Starting a reef tank
 

As far as cycle goes, you will reach prime in about
1 year.

Wayne Sallee



Big Habeeb wrote on 10/22/2007 12:36 PM:
Dunno if anyone is still checkin this thread but...
Tank is up and running with all the live rock, substrate was put in
this weekend, lots of algae forming, bio cycle appears to be complete
(ammonia went up and then back down etc)...did a 15% water change
Sunday night and tank seems to be running fairly happily. Tonight I'm
going to be adding a small cleaning crew - likely 3 snails and a crab,
to start dealing with the algae...looks like we're starting to get
close to 'go' time.
Mitch

Starting a reef tank
 

On Oct 22, 8:51 pm, "August West"
wrote:
Have the nitrites spiked yet?

Ammonia spikes, then the nitrites do.

"Big Habeeb" wrote in message

oups.com...



On Oct 16, 12:17 am, "August West"
wrote:
This stuff worked for me...http://www.aquariumguys.com/kickich1.htmlI
have
no idea whats in it but it is copper free.

I quarantined my Atlanic Blue Tang after I got him. I finally put him in
the
big tank and about a week later - Blam! He had ich all over him. Theres
no
way to catch a fish in that tank, so I tried Kick-Ich out of desparation.
It
worked, and none of the inverts were affected. Nothing happened to the
nitrite, nitrate, or ammonia levels, so I assume it left all the bacteria
alone. Now I use garlic and cleaner shrimp in the big tank. Whenever I
get
new fish, they get the Kick-Ich treatment in the quarantine tank. When I
move them to the big tank, it gets a Kick Ich treatment also. Expensive,
but
effective.

Its best to leave the skimmer off on "dose day"

"George Patterson" wrote in message

news:jnVQi.2423$et1.1204@trnddc02...

Big Habeeb wrote:

I think my surprise was more in general that ich was
an issue (not that I needed to keep a Q tank) - One of the solutions
I'd used with a decent amount of success in battling ich in the past
was adding a small amount of sea salt to my freshwater tanks....not
enough to even impact the spc gravity particularly, but it seemed to
do a good job of battling off the nasty ich...in most cases even more
so than the recommended chemicals (and I prefer not to use chemicals
anyway).

Freshwater ich and sal****er ich are two completely different animals
(literally). You will find many people who claim that sal****er ich is
inherent in all marine fish and can't be cured. These people will
advise
you to improve your water quality, and the ich will go away.

I agree that it will. For about 2 weeks, until the next generation of
the
parasite gets to the fish-sucking stage.

The only cure for marine ich (AK cryptocaryon) is copper sulphate.
Unfortunately, adding this to your reef tank will kill lots of stuff
you
really need (for example, your live rock becomes dead rock), so you
need a
Q tank to treat your fish. It also needs to be big enough to keep all
your
fish alive for the month that it takes to allow the ich to die out in
your
main tank.

Better to quarantine your fish so that ich doesn't get into your tank
in
the first place.

George Patterson
If you torture the data long enough, eventually it will confess
to anything.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Dunno if anyone is still checkin this thread but...
Tank is up and running with all the live rock, substrate was put in
this weekend, lots of algae forming, bio cycle appears to be complete
(ammonia went up and then back down etc)...did a 15% water change
Sunday night and tank seems to be running fairly happily. Tonight I'm
going to be adding a small cleaning crew - likely 3 snails and a crab,
to start dealing with the algae...looks like we're starting to get
close to 'go' time.
Mitch- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Yup, nitrites have gone up and down etc. LFS confirmed, cycle has
completed...plus the presence of a wicked amount of either algae or
colerpa (see new thread posted today).

Starting a reef tank
 

On Oct 22, 2:28 pm, Wayne Sallee wrote:
As far as cycle goes, you will reach prime in about
1 year.

Wayne Sallee


Big Habeeb wrote on 10/22/2007 12:36 PM:



Dunno if anyone is still checkin this thread but...
Tank is up and running with all the live rock, substrate was put in
this weekend, lots of algae forming, bio cycle appears to be complete
(ammonia went up and then back down etc)...did a 15% water change
Sunday night and tank seems to be running fairly happily. Tonight I'm
going to be adding a small cleaning crew - likely 3 snails and a crab,
to start dealing with the algae...looks like we're starting to get
close to 'go' time.
Mitch- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Please explain?

Starting a reef tank
 

That's when you will look into the tank, and see
that you have arrived, it now looks like a nice
balanced reef tank. It takes time of slowly adding
critters and getting *everything* in balance. You
are building an ecosystem. It does not happen over
night. One can go faster, but someone new to
reefkeeping can get into big trouble going too fast. :-)

Wayne Sallee



Big Habeeb wrote on 10/23/2007 1:50 PM:
On Oct 22, 2:28 pm, Wayne Sallee wrote:
As far as cycle goes, you will reach prime in about
1 year.

Wayne Sallee


Big Habeeb wrote on 10/22/2007 12:36 PM:



Dunno if anyone is still checkin this thread but...
Tank is up and running with all the live rock, substrate was put in
this weekend, lots of algae forming, bio cycle appears to be complete
(ammonia went up and then back down etc)...did a 15% water change
Sunday night and tank seems to be running fairly happily. Tonight I'm
going to be adding a small cleaning crew - likely 3 snails and a crab,
to start dealing with the algae...looks like we're starting to get
close to 'go' time.
Mitch- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -

Please explain?

Starting a reef tank
 

Big Habeeb wrote:

Please explain?

Nitrites get turned into nitrates. To a great extent, these are handled by
anaerobic bacteria which live inside your rock. These are very slow-growing,
but, after about a year, you will not need to do as many water changes and your
algae problems will be much reduced.

George Patterson
If you torture the data long enough, eventually it will confess
to anything.

Starting a reef tank
 

They are not that slow growing. Just cut off all of
the oxygen from the tank, and you will have 0
nitrates over night.

Wayne Sallee



George Patterson wrote on 10/23/2007 9:57 PM:
Big Habeeb wrote:

Please explain?

Nitrites get turned into nitrates. To a great extent, these are handled
by anaerobic bacteria which live inside your rock. These are very
slow-growing, but, after about a year, you will not need to do as many
water changes and your algae problems will be much reduced.

George Patterson
If you torture the data long enough, eventually it will confess
to anything.

Starting a reef tank
 

"Wayne Sallee" wrote in message ...
They are not that slow growing. Just cut off all of
the oxygen from the tank, and you will have 0
nitrates over night.

And 0 live fish :-)

Starting a reef tank
 

Wayne Sallee wrote:
They are not that slow growing. Just cut off all of the oxygen from the
tank, and you will have 0 nitrates over night.

Then all your other bacteria die off and the nitrate producing bacteria die off
because they don't have any food. Now you're back to cycling your tank again
from scratch, but you've turned your live rock into dead rock.

I'll stick with "they take a long time."

George Patterson
If you torture the data long enough, eventually it will confess
to anything.