should I be worried??

[90gal.newguy]

My 90 gal. reef tank has been up for approx a month and half now.
In this month in a 1/2 I have not experienced a ammonia spike.
Have 6 fish, 2 shirmp, 8 snails and 4 hermits, several hard and soft coral
Along with 100 live rock and live sand.
I am currently running a wet/dry w/ a protien skimmer. (refudge should be here this week)
Should I have any concerns that I have not experience a spike in ammonia. All water test are perfect.
Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

I'd be worried about the inhabitants. A month and a half is not long enough for a tank to stabilize. You're going to see all types of algae blooms and probably see spikes in your water parameters. Hopefully your livestock will survive. Never rush in this hobby.

mario

 

[dnorton1978]

What fish do you have. Hopefully they are somewhat small fish. As for not getting an ammonia spike did you use established LR from an old set up? It seems like you have stocked up pretty quickly. I would reccomend to slow down for awhile..

 

[mr_X]

i chose "cured" live rock and bag-live sand. i saw a small to medium spike even still, which happened at about 3 weeks to a month. i lost a couple damsels but nothing else. after that, i got the algae blooms, which weren't deadly to anything, but were quite ugly.
i didn't get any corals till after the spike, so i can't comment on that.

 

[ChrisRD]

IME it's not unusual to setup a tank with cured live rock/sand and never see a spike in NH4/NO2/NO3. If enough bacteria are present on/in the rock/sand to handle the bioload --> no spike. This is a good thing IMO.

 

[90gal.newguy]

I have used cured live rock, all bagged live sand.
Thanks for the advice. I have heard so many horror stories that I was concerned. I have added my fish slowly and monitor the feeding closely as not to over feed. I have another question.. how ofter should I do water changes?? I have gone over kill w/ the filtering and I have upped my water flow to about 2100 gallons a hour on a wave maker.
Thanks for all your help !!!!

 

[danmhippo]

That depends on how you maintain your water chemistry.

During initial setup, I typically change once a month. The duration is much longer now on my matured tank. I'd recommend regular checking of NO3 and PO4 and change as needed. Other than that, once per month should be fine.