Puffer Chick's 46 Gallon Bowfront Reef

man, i can't wait to see them in person

 

so tonight i looked in my tank with a flashlight while my room was pitch black, i saw nothing. so i decided to turn the light on since i haven't turned it on for a few days, and i have green algae starting to grow on the tank, i guess it's a part of the cycling process, it's only a small spot though

 

Ahh memories! K+ Oh and after your nitrites drop.. test your nitrates!

 

BTW you'll see stuff soon enough! Some of it is so hard to see at first cuz itz so smallz!

 

hahaha i plan to do tests every saturday so i'll post the readings then

quck question, if by chance my cycling finnishes before i'm able to purchase my skimmer, is it ok to add fish and inverts before i get the skimmer?

 

lol i see stuff moving and i get excited, but then when i shine the flashlight on it, it's only the the root things moving, sigh, i hope you guys are right im really wanting to see something come alive in this tank

 

lol i bet you felt pretty foolish starring into an empty dark fish tank

 

haha yup

 

Yes that's perfectly fine. You don't really even need a skimmer until a month or two after cycling finishes. Adding a skimmer too soon will slow the cycle or "growing up" of your tank. This is because, even though your general "cycle" is over, your tank is still growing and maturing and little, unnoticable "mini cycles" will be occuring for the next several months. A Protein Skimmer removes dissolved waste and organic compounds before they can get broken down into ammonia, nitrite, nitrates and all that stuff. When you remove the waste, your bacteria runs out of stuff to grow on, and the maturing of your tank will slow way way down.

Of course, this varies from tank to tank, so it's un clear what your tank would do. It could do what our tank did and erupt in hair algae everywhere, where we added our skimmer to combat that stuff I'd just wait a little while after your tank cycles to see when you feel you should add your skimmer. If algae starts going nuts, you've waited a little too long and I'd add the skimmer pronto

 

ok, algae is just starting, i'm waiting to get my c.c down so i can buy the skimmer so once that is down i'm good to go get one