so frusturated please HELP

hey there
so my 55 gallon salt tank is still not doing anything my water is good I think
the ph is at 8, Temp is at 80 my hydrometer is in between 1.022 and 1.023 and my NO3+NO4 is at 0mg/l

There is 53lbs of live rock with an asortment of things living on them (anenomes,little feather dusters, lots of algae,a starfish, snails and these little weird clear bug things)

big al's said that i should put in there BIO MATTER when i started the tank so I did it is suposed to add bactia to your tank.

and last week some really nice people told me to put table shrimp in there to get things going and nothing has happend yet

what should I do? does anyone have anymore ideas?
HELP

 

You must have missed the spike if you did that a couple of days ago. Did you use live rock?

 

yes there is like 53 lbs of live rock and I have been testing everyday exept one cause I was out of town

 

you wont need the table shrimp if you have that much live rock with living organisms growing on it. best thing to do is just wait it out as it may take another couple weeks before nutrient level start spiking. just hold the course. it may also be a good idea to have your water tested by the LFS or another experienced reefer just incase.

good luck buddy!

its also nice to see another canadian

 

love the avatar! is that you?

 

thankx for the advice

 

the first two tanks I started had no cycle to them, because everything was live and good. I got really nice cured live rock from the lfs, part live sand from my friends tank, and part live sand from the store. It was pretty sweet how the thing was just up and running just like that..... but it was expensive.

 

Give it one more week. Take your water to the LFS and ask them to test the water. If they won't test it, find a new LFS. If all parameters are still at zero then add the single least expensive waste producing creature that is on your list. Wait one more week and repeat testing. If everything is STILL at zero then you skipped the cycle. If not, then your first creature might die or it might live but it will start the cycle and you wouldn't have lost all your livestock and many dollars.

 

I had a similar experince and i did the samething, i added table shrimp with no effect. I didnt really go through a cycle since i used nearly all "dead" rock and sand. I used 20 lbs of live rock to 80 lbs of dead. Later I added a blue green chromis and it died. Wait for a month or so after your setup until the unmeasurable parameters balance out... thats what i would suggest. dont wast money on fish yet.

be pateint and you will be able to add anything (with in reason).

 

Sorry, I may have missed this... How long has your tank been up?

It sounds like you've taken the information from the folks here really well and applied it. Sometimes it just takes... time. I've had tanks cycle in a few weeks, yet others over two months. Believe me, I know there is nothing that sets in the frustration like staring into an empty tank that hasn't leveled out yet, thinking of all the cool stuff that could be in there if just the levels would roll out for you.

I would give it another week and see if your parameters change, better to wait and be sure, than head in uncertain.

Good luck!