Not cycling... good or bad?

[leakyfaucet]

My tank has been up for i would guess 1.5 weeks. The first week, I had the sand and water sit around and do its thang... I don't think the sand was alive anymore since I had to rinse it copiously to remove the fine dust in it, and in the interest of time and cost, i used freshwater (i just ran the sand in a bucket under my faucet in the tub). Three days ago, I added the live rock which i got from a friend. I don't think it had been cured as I noticed some die off in it prior to installation. I brushed off as much as i can of the detritus before placing it in my tank.

Two days ago, I performed a 90% water change as the water was very cloudy and murky from the sand and the rocks. As of yet, I have not noticed any spikes in NH3.

Should I force cycling by introducing ammonia into the water? (put in a dead snail, raw shrimp, dead fish... pee in it... jk:langle ) Or should i let it be... I was thinking of maybe introducing a cheap, hardy damsel to start the cycle... but poor fishie, i don't want it to suffer. Should i just wait it out? What do you guys think?

 

[sadielynn]

I think you set yourself back a few steps by doing a MASSIVE water change . You could put something like you mentioned in to the tank but give it time it will cycle you lost most of your benificial bacteria by the water change let it be for now and it will cycle ......You dont need a fish to cycle the tank . You could get a bit more live rock to allow for addtional bacteria to be introduced or ,perhaps some bio-spira(not sure if I spelled that right ) it should be in a lfs refridgerator Hope this helps ya :mrgreen:

 

[aromano]

Not a good idea to rinse the sand with tap water, but with time it will be live again.
My advice is don't do water changes until the tank is fully cycled. Your ammonia and nitrites will rise and then start to fall. Don't worry about introducing ammonia to the tank as the live rock will do the job for you. It takes time and most likely within a month or so your tank will be fully cycled.

 

[leakyfaucet]

In the meantime, do you think it would be a good idea to start introducing snails and maybe a crab? My rocks are covered in what looks like fine fur of... i dunno what. lol. Would it help contribute to the bioload if i started adding my cleanup crew in a few days to a week?

 

[aromano]

Don't introduce any inverts to your tank until it's fully cycled. They are very sensitive to ammonia and will definitely die if you do. Just wait until your tank fully cycles and you can go ahead and introduce your cleaning crew I know it's hard, but trust me. Patience is a virtue in this hobby, and if you do things right it will save you a lot of time, and money. I am glad you joined this site and are posting questions. There are a lot of good knowledgeable people in this forum that can give us some really good advice and save us a lot of frustration at the end. :win:

 

[leakyfaucet]

haha it's cool. I stare at my tank endlessly anyway... despite the fact that it's empty haha. that's bad huh?...

BTW how do you post pictures?

 

[leakyfaucet]

Here's a little pic of my tank. I hope it works.

 

[sadielynn]

Looking good there are only 2 suggestions that I can offer
1 hide the heater a bit if you can :mrgreen:
2 paint the back blac or blue to help hide the cords and to frame your work, to paint it now with the stuff in it just use a roller and move the stuff to the front if you can and paint , allow to dry . If paint scares you you could use window tint :mrgreen: Other wise it is off with a bang :mrgreen:

 

[leakyfaucet]

Another one

 

[leakyfaucet]

hope this one works

 

[aromano]

eheheh... I also stared at my tank with just LS and LR for endless hours during the cycling period, and all I can say is that it's hypnotizing. I catch myself doing it all the time. I love everything about saltwater tanks: assembling, maintenance, visiting the LFS, doing research, and giving and getting feedback from sites like Nanotank. Welcome aboard...You are not alone. :mrgreen:

 

[EDGRAY]

thats a nice aquascape is that new pic or not if not put a before and now... bu if not the corals are gonna look great in the top of does caves really great aquascape....

eddy :cool1:

 

[aromano]

Ed,

The last pict posted was taken from my 75 gallon when it was first setup. I was just mentioning that I also spent a whole month staring at my aquascape for endless hours. :mrgreen:

 

[leakyfaucet]

Wow. that's some pretty nice aquascaping, André! Good job! I wish mine looked as good. haha. Oh well. It'll be covered up with coral in no time, so it will look nice eventually... i hope. Haha. I think i will try and get my hands on more rocks. I really wanna re-do my aquascaping. And about the hypnosis... haha yeah. I haven't done any of my school homework just because i keep staring at the tank. I need to spend more time away from my room haha... Did you paint the back of your tank blue? Sadie sugested i do that with mine... either blue or black. I think i'll take up the advice. Anyway, yeah i love everything about this hobby... a little expensive.. but man... i know it will be all worth it once things start kicking off. haha i can't wait. Thank goodness for places like nanotank.com

 

[leakyfaucet]

How do you guys keep your water oxigenated? My powerheads came with aeration tubes. Should i be using those? Or do i just want water movement without the bubbling?

 

[sadielynn]

you just want to break the surface tension , you dont really need air pumps the water movement is enough in my opinion :mrgreen:

 

[skipm]

You just need water movement, air exchange takes place at the surface so as long as you see current at the top of your tank your fine. One thing that came to mind when you said you were growing fuzzy stuff on your rock is are you running lights now? You don't need to have lights on during cycling. I am also curious what you have your salinity at.

 

[aromano]

As far painting the back of the tank, that's always an option. I thought of doing to do that to, but since I wasn't sure between blue or black I decided to go with a blue plastic background, which still gives me the option to easily remove it and chance the color.

Don't worry too much about the aquascape for now, because once you start to add corals it will look very nice. As long as you have a solid, good foundation for the coral placement and some hiding places for the fish it's all good. Smaller tanks are not as easy to aquascape as larger tanks, but I think you are on the right track.

 

[Jennie]

I agree with Sadie, you probably set yourself back a bit with doing the massive water change so soon. When I started a few years back, I used a raw table shrimp to jump start the cycle. I wouldn't do anymore water changes until the cycle is done, there really isn't a need since the rock is uncured and there isn't any livestock in the tank as of now. If you introduce any clean up crew in the middle or beginning of the cycle, odds are you are going to lose them either to the amonia spike or the stress of the cycle.

HTH :mrgreen:

 

[reefman23]

About the oxygenation thins...protein skimmers help to get oxygen into the water. Dont use those tubes for the powerdeas, it will just shoot microbubbles all over the place.

Jesse