Am I cycled?

K

KidNano

New Member
I'm new and trying to learn as fast as possible. OK so I have a 12.5 gallon all in one cube. It's not JBJ or Oceanic. I forget right now. The box said Aqua Euro, USA which was confusing to me. I've been testing my water every day for the last 8 days. yesterday was the first day I had no ammonia. I've never had a Nitrite reading and my Nitrates were about 25 PPM. I've been using the quick dip test strips. It was the cheapest test kit available to me at my local fish store. Should I get a better kit. My problem is I'm a little color blind so I've got to have my wife read it for me. Is there a digital kit or something that will just give you a number?

OK...
1-1/2"Sand base, 7 pounds of LR a blue devil and one little snorkel snail thing. Everything seems to be doing well.

Lots of brown algae growing in sand and on rocks. I've mixed up the sand but haven't cleaned my rock. Should I? there are little worms and feathery things that pop out and retract that I don't want to kill. There are a couple of different kinds of them too. Does anyone know the best place to research them and find out what they are?

How can I encourage a healthier algae to grow. The Pink and purple stuff. There is a little bit of Green Algae but not much. I read the article on LR that was posted and it sounded like Calcium is the way to go?

Any thoughts or advice to determine weather I'm cycled and how to encourage a better Algae to grow would be helpful. Or just advice in general.

Thanks.
 
K

KidNano

New Member
Apparently I forgot to mention I set it up on the 26th of December. The Blue Devil was put in on the 27th. The snail was put in on Tuesday the 9th.
 
islandcreation

islandcreation

New Member
Kidnano, usually I wait for a cycle to be done before even putting a cleanup crew. But if everythings good then no problem. I'd wait for atleast a month to be safe because things add up $$$$ especially if they die. I'd make sure you have good water flow and use ro/do water to when mixing or even when topping off. Have fun...
 
K

KidNano

New Member
yeah...... If I were to do it again i wouldn't have added theDamsel when I did. I've been learning a little more each day. I'm going to wait atleast two more weeks before I add anything else and continue to monitor everything closely to make sure I don't lose the Damsel.

However right now I'm mostly curious about the Algae? Should I scrub my rocks with a tooth brush to get rid of the brown Algae or just let it go. If I do scrub them will I lose my feather dusters? Also should I take them out of the tank to scrub them?

I've been toping off with RO and I did one 2 gallon water change with ocean water purchased from my local store.
 
islandcreation

islandcreation

New Member
Just like Taaang77 said don't worry about it unless its hair algae. Just make sure you have good water flow. And for purchasing ocean water, look into making your own water. It adds up especially when you do alot of water changes which nanos need. :mrgreen:
 
K

KidNano

New Member
OK if it's hair Algae then what kind of worrying should be done, because I think it is. My water flow is pretty good I think. I watch the algae dance around on my rocks and in the sand, on the glass, the heater and the back wall.
 
K

KidNano

New Member
how can I shrink a pic? i've never done it, but I've tried and couldn't figure out what program to use.

I'll try tonight when I get home. I'm at the office now.

Thanks for your help and advice.
 
islandcreation

islandcreation

New Member
Go in and manually pull them out. Hair algae thrives on nitrates in excess of 10 ppm, so get that nitrate down with some water changes. Do you have any filter pads or anything like that? That could be a nitrate factory too. Hope this helps.
 
K

KidNano

New Member
This is a shot of what is growing on the glass. This same stuff is all over my rocks and in the sand. Let me know what I should do with it and the process of removing it. should I pull the rocks out of my tank to remove it?
 

Attachments

R

reefman23

New Member
Looks to me to be normal algae that you will be getting in the first couple of months. Manually remove it and keep an eye on your parameters and you should see it slowly go away. You may have already said but how long has the tank been up and running, are you running your lights, and what were your parameters last time you tested?

BTW, if you dont mind me asking, where in So Cal are you from? I may be able to give you some good LFS's.

Jesse
 
K

KidNano

New Member
That's good that it looks normal.

tanks been up since the 26th of December. almost 3 weeks. 10 lbs of sand 7 lbs of LR in the 12.5 Aqua Euro Usa tank.

.25 ppm ammonia.
20ppm nitrates
0 nitrites
300 alk
8.2 ph
and my hydro is 1.023

I think the biggest problem is I've been keeping the light on too long. 12 to 14 hours a day. I'm getting one of those kits so I can seperate the moonlights from the daylights and then I'll put them on a timer. Untill then I guess I'll keep the moonlights on all day and turn the compacts on when I get home for a few days.

by the way my fish (blue devil) just stopped eating yesterday. Any idea considering the above info.
 
islandcreation

islandcreation

New Member
Make sure you turn off those moonlights too. Just turn on the lights when you want to inspect the tank. That should be no more than 3-6 hours...
 
R

reefman23

New Member
Is the fish you mentioned in this tank? Your cycle isnt over yet if those were your latest readings. Have you done a water change?

Jesse
 
K

KidNano

New Member
I'm doing a water change right now. about two gallons. I'll test everything again later this afternoon.

Yes the fish is in this tank. today he started pretending like he was eating. he'd swim up to it swallow it and spit it out. repeatedly. Never getting it down.

Some one mentioned bio balls promoting nitates. should I swap them out with lr rubble?
 
R

reefman23

New Member
KidNano said:
Some one mentioned bio balls promoting nitates. should I swap them out with lr rubble?
Click to expand...
Yes, remove the bioballs. You probably dont even need rubble in your filter. Rubble tends to traps detritus back there which can also increase nitrates. The Lr in your tank will provide the needed biological filtration if you have about one pound per gallon or so.

Jesse
 
K

KidNano

New Member
LOL im dying to know what happened to the tank!!!
Click to expand...
I was actually going to post a link to this thread on yours, but you found it all on your own. The tank is doing really well. the last 3 weeks have been spent setting up my 60 gallon. What can I say I got addicted quick. My fish are happy I've got some pretty good coraline growing on my rock and a few Zoos, shrooms and a Xenia. The xenia is growing like a weed but the other two aren't doing much. I don't think there is enough light on the tank. I'll post some pics hopefully this weekend.

Thanks for asking, but I'm confused why your laughing. Was my ignorance amusing? ;-)
 
V

viktor25

New Member
no, not laughing at you at all. haha im totally addicted to fishtanks. im laughing because someone *else* was as freaked out about their tank as i am right now. im sooo new to the saltwater tank, ive wanted one all my life, and i have 3 other freshwater tanks, those are the easiest ones EVER to take care of. in fact, a couple of my fish are laying eggs in my 29g freshwater tank as we speak. but yeah, im scared to death of my fish dying!!! so ill do whatever it takes.

so no, not laughing at you at all :) just glad that someone went through this before me so i can learn from it!

i want to make sure that i can take care of this little 29g bio cube because if i can, then im for SURE going to get a huge reeftank one day. :) i loooooove my fish!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top