cycling???

horner420

horner420

AC Members
Feb 27, 2005
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SE Pa, 19547
O.k. heres the story...I have a 30 gal tank up for about 4 weeks. When I first started I was told to cycle with fish, so I went to the lfs and pick up the essentials to start....first off i had only the advice of my father who had a tank running about 7 years ago and has since given it up....anyway picked up salt,live sand and a few base rocks(nothing Live). Already had the tank the skilter and 1 powerhead(ajustable flow). Now the bag of sand said INSTANT CYCLING. Did not really now about cycling till I starting looking it up(on the Net)after i had put the 4 damsels in. My parameters were fine so I THOUGHT the bag of sand had cycle the tank(very funny).Well after thinking my tank was cycled I purchased more fish....2 tomato clown, 2 neon gobys,and 1 striped dotty backplus a small cleang crew....well 1 damsel has died 2 pep shrimps, all of my 20some snails and now my clown are looking poor..note my damsel died firstfrom bullying from the other damsels. Anyway the real cycle started as soon as i was expecting the other fish in the mail(fedx). Now my parameters are through the roof(amm And NItrite) and have been like that for almost a week and a half...have used stress zzyme and biozyme to try to kick the cycle in the a@@. Dunno what to do. It seems never ending. Can i use ammo lock to try to save some fish.Bottle says it still bio filters the amm. Please help me..............reminder im very new at this and the advice I was taking was a joke.........thanks Chris H.
 
Yes, you can use ammo-loack, but I would strongly advise you to do water changes as well. Or--better--see if you can return the fish and cycle fishlessly. Bio-Spira is the only product I'm aware that is effective--the others introduce bacteria that will not surive in water. Adding some cured live rock will introduce the beneficial bacteria as well.
 
ordered fish online..can't really take back......going to That Fish Place today to take a look at what they have for rock..This store has over 800 sw tanks and 8 marine biologists so hopefully i can get some other help too...but thanks for the ammo lock advice....what % of water should I change out?
Btw store is over an hour away
 
I'd change as much as was possible. Just make sure that the new water has the same ph/kh and salinity as the old and your critters will thank you for it. You might also consider moving everything to a smaller bare bottomed container and doing a 100% water change every day. Then run a fishless cycle on the main tank. Also from your live stock list your tank is going to be way over stocked when every thing grows up. The tomato clowns are going to get pretty big 4 inches plus most of the time. Tomato clowns are one of the most aggressive clowns out there to. They really don't like other fish getting in their territory either and in that tank it will probably all be theirs. I wouldn't get them an anemone either it will just make the worse.
Damsels are also usually pretty aggressive and they don't get along very well with clowns either usually. They are closely related and it causes real territorial issues. Normally the damsels get the better of the clowns but, with tomatoes my money is on the clowns. I don't think that would work in a 500 gallon. There is a peacefull species of damsel but, they usually aren't sold to cycle a tank. I'm still not sure the clown would be peacefull with them though.
I'm not 100% sure about your dotty back but, most of them are about as aggressive as the clown . There is only 1 exception that I know of and it's common name in my part of the country is the orchid dotty back. They are just as aggressive as the clowns and fast to.
The gobies aren't aggressive at all and don't get too big either. They may not be able to stand up to your other fish and they won't live very long either.
hth
Chris
 
Thanx max....right now i have no other tank to put the fish in....as for the agression(as of now)everyone seems to be fine. The damsels seem to be more intrested in themselves(going after each other). The clowns seem to have only slightly agressive behavior towards the damsels and none towards anything else...dunno if this will change in the future.thats if they survive :(
ok..well thanks...and can i use a buffer in the new water for ph?? salinity is not a prob.
 
Yes, you should buffer to get it to the same pH. Don't worry about percentages--worry about keeping ammonia as low as possible.
 
will doing such a water change prolong the cycle? I did a 20% yesterday and it did pretty much nothing.....and also store i went to did not have the biospira :mad: ....ok thanks for all your help....so i'll do water changes till i'm able to notice it on my test kit?? because of right now its too high to read(goes up to 8ppm).
Also added a couple peices of live rock...store would not say it was cured for some reason but was in their tank for two weeks and did not smell bad...
 
Water changes won't extend the cycle time. The bacteria continue to increase in size constantly--they won't notice if you keep the ammonia levels lower to prevent injury to the fish. Yes, keep doing water changes--I'd start with 50% at least.

The rock should be fine, and will help.
 
Add Marine Bio-Spira if possible. It cut my cycle down to about 24-36 hours. Water changes won't increase the time, only decrease it. It is my understanding that the bacteria will live in your sand and on your rock so the water changes end up just getting rid of excess ammonia and nitrites. Good luck!
 
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