Tank cycled after 12 days? Should I test with ammonia?

[Cbones1979]

My neon gobies are arriving wed., I plan to do a massive water change to reduce nitrates before they do. I am assuming you may be in the same boat and will want consider options.

i am expecting that the moment there is phosphate from poo hitting a large amount of nitrates I will get some algae, trying to head that off.

when do you start dropping clean up crew in? I have a bunch in my current tank. And i guess corals don't go in for awhile?

 

[Brew12]

when do you start dropping clean up crew in? I have a bunch in my current tank. And i guess corals don't go in for awhile?

Once there is something for the CuC to eat is what I typically recommend. Unless you used live rock of some sort, it's best to wait a few months for coral.

 

[Cbones1979]

Once there is something for the CuC to eat is what I typically recommend. Unless you used live rock of some sort, it's best to wait a few months for coral.

I have one structure of live rock in there. Didn’t want to move more live rock from current tank as I’m finishing off dinos.

 

[ChrisNH]

when do you start dropping clean up crew in? I have a bunch in my current tank. And i guess corals don't go in for awhile?

The advice I have been given was to go light on the CUC until there is stuff for them to eat.

However, because I am ordering a pair of QT fish, I took the opportunity to get a shrimp and a few snails which were also QT'd with the same fedex ship. In a perfect world maybe I wouldn't until I saw some algae starting. I will be dropping in some algae pellets feeding a little heavy until it looks like they can subsist.

Once things get going I will look into more CUC. I am definitely waiting a while for sand cleaners.

 

[Brew12]

I will be dropping in some algae pellets feeding a little heavy until it looks like they can subsist.

I would caution against heavier feeding in a new system. Keep the feeding on the lighter side, just make sure you include stuff the CuC will eat.

 

[ChrisNH]

I would caution against heavier feeding in a new system. Keep the feeding on the lighter side, just make sure you include stuff the CuC will eat.

Will do, thanks!

 

[Cbones1979]

Think ammonia back up to 5 w shrimp in. No nitrites no nitrates. Maybe shrimp should go bye bye

 

[Cbones1979]

Think ammonia back up to 5 w shrimp in. No nitrites no nitrates. Maybe shrimp should go bye bye

 

[Drew1900]

Hello Reefers! I am on day 12 of cycling my 63 gallon tank. (Fishless cycle, used Dr Tim’s, Carib sea sand and Carib sea life rock)
LFS tested my water yesterday and said I’m ready for fish. Ammonia is 0, Nitrates are 30. Everything else looked fine. Salinity was a bit high at 1.027 so I added some RODI In my ATO should bring it down. Question is...I decided to wait another week to add fish, Will my new bacteria start to die without an ammonia source in there for a week? Should I dose a bit of ammonia this week to feed the bacteria and double check that it returns to zero? Leave it alone and stop worrying? Oh and should I do my first water change to bring the nitrates down prior to adding fish next week? Thank you in advance! Very excited to be getting so close to adding fish.

Have you been putting salt water into your ATO?

 

[LegendaryCG]

Have you been putting salt water into your ATO?

Agree I caught that too. Adding RODI to an ATO does not adjust salinty --- the ATO is designed to keep salinty stable. While you can use your ATO to increase salinty by adding salt to the tank, you can't decrease salinty.

As far as a cycle goes, there's a lot of *OLD* information out there. A modern tank that uses available bacterial cultures can immedialetly add a strong fish without causing it stress. BioSpira/DrTims/+CaribSea Sand/Liferock will skip the whole cycle waiting process. If its your first tank there's benefit for you going through the process as much as the biological reasons, you're both inexperienced. If not, you can accelerate things considerably.

 

[Badvegas]

Have you been putting salt water into your ATO?

Have you been putting salt water into your ATO?

How did you know? Lol. That’s why I’m on R2R! Yes I was filling ATO with saltwater. Now I’m filling with RODI. Salinity is now 1.026 after a week of RODI.

 

[Badvegas]

How did you know? Lol. That’s why I’m on R2R! Yes I was filling ATO with saltwater. Now I’m filling with RODI. Salinity is now 1.026 after a week of RODI.

Oh and I did a 10 percent water change today. Salinity is lower now.

 

[Drew1900]

How did you know? Lol. That’s why I’m on R2R! Yes I was filling ATO with saltwater. Now I’m filling with RODI. Salinity is now 1.026 after a week of RODI.

Haha I caught it in your original post. Yeah ATO should always have RODI in it unless you are trying to raise salinity. Dissolved solids don’t evaporate, so as water evaporates, it needs to replaced with RODI. Otherwise you are constantly adding more salt and other dissolved solids into the system.

 

[Badvegas]

Haha I caught it in your original post. Yeah ATO should always have RODI in it unless you are trying to raise salinity. Dissolved solids don’t evaporate, so as water evaporates, it needs to replaced with RODI. Otherwise you are constantly adding more salt and other dissolved solids into the system.

”Ya don’t know what ya don’t know.”
Thank you!

 

[Cbones1979]

Ammonia down and nitrites up even after using the live startup bacteria. I have a fish in there that seems to be thriving