When to add LR??!! HELP
 

I'm starting to get very confused now. Article on reef central saids I need to add my LR when ammonia and nitrite reaches undetectable levels while the article on www.liveaquria.com tells me to just dump them in to cycle the water. So when do I put the LR in? Is that why some of the life in the LR I just bought started to die (due to ammonia & nitrite)?

FYI, after I mixed my salt water, I placed some cocktail shrimps in there to spike up the ammonia. After like 3-4 days, I threw in the sand and LR. Should I wait before I put anymore rock in or is now the time? There's still traces of ammonia in the tank btw, I don't remember the reading though.

Adding uncured LR to an established tank would call for waiting until the NH3, NO3 and NO2 in the curing tank were at 0, ie. the rock has cured. But adding rock to a new tank? I would expect you would just throw it in, that's what I did. After all it has to cycle somewhere, and there's no point in cycling it externally for a tank that has nothing in it anyways.

Dekay,
The Shrimp you added was too soon. The function of the shrimp was to cycle the LR and sand. See the ammonia the shrimp would produce would be eaten by the organisms in the LR and sand. with no LR and Sand in your tank all you did was make Ammonia. Not a problem you have cured LR and sand now. This will take care of any ammonia in the tank. But if you were to add uncured LR now you would have to put another piece of shrimp in the tank and start the cycle again. You haven't added any fish or coral yet right? If not I would get more LR now. If you can get cured go for it but if not uncured will just take more time.

Cured= has already cycled and the biological organisms are in place
Uncured= in shipping from its origins some of the biological organisms and other living matter die off. it is necessary to "cycle" the rock in order to have the surviving organisms repopulate the rock


Hope this helps
J

I'm actually getting cured rock from another member on this forum (Jeannette), preferably tonight as long as it's ok with you guys. But should I actually keep the cocktail shrimps in there? Cuz I took it out a day before I placed your LR and sand in.

Not sure if this makes sense, but you said the ammonia is kind of like food for the life inside the rock. What happens when the ammonia reaches 0. Does that mean they'll starve?

Forgot to mention in the first post that the rock I initially threw in was cured LR from jackets. None of them were uncured. Hope it makes more sense now.

No they wont starve because you will be feeding fish and they produce waste (Pooh) that turns into ammonia. Have you tested for nitrite yet. if the ammonia is reaching 0 you should have some nitrites. They also have little critters that eat it, in the LR. So IMO you should add this new rock and cut a piece of shrimp into about 5 pieces. Put one piece of shrimp in the tank for 3 day. after three days test for Ammonia, nitrites and nitrate. Then take the shrimp out and put another in for three days perform the same tests. You will find that even though you are producing ammonia with the shrimp your levels will go down. continue these steps until Ammonia and Nitrite are Zero. you will find your Nitrate levels will be quite high. High being larger than 10ppm. Nitrate is not as harmful to fish and Nitrite and ammonia but you want to keep the levels under 10ppm. The only way to do this is with water changes. But you don't have to worry about that until the other two levels are at 0.

J

I resent you calling the illustrious bear a waste. Oh, you meant "poo". :razz:

my apologies to all the Winnipegers out there, yes I meant poo.

Damn spell checker


J

How often should I do my water changes?

Dekay, I don't mean to be rude but have you done ANY research on reefing??

Christy :)

yes, but just want to make sure. different websites say different things, and i rather be safe than sorry.

no point getting something accidentally killed when it's only a question away. sorry if it bothers you.

No no it doesn't bother me, you just sounded kind of confused. I didn't want you to be jumping in without a bit of research. Thats all. :biggrin:

dekay, how far along are you in your new tank setup? Maybe if you told us some details we can help you along.

So is your tank cycling or cycled.. getting rock?

approx Sept 6-7: mixed the water, setup all the equipment (2xpowerheads, skimmer, lights, it's a 46g tank). dumped a couple cocktail shrimps in (as per reefcentral instruction) to increase ammonia (after the water was mixed).

Sept 9: dumped a couple cocktail shrimps in (as per reefcentral instruction) to increase ammonia (after the water was mixed).
threw in some sand (new) left over from my previous fish only setup. took out the shrimps several days later.

last saturday (Sept 13): picked up 20lbs of cured LR from jackets and some of his live sand. dumped in 40lbs of sugar sand (new, not live) and then the live sand. waited for the sand to clear up, then threw in the 20lbs of LR.

today: (morning) replaced some salt water in the tank with some which i made 2 nights ago to make sure the salinity and temps match (i know i don't need salt water for replacement, but the tank wasn't exactly full yet, so it's partly to fill up more of the tank). was suppose to pick up some cured LR from Jeannette but they've got previous engagements, so have to wait till thursday. just went out a couple hours ago to pick up some RO water as well as the container which will be used for dripping replacement water and later on limewater. also got 5 cocktail shrimps, one of which is now in the tank, I think I saw some sorta bug (excuse the lack of fancy term) eating it.

I think that's as clear as I can put it. Any advise on what other things I need to do (regardless of how miniscule) is welcome. Or if I did anything wrong thus far, please point it out. Thanks :cool:

Okay sounds good but 5 coctail shrimps sounds a bit overkill, one is good. Just leave it in there untill it's completly gone. All the shrimp is for is to rot which inturn causes ammonia, the first stage in the nitrogen cycle. The rock and sand has bacteria and bugs in in that will decompose the shrimp into ammonia into nitrite, and finally nitrite into nitrate.

Now you play the waiting game untill your tank is cycled and gone through the complete "nitrogen cycle".

If you heard of a DSB (deep sand bed) this is an area which there is special bacteria converting nitrate into nitrogen gas and is removed from the system.

Once your system is full with salt water top-off evaporation with freshwater, preferably RO/DI.

But why am I telling you all this, you should know already, right? :wink: