Nicknjo Posted March 7, 2020 Share Posted March 7, 2020 Hey yall, So my tank has been fishless cycling for just shy of 3 weeks now. No lights whole time used dr Tim's one and only for bacteria and raw table shrimp for food. About a day or 2 after the cycle started my water got cloudy and has been ever since. Turned skimmer on about a week in and its producing light skimate. Tried a bag of carbon in the filter sock cup which seemed to help mildly for a day or two. Did a 15% water change last week also with no change. Tank is reading less than .25 ammonia or less using api test and 5.0 nitrate which I'm not to worried about as I doing the 4 month brs hybrid cycle. I'm convinced this is a bacteria bloom because tank is bare bottom with dry rock. Any suggestions as to something I should be doing or should I just keep weathering the storm and hope it clears eventually? Thanks Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted March 7, 2020 Share Posted March 7, 2020 it'll run it's course. Convenient you have no fish; no worries about oxygen deprivation. You'll probably spend a quarter of your time in the next year with a bloom like this if I've done a decent job of tracking how people do with BB and dry rock. I'd strongly recommend a persistent regimen of dosing bacteria all through the first year. Dr Tim's was a great place to start, but I'd buy just about everything you can find. Brightwell's MB7, MB CLEAN, Dr Tim's Refresh, Dr Tim's Waste-away, ReefBrite's Live Rock Enhance, Seachem's Pristine, Prodibio, anything, everything. During the fishless period (when the bloom can't hurt anything), I'd keep dosing one of them every day, mixing it up to different stuff so it gets a variety. Once there are fish in there, I'd mostly do the same, but when a bloom happens, drop in an airstone and stop dosing bacteria until it's cleared up. I'd make sure to ghost feed something once or twice a week; you're trying to get that biofilm as rich as possible. You might stick a Brightwell XPORT-BIO block in the sump to try to make up for the sand's surface area. Oh, and if API shows less than 0.25 ammonia, it's probably zero. You can pick up a seachem ammoalert badget, they last a year and more sensitive than the test kit. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicknjo Posted March 7, 2020 Author Share Posted March 7, 2020 it'll run it's course. Convenient you have no fish; no worries about oxygen deprivation. You'll probably spend a quarter of your time in the next year with a bloom like this if I've done a decent job of tracking how people do with BB and dry rock. I'd strongly recommend a persistent regimen of dosing bacteria all through the first year. Dr Tim's was a great place to start, but I'd buy just about everything you can find. Brightwell's MB7, MB CLEAN, Dr Tim's Refresh, Dr Tim's Waste-away, ReefBrite's Live Rock Enhance, Seachem's Pristine, Prodibio, anything, everything. During the fishless period (when the bloom can't hurt anything), I'd keep dosing one of them every day, mixing it up to different stuff so it gets a variety. Once there are fish in there, I'd mostly do the same, but when a bloom happens, drop in an airstone and stop dosing bacteria until it's cleared up. I'd make sure to ghost feed something once or twice a week; you're trying to get that biofilm as rich as possible. You might stick a Brightwell XPORT-BIO block in the sump to try to make up for the sand's surface area. Oh, and if API shows less than 0.25 ammonia, it's probably zero. You can pick up a seachem ammoalert badget, they last a year and more sensitive than the test kit.Thanks, I currently have a marine pure block in the sump and have a brightwell xport block and a bottle of mb7 arriving Tuesday. Should I pull the shrimp I have in there out in the mean time and start lightly ghost feeding or leave it in till it's gone then start?Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted March 7, 2020 Share Posted March 7, 2020 I'd say the shrimp did it's job, use some pellets or flakes to ghost feed from here.Or replace the shrimp weekly, maybe a 1/4 shrimp each week (can freeze the prawn in quarters)Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NateDawg Posted March 7, 2020 Share Posted March 7, 2020 Had a buddy who started a tank and ended up with a cloudy system like that. It stayed for a long time and wouldn't go away even after doing heavy water changes. He put a small UV sterilizer in his sump, and the cloudiness went away and hasn't been back since. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicknjo Posted March 7, 2020 Author Share Posted March 7, 2020 Had a buddy who started a tank and ended up with a cloudy system like that. It stayed for a long time and wouldn't go away even after doing heavy water changes. He put a small UV sterilizer in his sump, and the cloudiness went away and hasn't been back since.I have considered it. As indiscriminate as they are though at this stage I'm concerned it would kill all the bacteria good and bad hence nullifying my cycleSent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted March 7, 2020 Share Posted March 7, 2020 I have considered it. As indiscriminate as they are though at this stage I'm concerned it would kill all the bacteria good and bad hence nullifying my cycle Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk Nullify is probably too strong a word, but in a system this new, I think you want all the bacteria you can get. If you can stand to be patient, I'd recommend you just wait Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicknjo Posted March 7, 2020 Author Share Posted March 7, 2020 Nullify if probably too strong a word, but I'm a system you new, I think you want all the bacteria you can get. If you can stand to be patient, I'd recommend you just waitSent from my SM-G965U using TapatalkAll the time in the world. I was just trying to stay on top of it if it was an issue.Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdxmonkeyboy Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 A decent UV would clear that up in a day or two. Once the ammonia is all gone it should clear up pretty quickly. While there is certainly bacteria in your water column, running a UV will do very little to slow down your cycle. People love to debate about UV, but in a closed system, it is a good way to keep some of the bad stuff at bay. Sure, it may decrease some good things as well, but has been proven to keep harmful bacteria numbers down. No sand?? Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicknjo Posted March 10, 2020 Author Share Posted March 10, 2020 A decent UV would clear that up in a day or two. Once the ammonia is all gone it should clear up pretty quickly. While there is certainly bacteria in your water column, running a UV will do very little to slow down your cycle. People love to debate about UV, but in a closed system, it is a good way to keep some of the bad stuff at bay. Sure, it may decrease some good things as well, but has been proven to keep harmful bacteria numbers down. No sand?? Sent from my SM-G960U using TapatalkI'm cool with waiting it out. I've pulled the shrimp in the hope eliminate the food and the cloud will dissipate. I'll start ghost feeding when its cleared up. Uv is not in the budget at the time. Still gotta get quaranteen setup and the list goes on..... yes I went bare bottom. Wife really wants sps so seemed like the best option to avoid sand storms from the flow. Also I love the look of the coral encrusted bottom. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdxmonkeyboy Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 "wife wants SPS" We should get t-shirts with that printed on it. LOL 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdxmonkeyboy Posted March 12, 2020 Share Posted March 12, 2020 Where are you located again? Olympia?.Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicknjo Posted March 12, 2020 Author Share Posted March 12, 2020 Where are you located again? Olympia?. Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk Yelm, its about 45 minutes sw of olympia Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicknjo Posted March 18, 2020 Author Share Posted March 18, 2020 Just an update, tank is about 75% clearer. Taking out the shrimp and turning the skimmer back on seemed to do the trick never should have shut it off. Anyway fish will be goin in QT end of next week so it's got 4-6 more weeks empty, should I add a little ammonia every now and then to keep the bacteria count up till then. I stopped feeding it to starve the hetotrophic bacteria cloud.Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 I'd just drop in a few pellets or flakes twice a week, nbd. Literally a few. Like 4. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicknjo Posted March 18, 2020 Author Share Posted March 18, 2020 Suppose I have to eventually anyway. Maybe I'll toss a few snails in there in the mean time once I start feeding so it dosent get to crazySent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 5 minutes ago, Nicknjo said: Suppose I have to eventually anyway. Maybe I'll toss a few snails in there in the mean time once I start feeding so it dosent get to crazy Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk A couple is probably fine, but if you're just putting in a couple flakes, they may just starve to death. The lights are off, right? so no herbivores, you could potentially get one or two detrivores, but they may just starve...you're trying to feed bacteria, not animals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicknjo Posted March 18, 2020 Author Share Posted March 18, 2020 Correct, no lights for another 2 months. Fair enough I'll start dropping in flakes here in the next week or two once it's completely clear. Thanks againSent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mvincent Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 That's gonna happen at first. Sounds like your know what you're doing though so I'll not go into basics. I'm assuming you're doing a version of the wwc method? You're going to be behind every tank with sand for the first year, but obviously exponentially better than a sand bottom tank after that. As far as your bacterial issue, it will subside soon with what they are saying to do. Here's my tank, I'm at about 3 months right now, and I used aquatop clear magic to clear up my beginning cloudiness from bacteria/diatoms. I ghost fed used fritz zymere, and did a 10% water change every week, after the first 2 weeks and throughout the process. I also ran low lights for 8hrs the first month and then threw fish in at week 6 with another fritz zyme treatment, and switched lights to my ai prime 16hd, which is now running. Send more pics when you get it stocked! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gumby Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 Doing great! Take it slowly when stocking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren DeGraw Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 On 3/6/2020 at 9:23 PM, Burningbaal said: it'll run it's course. Convenient you have no fish; no worries about oxygen deprivation. You'll probably spend a quarter of your time in the next year with a bloom like this if I've done a decent job of tracking how people do with BB and dry rock. I'd strongly recommend a persistent regimen of dosing bacteria all through the first year. Dr Tim's was a great place to start, but I'd buy just about everything you can find. Brightwell's MB7, MB CLEAN, Dr Tim's Refresh, Dr Tim's Waste-away, ReefBrite's Live Rock Enhance, Seachem's Pristine, Prodibio, anything, everything. During the fishless period (when the bloom can't hurt anything), I'd keep dosing one of them every day, mixing it up to different stuff so it gets a variety. Once there are fish in there, I'd mostly do the same, but when a bloom happens, drop in an airstone and stop dosing bacteria until it's cleared up. I'd make sure to ghost feed something once or twice a week; you're trying to get that biofilm as rich as possible. You might stick a Brightwell XPORT-BIO block in the sump to try to make up for the sand's surface area. Oh, and if API shows less than 0.25 ammonia, it's probably zero. You can pick up a seachem ammoalert badget, they last a year and more sensitive than the test kit. I use Brightwell’s Microbacter clean and Microbacter 7. The Clean is more of a scavenger bacteria but both of them used together work very well. To cycle a tank, I prefer to do a fishless one. I’ve used Brightwell’s Start XLM with good results. Its very potent and can also withstand large temperature swings which is great for storage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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