HELP Please

[Duke]

if you dose that stuff It should get rid of the ammonia and with that skimmer I bet your lucks going to take a turn for the better here and tomorrow things will start looking better.

 

[Tinkerbell]

well I sure hope so. Either way this tank is gonna get old now. just get it Broke in real good and leave it be for the most part. I want to just focus on getting this water perfect. Its going to be the difference between a good tank and a great tank.

My poor 5yr daughter keeps asking when we can buy a fish. She loves going to the store and helping with the tank. She asked the guy tonight if he had a box of water too. So cute.

My goal right now is to get the tank quieter. The overflows are noisy, I can hear a vibration from the returns. and the powerheads seems to hum. Put this together with the light with two fans and a monster ballast (thankfully in the basement), its one loud tank.  :-\

 

[Salty Cracker]

There are no ends to the pills and potions a LFS will sell you when you tell them what your problem is, or what you want to do.  Want to set up a reef in 2 days? Well dump in 5 bottles of this crap, a dash of this, some of those and there you go.  That will be $230 thankyouverymuch.  Then, when you go back time and time again, asking why all the corals you bought from them died, they happily sell you a batch of potions that 'fixes' the problems they set you up with originally.  Then, to round out the awesomeness, somewhere down the line they'll say something like "too bad you can't figure out basic water chemistry".  Awesome.

Take the advice that you don't want to.  It takes MONTHS or YEARS to set up a tank.  It will do it on its own, but you need to follow the advice of the guys here that are offering it for free (and not selling potions).  If you want an awesome sps tank, ask the guy that has an awesome sps tank how he got it, and don't look for the shortcuts.  SHORTCUTS DON'T WORK.  Take it from a guy that wasted 15 years buying potions...and not listening to GOOD advice...

Hey guys. My Hippo tang is not eating tonight. I put some stuff in to eliminate the ammonia. But It looks like some sort of cycle. It shouldn't of happened other than my 90g tank water had high nitrates and maybe i shouldn't of used any of that water. I didnt know.

I did not add any new LR ( I had over 100lbs). I didn't add any livestock. not even a snail. I added 120lbs new sand and graped 6 cups of sand from my deep sandbed.  Which Gary thinks i distubed and I shouldn't have. Makes sense.

For now its trying to get the water better. I hope this stuff I got works and works quicker then its up to my new skimmer and water changes. If he isn't any better by tomorrow morning I will put him up for rescue.

I swear no fish for 6 months  :?

 

[Darryl_V]

Did you test and verify the ammonia and nitrite?  Last thing you should do is assume anything.  I moved my 90g to a 200g no problem in one day.  If you do it right you shouldnt have an issue.  But do it wrong and it can be a problem for sure.

 

[Tinkerbell]

Did you test and verify the ammonia and nitrite?  Last thing you should do is assume anything.  I moved my 90g to a 200g no problem in one day.  If you do it right you shouldn't have an issue.  But do it wrong and it can be a problem for sure.

I think where I went wrong was I moved the 90g downstairs so I could put the 220 where it used to be. I did keep all the water just moved the tank and set it back up. Then I set up the 220 and wanted the new sand to settle and it run smooth for a week or so. The day I went to do the transfer my pump seized up. I guess it didn't like being shut off. I had to wait a week before I got a new pump. I had nitrate in my old system but never amonia. I would probably of been better off not using any old water.  The Lfs was shocked I am cycling again. I know I made a mistake somewhere but between him and I we can't quite figure out where. The only thing we could think of is I disturbed my DSB in my sump. Grabbing a few cups for the Dt tank to seed the new sand.

It is set now and just has to mature. It is now just a waiting game. I'm just glad I don't have a huge bioload. It was supposed to be just a big water change. Hopefully its the last of the issues for awhile.

 

[Reef Hero]

Hmmm.....from what I have read, I am NOT shocked you had a cycle.....Darryl is a pro and did it all in one day and I am sure the method he used would have been hard to beat.....by doing this he minimizes the chance of a cycle happening....even then I would have waited a couple weeks to see if a cycle did start...


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[Tinkerbell]

Well I think I have pretty much agreed that I did something wrong. Proof in that I lost a 5 year old fish that I loved.

I couldn't have done it in one day as the tank needed to be fit in the same spot as the old one ( basement sump).

Good thing I Will never be upgradeing again!

For now, How and when do I add more Live Rock without another cycle happening?

Its a catch 22. I need more rock for proper filtration but most likely Will cause more havoc.

 

[Duke]

if it was me I would buy the dry eco reefer type rock, it shouldnt cause anything to cycle because theres nothing alive or dead on it, I have added pieces without any issues, I rinsed it in a bucket of RO water to get the dust off. You might want to only add it 1 piece at a time or something but I filled my sump with it when I did my tank transfer.

 

[Tinkerbell]

ya I saw that stuff. it looks awesome. I really like the cut pieces. I wish I had of known it when I was doing my background. I never would have used lace rock and would have added more ock.
seems like everything with this tank I do a week to early lol.