Tank done cycling soon?e

[ssick92]

Hey everyone, I have a few questions about the status of my tank.

So, my tank is a 30g, which has been cycling for about 2 weeks now. I have started to observe life forming on the live rock, however I have yet to see any critters crawling on the sand.

My water parameters are this:

Temp 79-80
Salinity 1.025
Ammonia- 0.00
Nitrite- 0.00
Nitrate- 5
PH 8.0-8.1

I seem to have only had 1 small ammonia spike where the ammonia went up to about .5-.75, then the numbers fall back to 0. I started my tank with 30 lbs of dry rock, and seeded it with 10 lbs of cured live rock from my LFS. My question is this:

Is this small ammonia spike all I will see since I am using cured live rock? I am not in any hurry, as I am leaving for Christmas break so I will have to wait until after break to add anything anyway. But is my cycle pretty much complete?

Any advice on what I should add first? My stocklist (hopefuls) are this:

1 (or 2?) True Percula Clown
1 Tailspot Blenny
1 Yellow Watchman Goby
1 Shrimp (of some sort to pair with YWG)
1 Other something... not sure

Should I go to my LFS and ask for a clean up crew once I get back from break?

Thanks for any input as always!

[WetShepherd]

You seem to be at the end of your cycle, but you didn't mention if you fed your tank any food or not. It's possible to cycle with just the die-off on your rock and in your sand bed, but sometimes that die-off is inadequate to build a sufficient bio-filter for your first fish.

In short, you look good, but to be sure, I'd feed your tank a pinch of food per day for 5 days - if you still see no ammonia, you are ready for a clean up crew - if the tank remains stable for another week, you are ready for fish.

If you're planning to skip quarantine, I'd caution against it and site the following quote as backup from this thread. Otherwise, no lectures from me, I promise

Parasites are not nuisances in this hobby: they kill,and they get into your sandbed and reproduce and infest every fish you own. Quarantine is serious business. You can start a fish in qt 4 weeks before you expect your tank to be ready.

**edit** oh yea, your stock list. Technically you want to add from least aggressive to most, so that would pretty much just be adding the clowns last in this case. Realistically though, these guys aren't likely to bother each other, except in the instance that the clowns mate. In that case, in your tank size, it won't matter when they are added - they'll bully anyone near their nest (the whole tank). Percs and Ocellaris are great choices though - they are at the low end of that spectrum.

[dzfish17]

^^^ A very small pinch and I would do it for 10 days. If ammonia and nitrite stay at 0 then you are ready.

[ssick92]

Yes, I have been pinch feeding food everyday. Just about a-pinch-a-day since a couple days after I started cycling. I did it a couple times a day at first, so I'd say a total of about 10 pinches of food for my "invisi-fish".

Do you have any recommendations for a clean up crew? Should I just go to my LFS and see what he says? My LFS is very knowledgable and helpful.

Also, yes I am planning on QTing my fish, at least for a few weeks to see if they are healthy. What is the best way to filter a QT? Would it be with some live rock from the main tank, or a HOB carbon filter? What would work best?

[Bens_Reef]

Originally Posted by ssick92

Also, yes I am planning on QTing my fish, at least for a few weeks to see if they are healthy. What is the best way to filter a QT? Would it be with some live rock from the main tank, or a HOB carbon filter? What would work best?

i use a cycled HOB filter with a standard carbon media in it, you dont want to use rock because if you ever treat the tank with copper it will absorb into the rock and poison your inverts if you ever use it in a DT again

[WetShepherd]

For a clean up crew, I usually recommend checking out the packages they have at liveaquaria.com. Then you can either order from them or simply base your selection on that. I also start small and work my way up. It's also worth noting that the majority here on RC seem to prefer a crabless CUC. I like my hermits, but I've lots a couple of snails to them, so you might want to avoid that. Your call.

As ben mentioned, LR is a no-go in QT. Not only will your potential treatment ruin the rock, any illness in the fish can be considered to also be 'in' the rock. What I use as an alternative is a ceramic media (i think it's ceramic) that you can find in some smaller tanks (like the eheim ones) that will serve the same purpose, but can be tossed and replaced for each QT. I seed them first by placing them in my sump (I do the same with my biowheel filter). You could use any similar media, including a sponge. This isn't absolutely necessary though - you could simply control your pollution with dilution: water changes.

[Zappo]

Originally Posted by ssick92

Do you have any recommendations for a clean up crew? Should I just go to my LFS and see what he says? My LFS is very knowledgable and helpful.

The LFS is always a good starting point when there's one available. Start very small with your cleanup crew. Those packages online work, but they tend to send you WAY too much. Especially when the tank is new and there's almost nothing for them to eat. Starting with a few snails and adding more as needed to control algae will ensure minimal CUC deaths.

[ssick92]

Originally Posted by WetShepherd

I seed them first by placing them in my sump (I do the same with my biowheel filter). You could use any similar media, including a sponge. This isn't absolutely necessary though - you could simply control your pollution with dilution: water changes.

Do you mean a literal sponge? Like a kitchen sponge? Or do you mean a live sponge? That sounds like a pretty simple way to filter a QT if all I do is seed a kitchen sponge and throw it in the QT when needed...

[WetShepherd]

Originally Posted by ssick92

Do you mean a literal sponge? Like a kitchen sponge? Or do you mean a live sponge? That sounds like a pretty simple way to filter a QT if all I do is seed a kitchen sponge and throw it in the QT when needed...

Yes a kitchen sponge (obviously you want something that's clean though - no soap, rinsed very very well with rodi) is what I'm talking about. It's only for seeding though - it will not be an adequate filter on it's own. The only purpose it serves is to bring the beneficial bacteria from the cycled DT to the QT. Where that bacteria will grow is dependent on your QT setup.

[ssick92]

Originally Posted by WetShepherd

Yes a kitchen sponge (obviously you want something that's clean though - no soap, rinsed very very well with rodi) is what I'm talking about. It's only for seeding though - it will not be an adequate filter on it's own. The only purpose it serves is to bring the beneficial bacteria from the cycled DT to the QT. Where that bacteria will grow is dependent on your QT setup.

So what is a good place to have that bacteria grow in the QT? What do you use?

I'm thinking what I am going to do is go out tomorrow and buy a HOB carbon filter and start running it on my DT for a few weeks. Then, after Christmas, I should theoretically be able to just throw the HOB filter on the QT, and put my fish in (I'm thinking I want to start with my Percula Clown, even though it was suggested to add it last. I just love clownfish , maybe I'll start with the YWG+Shrimp), right?

[WetShepherd]

For my QT I didn't want to do anything fancy and just bought a 20g Marineland eclipse kit with LEDs. I'm a fan of redundancy so I already had a PH and better heater ready to go. The way the filtration in this set up works is it draws the water up, passes it through two filter pad bays and then passes it over a bio-wheel which turns as the water returns to the tank. What I do with the sponge is run it in the second filter bay. That's after the water has passed through the carbon pad and before it hits the biowheel, which is where they intend for your beneficial bacteria to grow.

That's all redundant to the ceramic plugs that I drop in (inside a casing with lots of openings for flow) which are also seeded. They fill the purpose of LR - a much smaller quantity, but I'm only dealing with a single fish.

The problem with seeding with a carbon filter is that they are designed to be replaced frequently as the carbon maxes out on what it can absorb in terms of 'bad' chemicals. You will also need to remove it completely if you end up having to medicate your fish. If your HOB has room for more than one filter, try to find something with another media that you can leave in permanently. Your LFS will know what your talking about if you ask them.

If you go with something like this or a bit smaller, it would probably get the job done.

Based on your selection of fish, the order probably won't matter all that much. I'd suggest you try to get your clowns as young as you can, and make sure one is larger than the other to give them the best chance at bonding. If you haven't already, you could also try posting your list and intentions in this thread to get a more professional opinion. It's saved me a lot of headaches.

[ssick92]

Thanks WetShepherd for all your helpful responses