Tank cycling - me? Out of town! :(

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Bobindy1

AC Members
Jun 9, 2005
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Oh boy. I have to go out of town. My tank is cycling. I have two people helping to care for our animals, neither of which has any experience with a marine aquarium. I'd like to make it as simple as possible for them. I seem to be able to keep the Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate levels down simply by doing a 4 gallon water change every day or every other day (it's a 46 gal). I only have janitors in the tank and a condy anemone (it was a "bonus" sent with critters and LR) and have never "fed" anything but the condy. Is there any other kind of "food" I should be feeding the various corals, sponges, worms, clams etc.. that came on the rock? What about the critters? 2 - 3 inch cucumbers, 2 peppermint shrimp, 6 astrea snail, 2 orange turbo, 13 small blue leg hermits. There are also other unidentified crabs sneaking around in there too. Do I need to put some kind of food in for this stuff?

As for water quality, I think I'll just leave pre-mixed seawater and have them watch the ammonia. If it goes up higher than .25ppm I'll have them do a 4 gal change. If it goes higher than .50ppm (which it never has before) I'll have them call the guy at the lfs I have lined up for emergencies. What more can I do? I may be gone for as long as 2 weeks... <sigh> :hang:
 
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Hmmm, sticky situation. IMO you've overloaded, but maybe not by a huge margin. I'd expect most of your stuff to have a very tough time.

Food? I wouldn't but maybe, *maybe* a pinch of flake every four or five days (those animals would eat poop so flake food is fine). If any of the shrimp or snails die, there will be food there!

BTW, while your at home, beware of too many water changes. I've been told I'm wrong here, but I know what I'm talking about. You have to let the ammonia build up to some threshold before it cycles (same with the nitrite). Frequent water changes are quite $$$$$ and can actually slow the cycle by removing ammonia that he bacteria could use. And again I've been flamed for saying this, but I've seen cycles run on for two months (*with* lr) only to hear that the guy was changing 50% of his water every week.

If you have one of those "ammonia alert" things, which I dunno if they work or not, but if so, I'd add one and give the folks a bottle of AmQuel PLUS. Tell them if they see the ammonia go over .5 (which is a guarantee) to add a capful of the AmQuel Plus. It'll sock out the ammonia (thus prolonging the cycle) but at least the tank will be less toxic until you come back.

And only give them a teaspoon of fish flake food (of any type you have around, even goldfish flakes are fine for your critters right now) in a plastic sandwich bag, and tell them you want at least half of it left in the bag when you get back. Tank sitters almost always grossly overfeed.
 
Ive had ammonia go up to .50 with mishaps and not lost anything, including cleaner shrimp. I dont know about the condy but you say he wasnt planned anyway

I would definitely be feeding something;normally they eat what the fish dont get to,but they eat(my cleaner shrimps steal food from everything,even my condy) My hermits come out and start moving as soon as food goes in

It will also fuel the cycle a tad more

I agree that a higher threshold needs to be reached to get your tank cycled but Im not sure this is the time to do it

It would be easier to guestimate how often youve had to do a water change and just tell your folks to do it 'every three days" or whatever, than to expect them to be testing and decision making

Feed a little like other poster said and consider letting those levels go up a tad when you are back to monitor

I like the baggie idea :)
 
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