Cycling a tank?

G

gomavs

I am new to the hobby and have set up a 180 gal tank with a 30 gal sump. I have about 120lbs live sand and 60 lbs of live rock. My budget has limited me on the live rock for now, but plan on getting it up to about 250lbs. I am also running a protein skimmer. I put in 10 Damsels to try and cycle the tank. I have had the fish in the tank for 8 days. I have seen the amonia go from 0 to .5 mg/l then back to 0 and now the nitrites went from 0 to .25 mg/l and the Nitrates have remained at 0.

I really expected to see a much larger spike than this. Is this normal? I know that the nitrates will go up and you reduce them with water changes. At what point can I move forward with adding corals ( I do plan on removing all the damsels) and nicer fish? Do I need to try and get a larger spike?

Any advice would be appreciated.
 
You definitely had a cycle but I would be really worried about increasing your load too much. The problem is that even though you had a cycle you really don't have enough in the tank to support the bacteria that you need. You could add corals and a few fish right now but once you add a bunch of live rock then you will cycle again and risk your livestock. If ou can't buy more liverock (That stuff aint cheap :shock: ) then just take it slow slow slow. Also know that when you do add a lot more rock you have to buy the premium good stuff and get it into the tank asap (or cook it in a rubber maid for awhile)
 
If you add more live rocked you should cure it before adding it to the tank. This is true for even cured live rock that you have shipped in. If you get it from a member or a store already curred, you can get by without recurring it but expect some "die off" that could lead to some secondary but usually small spikes.

you may also want to consider adding in base rock, as it will eventually get encrusted and taken over by bacteria and critters just like the live stuff. IMHO unless someone is just going for a specific live rock look, going 100% live rock from the start on a large tank is just not worth the money.
 
At your point, I would diffently waite another three weeks before adding corals. Just to be safe. You probably can get away with putting in some mushrooms right now, most are tough. if your gonna add 250lbs buy it locally or your gonna have to waite three or four weeks before you can safely put it in your tank.
 
Thanks, yeah I figured I would be waiting a few more weeks at the least before doing anything else. I still have to figure out a way to catch all the damsels that are running loose in there.

I appreciate the help.
 
It does sound like you got your cycle... but I would wait even longer before adding corals until you have all your LR in. Main reason for this is that it will save you time and stress on the corals each time you add more. I always recommend that people get their rockscape fine tuned before adding coral, its just easier than constantly moving them around etc as you add more. Once you get it settled, then start adding. Not only do they acclimate to the water parameters, but also flow patterns, light intensity etc.. all that changes each time you add more rock or move them around.

As for the damsels, I agree with carl, get them out now when you have little LR to remove.. good luck :) What kind are they?? If you use fish for a cycle, chromis are the best choices since they are mild mannered and do well in groups. The others are always fish that people wish they hadn't added later down the road when a $3 damsel harasses and kills a $50+ fish.
 
I didn't know I could use chromis to cycle a tank. The damsels are 1 domino, 3 yellow tail, 1 blue devil, and the rest I have no idea what they are called. I tried looking them up on other sites, but could not find any pictures that look like what I have. The only reason I believe they are damsels, is because that is what they were labeled as in Pet-orama. The store did not give out the specific name of the fish.

This is a little off topic, but what is the recommend amount of lighting for a reef tank? For my tank I have 3 x 400w MH bulbs, 2 x 96w blue actinic (power compact), and 2 x 96w 10000K (power compact). The tank is 180 gal. The reason I went with the 400w MH bulbs is so that someday I could actually put clams in the tank. I read that they need very good lighting.
 
@gomavs wrote:
I didn't know I could use chromis to cycle a tank. The damsels are 1 domino said:
Damsels from hell... Chromis are a damsel, but a very docile (for a damsel) variety. If you can remove them, now would be a good time to do it as they are VERY hard to catch once you get a lot of rock in there.

Lighting--- there is no hard and fast rule. Clams can do well in a variety of lighting. I have kept them with 175W and know a few folks that do well with PC.. just depends on the type of clam you get as some require more lighting than others. 3 400W seems a bit much for a 180 and youll have power and heat issues to deal with... as was mentioned you would do very well with 250W, it would be less cost electricity wise and less heat issues. For coloration you could go 2 10K 250's and either a 14 or 20K in the middle for added coloration (if its really needed). 10Ks will get you the best growth compared to a 14 or 20K and with your atinics you may not even need the added blue. Thats really a personal taste.. I run 2 14K 250's and 110W of 10K VHO and like the coloration a lot, but I tend to prefer more white than blue.
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