Should i turn off skimmer when adding live rock to seed?

[Makubex]

Its a new 55 gallon and ill be buying live rock to seed my 50 pounds of dry/live rock, currently the nitrate and nitrite are very high and dont lower no matter what i do, i did a 75% water change 6 days ago and it did nothing, ive been adding microbacter7 for 13 days now and it did nothing, i bought around 10 pounds of cured live rock 2 weeks ago and it did NOTHING, could it be the instant ocean epoxy putty? It STINKS, or the reef octopus protein skimmer killing all the new nitrifying bacteria? Uv sterlizer has been off for the past 2 weeks, im running 2 power filters, 1 jebao rw4 @ max level powerhead for water movement, livestock is clownfish, hoevens wrasse, and a coral beauty angel,!all 2.5"

 

[daybreaksky]

your tank is going through a cycle since you have nitrites, get a bottle of biospira or turbo start 900 an dump in the tank asap
microbacter7 did nothing for my cycle when i did mine and biospira completed a cycle in 2 days.

Petco usually stocks it or any fish store. do it today or you may lose some fish

 

[daybreaksky]

oh and turn off your skimmer for the first few months

 

[Makubex]

dang...! My angelfish already has something white at the tip of his tail is like a dot where he was bitten

 

[Makubex]

Can i get more people involved in this thread? Thanks!

 

[daybreaksky]

forgot to mention your nitrates will test higher when you have nitrites

 

[92Miata]

If you're adding live rock to your tank, then there's no benefit to turning off a skimmer, and a whole lot of risk. Absolutely run it.


I question your issues though - if water changes aren't lowering your nitrates - you've either got high nitrate in your water change water, or your tests are no good. Nitrate isn't like phosphate - nothing is absorbing and storing it - a 50% water change should drop the number by 50% immediately.

 

[daybreaksky]

I should have asked, was the live rock currently in the tank transported from an existing tank or shipped or exposed to air prior to addition, how long ago was it setup?
also @ReefSquad can chime in.
also what is your ammonia tests at, if your nitrites are present/high you may also have ammonia still present.
I would suggest tackling this one issue at a time and NITRITES would be at the top of the list

 

[Makubex]

Ammonia is .5, the live rock came from a reliable aquarist and had bristleworms on em which i removed, the testers work fine but i will be getting my water from the lfss from now on,

 

[daybreaksky]

drive to the store like right now and get 8oz bottle of this and dump it in. you are going through a full blown cycle which is causing die off on your rock and there isn't enough bacteria to deal with it. this will fix the immediate issue in a few hours
https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petco...tart-up-nitrifying-bacteria-aquarium-additive

 

[Makubex]

I am on my way there

 

[Makubex]

Any more people? Reef squad? More experienced aquarists? Bump

 

[daybreaksky]

I am on my way there

Awesome.
now on to the next thing. first a questions. how did you remove the bristle worms from the rock?

in regards to the skimmer:
turn it off for the next 48 hours. it doesn't kill bacteria but may remove it along with other solids while it's still suspended in the water column and didn't colonize the rock/glass/etc

watch your ammonia and make sure it hits 0 in the next few hours, it should by tomorrow with the bacteria added
keep an eye on nitrites, they will also start to go away. don't bother testing nitrates because nitrites are messing with your NitrAte test and showing super high, once nitrites are 0, your nitrates will test properly, if I had to guess probably 10-20ppm since you did the water change.

to answer your original questions about the skimmer. you do not need to turn it off when seeding with rock since bacteria is on the rock surface but you do when seeding with bottle since it is initially suspended in the water column before it finds home on the surfaces.

in the long run, why i said not to run skimmer at all or a while. it's up to you, that's just my method. there is not much harm to have nitrates slightly higher to prevent dinoflagellates and yes you will get some algae, it's part of a tank progress to maturity. then you can slowly start managing the nitrates and so forth. Many people run simmers right off the start but also many run in to dino problems as the result. so it's about balance and knowing that ugly stages are unavoidable but I would take ugly green over ugly/deadly dino bloom any day.

P.S. i have over 20 years of experience so I'm not just guessing in this situation if that makes you feel any better.

Edit: forgot to add that the spot on your fish may be result of ammonia burn. keep an eye on them and QT if necessary to treat with antibiotics (not in display tank)

 

[Makubex]

Ty so much ill keep you posted tomorrow morning

 

[Makubex]

I removed the worms with my hands btw

 

[Makubex]

Uhghh A BIT better but still very high, should i give it more time like how u did it since its only been 15 hours and not '48 hours'? Thanks

 

[Makubex]

I also added 15 lbs of cured live rock to help

 

[AquaBiomics]

If youve added live rock it is completely pointless to add any bottled bacteria. Live rock has hundreds of different kinds of microbes including nitrifying types. Bottled bacteria only contain a few types, many of which don't actually survive in the aquarium for very long anyway. Your tank is long past the stage where adding bottled bacteria will affect anything.

Water changes should lower nitrates. You initially said you had nitrites, what are your numbers? Nitrites should only exist at detectable levels during the early stages of cycling a tank.

You have fish too --- how long did you cycle this tank before adding fish?

 

[daybreaksky]

If youve added live rock it is completely pointless to add any bottled bacteria. Live rock has hundreds of different kinds of microbes including nitrifying types. Bottled bacteria only contain a few types, many of which don't actually survive in the aquarium for very long anyway. Your tank is long past the stage where adding bottled bacteria will affect anything.

Water changes should lower nitrates. You initially said you had nitrites, what are your numbers? Nitrites should only exist at detectable levels during the early stages of cycling a tank.

You have fish too --- how long did you cycle this tank before adding fish?

they answered these questions throughout the post. the tank is going through a cycle so bacteria is to quickly boost the numbers to save the fish and not to seed.

 

[daybreaksky]

Uhghh A BIT better but still very high, should i give it more time like how u did it since its only been 15 hours and not '48 hours'? Thanks

what did ammonia test at this morning?