[reeferaddiction]

So here it is. I set up a 90 gal acrylic with a 40 gal sump, and 10 gal refugium that hangs in the sump. I bought this all used and together. The tank had plenty of live sand in it, and it was still wet. The tank was supposedly drained a day before I bought it, so I figured the sand was still "live". I bought 200lbs live rock from another source (cured). The system has been running for about three weeks, but I have not seen the huge spike in ammonia. There was a little spike in everything, in the right order, almost like a mini cycle. I had many hitchhikers on the live rock, turbo snails, 5 shrimp, emerald crabs, hermits, even some little button polyps. All of this live stock is doing fine, and the polyps seem to be thriving, and I am now getting the brown film that is common to new aquaria. How long should I wait before deciding my system is ready to add coral, fish, or more inverts? All of my readings have been great, this last week, so is the cycle done? thanks for any replies! :beer:

Oh by the way, I also had other hitchikers: mojano :doh:
any suggestions for that would be great too! Oh and don't say joe's juice cuz I live in california where that product is illegal. The calEPA said no way to joe's juice. I can buy rat poison, snail poison, weed killer, but god forbid I need to kill a pest in an aquarium

 

[Jnicho]

Sounds like you've very little die-off in the rock/sand so very little "cycle"...I've set up many tanks this way and slowly added livestock shortly there after...your tank will still do other things beyond the "nitrogen cycle" so it's important to move slowly and add more hardy specimens first.

As for "Joe's Juice"...if you can't buy it make your own out of kalk (aka pickling lime)...do a search for mojano or aiptasia and you'll find the info on how to do it.

 

[reeferaddiction]

thank you! Just did another test and ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 20ppm. looks like it was a mini cycle. I am off to do a water change!

 

[spamreefnew]

yea just go slow

 

[Loverotties]

A Kalk paste you inject into each middle.

 

[wbyoung]

Kalk paste? - what is it and where do you inject it?