New tank question

[jason604]

Hi my tank is fairly new cycle is at .25 ppm ammonia/0 nitrite/0 nitrate. Running live rock only at the moment. I'm planning to buy about 10 corals and 2 fishes and about an addictional 20lbs or so of live rock from a mature tank to my existing 70lbs. Will everything survive if I put it in all at once or will the new tank syndrome that I read about happen? Or does that only happens when u add a lot of fish not coral? Please advise me before I waste a bunch of money and kill everything

[Reef Pilot]

Has your tank fully cycled? IE, nitrites have shown up, followed later by nitrates. Before adding any corals or fish, you should have zero ammonia, and zero nitrites. Some nitrates are OK and are an indication that your tank has cycled.

You don't want to rush setting up a new tank. Lots of info here about this if you search a bit and read up on cycling new tanks.

[jason604]

Yes I had nitrite an nitrate spike as well as ammonia spike. But I don't know why everything dropped to 0 but ammonia at 0.25. I did the putting in a dead shrimp method

[Reef Pilot]

I wouldn't expect the nitrates to spike and then go to zero, unless you did some major water changes. How long has your tank been running? It usually takes several weeks and often much longer before being fully cycled and ready to add livestock.

I would add more live rock, and monitor. If your tank is cycling properly, your ammonia should be zero.

[jason604]

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

I wouldn't expect the nitrates to spike and then go to zero, unless you did some major water changes. How long has your tank been running? It usually takes several weeks and often much longer before being fully cycled and ready to add livestock.

I would add more live rock, and monitor. If your tank is cycling properly, your ammonia should be zero.

It's been cycling for 4 weeks now. All 70lbs of my rock was cycling in a 20gallon container. The reading dropped down to those I posted earlier for about almost a week now. I then put all e rocks into my 75g tank n put only about 10g of the old water in the container to a tank full of new water and the reading still stayed the same.

Anyways if I buy the 10-15 corals n 2 Nemo and I keep them in a container with the owners original water sand n live rock will that be ok till my tank is fully cycled and slowly move them like 5 at a time into my main tank?

[jason604]

Can I buy a special chemical that will remove the remaining 0.25 ppm of ammonia? Lol

[reef-keeper]

As far as your question about adding more live rock after the tank has cycled you might get another major spike in ammonia. Due to the die off of the freshly added new rock. If you are going to add more rock it is best to add during the cycle stage. That way you don't create a new cycle, that just creates stress on the inhabitants of the tank. This I learned by trial and error killing off several fish in the process.

[JmeJReefer]

Just wait. Biggest rookie mistake is trying to get going too fast. Wait for the Zeros. this is a hobby where carelessness costs. A LOT.
I have a 9 gallon diy nano that i let cycle for nearly 3 months. I added livestock over another yrs time and have had minimal casualties (stupid jumping fish) but nothing from a crash or spike.
Two words. Water changes.

Nuff said.