed like sound advice from more experienced members, but I was still skeptical, so I decided to fishless cycle my tanks anyway. They ran for over three weeks following Doctor Tim's paradigm (lower salinity, higher temp, etc.) before I received my TBS order, so the tanks had at least a baseline bio filter going before I added the rock and sand.
I received my TBS order on Monday 11/13, I did my best to carefully unpack, inspect, acclimate and add the rock, sand, mantis, and handful of critters to the tanks, following the instructions from TBS. I absolutely expected to have some ammonia spikes, and I had a Brute 32 gallon going with heated saltwater in anticipation of doing some water changes.
I'm now about 5 days in, and my ammonia has been out of control the whole time. I'm doing as close to 100% water changes as possible not once but twice a day on both tanks, and it's killing me already. For example, I did a large water change on both tanks late last night, and this morning not even 12 hours later my ammonia was ~1.2 mg/L, nitrite ~0.5 mg/L, and nitrates just barely registering in the 10 gallon mantis tank. This is with the Red Sea test kits.
This seems crazy to me. I didn't think that 5 days in and I'd still be dealing with this much ammonia. In fact, I think the tanks are getting worse, I think they are crashing before they even got started, and I don't know what to do. Part of me thinks that by doing so many water changes that I'm removing the ammonia and not allowing the bacteria to populate. I'm so frustrated that I'm tempted to dose some Seachem Prime, but I know that will bind the ammonia, and the bacteria won't populate. Again, I started the tanks with Dr. Tim's One and Only and for the last four days I have been dosing Brightwell's Microbacter7.
I haven't seen the mantis since Wednesday. I feel like I may have killed him, and it sucks, honestly. I pulled the rock pieces apart this morning, and still couldn't find him, alive or dead. I don't know if he's holed up in a piece of rock, or maybe he got out of the tank and the cat got him? I really just don't know, but I feel horrible that I may have killed my mantis already. Is there any chance he's just been hiding for two full days? Is there a chance he could live through such high ammonia and nitrite? I mean, they used to hitchhike on boat rock that was in shipping for several weeks, but I fear the worst for mine.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance!
