Crashhhhhhhhhhhhh

[jrubio69]

Yesterday night I found out that the levels of Nitrites and Nitrates were extrimly high....almost out of the scale... Inmidiatly I change 60% of the water, clean the swimmer and put some air. :cry:
After I change the water the level of Nitrates and Nitrites reduce half.

Does the Bacteria of the LR is dead?
I have to start all over again, meaning buying new LR?

[jrubio69]

I installed the aquarium last Thursday afternoon.

[Seahorsedreams]

That's a normal part of the cycle. The ammonia goes sky high and then as it goes down your nitrites go sky high and then as they go down your trates go up. Don't do anymore water changes. Leave the tank alone.... that's honestly my best advice... to leave it alone. Let the ammonia and nitrites get to 0, do a little water change (I do about 25%), watch the not to pretty diatom bloom come and go. And then I like to test my water. I put a couple of blocks of mysis in there overnight and test in the morning. If everything is okay... green light to add a fish. It helps to put the mysis in a little mesh or netting so you can remove it after instead of letting it become detritus... detritus is our enemy.

[saxman]

Julio,

as Renee mentioned, the parameters are normal for a new tank. your tank will take about 4 weeks or so to cycle. ALL new aquariums need to cycle, which is colonizing the tank/filter with beneficial nitrogen fixing bacteria.

hopefully, you have no fish in the tank.

[jrubio69]

Renee and Greg,

Thanks a lot. I will do what Renee said about avoid to change the water. Was good that I did not have any fish in the tank.....other wise....bye bye fish.

Thanks again and regards

Julio

[lReef lKeeper]

awww, hubby and wife team to the rescue !!

[CarmieJo]

Hi Julio,

Good advice from Renee and Greg! Is your skimmer making foam?

[jrubio69]

CarmieJo,

Yes, I checked it this morning and the cup was half full. Today will be the third time since last Thursday 9th that I clean the cup.

Regards

[jrubio69]

Renee:

You mention that the diatom will camo and go. I have to do something to the Aquarium or the alga will desapeare buy itself?

Regards

[Seahorsedreams]

Not quite sure I understand the question but I'll give it a shot. And just so we are all on the same page.... a diatom bloom usually is seen after a cycle. It's like a brown/rust fine coating on your substrate, your rock... everything. Sometimes when it's a bad bloom it can even look a little fuzzy. Very normal for this to happen. Some people try to "fix" the algae but if you just give it time it will go away. The bloom won't harm your fish but I wouldn't put corals in there until it was through. If some get on an exposed skeleton, or it covers the polyps, you may stress your new addition unnecessarily.

HTH

[jrubio69]

Dear Renee:

Yesterday night I found diatom in some of the LR. I could not find diatom in the aragonite, at least not get. As you mention in a previous message the diatom will desapear by it self, in your experiance when this will happen? two weeks, three weeks time?

Thanks in advance.


Julio

[Techknowledgy]

Hi Julio,
Diatoms are very small and you could not see them, until they bloom and there are many of them. Patience in this hobby is the VERY best thing you can have. If you have done everything right, test your water often... like every three or four days. After it finishs cycling, they will be where you want them. In the NORMAL course of keepin a reef, especially a nano, you will have blooms of various sorts. Understanding them and dealing with them is all part of the additiction. :up:

Roland

[Techknowledgy]

More.... while my tank was cycling, the first three weeks, I did not run a skimmer at all. I also did not run any lights. This accomplished two things, it allowed the biological filtration to take hold well in the DSB, and it kept down the growth of algae, cyano and other bad stuff. Just a suggestion. It worked for me. Then after the cycle was complete (towards the end I turned on and adjusted my skimmer too) , I gradually turned on lights, two hours at a stretch, until I was at 8 hours od sunshine. This seemed to help as well.

God luck my friend!

[jrubio69]

More.... while my tank was cycling, the first three weeks, I did not run a skimmer at all. I also did not run any lights. This accomplished two things, it allowed the biological filtration to take hold well in the DSB, and it kept down the growth of algae, cyano and other bad stuff. Just a suggestion. It worked for me. Then after the cycle was complete (towards the end I turned on and adjusted my skimmer too) , I gradually turned on lights, two hours at a stretch, until I was at 8 hours od sunshine. This seemed to help as well.

God luck my friend!

Thanks a lot, I will do what you are telling me. I am testing the water every 3 or 4 days, the numbers first rise to the roof but they are going down bit by bit.

Thanks again

[CarmieJo]

In my experience the diatom bloom lasted a couple of weeks. It so happened that we went away for a couple of days and I didn't have a timer for my lights so I left them off. When I came home my tank looked pristine! I was probably already at the end of the diatom bloom and no lights for 2 days finished them off.

There is no reason you have to use your lights during cycling unless you have some hitchhiker corals or macro algae on your LR. Otherwise there is nothing in your tank that needs light.

[Seahorsedreams]

I'm a "light on during cycle" person. That is if I am using LR that is actually LR... not dead rock or rock void of all critter life. I find is makes the life on the rock recoup much faster than if I left it in the dark. But there are many way to skin a rabbit and we all end up with the same rabbit stew.