Nanoreefnewbie 2012 nano contest entry

[fishoholic]

Originally Posted by The Grizz

Was the rock fully cured?

Originally Posted by nanoreefnewbie

Nope

Originally Posted by nanoreefnewbie

I think it's from my curing rock...
Ro water is been used
40lbs rocks 38 dry/2 live too seed

The problem is your rock. You have to think of your tank as only having 2 pounds of rock in it. In a new system if the 38 pounds were completely dry it will take around a year to cure with only 2 pounds seeding it. Yes I said a year after 6 months it will begin to seed and start becoming live causing spikes along the way, after a year it might be fully cured. You should not have any livestock in the tank right now as it's not cycled and with that much dry rock it will be 6 months before it starts to cycle and up to a year before you stop seeing spikes and killing off livestock.

No offense to you (and I'm not referring to you) but I get frustrated with numerous people cheeping out and buying 95% dry rock and 5% live and then wondering why on earth they are having so many issues. I've told many people who want to use mostly dry rock not to and said to them if they do they should wait 6 months to a year before adding anything live and they look at me in disbelief. These same people don't listen, do it the way they want to, and get frustrated and confused when they have nothing but problems.

Not sure if you have any livestock in there now but I would look at re-homing it until the tank cycles. Or if you can find someone to swap out some of your dry rock for live that should help, however that seems unlikely. Edit: I see Denny to the rescue!

Doing tons of water changes is pointless in a system that isn't cycled. The high nitrates aren't good but I'd bet they're not as much of the issue as I'm guessing the mini ammonia spikes your most likely having from the dry rock in your tank. Focus on getting the rock cured and I'll bet most of your issues will clear up afterwards.