Water Levels - New Cycle Help

[eddiegee]

Assuming my tank is not ready for a Clown Fish?

Week 1
ph ~8
Ammonia ~0
Nitrite ~0
Nitrate ~0
Salinity ~1.025
Added Imagitarium water.
Added Live Rock.
Added Blue Leg Hermit crab.
5% water change.

Week 2
Ph ~8
Ammonia ~.5
Nitrite ~.25
Nitrate ~0
Salinity ~1.026
Removed Live Rock / Added MarcoRock.
Hermit crab is alive.
5% water change. Imagitarium water.


Week 3
Ph ~8
Ammonia ~ .5
Nitrite ~ .5 to 1
Nitrate ~ 0 - .5
Salinity 1.026
Hermit crab is alive.
5% water change. Imagitarium water.

 

[brandon429]

If you convert your ammonia stated into nh3 per test kit instructions and ignore nitrite per updated rules and then factor that all bottle bac cycles are done in ten days — does that help the assessment

your ammonia above is overstated ten times too high so it creates false concern. Your tank is ready for fish when fish disease controls have been chosen. If you did rock, sand and bottle bac weeks ago you are done cycling, time to not add unprepped fish into the ready system

 

[Garf]

Assuming my tank is not ready for a Clown Fish?

Week 1
ph ~8
Ammonia ~0
Nitrite ~0
Nitrate ~0
Salinity ~1.025
Added Live Rock.
Added Blue Leg Hermit crab.

Week 2
Ph ~8
Ammonia ~.5
Nitrite ~.25
Nitrate ~0
Salinity ~1.026
Removed Live Rock / Added MarcoRock.
Hermit crab is alive.


Week 3
Ph ~8
Ammonia ~ .5
Nitrite ~ .5 to 1
Nitrate ~ 0 - 5
Salinity 1.026
Hermit crab is alive.

Why did you remove the live rock?

 

[eddiegee]

Why did you remove the live rock?

Due to Vermetid snails on the rock.

 

[Garf]

Due to Vermetid snails on the rock.

Ok. Was the rock your only source of ammonia and bacteria? Or did you add stuff to cycle?

 

[eddiegee]

Ok. Was the rock your only source of ammonia and bacteria? Or did you add stuff to cycle On week(1) I added (3) live rocks, a hermit crab and a snail that came with the rocks. Around the middle of week 2 I removed the live rocks and snail after finding Vermetid snails on the rocks and the actual snail shell.

I added live rock on week one but removed it around the second week due to Vermetid snails on all 3 rocks.

About 3 days later after removing the live rock I added the MarcoRock.

No bottle bacteria was ever added or any chems so far. This is a Fluval Evo 13.5G.

The carbon filter was removed the first week as well.

 

[Garf]

I added live rock on week one but removed it around the second week due to Vermetid snails on all 3 rocks.

About 3 days later after removing the live rock I added the MarcoRock.

No bottle bacteria was ever added or any chems so far. This is a Fluval Evo 13.5G.

The carbon filter was removed the first week as well.

Thanks for clarification. I would say no then, not ready if you want a fully cycled tank before adding a clown. Your crab will probably croak if you crank up the ammonia level to speed up cycling so you probably need to add the tiniest amount of food for your crab and keep monitoring. Adding a live bacteria product may change that situation, immediately however.