Maturing Log

[Robert247]

Hi i have started cycling my system using bio mature and this is what is happening:

day 1 24 Aug 07(water has been added 1 week previous)
ammonia 0 ppm
nitrite 0 ppm
nitrate 0 ppm
PH 8.2 (ish)
added 138 drops of bio mature to 125 litre tank to the bio mature recommended amount
0.75 ammonia
0 nitrite

day 2 25 Aug 07
ammonia 1ppm
nitrite 0.25ppm

day 3 26 Aug 07
ammonia 2ppm
nitrite 0.5ppm
SG 1.022

I have a book ad it says that the nitrite should appear after about 6 days an i am only on day 3 Is this OK.
Another problem is that it says to stop adding bio mature when nitrite reads about 10ppm but my test only goes up to 5ppm will i be OK stopping after 5ppm also the shop has run out of bio mature and i have already used a quater of the bottle.
what should my SG be is 1.022 ok or should it be heigher can someone tell me exacly what to aim for?

 

[WayneVT08]

SG should be around there for a FO set-up, for a FOWLR and reef system, probably should be 1.025-1.026.

You really don't need to use bio mature, just throw an uncooked shrimp in the tank and it will cycle the tank for you. A lot easier and a lot cheaper.

Or just put live rock, it might cause an ammonia spike, it might not, but LR is the main source of filtration in most SW tanks.

 

[Robert247]

I have already started using bio-mature will the shrimp take over the maturing how many should I add and over what period if time. and what about the nitrite test kit shall i just stop adding the source of ammonia when it gets to 5ppm

 

[WayneVT08]

It takes time for the shrimp to to decay in tank, I would stop with the bio mature and see how far that takes you, once the ammonia is at 0, then add some uncooked shrimp, I don't know how many, just know that it works. Wait for someone else to reply that has a lot of knowledge on the subject.

 

[Robert247]

ok thanks

 

[Musho3210]

just put 1-1.5 pounds of live rock per gallon of water in the tank, wait until ammonia and nitrite reach 0, do a big water change, and say your cycled.

TO test up to 10 ppm, mix half tank water with half pure water and test, then just double your readings.

 

[Robert247]

ok thanks live rock confuses me with all the grades and cured and non cured and my local fish shop only sells live rock that has been living in the tanks with all there fish ect it doesnt look very good and costs a lot.
I was just going to put in some dead coral rock and maby a bit of live rock and wait for it to colonise the dead rock as someone is giving it me for free.
Also does anyone know anything about RO purifiers. I need to know wether they need to be plumed in as my parents will proborbly be very aprehensive on letting me mess around with the pipes and proborbly for a good reason.

I may carry on for another couple of days until i have used up all my bio mature and then travel a bit further to get some good live rock. will that be ok.

P.S thats a gr8 idea about the test i would never of thought of that.

 

[Musho3210]

I dont believe in cured rock unless it hasnt been out of the water for more than 1 hour, any more than an hour and it becomes uncured.

 

[Robert247]

why i thought cured was better?
And wont adding live rock to a premature tank kill everything on the rock?
(sorry if i sound stupid)

 

[idlefingers]

Also does anyone know anything about RO purifiers. I need to know wether they need to be plumed in as my parents will proborbly be very aprehensive on letting me mess around with the pipes and proborbly for a good reason.

For a RO unit, you have three pipes; one for water entering the system from the tap, one for pure water which has passed through the membrane and one for waste water which has been blocked by the membrane.

The incoming water needs to come from a mains cold water pipe but there are many ways of doing this without having to do any plumbing/piercing pipes. A lot of people use a Y pipe from the washing machine cold water pipe or garden taps to avoid doing any piercing but using one of the pipe piercing things is not all bad and is very easy to do.

why i thought cured was better?
And wont adding live rock to a premature tank kill everything on the rock?
(sorry if i sound stupid)

There are things which can "kill" live rock but a premature tank would be one high in ammonia/nitrite and that's what the bacteria on the live rock feeds on so it won't kill it.

I think (at least my interpretation of) what Musho is saying is that because after a period of time out of the water, a lot of things which are on LR which is marked as cured die off and so it has to go through a re-curing process. So if you're going to be technical, you could say that it is not cured. But as far as I know, this is still very different to LR which is bought as uncured. I've never seen (or smelt) uncured live rock, but apparently its a dirty, smelly process which you wouldn't want to do in the house. I was also under the impression that curing uncured live rock is a much longer process than the mini-cycle which you may see from die off..

 

[Musho3210]

neither one is better They both have their own pros and cons

I wont get technical like i did in my last post since you may not have understood it well

cured rock either has no cycle or a small cycle, but you dont get as many hitchhikers as uncured
uncured rock has a longer cycle, but you get a bigger variety of hitchhikers

Its your choice really.

 

[Robert247]

so uncured would proborbly be best for me can i put it straight into my tank there is no livestock in it or do i have to cure it in a seperate container

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah Robert, for new tanks, Uncured rock is often the way to go. As Musho mentions, it typically has more hitchikers with it, and its typically more affordable. The downside is that instead of taking a day to cycle (like cured), it may take a week to cycle uncured rock... IMO, no big deal, hence the reccomendation.

I'd further reccomend purchasing online if the prices at your LFS are prohibitive... Save yourself even more money

 

[Robert247]

ok thanks so with uncured rock do i have to put it in a seperate container or can i put it straight in the tank i am not woried about how long it takes to cycle i want to make shure it is properly cycled aso if i get cured live rock is there anything i can look out for?

 

[Musho3210]

if its a newly start up tank no need to cure it separatly, if you have livestock in your tank then you will need to.