First time cycling question?

[douglaslindsey]

Sadly to say, but about 2.5 years ago I had to dismantle my 135 gal. Reef tank because I was moving out of town. I kept it in storage until about a week ago, and now I’m attempting to set it up again. The photo that I am posting with this is an old one but it is very similar to this. Now that I have almost had it running for one week now in its cycle, today it’s starting to show signs of some type of algae. Since it’s been so long for me I’m forgetting what type of algae this is, and if it is normal for it to do so or not. It’s a rust color blooming on my sand in spots and on my new (cured) live rocks. I’m also running my lights about 10 hours per day. The current pH is 8.03 the temp is 75~76 F. I’m running my calcium reactor also. No coral have been added yet, just 6 damsels to help with the cycle. Also I have no clean-up crew yet, because I’m assuming that it has to cycle first. Any ideas on how to take care of this problem before I waste money on coral or fish later on?

[TekCat]

wecome back!!!!!

The rusty stuff are most likely diatoms. No problem there... just keep everything stable.

Unless you plan to have damsels harras every new addition to tank try to get rid of them now... Better yet put a cocktail shrimp to jump start cycle. BTW, what are your ammonia and nitrite levels?

Since there is nothing in tank besides LR and sand, 4 - 6 hours photoperiod is plenty.

Again, remove damsels and let the tank cycle. When ammonia and nitrites are zero for at least a week - you have successfuly cycled tank. Do, huge water change to export nitrates and then you are ready for cleanup crew.

Please post your water params, equipment, etc.... from what you've posted, I'd bump temperature to 78....

Reef ON!

[reefnetworth]

if its cured (LR) you probably want have a cycle. if you have any it would be from the sand, and it would be very small. how much flow do you have? how old are your test kits? what type of sand did you use? why are you using live animals to induce a cycle? how many supplements have you added? im just full of questions tonight. phos. and nitrate is another reason for algae. water quality used when filling the tank. such as tap or RO/DI. color means alot. is it rust or reddish? as for clean-up crew i would start with mexican turbo snails and red legged hermits. cerrith snails and nasserous snails later.

John

[CarmieJo]

Here is a podcast that might also help with other questions that you have about cycling. http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/po...isode-2-a.html

This one has a section on diatom blooms.
http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/po...isode-3-a.html
If you aren't familiar with podcasts they are like radio shows that you download to your computer of an MP3 player and listen to. The ones I have just recommended are free.

[reefnetworth]

TeKCat, "they" asked me to stop using "REEF-ON!" because it was annoying and i used it was after every reply, post and thread i had made for almost 8 months. just courious if "they" have said anything to you about using it yet? i do agree with raising the temp. but i would goto at least 82F.

John

[douglaslindsey]

Thanks. Three days after I started it my ammonia and nitrites where at zero. I don't think it has spiked up yet. I'm going to re-test them in two days. The LR that I bought was not fully cured yet. I also put in 40#'s of Live sand on top of my sandbed. I will lower my lights to 4 hours (thanks for the info). My SG is a little higher then I want it. it's at 1.026 not 1.025. I'm running 4 Maxjet 900 powerheads w/wavemaker, a 40 gal sump tank w/16" mico filter, 250w heater, Knop calcium reactor, Euro-Reff CS6-2 skimmer, a 10 gal refugium tank, 3 - 250w 10k MH, 4 96w power compacts (blue). Oh, and I need to update my return pump to a better one like an Iwaki or so, but I'm running a Little Giant 4-MDQX-SC for the time being. I have heard things about a "Closed Loop" which is new to me. I need to learn more about it. Any ideas?

[douglaslindsey]

Oh, I forgot to state that I use only RO/DI water in my tank also. and my substrates are a mixture of aragonite, crushed coral and live sand.

[TekCat]

SG 1.026 - is perfect!!!! don't change it. Natural sea water's SG is 1.0264

everything else looks ok,... just keep it running for a couple of weeks just to be on safe side (ammonia/nitrite issue).

Closed loop is quite cool thing to do if you don't like the site of powerheads in your tank.. go to "DIY forum", there are plenty of info on how to construct it, etc.... Also www.melevsreef.com has simple to comprehand (I am measuring this by my standard )closed loop princip and construction.

good luck and REEF ON!


reefnetworth, no "they" haven't contacted me yet. Is this a copyright or trademark thing? I think it is quite encouraging to tell folks to REEF ON!!! especially when encouragement apreciated. If someone is trying to save network traffic - then they should also outlaw avatars and footers ... but they are the gatekeepers, so what do I know

[douglaslindsey]

My total flow rate is aprox. 2000 gph w/powerheads.

[douglaslindsey]

Thanks for the web site "www.melevsreef.com". It has some interesting things on it.

[douglaslindsey]

Oh, and the damsels you have in your pic TekCat are the type I put in my tank. I was told that they are not bad for reefs.

[reefnetworth]

i agree with you on that one TekCat. i had some unpleasant things to say about one of the sponsers. no cursing or anything but i got kicked-off for a week and that was one of the reasons they stated in their displeasure with my remarks, fallowed by "how annoying it was that i used that phrase after every repy". oh well, just checkin. have a great new year and REEF-ON!

John

[reefnetworth]

douglaslindsay, 2000 gph in a 135 is fine. its just part of the cycle and should die-off after the cycle. after seing you equipt. list another week to ten days maximum you should be cycled. may you have a safe and Happy New Year also.

John

[douglaslindsey]

Thank you all for the info! Now if my wife doesn't have a cow on the cash flow, I guess I'll be ok... :-)

[reefnetworth]

its not just a job, its an addiction!

john

[TekCat]

Oh... the kind I have on my avatar is a Blue-Green Chromis. They are great .... AFAIK, they are distant family members of a damselfish family but not as agressive as real damsels. I thought you have real ones, the ones that claim the whole tank to themselves, so when new fish arrives they constantly harrass it, until its dead or damsels get killed.

Before we (saltwater nuts) got smart, we used damsels to cycle the tank because they are hardy and cheap. But for ethical and practical reasons this practice gets highly discouraged. Instead uncooked shrimp or fishfood used. Also some just add a little bit of household ammonia to start a cycle going.

-- edit --
since you have fish in, just keep water parms in check, and go sloooow

Best of luck

[douglaslindsey]

Yeah, they are neat. All six of them school together. I hope they make it through the cycle.

[steri]

I have the exact same type of algae growing in my tank. I'm a little over 2 weeks into my cycle. It's rusty colored and it's growing on teh LS and LR. I've been told that it's normal during the cycle and that after I get a full cleaning crew (after the cycle), I should see the algae go away.

Nasty looking algae isn't it? I'll let it go for now though.....because it's "Normal." ;-)

[TekCat]

Nasty looking? Huh? just wait for green hair algae and cyano LOL

[patsverizon]

I have a school of Green Chromis too - they look amazingly blue - go figure!!

[douglaslindsey]

Tek what kind of return pump are you using on your 125g? and are you also using any other type of circulation like powerheads?

[TekCat]

I have 90G tank with 30G sump. For return I am using Eheim 1260 pump and extremely happy with its performance running externally -> quiet and no added heat.

For additional circulation I have closed loop powered by Eheim 1262 running through OM-Squid current switcher; a SEIO and MaxiJet powerheads. I am not happy with CL performance, 'cause pump is not strong enough. I am in planing stages (for the past 3 months .... lack of time) of redoing CL. I have a Sequence Dart pump I want to use for CL and retire powerheads alltogether.

[douglaslindsey]

Well as I said earlier, I needed to replace my external return pump because my old Little Giant just wasn’t pumping enough circulation any longer. I called several places and I was going to but an Iwaki 55RLT or the new 70VT, but a guy at a LFS who sold both talked me into buying (what he called a knock-off of Iwaki) a Pan World 200 PS-T. He said it’s cheaper, and runs quieter the Iwaki. Well it’s rated to pump 1740gph and 1635gph at 5’. Well I hooked it up, re-plumbing my return to the new pump and in less then 1 minute I had about 5 gal of saltwater on my floor!!! My CPR HOB overflow box which is stated by the manufacturer to handle up to 1650gph couldn’t do it. Eheim pumps are good pumps; My Calcium reactor works with one. I’m just not sure what to do. Re-plumb it – getting ride of my 4 Maxi Jet 900 power heads and wave maker, or try to return this Pan World pump for something different? If I divide up the return into 4 and also use this pump for my feed to my calcium reactor and refugium tank I could eliminate a lot of extra pumps.