New with cloudy water problems

hoodoo, thanks for the tips and sorry for the issues we had in the other postings...i didn't mean to get anyone mad!

As far as this "spike" goes...I realize that the Ammonia and nitrite will spike, but what should they spike to?

Thanks,
Mike

 

it depends on how much "bio-load" you put in. Your rock will produce ammonia. that will spike until the bacteria multiplied enough to keep with the produced ammonia. Then it goes down.
same with Nitrite.
Nobody can tell you how high it spikes. But it's pretty high. That's why fish can't handle it. Just keep on testing and you will see it clearly. At the max the test could easily be on the bad end of it's scale.

A lot of people here seem to use raw shrimp for cycling (from a fishmarket I understand). They let them "rot" in the tank and by that speed up the cycling because it produces tons of ammonia

 

Thanks for the tips everyone!

Can anyone else vouch for this "raw shrimp" idea...I have heard about this before, but wasn't too sure about it!?!?!

Thanks,
Mike

 

Mike,

As you know the initial Ammonia spike is caused by the decay on the rock. Types of Bacteria then 'use' that Ammonia as food and they produce Nitrite. Another type of bacteria 'use' Nitrite and produce Nitrate.

That's why you get definite spikes of Ammonia and Nitrite in a new tank.

The fish themselves produce Ammonia as they pass food, uneaten food too will eventually decay and produce Ammonia. For that reason you need to keep the bacteria that eats the Ammonia alive during and past the initial cycle. One of the best ways of doing that is to use a raw shrimp and let it float around in the tank. As it rots away the Ammonia eating bacteria levels increase and of course that means the Nitrite eating bacteria increase as well. These bacteria will always increase and decline depending on how much food ( Ammonia and Nitrite ) is available to them.

Does that make sense?

John

 

I have one concern about your tank. You mentioned that you will be removing your whisper and hooking up 2 pumps and a Protien skimmer. I am assuming that the pumps are powerheads. You should have another filter in there like a wet dry, refugium, canister, ect. You will deffinetly need some kind mechanical filtation IMO and probabaly more bacterial filtration depending on how dense your Live rock is.

 

I have gotten mixed reviews on the use of a wet dry or other mechanical filter for a tank as small as 35 gallons. Most people say it is not necessary and will just serve to negate the bacteria filtration effects of the sand/rock and protein skimmer.

 

Mirosh,

Bacteria do not filter They simply convert chemicals along the Nitrogen cycle.

Protein skimmers are in fact a form of mechanical filter, the only real difference is the way they actually remove the 'protein' from the water column.

John

 

JohnO,

So is that a yes or a no to needed more mechanical filtration in a 35 gallon tank?

-Mike

 

Mike,

That depends a lot on what you have in the tank I would most certainly run a protein skimmer and a cannister filter. Run the protein filter 24/7 and the cannister maybe twice a week.

John

 

Hi John,

Just curious why you would recommend running the canister filter about twice a week instead of all the time. I am running a canister filter (and a skimmer), and now at the tail end of cycling my tank. I have read completely opposing opinions on canisters - one extreme saying they are great (depending on what you have in your tank) and another extreme saying "canisters have no place in a marine aquarium and should not be used."

I intend to build a fuge one of these days but there seems to be only so many hours each day. Sigh...

Also, would it make any sense to run the canister and have a fuge concurrently?

Thanks,
Greg

Thanks,
Greg