Tank rushed

Got a 34 gal rsmax system.
Its going into second month..

Water params currently stable in the bad range ... With non fluctuating low levels of ammonia,nitrite,nitrate. So... Pretty yucky... But not

Story so far...
Tank started w ... Tap water n "live" sand/substrate shells n bits of stuff in bags off shelf.

Then 20# of mid grade srubbed rock ordered by LFS.. Pretty much dunked into the tank. Rock went into coma.

Have cleaned rock and water up and some of original rock has begun to awaken.

Have added additional 20# of same quality rock that another customer rejected at LFS. This rock too has gone through a bit of a cure in the tank too.

Some critters have gone along well in my tank as well.. Ive done some partial water changes and have been filtering and flossing and turkey basting my mess of rock...

Surviving without terrible stress are some 5 simple fish, two hermits n a snail...

I know if rushed a few things and may be headn for a crash but i will let ya know how i fair.

 

Heres what it looks like so far

 

Tank pic

 

looks Ok to me midwayman

I can see a Humbug Damsel a yellow tailed blue damsel and a royal gramma

what are the other fish in there?

Steve

 

Fishes ... 2x four lined damsel , 2x yellow tail , scooter blenny, royal gamma

Two blue leg crab
One busy turbo

Been havin blooms Of algae ..
Pretty sure not everything dead in the rock and some of its not dead yet.

So i dont think m properly cycled...
Want the rock to get well

M phasing in changes of water and im chasing evaporation with some better water since initial fill and have put in some new carbon... So some day it will be a better lil ocean

 

I like lawnmower blennys character too but m pretty sure i cant have another fish in that zone...

 

Well, the cycle is probably lasting so long because it sounds like there was a lot of organic material on the rocks to begin with. You should scrub the rocks before putting them into the tank. You also did rush things as adding 5 fish to a tank that early is asking for trouble. In addition, the additional rock probably caused a re-cycle and the water changes probably helped to slow it down. The good news I see is that the fish you have are pretty hardy. What I would do is just let it sit, stop the water changes and feed very lightly. When the ammonia and nitrite hit 0, then I would do a water change.

 

Yes agreed on the rock...and the fish.

I scrubbed the second batch of rock better than the first. But yes there was a lot of material on them rocks.

The water changes ive done were small five gallon changes mainly to vac out the crud.

Am gonna leave it till its stable now

 

Update on my tank

Water testing at

1.026 sg
Ph 8.5
Alk 2.8

Ammonia and nitrite still reading steady traces , nitrate not detected.

This hasnt been changing but have seen red brown green and purple stuff emerging on rock tank n sand.

Added more hermits to pick on the rocks n another snail.

Some fungal things coming to life and some of the rock awakening purple pink and green.

Still some other rocks yet to show signs of life but all of them have something going on.

Still trying to get temp stable... It fluctuates up to 82.5 during light cycle and drops to 80 at night.
running the air in appartment a bit more but considering adding another fan

 

Here is what is happining w rock