New Tank Help!!!

[stoneriff]

I just started my 72 bow front on Sunday. I put 80 lbs. of live sand and 100 pounds of cured live rock from HOF. Thank you Jim. The tank is filled with RO/DI water, the temp is 78F, The PH is good. My salinity is 1.023. My skimmer is working. My sump is running. What next? I tested for ammonia tonight. None yet. I don't want to make any mistakes. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[REEF MANIA]

What kind of lights do you have? Do you have a phosban reactor and carbon reactor. You should also test your nitrite and nitrate they are usually high in the beginning. While the tank is cycling. Good Luck with your new tank.

 

[stoneriff]

I have the Coralife Lunar Aqualights Compact Fluorescent Strip Lights
48". My Nitrites also read zero. I'm installing a Phosban reactor tomorrow. Any thoughts?

 

[Lenny718]

Your levels maybe zero now but since your still cycling they may spike. Keep checking your levels and take it slow.

 

[h20 freak]

Turn off the skimmer for now, it is redundant to use it during a cycle.Have you tried putting something in there to rot to speed up the process? anything from fish food to seafood meant for us will work, just make sure it isn't cooked or had anything added.

 

[House of Laughter]

Stoner - take your time - keep testing and likely you'll get some signs of a cycle soon.

Since you used established and fully encrusted and cured rock, you're cycle will take longer to start than most systems. Give the critters in the rock some time to come out, populate the sand bed and get that thing live.

Patience is key!

House

 

[stoneriff]

Thanks for the advice guys. Trying not to panic! I want to get through this unscathed.

 

[Alexxn]

Just follow Jim's advice and you can't go wrong. Starting off with rock and sand from him will make it go that much more perfectly :splitspin

 

[basiab]

Since you used established and fully encrusted and cured rock, you're cycle will take longer to start than most systems. House

My opinion is just the opposite. The cycling will be quicker and may be done already. If the rock was really fully cured and there is almost no die off then he has an established bacteria colony in that rock. The proof would be to put in something that generates ammonia and see how quickly it gets rid of it.

 

[stoneriff]

I appreciate your opinion. There is zero die off. The rock is top quality. It looks great. I got it from Jim at HOF. I'll keep my eye on it, and see what happens in the next few days. Thank you.

 

[masterswimmer]

You will need to put something in there for the biological colonies to survive (basically food for them). Even if you put in some frozen Hikari food it'll give the colonies something to break down. Then you'll see the ammonia spike, level off, then nitrites will spike and level off and then nitrates will spike and then come down (probably never to zero though).

swimmer

 

[stoneriff]

I will do that tonight. Thank you very much. Any idea on how much is good?

 

[masterswimmer]

I will do that tonight. Thank you very much. Any idea on how much is good?

I'd start with about 1/2 - 1 cube of frozen food. That should be enough to kick start the cycle. There'll be food all over the tank and the biological colonies will begin to break down the food into waste. Keep checking your parameters and in a couple of days I think you'll start to see your ammonia climb.

Good luck and have patience. You've built it, and they WILL come.

Russ

 

[stoneriff]

I'd start with about 1/2 - 1 cube of frozen food. That should be enough to kick start the cycle. There'll be food all over the tank and the biological colonies will begin to break down the food into waste. Keep checking your parameters and in a couple of days I think you'll start to see your ammonia climb.

Good luck and have patience. You've built it, and they WILL come.

Russ

Thanks Russ. I'll do that tonight. Jesse.

 

[stoneriff]

I added some food last night. I tested again this morning. Everything is reading fine. No Ammonia, Nitrate, or Nitrite. PH is good too. I am experiencing a lot of evaporation though. About 2-3 gallons every 2-3 days. Is this normal?

 

[Awibrandy]

Everyone's tank water evaporates at different ratios depending on the ambient temp. etc...
Check to make sure you have no leaks any where just to be safe!

 

[masterswimmer]

My 75g evaps about 1-1.5 gallons per day.

My 200g system evaps about 4 gpd.

swimmer

 

[stoneriff]

You will need to put something in there for the biological colonies to survive (basically food for them). Even if you put in some frozen Hikari food it'll give the colonies something to break down. Then you'll see the ammonia spike, level off, then nitrites will spike and level off and then nitrates will spike and then come down (probably never to zero though).

swimmer

Thank you Masterswimmer. Good to know. I noticed that my PH has dropped to 7.8. Everything else is fine. What do I do?

 

[basiab]

If there was no spike it means you have a fully cycled system and a fairly good level of maturity. But even so, go slow on adding life to the tank. Each creature adds to the bio load and the ideal is to only add as much as your tank can easily handle.

 

[masterswimmer]

24 hrs. after putting the food in there is not long enough to determine if the cycle is complete. Remember, we're talking about microscopic sized bacteria breaking down the food, not the digestive system of a fish. It will take a few days for the bacteria to break down the comparatively large size pieces of food you added.

As for your pH being low, it sounds like you're running your lights. If you are, the pH during the lights on period will be higher than the lights off period. pH drops at night. That's why many people run their refugium lights on an opposite light cycle from their display lights. It helps to stabilize the pH.

swimmer