Tank cycling not finished, brown spots started appearing.. Water change?

[maxpare79]

Hey guys,

Tank has been cycling for about 3 weeks now. Ammonia has been at a steady 0 for more then a week now but Nitrites are still at 2ppm and Nitrates around 40ppm but during the night a lot of brown spots have started appearing everywhere on the rocks and the sand (diatoms?) see picture.

Should I do a small waterchange to lower the nitrates and slow down this bloom or let it run its course

 

[dmy535]

Did you do your first initial water change after the ammonia dropped?

for the brown spots, that’s just part of the ugly stage. They will keep coming back but eventually will go away. If they keep coming back, or getting worse it’s time to start getting clean up crew to help manage and eat it.

what helped me was, I kept my lights off and they went away. Do you turn lights on?

 

[maxpare79]

Did you do your first initial water change after the ammonia dropped?

for the brown spots, that’s just part of the ugly stage. They will keep coming back but eventually will go away. If they keep coming back, or getting worse it’s time to start getting clean up crew to help manage and eat it.

what helped me was, I kept my lights off and they went away. Do you turn lights on?

Yeah lights have been on a normal cycle the whole time and no I never did a water change, should I?

 

[brandon429]

neat info:

any new growths mean your cycle is done.

visual new growths, slicks, scums, come after nitrification layer is in place


(but my kits show some nitrite and ammonia)

what kits don't, plus you're at the time for a common cycling chart and have dosed bottle bac Ill bet just going off common approaches.

Ive never seen one instance of a tank given long enough to bring up new growths that couldn't handle its initial bioload, from being cycled.

I have seen however fifty thousand test kit misreads posted online.

if you started reefing, nothing bad would happen

the new tank uglies are coming as expected, its ok to change water because all cycled tanks can endure limitless water changes and lose no bacteria stuck to surfaces.

 

[maxpare79]

neat info:

any new growths mean your cycle is done.

visual new growths, slicks, scums, come after nitrification layer is in place


(but my kits show some nitrite and ammonia)

what kits don't, plus you're at the time for a common cycling chart and have dosed bottle bac Ill bet just going off common approaches.

Ive never seen one instance of a tank given long enough to bring up new growths that couldn't handle its initial bioload, from being cycled.

I have seen however fifty thousand test kit misreads posted online.

if you started reefing, nothing bad would happen

the new tank uglies are coming as expected, its ok to change water because all cycled tanks can endure limitless water changes and lose no bacteria stuck to surfaces.

Yeah i dosed a mix of Biospira, Dr. Tims and Api Quick start...Alright I will do a 10% water change then and think about where to go from here

 

[Garf]

neat info:

any new growths mean your cycle is done.

visual new growths, slicks, scums, come after nitrification layer is in place


(but my kits show some nitrite and ammonia)

what kits don't, plus you're at the time for a common cycling chart and have dosed bottle bac Ill bet just going off common approaches.

Ive never seen one instance of a tank given long enough to bring up new growths that couldn't handle its initial bioload, from being cycled.

I have seen however fifty thousand test kit misreads posted online.

if you started reefing, nothing bad would happen

the new tank uglies are coming as expected, its ok to change water because all cycled tanks can endure limitless water changes and lose no bacteria stuck to surfaces.

Hold on, I thought you never tested ammonia and nitrite!

 

[Garf]

Hey guys,

Tank has been cycling for about 3 weeks now. Ammonia has been at a steady 0 for more then a week now but Nitrites are still at 2ppm and Nitrates around 40ppm but during the night a lot of brown spots have started appearing everywhere on the rocks and the sand (diatoms?) see picture.

Should I do a small waterchange to lower the nitrates and slow down this bloom or let it run its course

Your nitrate test is picking up your nitrites. It’s not done yet. However, changing your water should make it safe, as long as you keep monitoring. After a water change, the nitrites tend to plummet.

 

[Spieg]

FWIW, I never turn lights on until I put livestock in tank.

 

[maxpare79]

Your nitrate test is picking up your nitrites. It’s not done yet. However, changing your water should make it safe, as long as you keep monitoring. After a water change, the nitrites tend to plummet.

Alright but I am not in a hurry, can I let it run its course until I am a 0 Nitrites too? Or would I get less algae doing a water change.

FWIW, I never turn lights on until I put livestock in tank.

So many contradicting info out there, that's what I thought at first but stumble upon an article that said to run the lights normally....its hard to get a good idea of what to on certain subjects

 

[brandon429]

the dates on the bottle bac are reliable and you've met them all. plus they're compounded, that way if one was dead (ive never seen it) you had the other two. your description alone confirmed the cycle before having to click the thread.

fun exercise to show you the predictability we're working with here:

try and find any post, any forum, where a starting cycle failed.

try and find one single failed cycle. post back in this thread if can find

failed isn't a test reading they post, its a gray water smelly wiped out tank of dead fish.

so as you research cycles and collect opinions, notice how many opinions carry an implied consequence, but online you can't find any

that's the neatest cycling trick we'll discuss all week. nearly every cycle you are about to see had fish in from day one, and did fine. (burnt fish die, they don't act norm)

 

[Garf]

the dates on the bottle bac are reliable and you've met them all. plus they're compounded, that way if one was dead (ive never seen it) you had the other two. your description alone confirmed the cycle before having to click the thread.

fun exercise to show you the predictability we're working with here:

try and find any post, any forum, where a starting cycle failed.

try and find one single failed cycle. post back in this thread if can find

failed isn't a test reading they post, its a gray water smelly wiped out tank of dead fish.

so as you research cycles and collect opinions, notice how many opinions carry an implied consequence, but online you can't find any

that's the neatest cycling trick we'll discuss all week. nearly every cycle you are about to see had fish in from day one, and did fine.

Well, you asked;

Cycling Help - Different Tests giving different results

Hi all, A couple weeks ago I started cycling my first marine tank. However after Day 2 it basically stalled and handn't done a single thing. Here's a diary of what's happened so far. Tank is a 70.2 Waterbox Day 0 - Put in Dr Tims One & only + Dosed Ammonium Chloride (for memory around 180...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[maxpare79]

the dates on the bottle bac are reliable and you've met them all. plus they're compounded, that way if one was dead (ive never seen it) you had the other two. your description alone confirmed the cycle before having to click the thread.

fun exercise to show you the predictability we're working with here:

try and find any post, any forum, where a starting cycle failed.

try and find one single failed cycle. post back in this thread if can find

failed isn't a test reading they post, its a gray water smelly wiped out tank of dead fish.

so as you research cycles and collect opinions, notice how many opinions carry an implied consequence, but online you can't find any

that's the neatest cycling trick we'll discuss all week. nearly every cycle you are about to see had fish in from day one, and did fine. (burnt fish die, they don't act norm)

So if I go forward with livestock, cleanup crew first or fish first? It's a 50 gallon tank (but actually 41 gallon of water). And for the Clean Up crew what and how many, sorry to ask so many questions. I don't want to mess up

 

[brandon429]

current best info:

must choose your fish disease protocol first. the most common one makes you wait another 80 days to add fish for disease reasons, not nh3 control reasons. not a cycling issue or ability issue for the filter.

clean up crew...some snails mixed maybe a couple starter frags/zoanthid and candy coral for example if you want to begin we see these common mixes working well on standard feed/water change routines.

your tank can carry fish, but if you add them, you have opted out of fallow and effective qt

 

[maxpare79]

current best info:

must choose your fish disease protocol first. the most common one makes you wait another 80 days to add fish for disease reasons, not nh3 control reasons. not a cycling issue or ability issue for the filter.

clean up crew...some snails mixed maybe a couple starter frags/zoanthid and candy coral for example if you want to begin we see these common mixes working well on standard feed/water change routines.

your tank can carry fish, but if you add them, you have opted out of fallow and effective qt

Oh I am in no hurry and I will setup a QT tank, I will put a sponge in my tank for a few weeks now, I did not do it right away because I didn't want the bacteria colony all over the sponge right away, I preferred to prioritize the rest of the tank first.

But I have to plan everything in advance, I am in Canada and finding livestock is a challenge by itself, so I have to look around online and make a lot of calls to find stuff lol.


But it brings me back to the original question, CUC or fish first? I am reading a lot of contradiction on the subject... Some people prefer fish first (like in the 52 weeks of reefing series) other prefer a small CUC first...

 

[Garf]

fish and light. Soon as you see green, then CUC. Happy reefin’