Starting Over

W

watertownsalt

AC Members
Oct 1, 2004
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56
Watertown, CT
Well, I did it, I am a bad person. I let all fish die in a matter of two weeks (2 dominos and one clown). I thought my tank had cycled but - maybe not. I never did see that ammonia level get any higher than 0.

My live inhabitants include three turbo snails - thats it.

The tank was 6 weeks old an I thought it was doing fine. I had a bit of ich on the clown last week which I thought I succesfully treated with Quick Cure.

I want to start over. I would like to add 20lbs to my 8lbs of live rock.

Do I need to empty the tank and fill with new water?

Can I use the cocktail shrimp method to cycle?

I apreciate all help - and can wait to move on past this tragedy.
 
Sorry-I will leave the advice to these guys

My SW cycled in 10 days but I saw the ammonia spike, the ntirite go up, the ammonia go down and the nitrite go down. It was incredibly fast but very much as expected patternwise. This was 55 gallons with 20 lbs live sand and one tiny chromis;I saw ammonia on day 2(me thinks that live sand was dead sand-better than a rotting shrimp-LOL)

OTOH my 29 gallon FW took 8 wks. I added a fish a week and it was 4 weeks before I saw even a bit of ammonia

Not what I expected given the difference in tank size, KWIM?

So it varies tremendously.

Good luck!
 
What size tank do you have & what are the water parameters now? I started up my 55 last December and it took approx. 8 weeks to cycle in using 5" DSB and 2 - cocktail shrimp. LR was added after the cycle which caused another spike in Am & NO2 (short lived).

You may not want to add LR if you use the cocktail shrimp again as the AM, NO2 spike will kill all the good thing on the rock, plus it would start you over again,

however I would:

Definately add more LR it will help filtration of your tank (depending on what source you refer to 1 to 2 lbs LR / gal of tank size). I wouldn't change out all the water, you've invested time in curing it and starting the cycle, perhaps a 10 to 20 percent change over the next few weeks, especially if you add more LR.

Just my 2 cents, Chris
 
Thanks CHughes

My 29g tank is reading 0's across the board.
0=ammonia
0=nitrites
0=nitrates
salinity = 1.024
ph=8.6

I live 10mins from my live rock dealer and should not have much die-off. Heck, I can even bring a bucket with my water to keep the rocks submerged.

If the rock stays wet during this 10 minute comute, will there be an ammonia spike at all?

I dont understand why i need to see an ammonia spike if the "alive" live rock has all the benefical bacteria.

Thanks everyone.
 
Your lucky to be close to the LR dealer. Around here they say it's cured, but it usually has been in transit for a while and there is die off on the rock that causes a slight AM spike.

Let the LR settle in for a week and retest before adding any fish. Strange with your readings that all the fish died. I might suspect some other cause like the ICH or some other disease.

Chris
 
watertownsalt said:
will my lfs be able to tell me if there is disease in the water if I bring down a sample?
Click to expand...

I don't think so, all they could do is confirm your water parameter tests. Are you sure it was marine ICH the clown had? I'm not really up on marine diseases, but I think in FW ICH can survive about 30 days in the tank [don't quote me on that...I could be very wrong].

I'm sure there are more knowledgable members who could comment. Just proceed with the additions of LR and 10% water change for now.

Chris
 
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