Strange Cycling...

[Bouch097]

Hey everyone. About a week ago, I got a 75gal. reef ready. Got it ready with about 55 pds of live rock including a mammoth (and very fresh) 45 pd show branch rock (I think that's what they called it). Then dumped 8 damsels in it. About half died within a couple days, and I left some of them in to try to kick start the cycling process. Somehow 2 days after set-up, the ammonia had gone off-chart (Over 6). Then somehow by Day 5 (Down to 3 damsels and pulled out the dead ones)-Ammonia: Off-Chart, NO2: Off-Chart, NO3: 20, Alkaline: Off-Chart, pH: 8.4, temp: 81. Then this morning-Ammonia: 0, NO2: Off-Chart, NO3: 200, Alkaline: 120, pH: 7.6, temp 81. Also, one of the smaller live rocks has grown quite a bit of brown algea seemingly overnight.

If this normal, or is my tank just cycling like it was on steriods?

Why the sudden drops in Alkalinity and pH, and is this OK? I read on here they should be higher.

And finally, when will it be safe, or is it now, to add more creatures to the tank. I had tried a few different foods to get them to eat unsucessfully, so there is a lot of food left at the bottom. Will some cleaner shrimp survive the NO3 levels? What else can I add at this point? And when can I add other invertebrates and what types? I would like to have anenomies in there, but I'll wait till it's stable since I heard if one of those go belly up, it'll kill the tank.

Sorry about all of the questions, but the rapid pace of this cycling has really thrown me a curveball and any help would be greatly appreciatied. This is my first time on this site, and it looks great by the way.

-Thanks

[CHughes]

Brouch:
I wouldn't add any live creatures yet till the cycle is closer to being complete. My guess is the LR caused the spike in AM, NO2 , NO3. Anything you add now will most like die or have their gills fried. The increase of diatoms (brown algae) is normal during the cycle and should die off once the tank establishes itself. 25% water changes should help reduce the nasties in the water.

I'm in week 3 of cycling a 55 using DSB (deep sand bed) and rotting cocktail shimp and the cycle is moving slowly

(See the thread:
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=27

Lotsa good info from users of this forum like: mogurnda, Corax, OrionGirl to name just a few.

Welcome to Aquaria Central...lots of great folks with lotsa great advice!

Chris

[Bouch097]

Thanks for the info. What about the sudden drop in alkalinity and pH? That's what I'm most worried about right now. Also, whether or not it cycling this quickly is normal?

[Bouch097]

Well, I'm at day 11 now, and it's still cycling like it's on crack... One of my previously clean LR's is now completely brown. The top layer of substrate in the front right corner is brown. A ton of brown stuff (and some red) has grown on the top of my branch show rock. And some green algae I'm guessing has formed on part of the glass and various other areas of the tank. It almost looks like little tiny pieces of moss, or little green threads. The Ammonia is still at 0. NO2 is still above 10, and NO3 is around 80. I've been having trouble keeping the temperature down... It's constantly running in the low 80's, which could explain the algae growth. But should I be concerned about and of this, or just let it finish cycling out and then clean it?

[OrionGirl]

The algae is showing up in force because there is so much food available. You can clean it out, and do some water changes to reduce the levels somewhat--once the tank cycles, a cleaner crew will help keep it under control.

For alkalinity and pH--the drops are normal, but not desirable. The buffer is dropping down as a result of all the acids present from the biological processes--in other words, that high ammonia/nitrite are using up the buffer, and dropping the pH. Once the tank stabilizes, regular water changes to replenish the buffer, and maybe adding some aragonite, will help keep the parameters stable.

The temp is okay. a stable temp that's a bit high is better than one that fluctuates, but research your fish and make sure you are not getting cool water animals, which will not do well in a warm tank.

What lighting do you have? VHO and MH lights are well known to cause increased temps, and fans may be required to prevent the temp from bouncing around and getting too hot.

[Bouch097]

Thanks for the info. I'll probably let it cycle through, then give it a good cleaning since if I cleaned it now, it would probably end up looking the same in a couple of days. Also, I was told the pH fluctuates along with the light being on. I checked the pH later in the day after the light had been on for a while and it was back up to 8.4. Over the last couple of days, it seems to have stabalized some. Even before I turn the light on in the morning, it was still over 8 (it's hard to tell the diff. sometimes between 8 and 8.4 with my testing strips). My lighting is pretty serious because I would like to eventually have anenomies. I'm not sure what those abbreviations mean, but it's a huge tube that ran around $300 and has a moon light in it (which looks pretty cool at night). I took the cover off overnight and it dropped the temp to 78, so it must have been an evaporation problem. That may also have led to my previous drop in pH. Unfortunately, another damsel kicked the bucket yesterday at some point. I gave him a proper funeral though.
;)