Cycling, pH, Algae and aiptasia

W

wlgorman

Cycling my 29g nanocube.
Stock setup w nanocube skimmer, heater (75f). 29g of liverock from an established aquarium (from a member).

I have snails (2 nessarius) and at least 10 small cerith. I guess these came on the lr and seed sand from the guy I
got the rock from. Seeing a few copepods hanging around as well. A these are alive and seem to be doing well.

Approx 1 week into cycle.
Will have to double check numbers when I get home
Ammonia at 0
Nitrites at .25
Nitrates at 20

Testing for phos (cant remember result), calc (ideal levels), and dkh (ideal levels).

Chasing aiptasia with aiptasia x daily and killing what I see and treat, but they keep popping up. From what I gather this is common. Is there anything else I should be doing?

Starting to notice brown algae on a few spots in rocks and sand. What should I do?

pH at like 7.9 I know it needs to be higher. Should I buffer or will it level out?



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Also...with nitrites and nitrates detectable and no ammonia showing up, is this an indicator that my tank is close to cycled?

I have been reading my butt off for the last 2 months (new marine aquarium, coral books, fish books, online) and I'm sure this isn't the case...got first water from lfs and been topping off with ro/di from a water store by the house that has pH of 7.1. And salinity is 1.026-1.027.

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Can you remove the rocks with aiptasia and spot treat it with say, a blowtorch? I've used a lighter (and a blowtorch when one just would not go away) to successfully to zap aiptasia off rocks.

Your cycle is getting there and brown algae and other things like that will come in waves and is a normal part of the process. If your alk is okay don't worry about chasing a pH number. Stability is more important and you are only taking a spot reading of your pH which will change throughout the day.
 
Thanks for your help. I would rather not pull the rocks. They are all drilled secured with plastic rod and it took forever to get the scape how I liked it. If I'm just spot killing them with aiptasia x would burning them be any different?

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Also. With tank cycling for ~1wk and ammonia at 0, when nitrites are 0 is it ready for livestock? It seems REALLY short.

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Burning them works for sure. I've used aiptasia x which will knock them back for a bit but they always seem to come back.

You are using established live rock and live sand so it is not surprising that your cycle is going quickly.
 
i have a mated pair of peppermint shrimp that just annihilate aiptasia. if i add a rock with some of the pesky nems on it its cleaned within the hour. i have heard pepermint shrimp are hit and miss (although i have also heard that sometimes they sell camel shrimp as peppermint shrimp), but when they are hit you never have to worry about aiptasia again.
 
Looked at peppermints. Need to research compatability more once I settle on stocking plan. I want to keep lps at some point as well.

So is it possible my tank is nearing end of cycle? Testing later tonight. But again it seems so short.

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I prefer peppermint shrimp to most other aiptasia control methods, but agree that it really depends on the shrimp on how effective it is. Even if you get shrimp that go after aiptasia, they usually won't go after the big ones unless they are really hungry. And my tank is primarily LPS and I've never had a problem with the shrimp picking at or stealing food from the corals.

Since you're using liverock from an established tank, that really helps shorten the cycle time. I think a week for a 29g is entirely possible.
 
Update

Tank has been sitting since around july 30 as noted before. Had a small cuc in since day one (came with LR and seeded sand. Still have a little diatom in sand. Lots of pods all over glass and rock. Also seeing a few flatworms (clear star trek emblem looking ones) which I have been siphoning out daily. Aiptasia which I have been hitting here and there with aip-x but not too worried a about them. Snails are doing good. Getting coralline algae spreading (has been all over rocks from day 1, moving to other rocks and back wall). Blowing rocks with baster every other day to get the crud off.

Been working with pH which was a little low a couple weeks ago (7.8). Adding buffer every other day and has been around 8.1-8.2 for 3 days with no buffer.

Salinity 1.024-1.025.
Ammonia 0
(Most ammonia spike I ever got was .25-.50, and came down slowly, this was approx 9 days ago and has been at 0 for 3 days)
Nitrites 0, never seen an increase
Nitrates 0, never seen an increase
Temp steady at 76-78.

Would you say my cycle is done and I can add my first fish (ocellaris clown pair)?

I want to think its ready but feel like I should have seen nitrite spike and readable nitrates.

Also, I'm running the nanocube intermediate with LEDs and stock pump setups. That being said, will this setup support stony corals in the future? Seems like plenty flow, as the small amount of algae I have on the rocks is blowing like crazy away from the nozzles from the top to the bottom of the tank.



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it looks ready to me.
add fish slowly . the best way is to set up a quarantine tank (say a cheap 10g with a sponge filter and bubbler) close, and use water from your main tank to do the water changes in it, quarantine new fish for 2-3 weeks, and don't buy new fish unless your quarantine tank is empty. its a good way to pace out the bio-load and helps guarantee your main tank stays disease free.
there is lots of data on quarantine, but here is one link to get you started: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/quarantining-marine-fish-made-simple

on a side note, for better or worse its rare that anyone quarantines the first fish in a new tank (even if they start using quarantine later) - if you plan to host coral you cant really medicate the tank, but running it without any fish for 6 weeks or more is pretty effective at clearing up any fish disease if one is observed.
 
Get rid of those flatworms before adding coral. Get a wrasse to eat them or I think it's called Flatworm Exit or something like that. I don't think they bother fish. What you're seeing is probably the "tip of the iceberg" there's lots more you're not seeing. Also always dip your corals in a preventative solution before they go in your tank...ALWAYS.
 
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