Help with skimmer relationship to new tank cycles and or lev

[Scuba Josh]

Hi all!!!

I am not new to the hobby but have a question about new tank cycles and thier relationship to PS production.

I just set up a new 30 gallon...2 weeks ago I added salt water made from an RODI 50GPD unit and 40 lbs of "bio-activated live sand". After 1 week I started to see an amonia spike and then added 30 lbs of uncured live rock. Now I am in week 3 of the new tank and have no detectable levels of amonia NitrItes are thru the roof and no nitrAtes yet. The HOB PS of my choice was the Coralife SS 125 (NEVER TO BIG IMO). If my Reef Concepts 48"*10" beckett skimmer could fit or been plumbed....I would have. Now for the question.

Should the PS start pulling out nitrIte gunk or not until the live rock gunk degrades into the water as nitrAte?

 

[Anonymous]

It may be slow for a while unless you have allot of die off.

 

[Anonymous]

Skimmers pull out dissolved organics, not nitrite. Usually, fish poop, left over food, and decaying stuff.

 

[atnixon]

Really, its what wazzel has said...I dont really see the point in running the skimmer untill the NItrogen cycle has finished...Your about half the way through your cycle if you getting a bitrITE spike now...When that reaches its peak, the NitrATES should then start to show and will continue to show untill the nitrITES come back down to Zero...When all ammonia, nitrITES and nitRATES all show Zero, your cycle is complete...You may then start, very slowly, to stock your tank..

Niko

 

[Anonymous]

Skimmers pull out dissolved organics, not nitrite. Usually, fish poop, left over food, and decaying stuff

if you are still cycling your live rock then there should be some material comming off it that can be skimmed. depending on the quality of rock you recived and how much time it was out of the water during the arrangment and aquascaping will determine how much die-off. if you got the premium stuff and nothing is dead or rotting then mabe you wont get any skimmate... skimmers also take some time to run in.

 

[Scuba Josh]

I appreciate the help and words of advice. Skimmer is pulling out "wet" not "dry", but I dont mind...brown water is junk IMO anyway.
I also gave my rock a semi decent scrub and rinse yesterday to help rid x-tra die off. There was a lot of brown sponge that inevitably dies anyway. I have deep purple mat type alge or sponge on some rock as well. Does anyone know if it is good or bad. I know pictures would help, and will try to take some. Is there a web site with pics of algae/sponge ID?

 

[atnixon]

The deep purple algae you are possibly refering too is corroline algae which is good. A lot of live rock have sponges on them, they are harmless filter feeders and i dont see any reason why they should be removed...

Niko

 

[ChrisRD]

Just be patient - things will settle down.

BTW, not running the skimmer during curing of the rock would be a bad idea IMO. Not running it will generally lead to increased NH4 levels and likely kill off beneficial life in/on the rock.

 

[Scuba Josh]

Chris ---I agree...I would not even think about turning off the skimmer.

I am going to siphon some bulky gunk from the sand and see where that gets me in a week. I cant speed the new cycle up but at least I can try and controll levels (to some extent)

 

[atnixon]

I would just leave it to its own devices while its cycle is running. Let nature do it thing and when all levels are correct, do a big water change, clean any junk out via syphon and away you go...

Whether you have the skimmer running or not through a cycling process does not really matter...there aint gonna be much junk in the water ( proper skimmate rather than wet skimmate ) as the is no fish pooping or peeing in the water...Its personal preference i suppose..

Niko

 

[Anonymous]

Whether you have the skimmer running or not through a cycling process does not really matter...there aint gonna be much junk in the water ( proper skimmate rather than wet skimmate ) as the is no fish pooping or peeing in the water...Its personal preference i suppose..

i still recomend starting the skimmer the day you start up the tank and running it continusly.. skimmers do a lot more than remove fish poop, and any nastys that come from the rock will come out to....

 

[ChrisRD]

Whether you have the skimmer running or not through a cycling process does not really matter...there aint gonna be much junk in the water ( proper skimmate rather than wet skimmate ) as the is no fish pooping or peeing in the water...Its personal preference i suppose...

I strongly disagree. We're talking about a system that's had uncured live rock added to it. The die-off from uncured rock can cause big problems if you're not running a good skimmer and/or doing water changes to keep ammonia levels in check. IMO this is one of the most common newbie mistakes - letting NH4 levels skyrocket during the curing process which kills off a lot of beneficial life (and ultimately leads to other issues down the road).

 

[atnixon]

ChridRD....Like i said...personal preference...It is not a "newbie" mistake to leave a skimmer off during cycling of a tank, i know a lot of Experienced marine aquarists who run through a cycle with skimmer NOT running...Everybody has their own way of setting up a system..No-one on here can say for deffinate that this way is wrong, or that way is right...Its like the common old saying...."There is more than one way to skin a cat"...And i believe it is true..

I never had my skimmer on while cycling my tank, which was basically exactly the same as this persons...I have had no ill effects, everything that is in the tank is thriving, not had any issues with water quality, my live rock is full of critters...



Thanks

NIko

 

[Scuba Josh]

You both make valid points, but if you have a skimmer...why not use it. Die off from the rock will be taken out of the water.

I always thought, the higher or more extreme the spikes in a new set up, the more beneficial bactiria will be needed in order to get levels under controll.

 

[ChrisRD]

I think we're confusing the nitrogen cycle with rock curing here.

If you're starting a tank with cured rock and you don't want to run a skimmer I don't see the problem. If you're starting a FO tank with inert biomedia and you don't plan to run a skimmer - again not a problem - although you will generally see a significant NH4 spike in that scenario (no problem if there's no live rock in the system that you're going to nuke with the NH4). Neither of those, however, are the situation here.

If you're starting a tank with uncured rock you need to control the build-up of nitrogenous compounds that will accumulate from die-off on/in the rock. How much you need to do to control levels depends on how much die-off is happening with the rock. You can do this without a skimmer by doing frequent large water changes. It's just much easier to do it with a skimmer. If you do not control NH4 levels in this scenario and they climb too high you can end-up with mostly lifeless rock that is loaded with organic matter which can fuel some very persistant nuisance algae problems down the road.

Anyway, it appears that Josh is on the right track and I'd just wait it out a bit longer for things to settled down.

 

[reefman225gal]

well every seems to have answerd your question pretty good but man curing your own rock is sure bad on the old nose :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

If you're starting a tank with uncured rock you need to control the build-up of nitrogenous compounds that will accumulate from die-off on/in the rock. How much you need to do to control levels depends on how much die-off is happening with the rock. You can do this without a skimmer by doing frequent large water changes. It's just much easier to do it with a skimmer. If you do not control NH4 levels in this scenario and they climb too high you can end-up with mostly lifeless rock that is loaded with organic matter which can fuel some very persistant nuisance algae problems down the road.

What Chris said. Good water circulation will help a bit as well, in terms of getting the crap coming out the rock into the water column, so it can be pulled out by the skimmer.