2 ways I cycled my tanks and added fish in 1 week.
I ‘m new to salt water tank’s and are learning a lot here in the groups, I live in South Florida and I’m finding that we set up tanks here differently than what I’m reading in the groups. I have 2 tanks the first was set up on September 11 and I started the tank in day one with 4 live Damsels to cycle the tank and now have a puffer a yellow tank and a Dottyback in the tank. This is the two setups that I find used in south Florida and they both work greater for me
Tank one 35Gallon Hex shaped tank
First I filled the tank 60% fresh ocean salt water $0.50 a gallon its cheep enough we don’t mix salt here or I can drive 10 miles to the beach and get it free.
Added 20 LB live sand (no bed rock or crushed rock) I was told not necessary.
added 20 Lb live rock and toped off the tank with water had to add 3 gallons of bottle water to get the salinity down to 1.023.
Ran the filter for 12 hours before I added 4 Damsels to start my tank cycling, by the way the water was mostly clear in 4 hours and very clear in 24 hours. Tested water before Damsel was added. Test results PH 8.0 Nitrites 0 Nitrates 0 Ammonia
The tank cycled for 3 weeks and is doing well. On week 3 I asked my LFS when I was buying the puffer and Yellow Tang how can I speed up the cycle process to my 50 Gal tank? He told me to add Bacter Vital (
www.marcweissco.com) in my tank to add bacteria and cycle tank in days instead of weeks and to add Kent Marine Superbuffer-dkh (
www.kentmarine.com) to bring my PH up to 8.3 and Ionic coal added in my wet dry to absorb any ammonia.
This is what he uses and he can add fish in a stable tank in 3 to 4 days and add live coral in just over a week.
On Monday 10/4/04 I set up my 50 Gal tank.
Equipment: Wet/Dry with a Mag drive 750 pump and a Berlin Red Sea Skimmer that I’m still missing a pump for.
First I added 60% water to the tank, than added 40 Lb Live Sand and 50 Lb Live Rock and toped off water in tank but this time I didn’t add fresh water to bring down the salinity I kept it at 1.024.
Run pump for 12 Hours and added the same Damsels from the other tank and tested water.
Test results PH 8.0 Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0.25, and Nitrate 0 I’m not sure why the Nitrite was up. I added one teaspoon Kent Marine Superbuffer and one teaspoon Bacter Vita and re tested the water the next day PH 8.4 Amm 0 Nitrate 0 Nitrite 0. By the way I have to add one teaspoon of Bacter Vital in the tank for the next 30 days. Today when I took a sample to the LFS he told me that the tank is ready for fish so now I have added to the tank one Tomato Clown $11.00 and one Striped Grouper $20.00 to the tank, so far they are doing great but the Damsels have been hiding from the grouper.
I hope this is of any help to everyone.