Help with my new setup

R

ravensaxo

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May 13, 2004
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Hi i have just recently set up my 37.50 gallon marine tank :-)

the tank consists of
a fluval 204 filter
2 maxi powerheads running undergravel filter
a aqua medic mini floater skimmer
and the rest :-)

made a lot of reasearch before setting up but everyone says different stuff took the advice of my local fish supplier .
filled the tank with my substrate rocks water and ran the tank for about a month with nothing in it at all to get the equipment run in , the tank looks wicked .
the salt was perfect the temp was perfect went back to the shop , we decided to cycle the tank using the fish process read loads about just using live rock read loads on adding the shrimps :-) but the guy in the shop said the best way is to add some hardy fish , so we came home with 2 pieces of live rock 2 True Percula Clownfish / and to Blue/Green Reef Chromis

we put the live rock in then after 2 hours let the fish out off they went to find there homes we fed them and they seemed really happy .
1 week on they are still well happy they know when they are gonna get thier frozen food .
now for the questions . the test results the ammonia is at 0.1 the water hasnt gone cloudy at all been as clear as it was when it first went in . the nitrate shot up to 100 mg/litre and i think is slowly coming down . and the nitrite shot upto 4.0 mg/litre at the sane time as the nitrate and i think are going down slowly but i cant tell on the chart . is this normal thought the 1 went down then the other sarted to climb not both at the same time ??????????

anyway the fish seem happy the ph is great and the ammonia stays low do i add anything to bring the trates down or let it do itself bit worried as they have both gone up at the same time .

next question .
the skimmer is bubbling away do the bubbles have to come over the top of cone bit into the cup continusly as the cup is filling up with water then every so often the bubbles are shooting out of the air hole in the lid of the cup . so far there has been no build up of anything in there just a bit of murkey water is it working right ?
having to adjust the pump sometimes as the bubbles fall back and arent reaching the cup ????????????????

apart from that the tank has become a focal peice to our house kept tropical fish fro years but this is way more exciting hope im doing it right please help ?????????????

cheers rob
 
Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate will not make the water cloudy, so clear water does not mean clean water.

You may want to start doing water changes to reduce the nitrite levels. Unfortunately, the cycle doesn't always process as planned--there are a number of things that can impact the development of the bacteria. By adding live rock, you essentially seeded the tank with beneficial bacteria--but not quite enough to keep up with the fish load. The fish ARE damaged by these spikes, so water changes to reduce the toxin levels will increase the odds of them surviving.

You may want to do some more reseach on the fish--all of those fish are in the damsel family, and while hardy, are also very aggressive. Any future additions to your tank are in for a tough fight.
 
Thanks for the reply
will the nitrite come down on it's own ?
the ammonia is still o.1 but the trates and trites are still way up , im praying they will drop by themselves is this possible the live rock is changing colour everyday .
dont know what to add to the tank after it has finished its cycle i know i need to add a cleaner crew in there but what else ? any ideas ?

Thanks for the help
getting a bit nervous dont want to harm the fish
does the skimmer sound ok to you ?
thanks again Rob
 
Yes, the nitrites and nitrates will eventually drop as the bacteria colonies develop---but you might lose fish in the process. Nitrites are toxic to fish, as is ammonia--detectable levels harm the animals exposed to them. Water changes will provide an immediate relief and I can't recommend them enough!

Any skimmer is better than none, if it is removing gunk. I've never heard of this one, so can't comment specifically. How often do you have to clean the collection cup.
 
Thanks for the reply .
the nitrate levals are dropping daily im well excited :-)
but the nitrites is still top end and not shifting the tank has been cycling with the fish in now for nearly 3 weeks so today i did a about a 15% water change brown algea was starting to invade the sand so i have cleaned it all off of the sand havent toucjed the rocks it is slowly starting to grow on them , the sand was getting coverd fast though .
the live rock is growing little plants out of it it isnt hair algea it is small shoots ???????

cleaned the skimmer cup twice now there isnt any gunk as such in there just different coloured water .

the fish still seem ok

the amonia is now barely readable which is a good sighn going to wait a couple of hours before i check the nitrates and nitrite levals after my water change .


when can i add a clean up crew ? just worried about this algea .
 
Brown algae (diatoms) are common in new tanks--manual removal is the best option, since the nitrogen aspects would kill most of the cleaners. Once ammonia/nitrites hit zero, a variety of snails--trochus, cerith, nassarius--will help immensely. But, not before then--otherwise they will be killed by the ammonia and nitrites.

Don't be afraid to do larger water changes to keep the levels within tolerance.
 
Its scary stuff this .
the ammonia is at o.1 now yippeeeee after my water change the nitrate has dropped to 25 but the nitrite has not shifted at all ummmmmmmmmm . still there is time for it to move . has anyone ever got thier ammonia + nitrate down to zero but the nitrtite sky high ?

the skimmer seems to be bubbling better since i have taken it apart which i am pleased at
just wanna see a shift of the nitrite now

any ideas
could do another water change on friday or would this be too stressfull for the fish ?
 
Providing cleaner water is not stressful. More water changes will not hurt--even doing several in one day is possible.

The bacteria that consume nitrites develop very slowly--they'll get there, just takes longer than the ammonia consumers.
 
What i did was use a biwheel for a few months to handle any ammonia and Nitrite while the bacteria grow, and then removed the biowheel and let bacteria handle the filtering using LR and sand.
 
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