Question/Help on the the cycle

[Topsecret]

Hi all salt water expert, appreciate your help on this.

I started on cycling my first 100g salt water tank in mid November. I had powerheads running, skimmer running, temp is keep around 76-78 degree on roughly 80 pounds of rocks. Water have been top-off here and there but I m not still getting algee bloom, I see a few hair algee here and there in the main tank, but the silicon on the sump and the main tank has green algee developing.

Am I doing something wrong, how can I provoke brown and purple algees on the rock.

Thx all.

[duperdave]

I'm guessing you're talking about coralline algae from what I understand it starts up green and then changes to purple and other colors as your tank ages.
sounds like your tanks cycled have you done any tests on your water yet?

[Saltliquid]

Nitrate at 0, phos at near 0 and trace elements especially mag and cal are essential for corallines as are many other things.
coralline is algae with a cal structure,algae is the most natural part of all the oceans life forms and accounts for many of the oceans life forms.

[Topsecret]

duperdave: I haven't did any test yet, but I thought I m suppose to see some kind of brown algee first before any signs to a cycle is being start. Anyhow, if u think I m cycled, then I will run test for the next few days and get back to you on the readings.

Liquidg: thx, so how can I get some purple coralline growing, is it a good thing, I see some member's tank has them.

[duperdave]

how did you start your cycle did you put anything in the tank for example dead shrimp, fishfood .
what is your rock live rock or base rock or a mixture of both.usually algae blooms and diatoms come in towards the end of your cycle
you need to test for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate.
any other tests would be helpful information
can you post any pictures

[Topsecret]

duperdave: Ammonia on salfert test is <0.25, nitrite and nitrate are at 0

[Topsecret]

Here is the pics, hopefully will help

[duperdave]

okay you haven't started your cycle yet.get some fish flake food and put a few flakes in the tank every other day or so .this is called ghost feeding I would test every 3 days.at first test ammonia and nitrite,
your ammonia readings will rise and then your nitrite readings will rise.
As the nitrite readings rise the ammonia readings Wii slowly drop to zero
Then your nitrite readings will slowly drop to zero. when these both reached 0 your tank will be cycled
this could take anywhere from a month to two months there is no way to hurry it along either just have to have patience I recommend you read it anything you can about the nitrogen cycle and starting a tank when youI think you're done reading read more

[Topsecret]

thx dave, but i did the ghost feed part at the beginning already, can i conclude i m cycled? Or should i keep ghost feeding until i fail to provoke ammonia with testing every 2-3 days

[duperdave]

okay. what brand of tests are you using ?what's getting me is that you have 0 nitrates without any means of nutrients export .I didn't get a large algae blooms either when I cycled my tank

[Saltliquid]

Mate when you start a marine aquarium you test each day or each second day for ammonia and nitrites, these two are killers and PH disrupters.

Encrusting corallines are a pest in the long term due to reduction of area for bacterium’s to condition your waters.

You need 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites after a noticeable cycle has gone on.
If you have ammonia readings and you have done the right thing, you may have an ammonia lock, did you use natural water or made up water?
If you make your salt water, you need to remove those tap water elements via reverse osmosis filtering or at least neutralise what’s in tap water before the salt mix is added or you get an ammonia lock and you will have problems then!
Make sure your tests kits are doing their job!

[Topsecret]

duperdave: I used salfert test kits for amonnia, nitrate and nitrite.
liquidg: i used rodi water that was made through my rodi units to mix salt with

[Saltliquid]

If your test kits are showing true readings and its still only ammonia, then get your self some suitable reef aquarium bacteria and seed your waters with a small amount of marinara from the supermarket and these will solve your problems.

Turn off your skimmer and the marinara will rot and make varied ammonia,they will become varied nitrite's and then nitrates and off it goes.

Once you have large amounts if nitrates, turn on skimmer and do a large water change and its all good.

[duperdave]

marinara sauce???NEVER HEARD OF THIS ONE
if you want to know if your tank is cycled or not get some pure ammonia.the ingredients in the bottle will be ammonia and water and that is it.dose your tank to 4ppm if it can clear that in 24 hours your tank is cycled.

[Saltliquid]

No, marinara here is portions of prawn,green muscle,oyster, squid,etc,etc.

I get a stocking bag that my wife uses for washing delicates and put all that tissue in as a small hand full of the mix and hang it in the sump or where ever in the systems water somewhere.

This rots and provides varied ammonia with no chunks floating around.

This is for at least some varied types of waste or dead tissue as you get a slightly different ammonia and a different bacteria to work on each making varied nitrites. Once the varied bacterium’s are in play and stable with continual varying types of foods, then that is maturity!

[duperdave]

yeah I was about to add to this must be anAustralia thing lol

[Saltliquid]

What do you call what I described?

[smom1976]

my LFS told me not to throw in any shrimp because it just artificially speeds up what happens naturally he said it is too much swing for the tank... to just let it do its thing.. the live rock will die off and create nitrates and then balance itself.

I haven't done a shrimp or feed flakes or anything..

[duperdave]

never had anything like that but it sounds good.we do something called a crab boil crab shrimp clams and oysters with corn potatoes and what other vegetables you desire.

[Saltliquid]

Originally Posted by smom1976

my LFS told me not to throw in any shrimp because it just artificially speeds up what happens naturally he said it is too much swing for the tank... to just let it do its thing.. the live rock will die off and create nitrates and then balance itself.

I haven't done a shrimp or feed flakes or anything..

Ok, nothing in the marinara is unnatural relating to the ocean or the cycle, except maybe a few preservatives that do not equate to anything really, so the lfs saying its unnatural is quite funny.
The “swing” is controlled by how established you bacterium is as of now, and mostly the possible swing is potentially overly abundant ammonia, by how much tissue you add to your waters, in this case life forms from the ocean “marinara” that you put in to help the cycle, so to much you get a swing in parameters, a little, you get a solid cycle.
If you rely on dead tissue on the rock to establish a bacterium, then you will establish them to cope with what was dead on the rock, nothing else, then you will get issues while some of your bacterium’s inhabitants as they adjust/mutate.
But hey, if things are working out fine by applying the lfs advice, then stick with that advice.

[smom1976]

it was more running it by quite a few people vs one lfs person .. he also said it takes longer ..

so if im getting what you said right.. it balances itself out.. so with every fish added or clean up crew added or anything added per say there will be a small cycle that happens where one thing increases and then it compensates... so when people go out and buy 6 fish or completely stock a tank after a cycle .. couldn't that crash the tank?

[RatReef]

Originally Posted by smom1976

it was more running it by quite a few people vs one lfs person .. he also said it takes longer ..

so if im getting what you said right.. it balances itself out.. so with every fish added or clean up crew added or anything added per say there will be a small cycle that happens where one thing increases and then it compensates... so when people go out and buy 6 fish or completely stock a tank after a cycle .. couldn't that crash the tank?

I don't want to confuse the issue too much, but the mini cycles is the reason why I prefer to dose a tank to about 5ppm ammonia to cycle. that way you can put in your 6 fish once the cycle is complete, or a single Great White perhaps.
If I were Topsecret, I would dose to 2 or 3 PPM with pure ammonia(no sufficant) and see how long it takes to get rid of the ammonia and nitrites.

[smb2415]

if during a tank cycle ammonia rises above 1ppm it could stall the cycling until the ammonia drops again....many people have reported this. It is far safer to cycle normally and then gradually introduce fish rather than introducing a bunch at one time.... its safer for the fish for many reasons beyond just the bacteria factor.

[Saltliquid]

Originally Posted by smom1976

it was more running it by quite a few people vs one lfs person .. he also said it takes longer ..

so if im getting what you said right.. it balances itself out.. so with every fish added or clean up crew added or anything added per say there will be a small cycle that happens where one thing increases and then it compensates... so when people go out and buy 6 fish or completely stock a tank after a cycle .. couldn't that crash the tank?

No the tank wont usually crash, the stress signals from your stressed fish will most likely inspire a parasitic protists spike!

What isn't susceptible to those protists will usually be fine.

When I start a tank I get the varied nitrites to at least 20 and I can start and mature an aquarium in ten days that way, there is more to it but that's quite indepth.

One thing that defies any problems occurring is remotely cycling your aquarium!
The dead tissue does not have to be in the aquarium, just in your water, the fish to establish your aquarium do not have to be in the aquarium, just in your water somewhere!
Live or base rock looking great, corals added as you feel like it and ten robust fish, some crabs and what ever in your water, but not in your tank producing waste and maturing your reef hobby!

Then once fully matured you take out one robust and add to the tank one delicate and so and so on and no one gets sick!!!!

A sump is remote, so is a skimmer usually as is a chiller and there are a ton of other beneficial remote things to make your hobby simply perfect.

Good luck with it all.