Cycling process

thank you all for so much info...my tank readings this morning are..
ph 8,
nitrite 0,
nitrate 0,
ammonia 0,
phosphates 0,
calcium 400,
kh or alk -12dkh/214.8ppm.
Salinity 29
SPG - 1.022
I use an API reef and salt water test kit. I have the room aircon running 24/7 now and a clip on fan on the tank.Temp. is now down to 80.6 F.

I would like to add here that the place I got the LR from, claimed to have "cured" the rock well. Does that have a bearing on the cycling which seems to have completed?

 

I would still sit on it for a couple of weeks, just to make sure!! Spend the time researching hardware, fish, corals, other livestock:speechles... the sky is the limit!!
My tank is almost 2 months old and I only tested it once about 3 weeks ago (I was bored)... don't mind what it's doin I'm just letting it run it's course! I'll start adding livestock in about a month... no hurry with all the hardware that needs to be done!

 

one more thing....i am seeing a deep maroon patch under some green algae, on a lot of the LR.what is this stuff?do i need to clean the algae or should i just let it be....?

 

Hey zubin....I was in your position 5.5 months ago....I was excited and all, BUT like everybody already mentioned, 2 weeks is not enough. During the cycling process, your parameters will go up and down all the time. You will need to let the tank be for at least 6 weeks. My tank took almost 9 weeks to cycle. I wouldn't buy any more fish if I was you.
Another thing, if you can get your hands on a product made by Seachem called "Stability", you should buy it, it's basically bacteria that will help stablish your tank's bio filter. Aerobic, anaerobic and facultative bacteria which will break down ammonia, nitrates and nitrites.

As for the temperature, I would try going the "cheap way" and buy a simple clip-on fan before you even consider buying a chiller.... It works wonders and it only cost me 15 bucks... screws included. Basically you screw that small fan to the wall in an angle so the wind blows between your aquarium water and lights. Tomorrow I'll take a picture of mine so you can check it out. I would do it now, but there's a chance my wife will chew my nuts off if I make noise. Hope this helps.

 

Is it maroon or dark brown? If it's dark brown is diatoms. Normal during cycling.

 

Thanks a lot. karma to you. The patch I'm speaking about is maroon and is more like a deposit ( cannot scrape it off) and in patches. I found them under the green and some brown algae.

As of now, my tank is not showing any signs of algae bloom and the all the readings are as mentioned above. I did mention previously that the person I bought the LR from said that these were very well "cured" rocks. I feel maybe that is why my cycling went thru so fast.....what do you think?

 

Look if you don't have a chiller or want to run a chiller ? you need to find the temperature that can be maintained at a stable level 24/7 365 days a year.
Look in any ocean setting or environment there is nothing static.. There are reefs all over the world that regularly hit temps in the high 80's even 90's Like corals from the Indo pacific a tank running at the upper 70's like 79 to 80's will stress and even kill them on the other hand you have corals from many sub tropical corals the low 80's would stress or kill them.. There are ocean waters the hit the 90's that have corals living in them ..
The trick is and most never consider is where the coral/animal that you want to keep come's from ..Its a community tank most of us keep with different animals from all over the world . Like the corals we keep from the red sea come from vary warm waters with very high salinity levels and there other areas of the pacific that are totally different in every way .
And the tank like a ocean is never static its always something changing.. But on average I have never found the low to mid 80's to harm anything other then lowering the TDO total dissolved oxygen of the water But I run air stones and a large skimmer and a oxygen reactor ..so thats never been a problem for me..

I would say get the tank to the lowest sustainable temperature that you can easily maintain with what you choose to cool it and add some air stones and a good pump and just get the water Temps as stable as you can and forget about it.. a constant 85F is far better on average for a community coral reef then a temp that fluctuates from say 79F to 86F on a daily bases.

What I found with tanks running from 78 to 88 F is above 83 my pop and all sand fauna population's exploded and if you run a DSB thats a good thing. But I never lost a coral or fish or had any issues at all with my tanks running from 85 to 88 . but not that large of a differential I kept them with in 1.5 deg + or - a little .. You all would be surprised at where many run their tanks..

Now all of this have been said I'd never tell Harry down the road to run his at 88F But I know it causes no harm at all if you have the proper equipment set up and running in side a building the Oxygen exchange at the surface is nothing like to surface exchange area of the real ocean. and 88 is the highest I ever toyed with. And temps like everything else in our tanks it's all about averages and trying too ! Trying to keep the average swings of anything at tight and close as we can.

 

Thanks Tangster, for all the points you shared. Karma to you!.

It would be nice if you could let me know about this new thing I'm seeing these days.

Thanks buddy!

 

I'm gonna leave this to the true experts, 'cause I do have some of that maroon stuff on my LR too. Does it have air bubbles on it?...someone told me it could be cyano...red slime, but I'm not sure...if you can take a picture that'd be of great help.

BTW...here's a pic of my "chiller".

 

This is what I'm talking about. Is this the start of coralline algae?