Some Bad Advice Got Me In A Pickle

[haulme]

Ok the person who sold me my marine setup said I would be fine using tap water mixed with instant ocean. I've been visiting a specialist shop today ready to buy a tang to add to the tank and asked them to test my water.

He asked me how I've been making water and I told him via tap mixed with instant ocean. Immediately he was appauled and I told him I was told to do this.

Anyhow I had my tank cycling for 3 weeks with live rock in it. I read 0 ammonia, slight nitrites (very light pink on the test kit) but my nitrates were through the roof. Around 80ppm.


I didn't get the tang for obvious reasons and now it looks like I'm going to have to cycle my tank again. The guy sold me some seachem prime http/www.seachem.com/products/product_pages/Prime.html as well as some phosphate remover for my filter.

However I want to ask how much should I recycle?

I had live sand, live rock and there are loads of living things like snails,insects shrimp on the sand.

I hate to think I wasted 3 weeks cycling for nothing even if it is tap water/sea water.

I've let some cocktail shrimp start decomposing, I'm adding the seachem prime also.

I'm also going to do a RO water change next saturday of around 10% with RO water.

I have a 50 UK gallon tank, protein skimmer.

Some help please!!!

 

[Mr Miagi]

Patience new reefer! Welcome to the hobby!

As you may have realised, reefing requires alot of patience. Whilst 3 weeks may seem along time, you still have a ways to go. Monitor your water conditions with test kits (Nitrite, Nitrate and Ammonia are all you need for now) for the next week or two, and you will know when your tank has finished cycling.

You should be recycling everything. You dont need to throw away any live rock or live sand. That will in essence, die off, and cycle your tank for you. Die off sounds nasty, but its just critters that have died in transit.

Making saltwater requires a bit of pre-planning. When you mix saltware, its really essential you use RO water, as you have found. Tap water might work, but it just doesnt cut the mustard, and your better off using whats best for your tank. After you made the water, it needs to mature for 2 to 3 days. This can be done by leaving it in a food grade container, like a camping water holder, usualy around 30L. Before you add the water, it should also be up to the same temperature and salinity as the water in the tank.

You should not be "dosing" prime into the tank. It should only be added when you do a water change or top-up with tap water. You wont need this if you use RO, as its a pure.

Have a read around this forums pinned topics. Its a terrific resource for beginners to get their feet. Once you have read the pinned articles, you should be well on your way.

 

[SkiFletch]

Have to agree with my australian counterpart here. Dosing wont be necessary early on. ONe thing thats tough to get a grasp of when going the SW route is that the "cycle" is very different than a freshwater setup. By putting LR into our tanks we are essentially putting our biological filters straight into the tank. The majority of the bacteria required to manage the bio load are allready in the rock when you put it in your tank. "cycle" times for a marine setup with LR varies, but usually is between 1-3 weeks compared to 4+ weeks with a bare freshwater startup. Once your ammonia and nitrite levels read 0 your cycle is complete, however your tank isn't exactly safe for fish with nitrates that high. Your tank is also unfortunately ripe for a cyanobacteria outbreak IF something pollutes the water with phosphates (drop of phoshpate + high nitrate = cyano ).

Since your tank is new and it sounds like you really only have inverts in there, I'd mix up a big bucket of saltwater and do a very large water change. Think 50%+ here. Make sure the water that you add is heated to temp and circulated via a powerhead for a while to mix it up. A big 50% change will bring your nitrates down to 40ppm and then perhaps a couple days later another big one to bring it down to the 20s and get it more under control.

Like mr miagi said, dont toss the rock or sand, they're still in fine shape

 

[crazyelece]

I agree, three weeks isn't long at all for a starting cycle. Also I think your "specialist" store also did you wrong. Did they test for phosphate? Why sell you the phosphate remover when your real problem is your nitrates? Tap water isn't looked at as a good source of water as it has extra items such as nitrate, phosphates, fermaldahyde, flouride, etc. Don't worry about the cycle, eventually it will cycle and settle down. What you do need to keep an eye on is the nitrates. Your tap water is probably adding additional nitrates to the system causing the build up. From now on use RO/DI when you top off or do a water change and it will come down and ballance out.

 

[steelhealr]

...at the risk of sounding haughty, stick with us....you'll get better and more solid advice. Welcome aboard. SH

 

[haulme]

Should I still be leaving the cocktail shrimp in there also or will that do more harm than good?

 

[Navarre]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

First of all... DONT Recycle.

Ok so you have been given some misleading advice (iwont say its wrong as i know of tanks taht work well on pure tap water). Your liverock is doing its job... Oko so it will take longer now to get the nitrates down as it has to deal with the tap water as well as the nitrates produced by the waste products as well but its not the end of the world and with patience you will get these levels back down.

First of all i recomend you do nothing initially. Allow the cycle to ffinish as it seems the cycle still hasnt fully completeld yet. If you do large water changes now you are just prolonging the cycle the tanks must endure. So let the Ammonia and nitrites fall off to zero then you know the tank is ready to deal with the nitrates. DO a large water change with RO water and this will help drop the Nnitrates possibly as much as 50%.
Monitor the nitrate levels once the fish are in and the next time you do a water change make sure its another large one. With any luch the nitrates will nw be at more acceptable levels. Do not panic over such high nitrates, whilst this is not something that "we" in the marine hobby try to encourage, i have seen tanks operate in nitrates much higher than this. Also, many LFS have nitrates that are off the scale sdue to the nature of their business and yet they seem to get by. Whilst its not ideal i would say that its completely salvagable and there is no need for a strip down of hte tank or adding any chemicals.

Good luck and keep us posted.