The 75gal reef tank cycle has started!!!!!!!

Ya, but bigger also means more expensive.. for everything. More filters, more media, more water, salt, lighting, pumps, etc. I want something really nice but within a reasonable budget. One guy in my reef club has a 180G and has spend over $50,000 in the last 5 years on his tank. I don't ever want to be that guy. LOL.
 
Update....

Well Things have not changed much. We are now at about 2.0 PPM of Ammonia. I have done all the test yet today. I have been doing the whole deal at around 5pm each day just to keep things kinda regular but I do an Ammonia test in the morning to see where we are at. It seems to be moving slow but it is moving. Maybe we should have used 2 shrimp instead of 1. the shrimp is all most gone now. There doesn't seem to be much left. Do you think I should put another one in there to get it up to 4ppm?
 
Update....

I have the readings for today and I'm a bit confused about what is going on. The ammonia is no longer going up and the Nitrites are going up. I thought that only once the ammonia got up to about 4ppm that then the Nitrites would go up. Should I add another shrimp or pure ammonia to get it up to 4ppm or no. Could the tank be converting the ammonia already? What should I do? Please help if you can.

Here are the readings from tonight.

SG 1.024
ph 8.2
Am 1.50
rites 0.5
rates 0.25
Cal 420
Temp 77

The shrimp is still in the tank bout there's not much left to it.
 
Can anyone help me with this question?
 
honestly I would wait a day and if the levels continue to rise leave it for right now. Because you could have rotting flesh in the water column that your not seeing. When prepping a tank like this its my opinion that getting your numbers somewhere between the 2 and 4 range is what you are shooting for. It doesn't have to be exact. Then once the cycle is done as long as you are adding livestock gradually you'll be fine as the bio-load will expand to meet the demands of the tank.
 
So it's not important to get it to 4ppm? Should I take the shrimp out of the tank? it's been in there for about 5 days now. There really isn't that much left to it.
 
Here is a picture of the shrimp.

Live Rock.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom