Cloudy water during cycling

[flo_reeftank]

do you have live rock inside or artificial rock ?

[Kamarudin Ariffin]

Mix of both live rocks and artificial rocks

[flo_reeftank]

Mix of both live rocks and artificial rocks

ok i see more patience what kind of fishes are planning to buy ? planning to put some easy lps or soft corals ?

[Kamarudin Ariffin]

I will start wif some simple fishes damsel clown fish

[flo_reeftank]

ok good choice, cheap and easy to care wish you good luck, keep us update ya

[Kamarudin Ariffin]

Thank u. Will update one set up is complete

[Martian]

Be careful of aggressive fishes like Zebra Damsel fish. Mine killed almost all the other fishes that I put in so I had to release them. Read up on the species first before you buy b'boz once you put it in it'll be very troublesome to remove. I had to take out all my LRs to catch those buggers... Siong!

[Kamarudin Ariffin]

Thks martian for the tips

[flo_reeftank]

Be careful of aggressive fishes like Zebra Damsel fish. Mine killed almost all the other fishes that I put in so I had to release them. Read up on the species first before you buy b'boz once you put it in it'll be very troublesome to remove. I had to take out all my LRs to catch those buggers... Siong!

Hi martian,

you right, now i am going to clear some of fishes very troublesome..

[Martian]

Hi flo_reeftank, It was a horrible nightmare for me... I only realized it after I lost so many fishes... IMHO, Zebra Damsels are cheap but not worth the trouble and they are fast buggers so catching it is really a challenge and you'll need a plan...

[vidextreme]

First, a disclaimer. I'm no expert.

But...

Personally, I wouldn't recommend putting a live fish, however cheap they maybe, when cycling a tank. I pity the fish .

I also don't add dead prawn (not that I pity them too, ) but because it can lead to too much ammonia production too fast and, at least in my opinion, can slows down the cycling process.

Adding live sand and/or live rock is enough to kickstart the cycle. With the amount of life (hitch-hikers), worms, pods, etc, those are enough to cycle tanks.

I think the reason why you see dead worms or critters from the rock is due to the ammonia spike the tank overall experienced. Ammonia is highly toxic and is the first and inescapable step of the nitrogen cycle. Bacteria that converts dead and decay-able matter into ammonia are everywhere and the easiest to cultivate. Unfortunately, they are also aerobic, meaning they will consume oxygen. You see its a double barrel gun, ammonia and oxygen consumption, these two are the most common causes of tank crash. This is why I don't do or even recommend putting dead stuff in the tank as a starter. Your water being murky, for me, is not natural. It's obviously a bacteria bloom. Blooms also can kill the bacteria(aerobic ones) themselves due to lack of oxygen... a cascading effect.

Smell on the other hand, I agree that's natural. Except if you smell rotten-eggs. That smell is hydrogen sulfate, which btw is toxic to us humans so be careful.

For several tanks I have setup before, cycling has been 1 week maximum of 2 weeks. This is because I believe that with live rock plus live sand, the only cycling you need is to seed the bio-filters.

Considering you are already done with some of these procedure, I agree with water change. You need to remedy the excess ammonia in the tank, before it kills everything even the aerobic bacteria you are actually should cultivating.

[youdontnowm]

If u use liverock in your tank, then is ok.. mine cycled done in 2 weeks with full of liverocks form reefeers and nsw( for the first time only ) . No dose bacteria or anything

Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk

[Martian]

Hmmm... I have never read or heard that there is short cut to cycling a tank - 1 to 2 weeks is really fast. Can to share with us your successful setup? Tank size? Equipments?

[Gideon]

How many dead prawn had you put in the tank ? I had a bad experience of putting too many dead prawn and the water cannot be use after waiting for a mths as it turn brown colour.

I learn it from a hard way.

After that, If I am doing my cycle , I will only put 1 or 2 dead prawn to kick start the system only

[youdontnowm]

Hmmm... I have never read or heard that there is short cut to cycling a tank - 1 to 2 weeks is really fast. Can to share with us your successful setup? Tank size? Equipments?

Take a look at my thread no problem so far.

Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk

[Kamarudin Ariffin]

Hi guyd. I just added one piece of small prawn. Currently the white residue have turn brown. Do u guys reccomend a water change now??

[kanegan]

Hi bro, you have a pump agitating the water right?? How much live rock, bacteria media yiu have. Seems like your system is in decay.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

[VelvetAirwaves]

Hi guyd. I just added one piece of small prawn. Currently the white residue have turn brown. Do u guys reccomend a water change now??

Hey bro, I want to tell you that you are on the right track, let the prawn fully decay and let your water clear up on its own. Try not to turn on the lights as the spike in nutrients will spark off an algal bloom if the lights are on. Right now just leave your return pump running to get the water flowing. It looks like your tank is at its peak of the cycle, it should clear up from here on out.

Btw, from the picture it looks like you have some corals, but they look artificial, or am I seeing things?

[VelvetAirwaves]

Bro, by the way, could you share with us what equiptment you are using? And also, the water parameters. You didnt mention at the start, it would be good to test the water and let us know so we can pinpoint any mistakes that you might potentially make.

[Martian]

JimmiPaige is right, the water should clear up...

[spgohjc]

Hi bro, you cannot guess when the first round of cycling has completed by looking at the prawn. Do some basic water parameter tests to ascertain. You will also need to do that occasionally even the tank matures.

Happy reefing!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

[vidextreme]

Hmmm... I have never read or heard that there is short cut to cycling a tank - 1 to 2 weeks is really fast. Can to share with us your successful setup? Tank size? Equipments?

Nothing special about it. I remember I got it from an article (I wish I had book-marked it). Anyway the article explains that the nitrogen cycle is both fast and slow.

Fast because from decaying matter to ammonia to nitrite and then to nitrate is fast to established as long as you have correct bacteria to seed both the tank, water and bio-filter media.

Regarding seeding correct bacteria... I'll get back to this later.

Nitrate to nitrogen on the other hand will take time. This article even stated around 2 years. However, the author also adds, that nitrate is fundamental to some corals and critters in the tank even with a low nutrient reef setup. The rational behind this is that bacteria that converts nitrate to nitrogen are anaerobic and doesn't like light. This means they don't like oxygen, that's why they are often to be the hardest to cultivate. But to be honest the least of the worries when starting up a tank.

DSB or deep sand bed configuration in the main tank or refugium has the advantage of cultivating bacteria faster than those who doesn't have that setup (I know some anti-DSB guys will comment on this... but I think the ceasefire is still in effect ). Some says you need at least 2-3 inches of sand to house these anaerobic bacteria properly. Though I must say, I tried to have 1-2 inches and rely on bio-filter (Bio-Home) in my new office tank I recently setup... I'll see how it goes.

And btw, to dispute the DSB as nitrate factories, we need to ask ourselves, how on earth are getting nitrate in the tank? Answer... we get it because our biological filter is working. Decay matter to ammonia to nitrite and then to nitrate. The final step nitrate to nitrogen, as the article stated, would take time.

If u use liverock in your tank, then is ok.. mine cycled done in 2 weeks with full of liverocks form reefeers and nsw( for the first time only ) . No dose bacteria or anything

Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk

Though I mentioned live rock/sand would be enough to seed the tank, dosing cultured bacteria is actually still advisable.

I recommend the following

- Fritz Zyme 9

- Continuum Bacter

- Brightwell Aquatics Microbacter 7

I won't recommend bacteria starter that are primarily targeting freshwater even though their product is stated that it can be use for saltwater too.

House bio-filter such as Bio-home as much as you can shove inside the in-tank filter, refugium, canister filter, etc. The more you have them the more bio load your tank can take. Once you seed bacteria, avoid exposing or moving around the bio-filters too much. They must be in the darkest part of the tank.

I hope this helps.

However to remedy the original topic, water change and put a heavy dose of bacteria starter. Your tank will smell earthly. But that's ok. To check if you can salvage your live rock, try to flip your rock, if you don't patches of black stuff on where the rock touches the sand, its still good to go. If not and it smells like rotten eggs, change the live rock. As I said earlier, that's hydrogen sulfate, poisonous so everything even to us.

[vidextreme]

Hi guyd. I just added one piece of small prawn. Currently the white residue have turn brown. Do u guys reccomend a water change now??

Don't panic. That brown stuff could be Brown Algae. That's natural for starting up the tank.

Is the prawn alive? or dead? or cooked? lol.... If it's dead, I suggest to remove it, it won't help your tank.

[Kamarudin Ariffin]

Hi guys, the water had already clear up. I did some test and pb is about 8.4 purple color

[Martian]

How about other test results? Care to share?