Lowman Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 Perfect Jason. I think you are probably good to go. Give the snails and hermits a couple of days to see how they react and then you can slowly start with some fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadReefer Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 Water changes remove organic wastes that slow bacterial growth also, but you don't want to kill other life while you increase your bio load and bacteria. If the bacteria are in low numbers, you have to add bio load slowly to let them catch up. If you have high bacteria numbers now, and you don't add a high bio load, the bacteria will settle back to lower numbers based on the bio load. Both ways you should add to the bio load slowly so that you don't overwhelm the bacteria or swing into instability. You seemed to be watching your ammonia and nitrites very well, you are on the right track. I would say that all die off from live rock is over and you have a lot of bacteria ready to work. A few snails to remove hair algae from your display, skimming to remove excess proteins before the break down, and chaeto to take up nutrients would be a good thing now. But it will be 6 months before the system is very stable, I'm not saying that you have to wait that long to add fish, but it's better if you could. I wish I could have waited; my first tank was up for a week and a half before I added my first fish. Good thing they were hardy fish, I still have them. But even after a few months I added more delicate fish and lost them and I think it was because my system was new. Now I know better. I hope this helps and doesn't confuse. I have snails for sale and chaeto for free if you want to drive to Corvallis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason7504 Posted February 12, 2009 Author Share Posted February 12, 2009 Water changes remove organic wastes that slow bacterial growth also, but you don't want to kill other life while you increase your bio load and bacteria. If the bacteria are in low numbers, you have to add bio load slowly to let them catch up. If you have high bacteria numbers now, and you don't add a high bio load, the bacteria will settle back to lower numbers based on the bio load. Both ways you should add to the bio load slowly so that you don't overwhelm the bacteria or swing into instability. You seemed to be watching your ammonia and nitrites very well, you are on the right track. I would say that all die off from live rock is over and you have a lot of bacteria ready to work. A few snails to remove hair algae from your display, skimming to remove excess proteins before the break down, and chaeto to take up nutrients would be a good thing now. But it will be 6 months before the system is very stable, I'm not saying that you have to wait that long to add fish, but it's better if you could. I wish I could have waited; my first tank was up for a week and a half before I added my first fish. Good thing they were hardy fish, I still have them. But even after a few months I added more delicate fish and lost them and I think it was because my system was new. Now I know better. I hope this helps and doesn't confuse. I have snails for sale and chaeto for free if you want to drive to Corvallis. +1..thats some good info thanks everyone for your advice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason7504 Posted February 12, 2009 Author Share Posted February 12, 2009 i haven't added anymore mysis shrimp since i added the 1/2 cube yesterday but my ammonia and nitrite are 0 and nitrates are 5..i started my fuge in the 2nd chamber with some chaeto (you rock bob ) lol and started my skimmer..i will probably get a few snails tomarrow to help with the algae.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason7504 Posted February 12, 2009 Author Share Posted February 12, 2009 Jason' date=' can you get a picture of the algae?[/quote'] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason7504 Posted February 13, 2009 Author Share Posted February 13, 2009 uh oh! i added some chaeto yesterday and added 5 snails today and when i tested my water, the first ammonia test( i always run 2 to verify) came out with like 1 ppt and the 2nd was 0..so i dont know which one it was but still thats not good and i had 0.5 nitrites and 10 nitrates...eek! could the chaeto and snails have bumped it up that much? and will the snails survive if those parameters are short lived? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lowman Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 I think everything will be okay. Relax, take a deep breath and don't you have school tomorrow mister?!?!?!!? You should be resting!!! LOL. Really, I think the tank is doing fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason7504 Posted February 13, 2009 Author Share Posted February 13, 2009 hehe i hope so ..would the addition of cheato and 5 snails bump up ammonia, nitrite and nitrate that much though? lol haha yeah i do but not til 9 lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lowman Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 What you witnessed with your testing is how it works. You added live stock, it made a small ammonia spike, your bacteria went to work and made it into nitrite and nitrate. I think if you test tomorrow you will see all those numbers back to zero. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason7504 Posted February 13, 2009 Author Share Posted February 13, 2009 ok no matter how many tanks ive had, i still kind of "freak out" when somethings out of whack lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lowman Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 Yeah, I know how you feel man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lowman Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 How much live rock do you have in there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason7504 Posted February 13, 2009 Author Share Posted February 13, 2009 35 lbs worth.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason7504 Posted February 13, 2009 Author Share Posted February 13, 2009 well my ammonia is 0 but my nitrite is 0.1 and nitrate is 5-10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lowman Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 How are the snails looking? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason7504 Posted February 14, 2009 Author Share Posted February 14, 2009 well my nass are cruising and 1 of my ceriths is somewhere but the other 2 that i got didnt move all night so i checked and dont see anything in the shell lol so im getting new ones on sunday..and the astrea hasn't really moved since i put it in yesterday Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason7504 Posted February 18, 2009 Author Share Posted February 18, 2009 The only reason for this is so that bacteria have a chance to grow at a maximum rate. If you have chaeto in the system it will take ammonia out of the system so less bacteria will grow. The problem is that if you have hair algae, it is doing the same thing but in a bad way because you don't want hair algae. Another bonus to chaeto is that it will bring bacteria and pods and other good stuff into the system. I was always told that once any algae of any kind starts to grow on the rock, it is time to start adding snails. wouldn't the macro die, if it was put in the tank from week 1 of the cycle, from the ammonia and nitrite spike? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadReefer Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 I have not done this on a fresh tank with fresh rock (only because I didn't know what I know now) so I'm only speculating. But let me add this,, algae could die if the ammonia/nitrite levels are too high. If that happens, a lot of other good stuff on the rock will die also. This is the reason I would run a skimmer and do water changes and add chaeto early on when cycling. The goal being to keep as much alive on the rock as possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason7504 Posted February 18, 2009 Author Share Posted February 18, 2009 what if there was a sponge that was left in the cycled tank to seed it with bacteria and chaeto was added early during the cycle? would the ammonia and nitrites be low enough to preserve the life in the tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadReefer Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 Bumping up the bacteria is always good. A cup of live sand or a rock or a piece of mechanical filter from an established tank will do this and always help cycle faster. A faster cycle should have less ammonia and nitrite, so everything should have an easier time staying alive. Well cured live rock should make for faster cycle as well. I never trust well cured live rock though. Just my opinion that fresh LR might have more stuff to die and pollute the water, but it also has more life waiting to grow if you take care of it right. So I like to cure it myself. Chaeto adds bacteria, also it can help remove CO2 and nitrates from the system if provided flow and light. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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