My Nano Diary.

[Siamese Fighter05]

Not trying to flame you at all but i think you should've taken SH's advice and done a test run on the tank for a few days just to be sure

You added the LR before you put salt in the tank?

 

[Die_Grinder]

my LR was in the tank for about 10mins b4 i added the salt. that a bad thing? didnt get too much LR incase i funked up somewhere lol. I think i mayhave done. will get some more after its been running a few weeks.

i only read his post after i had set it up
good thing is tho its right next to my pc, so if anything goes wrong i got you guys at hand

oh one thing is it best to put a sponge on the inlet to my power head, or leave it as a strainer?

 

[steelhealr]

Uh oh..you put your marine live rock in plain water Whoa..that's like a 10 minute FW dip. Yikes....don't think that was a good idea and you may have prolonged cycle/ammonia spike. Not trying to flame either but a boo boo.

Sea water is always premixed and aerated (aged) before putting it in your tank. You never add salt directly to your tank except for the very first time when the tank is empty. Back to the books for you....better do more reading. DO NOT ADD ANY LIFE TO YOUR TANK RIGHT NOW. SH

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

If your not 100% sure about something, do some research, if you can't find the answer post here and we can try and help you out

You may well have killed alot of the life in your rock

Dan

 

[Die_Grinder]

i filled the tank up with RO water not tap. wasnt gonna add anything to it for about 2 weeks or so, would you guys reccomend waiting longer?

 

[Aquascaper]

As Steelhealr says you really need to do a bit more research, especially if you're thinking about adding livestock after only 2 - 3 weeks

It doesn't matter that you used RO water, it was still freshwater. You wouldn't bring home a saltwater fish and put it into a tank full of freshwater, live rock is no different, it's teeming with life which can only survive in a saltwater environment. By putting your live rock in freshwater you will have killed off a significant proportion of the life on it which in turn will cause massive die-off and lots of ammonia. This ammonia will swamp the remaining bacteria and prolong the cycle as it will have to recover, multiple and deal with the ammonia.
By adding the salt afterwards you will have created a massive SG spike in a localised area which will have more than likely wiped out all life in that part of the tank, how did you add the salt and where in the tank?

Sorry if this feels like we're having a go but it was a bit of a big mistake to make

 

[Die_Grinder]

i added is slowly at the side of the tank away from the LR, made sure is was not hiting the bottom and mixing with the water, how long would you suggest i leave it, before adding any fish?

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

Buy a good liquid test kit, you'll need ammonia, nitrite and nitrate as well as PH.

We can't give you a set time on how long it will take but the test results will give you a good idea.
If the rock you bought as fully cured and it hadn't of been out of saltwater more than 30mins you probably would have cycled inside a week.

After a freshwater dip and then an SG swing you could be waiting 1month +

Dan

 

[Die_Grinder]

well its best that i know this now, before adding fish within a week. thx guys. will wait a month or so and keep testing my water and if all looks ok then i will add maybe one clown fish.

thx again guys.

oh and instead of putting live rock in the fluval 104 i put vitakraft substrat, the guy at my LFS said it was the best for holding bio bacteria.

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

You'll see high levels of ammonia at first and then after 1-2weeks they'll make their way down slowly as your nitrites climb. After a few more weeks your ammonia will be low,nitrites high and nitrate will slowly be on the way up.

Another week or so and hopefully your ammonia and nitrite will be completley gone and you'll be left with just nitrates. A good 25% waterchange will remove most -if not all of that. As soon as you get your nitrates 5- you can add the cleanup crew if you have had your diatom bloom. As i said your in for a long painful wait

 

[Aquascaper]

oh and instead of putting live rock in the fluval 104 i put vitakraft substrat, the guy at my LFS said it was the best for holding bio bacteria.

Nothing beats Live Rock though, Substrat is very good for housing Nitrobacter but not that good for Nitrococcus

Can I suggest you do a little background reading on the marine cycle, that will give you ideas for what to look out for as your tank settles and will give you clues as to when it will be safe to ad livestock.

In basic stages:

1) Ammonia levels will go through the roof (this is where you are I presume)
2) Ammonia levels fall and Nitrite levels rise
3) Ammonia levels disappear and Nitrite levels continue to rise
4) Nitrite levels fall and Nitrate levels rise
5) Nitrite levels disappear and Nitrates continue to rise (This is when you should see diatoms and should look to add the first cleanup crew)
6) Nitrates begin to disappear and are controlled with water changes and macroalgae

Once stable and the only thing detectable are Nitrates (and they are controllable) you can start to add fish slowly. Once fish are all in you can look to add corals.

Start to finish you're looking about 3 - 6 months depending on the fish stocking

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

Is this the same LFS that let you put your LR in FW.....?
LR rubble will be better in that fluval 104 IMO

 

[Die_Grinder]

yeah tho he did say this stuff has a huge surface area for bacteria.
so then while the tank cycles do i keep doing water changes? how much of a water change and how often would you reccomend i do them?

i assume it would help the cycle to add some Tetra Bactozym? this correct? as i dont know how if would affect my LR.

 

[Aquascaper]

I'd recommend a good session on the internet researching the marine tank cycle and it's stages, that will give you all the information you require along with explainations of what's going on in there.

 

[crazyelece]

If you want to help repair the damaged bacteria on/in the live rock add a packet of biospira. It will help tremendously in keeping the extra cycle in check and help to cycle the tank faster.