Confused

Hi I would like to get some help , everytime I go to a pet store I get different answeres..I bought a 29 gal biocube and I have had it for 4 weeks today. I first put in live sand and then I bought live rock, so now into the 3rd week I went to a tropical fish store. and they said my levels still were a bit to high and told me to buy 2 clown fish and that would help the tank to filter. so now a week later the levels are guite low

ammonia between o and .25
nitrite#2 is between 0 and.25
nitrite #3 is between 0 and 5.0

now the clown fish are doing great buy my rock seem to be getting a lot of green alge on it and i purchase the clean up crew or should I wait......

please help thank you

 

yeah your tank is still cycling...once your ammonia and nitrites are 0 then its safe to start slowly adding fish, you have to do it slow so you can allow your tank bacteria to catch up with the extra load going into the tank..

i would take the fish out, you can put it in a rubbermaid bucket with a heater and powerhead until your tank finishes the cycle..or you can leave it in and do a bunch of small waterchanges to soften the cycle of the tank..

you dont want anything in the tank with ammonia or nitrites..these are extremely harmful for inhabitants



depending on your test kits, you might be reading 0 on ammonia or nitrites...as long as you dont see any weird behavior with your fish then you will be fine..you prolly are done cycling..try and smell your tank..if it has a sour not good smell then it still has a cycle..but if it just smells like saltwater then your prolly pretty safe..smelling isnt the most accurate but it can help

 

Let your tank cycle, once the ammonia is at 0, then the nitrite is at 0 then your tank will be cycled...But you still wantto wait a few months before fully stocking the tank. The biological filtration wont be able to handle a full bioload for a couple months IMO. So you can keep the clowns wants the tank has finished cycling which im sure it wont be long until it is done. I mean, some people cycle their tanks with clownfish or damsels. I cycled mine with 2 tank bred clowns.

 

thanks for the help.....

 

+1 although, the bucket won't be cycled either. So I would either return the fish, or add some water conditioner such as amquel or prime to help with the ammonia in the bucket. I would not use the water conditioner in the tank though, because it will interfere with the cycling process.

 

The bucket doesnt cycle..If he goes out and buys some LFS salt water it will be okay for a bit in the bucket..I have had to hold a few fish in bucket of brand new salt water for a day or so at some points while im doing rock scape or stuff..

 

A tank will cycle just as quickly and effectively without using fish. They sold you the fish because they are a business, you can just as easily cycle a tank with a piece of raw seafood and save the fish from being exposed to ammonia and nitrite.

 

you cant cycle a bucket..

 

I would wait to add the clean up crew till your ammonia and nitrite come down.

What are you using for water? Algae can be common in young tanks. Using RO/DI water can help lessen the algae though.

 

Any non-cycled container, aquarium bucket etc... will not be able to process ammonia and ammonia will build. This is fine if done for a short period of time, but long term the ammonia will build to toxic levels. So something like amquel or prime is needed to bind the ammonia if you plan to keep livestock there more than a day or so.

As to the water, there may be nitrifying bacteria floating in the water, but nitrifying bacteria grows and metaboizes ammonia when growing on solid surfaces, hence live rock. It is not effective when floating in the water. Whether or not water can be useful in quickly cycling a tank or bucket has been a recent topic of debate and the jury is still out.