New Tank Up And Running

[Matthew Dumouchel]

Today marks day 3 of my new salt water tank. I have been pretty excited the last two weeks while building my stand to buying equipment and supplies. I can say that I did my research, watched YouTube videos on new reef tanks, read countless forums, including Reef Central, The Frag Tank and CanReef.

I started a 20 Gallon Long with the hopes that it'll be a reef tank with a couple display fish, TBD and a modest clean up crew. Listed are the components of my tank:

20L tank (30"x13"x13")
AquaClear 50
Eheim Jager 75W heater
Hydor Koralia 425
Viparspectra 165W LED
24lb dry rock
15lb CaribSea Aragonite

I have started a new Instagram page if you are interested as well. www.instagram.com/mynewreef/

 

[Bill]

The cycle begins...congrats...do you know anyone else with a SW tank? you can add some sand or a rock from an established tank to give yours a kick start...

 

[Nick James]

Congrats! Keep us updated

 

[Matthew Dumouchel]

The cycle begins...congrats...do you know anyone else with a SW tank? you can add some sand or a rock from an established tank to give yours a kick start...

I don't know anyother SW reefer here, but I did get some Ammonia traces during my water test today! Off to the races

 

[DJ Oetting]

Let me know how the hang on filter works for you, I am about to set up the same size tank and am in debate over a sump or just a hang on filter.

 

[Matthew Dumouchel]

Let me know how the hang on filter works for you, I am about to set up the same size tank and am in debate over a sump or just a hang on filter.

So far I love the HOB, I'm only running it with floss and chemipure. Once the cycling has finished I'll begin regular weekly water changes.

 

[Matthew Dumouchel]

I'm on Day 9 and I just started getting some diatom bloom happening. I'm not mad about it, I've read that it usually happens around the 1-2 week time period and will go away naturally as the beneficial bacteria begin to culture on the live rock and sand. I also just raised my LEDs up to 14" off the surface of the water and I'm so much happier with the light dispersion.

I've been doing regular water tests and yesterday's results were:

PH: 8.3
Amm: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Phos: 0.25
Iron: 0
Kh: 130
Calcium: 400

I've been dosing Stability since day 1, so I was told I may not see the large spikes in the Nitrites/ Nitrates...so wondering when the cycle will be finished. Also on a related note should my fish fish be added before the clean up crew or vis versa, everyone has their opinions.

 

[shamous113]

Looking good, what are you feeding as a ammonia source for your fish less cycle?

 

[Matthew Dumouchel]

Looking good, what are you feeding as a ammonia source for your fish less cycle?

I haven't started feeding anything yet, I used half live/ half dry rock. I got a shipment of Hikari Marine S food in the mail today so I was going to start ghost feeding.

My ammonia went from 0 to about 0.6 in the first 3 days and has gone back to 0...do you think this was a natural spike or not a true sign of the nitrogen cycle>

 

[new2reefing]

Usually i believe the rule of thumb is when the system can hit a spike of 2ppm ammonia and return to zero within the day your done with ammonia cycle, which will then give you a nitrite reading. When you start getting a zero nitrite and start getting nitrate reading with zero amonia/nitrite you are cycled(kinda). If you have true live rock (from established tank) it can hide your ammonia and nitrite spikes since it has established bacteria that is processing faster then your adding. In that case to check dump a larger helping of food or hang a shrimp untill you get a decent bump in ammonia and see how quickly it drops back to zero.
Remember no food means nothing to break down so no cycle. Dye off happens slowly enough that any die off is feeding the live bacteria so not a true cycle. Adding food or ammonia is the only way to see a trend.
In any case good luck and welcome!

 

[shamous113]

IMHO you need to keep "feeding" the bacteria until your ready to add live stock, inverts or fish after you've qt'd them. you'll see the ammonia spike then nitrites and you'll be left with nitrates that will need to be exported from the tank. a I did a fish-less cycle on my current tank, I picked up old country ammonia from home hardware (5% ammonia) because you don't have to wait for stuff to decay. I'll send you a ammonia calculator that I have saved at home it will help with calculating the dosage. the attached pdf was passed on to me when i started my fish less cycle and I believe it originated from @yveterinarian.

 

[shamous113]

here is the ammonia cycling calculator

 

[Nighthawk26]

Dr. Tims. Man did it simplify my life.

 

[yveterinarian]

here is the ammonia cycling calculator

Interesting - I didn't know there was a calculator for it. I just added in small increments until I reached 2 ppm and kept track of how much I added. This would have been an easier way to figure it out for sure.

 

[Matthew Dumouchel]

I started ghost feeding a few days ago and saw little movement of Ammonia and then back to 0, the other readings were:
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 0
Phos: 0.25
Iron: 0
Kh 140
Ph 8.3
Cal: 400

I woke up to almost a blanket of green algae (photo looking down into my tank). I'm not mad about it, it's not hurting anything though right?

 

[Matthew Dumouchel]

Day 15 - the geen algae is disappearing on its own now, but I have another curiosity that needs to be itched.

My test results today are as followed:
Amm 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Calcium 400
Iron 0
Phos 0.25
Alk (Kh) 100

---
I purchased some GFO for the phosphate levels, however if I'm not mistaken my Alkalinity is below an ideal level, do I need to adjust this during the cycle?

 

[yveterinarian]

Generally you don't need to adjust those parameters during the cycle. But I am worried that you haven't had a nitrite spike that I can see from your results. Are you feeding enough into the tank? Unless you feed enough to get a proper ammonia and nitrite spike your tank won't have cycled properly and your bacteria (stability) that you have added will die off. Are you still adding Stability daily? If so, you shouldn't be anymore. You need to feed the tank to get the bacteria growing on it's own now.

 

[Matthew Dumouchel]

My Nitrites spiked a few days ago to 3ppm and have since come down...I stopped dosing Stability a while ago.

I ghost feed the tank daily about a hearty pinch of Hakari Marine S

Generally you don't need to adjust those parameters during the cycle. But I am worried that you haven't had a nitrite spike that I can see from your results. Are you feeding enough into the tank? Unless you feed enough to get a proper ammonia and nitrite spike your tank won't have cycled properly and your bacteria (stability) that you have added will die off. Are you still adding Stability daily? If so, you shouldn't be anymore. You need to feed the tank to get the bacteria growing on it's own now.

 

[yveterinarian]

Oh that's good. I was worried and didn't want you to start adding stock and getting a bad cycle starting at that time.