Is it Cycling or Am I in need of a water change???

[bonkerz619]

Everything is holding steady..... i just looked in my refugium and have a bunch of pods doing their thing......

[saltybalz]

You can feed the tank(pellets, flakes, misis) to keep a food supply for your inverts and to keep some sort of nurtient level in there, not heavily though. As for lights i would allow a little more time for your anerobic bac to populate without having to possibly compete with algea before you start cycling in lights. Look for small bubbles in your sand bed, usually is a sign the anerobic back is starting to do work. Essentialy you are trying to allow enough time with no light for anerobic to populate enough so it and aerobic bac can out compete algea in the long run for nutrient control so the tank doesnt use other means(algea) for nutrient control that way on down the line when it comes time for stocking you wont have any crazy algea blooms when you add more and more livestock. When comes time for cycling lights back in do it slowly, like start with 2-3 hours a day for a week or so and ramp up accordingly too an 8-10 hour photo period over the course of a few weeks. Not to say that this is exactly how you should allow your tank to mature but it is what has worked for me. Hope that helped.

[bonkerz619]

Wow... that was a big help a lot of good information. I gonna run home and shut my lights off as soon as i get out of work. I know the small bubbles you're talking about in the substrate, i saw them in my fish only tank when i had it running. Good info.... i'll keep everyone posted on how things are going.

[bonkerz619]

Lights are off.. now it's a waiting game. Little bubbles hurry up and get here.

[bonkerz619]

is there anything i can do to encourage anaerobic bac growth?

[bonkerz619]

Today has marked one month of my system running.. Nirtrates are till a little high.... everything else has been consistently 0PPM. PH is at 8.1-8.2 . My rock is still coming in. I picked up a couple of pieces of cured live rock to help seed the rock.

[saltybalz]

is there anything i can do to encourage anaerobic bac growth?

Keep algea at bay and a low measurable nitrate level for a food source to fuel anerobic bac, any other method is outside my knowledge. Sorry but we are reaching tip of my know how on this subject. I do know though that if you keep nitrates low(below 5ppm-10ppm) and you arent running too much light to promote algae, in due time you will give yourself a good base for bio filtration and in the long run you will be happier then a pig in $h!t. There are several great threads on the reef tank and rc about maturing a tank that go way farther into detail(scientificaly) on the processes that take place and indicators to look for. Keep up the patience and it will all be worth it. You will have a well established thriving reef and wont have pesky nutrient problems down the road(assuming your not over feeding and mainting properly). Good luck and keep up the good work.

[bonkerz619]

Long story short I bought something on this forum that didn't work correctly. Rather than getting my money back I took a real nice piece of live rock that was covered in GSP. It's been two days now and the Polyps are super happy.

[bonkerz619]

So here's an update..... my levles have been stable for over a month and i've been adding livestock. I changed my skimmer on friday to a NAC7. i've also added an RKE with a SL1, temp probe, ph probe, ATO float switch. got some great macro going in the fuge. there's some cheato, dragons tongue, and culerpa prolifica. every things really happy and i'm enjoy my tank everyday.

[saltybalz]

Damn Frank looks good, hope the leopard wrasse does well, such a rad fish.

[bonkerz619]

I hope so too I pick her up tomorrow after work. Ive got tons of pods for her to eat.

[bonkerz619]

Held off on picking up the wrasse... i maybe dealing with a small ick outbreak on my tang. Seems to be stabilizing now so maybe a few more days.

[Isaacm]

Man ur tank is awesome. Looks reallygood

[bonkerz619]

Thanks man.... i've made a few more changes. Raised the skimmer added a ATO and some more live stock. Man i'm knee deep in this hobby. LOL

[Isaacm]

Lol I wish I was I'm hurtin for money on a stand still right now. Still need about 20 pounds of rock and the plants for fuge. Got a sand shifting star fish and a red shrimp. Lol those were free when I bought my rock