Pinkish on dead rocks

[Freddyprince]

Hi, my new 422 fowlr setup is currently undergoing cycling. And it's about 3 weeks old only. On the 2nd week of my cycling phrase I actually purchase afew piece of cured live rock and hope that it will seed my dead rocks with coroline algae faster.

Until yesterday I realise some light pink patches starts to appear on some rocks. Can you guys advise me what are those? Really hope that it's coroline algae also lol..

Tank age 3 weeks

Tank size 422 with 3 ft sump

Skimmer and FR is off

Filtration- socks and some ceramic rings

Return pump at 6000 litres/hr with 1 wave maker

[Freddyprince]

And also another question, why is it that I have only ammonia till now in my 3 weeks of cycling. I threw in a prawn on the first day to introduce ammonia and till now still the same. Could it be insufficient? I also started dosing microbacter7 4 days ago and yet to see any nitrite

[Daniel Poh Yang Zheng]

U using the wrong charts for ammonia.. That is a freshwater chart

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Freddyprince]

Oh lol. Thanks

[Freddyprince]

Arh.. Then my ammonia also zero after 3 weeks of cycling.

[waterperson]

Bro, 4 footer quite big leh. If ur prawn too small, not much effect. Remove the prawn head, that part hard to decompose. Dice the prawn and it should start decomposing faster. Place it near a high flow area to spread the breakdown material.

2nd week should see ammonia climbing. Test daily for ammonia as it will suddenly plunge low or zero. If you missed the ammonia spike, you might be wondering why no spike. Since you added live rock, this ammonia spike and down might be minimised as there are bacteria already started processing the ammonia. So look out for the ammonia climb/spike. Then move on to nitrite and finally nitrate.

After ammonia zero or cycle complete, then we talked about water change.

[sgtayc]

Yes looks like coraline algae. Maybe spread fr nearby live rick.

[Freddyprince]

Ok thanks a lot. But looking at the saltwater chart, I am confuse if mine is 0ppm or 0.50ppm

[Freddyprince]

Just tested again.

[Freddyprince]

Ok after realise my very initial introduce of ammonia was not enough, I added 4 more minced market prawn today. And I start to have readings for my nitrite and nitrate. But still my ammonia level still remains the same at 0.25 to 0.5. So I actually think that my initial cycling wasn't a total waste of time as I actually have existing bacteria to consume the ammonia to form nitrite. It's jus that the amount was insuffient thus I did not have an amount of nitrite to be able to be read from testing. Am I right?

[waterperson]

Your right it should be faster. Once ammonia and nitrite goes back to zero, you can perform large water change to bring down your nitrate. Or if you have patience, again wait for nitrate to come down also. If nitrate numbers also come down, that means cycle is complete.

When ammonia n nitrite zero, nitrate below 20ppm, you can try adding a tough fish like clownfish. Wait another week to two, if the fish is happy, and parameters are still ok, you can go on adding other fishes or inverts, 1-2 per week or two. Slower the better. Corals maybe 3rd month onwards of your tank then add.

Above is the routine i followed and has only few casualties. So its not the must follow rule, just a path i treaded before.

[Freddyprince]

Thanks. I just did a test. My ammonia is still stuck at 0.50ppm but my nitrite and nitrate went up again. I think it's because my ammonia kept being consume by bacteria to form nitrite . And that's is why ammonia not climbing further despite adding 4 dead prawn 2 days ago

[asg]

Bro, bio ring cant hold that muct bb compare to biohome or bateria king. Suggest u change them. U dose bateria also need a home for them to stay.

[Freddyprince]

I actually have some coral chips and this bio dog shit inside also. But actually I am thinking actually the rocks in our tank already able to hold quite an amount of bacterial already right?

[Freddyprince]

Actually I did also wonder about this issue if the media I place in there is enough also. Looking at my sump, my media are all fully submere in the water which is already not like wet/dry sump type. But I realise alot of people kept their sump so simple until it's like no where to house bacteria and that is why I suspose the rocks in the tank are. Can advise me if I setup mine wrongly?

[Freddyprince]

And also I realise that there are signs of diatoms already. Can I start the phosphate reactor now during cycling?

[Freddyprince]

I am done cycling right?

[Freddyprince]

The weird thing is my nitrate becomes zero also.

[M&M]

Did you do a water change? How long was your cycling?

[Freddyprince]

No water change yet. Only top up water after evaporation. 27days cycling.

[Freddyprince]

Did a water change, reading nitrate 0, nitrite 0 and ammonia slightly off yellow but still not on the 0.25ppm. I think it is in between 0-0.25.

I am still puzzled that nitrate can drop from 40 to 0.

I am not not sure if my cycling has completed or I have mess it up some how

[waterperson]

Bro, i think your tank cycling is completed. Just stock slowly n it will be fine. Happy reefing

[Freddyprince]

Thank you waterperson, any idea why my ammonia increase slightly? I used 144litres of distilled water to change. I did not add anti chorine so I shouldn't expect ammonia to show up again right.

[waterperson]

If you use distilled water n saltmix to do water changes, no need anti chlorine.

If your ammonia is showing up one moment and disappears the next, I would attribute it to the new system, and it means your system is barely couping. What we are trying to do in cycling is grow enough bacteria to convert the ammonia to finally less harmful nitrate. The key word is enough and the bacteria numbers grow and shrink according to the food source (ammonia). But still they need couple hours (~4hrs optimal) to double in numbers.

I would remove your ammonia source (market prawn?) and do a larger than usual water change before stocking (1-2 small fishes). And observe a week. If u got happy fishes, then stock again 1-2 stock every 1-2 weeks. Keep observing and test for ammonia and nitrate.

Happy reefing

[Freddyprince]

Thank you for your advise. Waterperson