New 55 gallon

Well day 2 and everyone is still alive. performed some water tests yesterday and all is not well.

Ammonia .25
Nitrite <.3
Nitrates 160 Never saw the test water turn red before
PH 8.3
Phosphate 2.0 treated for this this morning
Salt 1.025
Water temp is a little high at 82 but the chiller that came with tank is not working. I am going to try and fix this weekend. May just need a charge.

am going to do a 7-10 gallon water change later today to try and knock down the nitrates a little.

that all for today.

Tony "G"

Water has finally cleared up and all the crabs and snails and fish are moving about.

 

Oh, are you saying the 34 gal. is only four mos. old? From you stock in it I thought it was an established tank. Well, here is my stock reply for those just starting out;
There are some who would tell you that once "the numbers" are all good the cycle is over and you are ready to go, I am not one of those. What many beginner (even some advanced) aquarium keepers are not (fully) aware of is that the full cycle takes at least 6-8 months. The reason being, mainly, is this is the time required to fully cultivate a total beneficial bacterial base and achieve a saturation of such. Also, allowing the tank to "season" and go through the inevitable mini-cycles and diatom blooms and get fully established is the key to a healthy and stable tank in the future. You could have one fish after about the 6 week mark, let the tank get established by light feeding and going through a moderate light cycle (6-8 hours) for the next 3 weeks. After that, add a few clean up critters (crabs and/or snails) and allow the tank to "catch up" to the added load (you may at this time add some live bacteria to help in this process) and give it another 2 weeks doing all your tests on a regular (weekly) basis and determine if the tank is stable. Water changes of 30% should be carried out once a month to once every 5-6 weeks. Coral should not be introduced (even soft) until the tank is around 3-4 months old. Too many beginners don't exercise the proper patience and discipline at this early stage of getting their tank going only to have problems and head aches down the road. Once the tank has gone through this full cycle period and the tank is stable, then and only then, should you add more difficult coral like hard coral. I always employed a bit of advice I got when I was starting out to add bacteria after each water change for the first and subsequent next 4-5 changes. After the 4th water change then and only then add to the tank and minimally at that.

 

I probably should have been more specific when posting this morning to give the results of the water tests. The 55 Gallon is the one with the high readings. My 34 gallon is great. Even the Mandarins are doing great now that they are on frozen/prepared food. Both getting fat and happy. All parameters in great shape. For the most part the 34 gallon has been a breeze.

The new 55 gallon is going to take some work. I will give the tank the time it needs to do its thing. The only reason fish are in it now is because they came with the tank. I did not want to put any of them in my original 34.

i expected a cycle when I moved the 55 because I used the old sand/crushed coral. Cleaned it as best I could using clean salt water from the lfs. The 55 was set up for about 2 years (I was told by owner) so it is/was established but I am going to give a while to run the cycle before moving my livestock from the 34 to the 55. Also will need to find a home for the Domino, who is a mean little fish.

One thing I did notice when i got the light on the 55 after the move. what appeared to be a ton of dead brine shrimp floating in the water. I mean alot. got them all filtered out and replaced or rinsed the mechanical filters after this cleared up. Now water is clear. Going to change out 12 gallons of water tonight with water from the lfs to see what happens to the parameters and try to make it bearable for the fish.

 

The dead things were probably copepods that died off from the shock to the tank. O.k. so, back to what I said about you being at it awhile, I said that because of the success with the smaller tank. Like I said earlier, keep us up to date.