Harley

[Nubytuesday]

2nd week amonia 0
nitrite 10

Does this mean I can kick start it now ?

[Spanky]

Just don't straight leg it Nuby.

[Alice]

You still need to monitor the nitrates; depending on where the tank is in the "cycle" the 'trates could just be starting to show up or they could be through the roof already.

[Nubytuesday]

The roof is on fire !!

at least nitrites not nitrates

[Jimbo]

Yep your getting there Wait until your nitrites are zero, you may see some nitrates or you may not depending on your lighting and denitrification that is occuring.

[Nubytuesday]

Is there anything I could put in my refeerium ,it is bare right now?
maybe some live sand ?

[Nubytuesday]

4 weeks later and my uncured rock has cured & tank is cycled
everything is 0 and ph is 8.2 now its time for the oragonite...
YEAH!!!
I have not given my rock a salt bath to remove any unwanted critters wich I havent seen any .
Is that reallly necessaary ?
YEAH !!!!

[R1Bill]

nuby,

i didn't do the salt bath. figured all it would do is kill what was left on the rocks but some people swear by it. i guess that it will get rid of mantis shrimps.

as far as your cycle, unless you bought rocks that had been submerged for at least several months until right before you put them in your tank there is a lot of stuff rotting on the rocks and it will take several months before the tank is really ready to support those delicate salt water creatures. patience is the very best thing to practice with your reef. most folks find it really strange that they have so many deaths in the beginning and so few after the reef has aged 9 or more months. i'm convinced that most of it is due to the poisons in your water from decaying dead stuff.

patience!



bill

[Nubytuesday]

I had plannned on not adding much of anything for 6 mo but i have been told the rock need some food so I thought I would just add 1 clown & see if i could hold off on a clean up crew for the next 5 mo.
I know nothing so tell me if this is OK

[R1Bill]

nuby,

if i remember correctly i put in a cleanup crew after about a month. you don't have to feed your rock with all of the decaying stuff on there. remember when you add your snails, they are
EXTREMELY sensitive to salinity changes. i put them in a bucket and slowly drip water into them from the tank for about 4 hours to acclimate them to the pH and salinity of your tank. then put them in a bag and float in the tank for 15 minutes to get the temperature the same. i don't remember the size of your tank but i started off with a yellow tang. you probably want to start with a fish that grazes algea off of your rocks. most tanks go through massive blooms.

good luck!

bill

[Nubytuesday]

Tanks a 90
Thanks for the input
I like tangs anyhow .
Whats the longest you would wait on the snails.

[R1Bill]

when you start to get a bloom of some kind in your tank it is past time to add snails (i like hermits also but some have had bad luck) to get rid of it. IMHO of course 4-6 weeks is probably good. as long as the nitrites and ammonia are 0 and the water smells fresh. i would put a bag of carbon in a high flow area to absorb toxins for the first 6 months. customaquatic.com has a house brand that is cheap and works well. not on the web site just call them. in fact after 2 years, i started using carbon again. with all of the softies in my tanks and the resulting chemical warfare i find that it decreases my water change requirements by a factor of 3 and keeps the water nice and clear and smelling fresh.



bill

[Nubytuesday]

I have some black diamond from my freshwater days.
Thanks again
How many snails would you start out with in a 90 ?

[R1Bill]

a lot i just put 24 new ones in my 180 today (with 300 lbs rock) and hardly even noticed that they were there. should have got 48. i guess a variety of different ones. maybe 20-30 is a good start. and then get 20-30 more in a month. i posted a question about snails/gallon a few days ago but nobody responded.

bill