So I'm At Week 5 Of Cycling...

[[KRAFTIG]]

So I'm at week 5 of cycling. Testing for the last three weeks. Results below. This will be FOWLR setup. I plan on introducing a fish or two sometime in March. Salinity will move to 1.022. There has been been no change in PH, it sits at 7.7. I do have a reactor for GFO and Carbon, also a skimmer. Both are off. Lighting is minimal to nothing at the moment.

My question to the group, how are the reading? When should I introduce the skimmer and reactor elements? I don't want to chase PH, what are you thoughts? Anything else I should be doing? TIA!

 

[yveterinarian]

Generally a skimmer doesn't need to be introduced until you have livestock in there. I don't know about the reactor.

 

[dale]

if you are dosing some sort of nutrients for your cycle i would get your skimmer and reactors going and continue dosing about enough nutrients as what your first couple fish will be consuming, the amount of bio load you can put in will depend on how much nutrients you have prepared your tank to handle, eg: if you can toss in a shrimp every 2 days without your nitrates going up then thats how much you can feed the fish you put in,, then when you do put the fish in, your tank wont even notice...

 

[dale]

if you are dosing some sort of nutrients for your cycle i would get your skimmer and reactors going and continue dosing about enough nutrients as what your first couple fish will be consuming, the amount of bio load you can put in will depend on how much nutrients you have prepared your tank to handle, eg: if you can toss in a shrimp every 2 days without your nitrates going up then thats how much you can feed the fish you put in,, then when you do put the fish in, your tank wont even notice...

a clean up crew and mulching the shrimp or pellets or whatever your using will help greatly for this method... and of course do it gradually ..

 

[dale]

if you are dosing some sort of nutrients for your cycle i would get your skimmer and reactors going and continue dosing about enough nutrients as what your first couple fish will be consuming, the amount of bio load you can put in will depend on how much nutrients you have prepared your tank to handle, eg: if you can toss in a shrimp every 2 days without your nitrates going up then thats how much you can feed the fish you put in,, then when you do put the fish in, your tank wont even notice...

a clean up crew and mulching the shrimp or pellets or whatever your using will help greatly for this method... and of course do it gradually ..

 

[dale]

if your not doing anything to raise the ph , it will be relative to your salinity.. if you raised your salinity to 1.025 it would prob go up ..

 

[[KRAFTIG]]

Generally a skimmer doesn't need to be introduced until you have livestock in there. I don't know about the reactor.

I want to hold off 2-3 prior to introducing fish. I was told it will help with the PH by oxygenate the water. Sounds about right?

 

[[KRAFTIG]]

if you are dosing some sort of nutrients for your cycle i would get your skimmer and reactors going and continue dosing about enough nutrients as what your first couple fish will be consuming, the amount of bio load you can put in will depend on how much nutrients you have prepared your tank to handle, eg: if you can toss in a shrimp every 2 days without your nitrates going up then thats how much you can feed the fish you put in,, then when you do put the fish in, your tank wont even notice...

Hi Dale, thanks for the info.... No plans to dose at the moment. I did however intro Instant Ocean bacteria upon filling and a second dose 3 weeks later. I want to add a trigger fish, not the best with clean-up crew. But he will be the last fish I introduce to the DT.

 

[yveterinarian]

I want to hold off 2-3 prior to introducing fish. I was told it will help with the PH by oxygenate the water. Sounds about right?

Yes it probably would but I have always used an open ended airline in all my tanks to help with pH. Are you cycling using introduced food (like shrimp) or using the ammonia method. If using introduced food, I agree with Dale and the skimmer will help remove micro-particles in the water. If using the ammonia method, you do not need the skimmer until you start adding your fish as there will be nothing to skim out.

 

[dale]

Hi Dale, thanks for the info.... No plans to dose at the moment. I did however intro Instant Ocean bacteria upon filling and a second dose 3 weeks later. I want to add a trigger fish, not the best with clean-up crew. But he will be the last fish I introduce to the DT.

by dose i mean adding food to your aquarium to prepare your tank for the bio load your fish will produce, you need more than just bacteria, you need something for the bacteria to eat..

 

[[KRAFTIG]]

by dose i mean adding food to your aquarium to prepare your tank for the bio load your fish will produce, you need more than just bacteria, you need something for the bacteria to eat..

I'm not sure which method is best. I haven't done either yet. Where can I buy the ammonia source locally or online? Food is another story. What brands of food does the group recommend?

 

[yveterinarian]

If you haven't done either yet how are you adding a food source for the bacteria to grow on? In order for a tank to cycle properly you must add a food source and the tank must go through first an ammonia spike then a Nitrite spike. During this time you must continue to "feed" the tank with something or the bacteria will die off and when you add fish you will get a bad cycle.

I have always done the ammonia method but the piece of dead shrimp (regular cocktail shrimp that we eat is fine) works well as well. I prefer the ammonia method because I can directly measure how much ammonia I have put in to get the tank to read 2ppm of ammonia and how long it takes for the bacteria to break it down to 0. With the shrimp method you have to wait for the tank to break down the shrimp for the ammonia level to rise. This could take a week or more just to break down the food into ammonia.

I buy my ammonia a Walmart but it must have no additives in it. If you are interested in trying the ammonia method I can email you the directions. Just pm me and I will send it.

Either way, if you haven't done either method than your tank is not cycling. It is just sitting there doing nothing, sorry.

 

[shamous113]

I'm not sure which method is best. I haven't done either yet. Where can I buy the ammonia source locally or online? Food is another story. What brands of food does the group recommend?

I used old country ammonia from home hardware.

 

[Big_Als_London]

PH will fluctuate and go down when your lights are off. It will go up when the lights have been on for a couple hours.