Still Learning.....

Ponraj A · Sep 1, 2016

Hi,
After two times failure, now I have started for the third time with cycling my tank with live rock, I am waiting for the ammonia Seachem alert which I have ordered and hope to get in today. Also find below the embedded video link for your view.
Please inform me whether I am going in the right way. There are brown layers formed in the bottom of the tank after a week now. Light setting is,blue light on for 8 hrs and day light on for 3 hrs.
My LFS guy is saying me to take all the rock out and clean it again with the brush and put it back inside shall i do like this or leave as it's and wait till the green algae is showing up.

As of now my parameters are as below.
Salinity - 36 (refractometer)
Calcium - 500 (Red sea test kit)
Alkalinity - 10.5 (Red sea test kit)
Magnesium 2000 (Red sea test kit)
Phosphate - 0 (Api test kit)
Nitrate - 0 (API test kit)
pH - 8.1 (HM digital)

mcarroll · Sep 1, 2016

What happened with the first two failures?

Ponraj A · Sep 1, 2016

That's big story to go,
First time I have started without knowing anything relying only on my LFS guy (1). He made my tank capable with lot of filtration like, bio balls, ceramic rings, clay stones, lot of foams, uncapable skimmer in my sump and artificial rock. I had only 2 clowns (as in my profile pic) and it was good for 2 months and once I have started adding more fishes all where sick and died (due to high ammonia and nitrate). He even don't told me about the test kits which i need to buy. I am the first fool to start an SW like this.
Then with little study and another LFS guy (2) came he changed the sump removed all and kept one bio pellet reactor, Ocotpus ROPS 3000 skimmer, new lights and gave some rocks for cycling with Blue treasure cheap salt. Bought the API test kit and told me the wrong method of testing calcium. Actually it was high and he told me it was low and kept on adding lot of supplements and started with green hair algae. Then to remove it dosed with API algae fix and made all my water poisoned. I known about this when i put a snail into my tank and it never came out of shell and died. Then no more choice and cleaned my tank left it dried for a month and then got to know R2R and started my self now.
Third process, I have made below changes in my working
Update - I am cycling my tank with water for 45 days and now I have added the LR for a week now.
Salt - red sea coral pro salt
test kit - red sea
learned to be patience
never add any chemical stuff unless i know it's must
refugium (currently with my previous dead rocks after being dried for a month)
Bio pellet reactor
RO PS 3000 INT skimmer
phosban reactor (phosguard, matrix carbon)
reactor with seachem matirx
media bag with Purigen
Dosing :
DKH - Sodium bi carbonate (84)
Calcium - Calcium di hydrate
Magnesium - Magnesium chloride and sulphate

Ponraj A · Sep 1, 2016

Can anyone please guide me whether I am on the right way, and do i need to brush all the rocks again and told by my LFS guy?

Albz · Sep 1, 2016

Just add live rock, and live sand, and use RO water mix it with salt and than fill your tank and wait.. Waiting is the name of the game! I been waiting 13 days for my cycling now and so far its going really well.... and keep your lights off during cycle, don't need them on.. test your water every 2 or 3 days...

Ponraj A · Sep 1, 2016

I was running with the rocks for a week as mentioned above.
Ok I think also to switch off the lights but my LFS guy is asking me to keep the lights on to avoid too much die off in the rock.
Do you think i need to brush my rocks again as told by my LFS guy, you can see the video of the rocks and if possible guide me.

Albz · Sep 1, 2016

Ponraj A said:
I was running with the rocks for a week as mentioned above.
Ok I think also to switch off the lights but my LFS guy is asking me to keep the lights on to avoid too much die off in the rock.
Do you think i need to brush my rocks again as told by my LFS guy, you can see the video of the rocks and if possible guide me.

Im a noob too and ive read everyehere saying to keep lights off when cycling.. Im sure some experts here will help... I been cycling for 13 days with live sand and dry rock and two little pieces of live rock and my ammonia and nitrites all went to 0 in 9 days. I just boosted pure ammonia to0 test how fast it gets rid of it. Just do lot of research and ask ppl on here.

brandon429 · Sep 1, 2016

http://reef2reef.com/threads/new-ta...d-cocktail-shrimp-live-rock-no-shrimp.214618/

This thread shows the clear distinction and measures for cycling live rocks vs dry ones

For the q above about lights, doesn't matter to the cycle. A cycle is only about bacteria, and algae and live rock animals are totally separate and they can stand some light, or no light, as we cycle over the stated time frames above.

A key detail for this large tank thread cycling with live rock, is now that the water and rocks are running along, can you see any animals in the tank such as pods or worms that came from that rock? can you see any open fanworms with their crowns sticking out attached to that rock? Those are more important to know about cycling live rock than any test kit, such that any test kit isn't actually needed to cycle truly live rock (live being fanworms, pods, coralline, et al)

per pics that live rock appears to have been out of the water for while, maybe during transport or storage or something...was wondering if it brought in any live animals to the tank.

Ponraj A · Sep 1, 2016

Yes the rocks have been travelled for 12 hrs and I have seen some worms coming out after 4 days but now it's quite and the pink colour has increased a little bit. All the bottom of the tank is brownish and the rocks are getting green and pink mixed shade.

brandon429 · Sep 1, 2016

neat. that amount of travel does not kill marine bacteria, it boosts them, fully paradoxically to what people online type because minor dieoff in live rock isn't from bacteria dying, its from higher animals like some worms or pods, they generate ammonia, which boosts the bac.

The fact you have coloration, and some living life, means you still skip cycled this tank or they'd be dead due to true free ammonia.

In my thread above we showed tampa bay live rock company, able to ship live rock around the globe in about as much time, as a skip cycle. that thread applies to your tank for sure, a group B setup via indicators reviewed.

Ponraj A · Sep 2, 2016

Hi Brandon,
Thanks for yr reply and sorry I can't understand what you say, you mean my rocks are on the good way as of now?

brandon429 · Sep 2, 2016

I was meaning to say that the living animals you describe active and moving around, with coralline on the rocks alive, are how we know bacteria have survived transfer of rock between tanks, interestingly those animals indicate the presence of bacteria even though we can only see the tiny worms and pods etc. That cycling thread above just boils down to being able to move live rocks among tanks and they stay ready to go each time... moving tanks usually never kills off live rock as a handy cycling trick to know which you've used here.

Another main idea of the thread involving those little verifying animals is that's why we don't add ammonia or use rotting shrimp to recycle live rock... It's already ready.

Ponraj A · Sep 2, 2016

OK I will try adding some shrimps to check.
Thank you for yr suggestion.

brandon429 · Sep 2, 2016

hey that was -not- to add them, that last sentence lol. am meaning your rocks are ready nothing left to check, time to reef, as long as you don't have free ammonia registered. in that thread, your rocks are the kind we state are ready to go, we don't hit them with ammonia.

did your live rock ever dry out? it looks dried above, was wondering if you transported it home underwater or at least sealed up

Ponraj A · Sep 3, 2016

The rocks are not dried and it came by wrapping with the paper. I brushed it before keeping in my tanks and yesterday again I have brushed all in the tank now. Now i am having slight smell, but not like the first time. I will get my ammonia alert from Seachem today and will keep you posted on the readings. Thank you so much for your guidance so far and looking forward your support.

Mandrew · Sep 3, 2016

Sounds like you're trying way to hard. Remember the KISS method... (Keep it simple stupid) you have a bunch of reactors and chemical media you don't need in my opinion. All you need is a skimmer and your live rock right now. Let the ammonia spike and go away naturally then you can add one or two hardy fish and wait again for a while to add anything else. This will allow your biological filtration to catch up to the additional bio load. (Extra fish poop) there is no need for lighting during the cycle, that will just cause nuisance algae.

Mandrew · Sep 3, 2016

Also you need circulation. I'm assuming you have that already but I failed to mention that in my last post.

Mandrew · Sep 3, 2016

Also, since you have no corals right now you have no need to dose anything. (Calcium, magnesium, alk.) I've never dosed on any of my tanks because I've never had enough demand from my corals. Simple weekly water changes will be plenty to replenish those parameters.

Ponraj A · Sep 3, 2016

Hi Mandrew,
Thank you for your valuable suggestion, since i have failed due to the hair algae lost time, i was adding all these reactors to be on the safe side, but i get your point, I am having right now 3 WP40s from Jecod for circulation and waiting for my Jecod RW8 and CP40 which I have ordered. I was checking my parameters and only the DKH is getting low if I am not dosing, So every alternate days I am dosing 90ml to keep my DKH on 10.5 and testing the same with red sea kit for every 3 days to ensure.