Cycle Update (Advice Please)

A

AH-99P

AC Members
Jan 12, 2006
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www.99p.net
Hello,

After 3 weeks, my cycle is complete, at least I believe it is... I cycled the tank with a prawn. The tank is 35Gallons, has 1 powerhead, 1 canister filter. It contains 15Kg of "premium fijian" liverock, a healthy bed of live sand and is full of life... I have snails, fether dusters, worms, slugs, algie of many different types, little shrimpy things, little tiny white things on the glass... the list goes on, but i'm sure you get the point that it is now full of life!

I know there are some critters which are not as beneficial to the tank as others, such as bristle worms and glass anemones... But my priority at the moment is to get the condition of the water to a healthy level.

The readings for the past 3 days are:

PH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 160
Salt: 1.022
Temp: 25.5C

The only issue i can see with the readings above is the Nitrate sitting at 160..! What should I do in order to lower these levels to make the tank safe for fish?

Thanks in advance for any help,

AH-99P :)
 
I'm using liverock & a canister filter... an Eheim filter, it has bio balls and porcelin bits inside. I think part of the reason may be that i filled the tank with water from a friend's established tank after he did a water change to "get things going" and also because i used a prawn to cycle the tank.

How big a water change should i perform?

Many thanks for your comments.

AH-99P :)
 
My recommendation would be to get rid of the cannister filter and bio-balls. That is probably where most of your nitrates are coming from. With the amount of live rock and sand that you have, you shouldn't need it for biological filtration. If you don't have one already, invest in a good skimmer. That should be all the filtration you need.

Large water changes will help lower the nitrates in the mean time. You also may want to consider replacing the bioballs/ceramic filter bits with nitrate sponge that you can get at the LFS.
 
LittlePuff said:
I agree. If you took old water from another tank, it was probably high in nitrates. There is no reason to put old water in a new tank.

Kim
Click to expand...

:duh:

Before I came here I went to the LFS and they suggested if I knew someone with an established tank I should take their water from the water change to get started as it would contain everything a developing tank would need...

At least I've found the forums now - I will get some RO water today.

Thanks for the comments :)
 
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