7days later im frustrated and confused

BeelzeBob

BeelzeBob

-CHAUVINIST PIG-
Mar 18, 2006
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Boulder, Co.
im in the process of setting up a 20 gallon lil reef tank. right now i have about 20lbs fine black sand, and 12lbs live rock.

i set up the tank on wed. before thanksgivin and put the LR in on fri. after i got a stable SG. (~1.024)

i used some mysis shrimp to start the cycle on friday as well.


i got a levels kit today (paycheck to...) and here are my readings.

pH <8.6
Amonia .25
Nitrite <.05
Nitrate 5

79º F


those suck *** right?

also i got all this very fine fuzzy old tennisball colored algae too.
i was planning on getting some macro algae, but now i dont want to cause i dont know if it'd survive.

did using mysis not accomplish the cycle?

is it just about in the the mid part of the cycle?


am i right in assuming that the progression i want to see is high amonia to high nitrite to high nitrate to evening out?

what should i do about my pH and the algae?

am i asking stupid questions?
 
seems like you just need to be a bit more patient. Give the bacteria some time to build up and you'll see the ammonia drop and the nitrites go up. Same thing with Nitrates. The algae is most likely a product of the Nitrate spike. Same thing happened to me last week with my new tank. My advice is to leave it alone until the cycle is complete. Mine all but disappeared when the -ite/-ate levels went down. Scrape it off the glass for now and if it persists after the cycle, your cleaner crew should make short work of it. As for the pH you could use some baking soda to bring it down or use a pH buffer. I use Seachem's Reef Advantage. It buffers Alkalinity and pH. Some people hate the stuff but it worked great for me. It stabilized my pH to 8.2 and brought my alkalinity down to a reasonable level.
 
I'd say that there was some larger invert on or in one of the live rocks. It's rotting along with the mysis so it's just going to take a little longer.
 
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