!!HELP!! Bio levels To spike or not to spike!

April 29th I started a 12 gallon reef tank. I furnished it with 14lbs of Indo live rock and 20 lbs of sand. I waited a 6-7 weeks for the levels to spike and they never did, finally after growing impatient i learned that buying a damsel for the first fish is a good start. a few days after buying my damsel and my cleaning crews i was paging through a magazine and seen the sand i had bought for this tank and it said in huge bold letters "No Waiting Just add fish, LIVE sand" so i felt like an because i had waited all that time to buy any real life for my tank. Anyway, since then i have upgraded a 30 gallon tank setup with sump , protien skimmer, etc.. because the 12 gallon will not house anenome's and certain coral i take interest in.

In the 30 gallon i have furninshed with the 14 lbs of live rock from the 12 gallon and i purchased an additional 20 lbs , plus 28 more lbs. of the same live sand. Since i took the live rock out of the 12 gallon tank my levels in the 12 gal are spiking pretty high in the nitrite and nitrate department. But, the bio levels in the 30 gal are perfect, now for my questions...

1. Are the levels in the 12 gallon tank spiking because i removed the live rock, and if so will it get better if I treat with microbe-lift special blend, and nite-out?

2. Will my levels in the 30 gallon ever spike, or will they stay normal because of the Live sand and all the live rock I have in there? I ask since my reading in the 30 gal. are the EXACT same as my 12 gal through 8 weeks.

3. Would it be a good idea to put my damsel in the new tank(30gal)?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

1. Your correct when saying that you Nitrite and nitrate is because that you removied the live rock. All the Benificial bateria on that live lock that consume the Ammonia, Nitrite, and nitrate go with the live rock.

2. Your levels in you 30g will increase with adding new live rock and old live rock depending how much die off you have. But as stated before all the good bacteria go with the live sand and live rock.

3. It may be a good to add the damsel just to help the tank cycle move along. But note that Damsels are very teritorial and if your looking to have an anemone in that size tank i would recomend only keeping a pair of clows. and maybe a bottom dwelling gobie.

remember too that Anemones may sometimes be difficult to keep. They requrie pristien watter conditions, higher light, and moderate flow. Even then its a 50/50 shot if they'll will be healthy. Dont let this scare you. Learn as much as you can about them and ask questions. They really are amazing creatures!

Good luck with everything.

 

One thing to add. I wouldn't trust that marketing line "JUST ADD FISH!" there is no way they should be telling you to just add fish unless they know how everything else is setup, where your rock came from etc. Just adding fish is a good way to just kill fish if the rest of your system isn't ready for it. I think waiting was the right thing to do, although maybe you didn't need to wait quite as long.

 

Well my problem was that that all my test's showed the same result no real spike in all that time until I added my first couple of fish. Will the damsel survive the spikes if they even happen in the new tank? I already put the damsel in there, at first it seems to struggle breathing but now seems to have acclimated are there any other breed of "cycling" fish that arent so territorial. is there such thing as to much water movement. I have 2 koralia 2's in there at either end of a 36" long tank and Im hoping that hes just got the new tank blues and not the current thats keeping him in his little cave.

 

Damsels are the standard "cycle" fish. Some people have used clowns or chromis as well since they're in the same family as damsels and are also quite hardy. You can also use a piece of raw (not cooked) shrimp from the grocery store as long as it doesn't have any additives to kick start a cycle.

Don't worry about the current, the real reefs are much worse, give him a chance to acclimate.

 

So should I put a piece of shrimp in there with the damsel? Couldn't I get the same effect by overfeeding the tank with mysis shrimp to cause and ammonia spike? Will the damsel survive this?