my poor tank which need advice

[chercm]

hi guy need some advice on this

in the beginning i got the tank , i poured in water with my LR in it and i forgot about the anti chlorine which i add into the tank later .

the LR got fungus and i threw them away as the water got a bad smell . i did some water change about 40% . i got some new rocks from aqua marin and i added carbon in my canister on Friday.

last night i found some sponge on the LR and i dig them all out . one of them got real bad smell.

all in all this is my 2nd week on this tank and the reading is still very high on the Sera NO2 test kit. i have added aqua pharm bacteria.

i have added new water into my tank due to evaporation.

what can i do now?

[hondaker]

the normal cycling period is 4-6weeks

now at 2nd week, experiencing a spike in NO2 should be normal

keep on monitoring until you see a drop in NO2 and a spike in NO3

after this happens, the cycle is finished

i do not know if adding bacteria would speed up the process or not, as some reefers mentioned their cycle is complete in less than 4 weeks

to be on the safe side, cycle your tank at least until the 4th week

just my 2 cents

[hammy]

just ensure good flow in ur tank .

in the meanwhile dun really need to do anything since ur ammonia and nitrite will be highbecause everything is rotting .

can siphone out the worms if they start crawlng out .

until the bacteria has broken down all the ammonia and nitrite to nitrate , then u can start stocking up slowly . dun even need to test water now as it will confirm be high in NH3 and NO2

cycling is complete in about a months time . in the meanwhile save money to buy the best equipment in the world haha.

etc , light , skimmer ,filter, wave maker , chiller , FR, CR ... no end .... my money...

[Qxnviolet]

The bad smell is normal....its the die offs from your "new" LRs. As hammy n hondarker mentioned, cycling takes about a month. Bascially theres nothing much u can do except wait for the completion of the cycling. Mine took abit more than a month. Is the smell v bad? I on my skimmer during cycling and maybe thats why the smell is still berable. There'll be lost of hitchhikers on your Lrs though, spend some time netting them out when you come across them. And oh, try your best not to add any new LRs when ur cycling is complete, a mini cycle will start again. Happy reefing!

[chercm]

i am using the wave maker to blow at the LR

[flying carpet]

Add carbon to tackle the smell.

[Tanga]

Bro chercm next time no need to throw away your lr it's normal for your tank to have bad smell, endure for 1 week and the smell will be gone. Since now you are cycling the tank do not do anything not even changing of water. For the white stuff on your lr just use your wavemaker to blow it off.

The rest of the things have been explain by bros here, so be patient for the next 2 or 3 weeks

[iantoh]

bro chercm,

are you using salt mixed water or natural sea water? the smell you are experiencing is as the other bros mentioned, most likely to be from the degrading organic material within the liverocks you have. id recommend you changing 50% of your tank's water once a week for three weeks, after which you should be ready to test your water parameters again, and add livestock.

if nitrates are presently high in your tank, it is unlikely to drop dramatically even when cycling has completed because the bioload your new rocks presents is too much for it to cope with initially, so dilution via water changes for now is the best approach.

also, how deep is your sandbed if you have one? if your sandbed is too shallow, that is, below 2inches depth, then youre likely to not achieve much denitrification through your sandbed. but thats a whole other issue with regards to DSB or SSB vs BB.

dont worry bout the smell for now, and keep us updated as to your progress ya.

cheers bro, and all the best with your tank!

ian

[cornyfish]

Oh no, what a waste... you threw away your live rock. Live rocks will always be smelly unless they have already been cured/left in the shop's tank for a long time.

To cut down on the smell, you should remove all obviously dead or dying materials on the rocks (eg. blackened sponges, crabs...) before adding the rocks into your tank.

[chercm]

do u remove the white sponges ?

[Qxnviolet]

I did....try and remove all the algae, sponges and stuff....but then, it will never be completely clean. U cld try use a stick or a small knife to get to more inaccessable parts.

[PerculaClownfish]

hmm, but sometimes, i leave at least one or 2 things that i like on the rocks.. especially the plants.. cause my tangs luv them!

[PLataX]

IMHO dun throw the LR away just because of smell bro (in fact never).

If the LR is not cured, cure it yourself.

Just dont add livestock yet. Patience.... let it cycle...leave just maybe an actinic on for 6hrs daily.

Dont worry about the anti chlorine. Many Bros may advocate using it but I've stopped using anti chlorine for the past 7yrs!!! Corals doin fine for more than 5yrs (some even split on their own w/o me fraggin). Our local water is in good condition. Just make sure your SG is within range. Temperature too.

Err regarding water change durin cyclin period... I dun believe its necessary.

I'd leave everything on the LR. Except bryopsis algae. If have clean it all up!!!

[Qxnviolet]

IMHO dun throw the LR away just because of smell bro (in fact never).

If the LR is not cured, cure it yourself.

Just dont add livestock yet. Patience.... let it cycle...leave just maybe an actinic on for 6hrs daily.

Dont worry about the anti chlorine. Many Bros may advocate using it but I've stopped using anti chlorine for the past 7yrs!!! Corals doin fine for more than 5yrs (some even split on their own w/o me fraggin). Our local water is in good condition. Just make sure your SG is within range. Temperature too.

Err regarding water change durin cyclin period... I dun believe its necessary.

I'd leave everything on the LR. Except bryopsis algae. If have clean it all up!!!

Hrmz, no anti chorline is ok? And i've always thought it was a must. Learnt something new again but i wldnt dare try that with my tank though....

[hammy]

Hrmz, no anti chorline is ok? And i've always thought it was a must. Learnt something new again but i wldnt dare try that with my tank though....

sometimes it is not abt the chlorine ... chlorine will dissipate into the atmosphere with time . however chloramine will remain in the tank ... even if it is broken down into chlorine and ammonia , the ammonia will eventually remain in the tank and increase nitrate

[Qxnviolet]

sometimes it is not abt the chlorine ... chlorine will dissipate into the atmosphere with time . however chloramine will remain in the tank ... even if it is broken down into chlorine and ammonia , the ammonia will eventually remain in the tank and increase nitrate

Ohz, so i guess its still better to add anti-cholorine for water changes then...thanks...

[mUAr_cHEe]

in the beginning i got the tank , i poured in water with my LR in it and i forgot about the anti chlorine which i add  into the tank later .

Doesn't really matter in cycling stage. you are also going to let the water sit there for a month at least. People usually aerate a pail of tap water overnight to let the chlorine 'disappear' by its own.

the LR got fungus and i threw them away as the water got a bad smell . i did some water change about 40% . i got some new rocks from aqua marin and i added carbon in my canister on Friday.

Bad smell when cycling is normal. As i said, you will be leaving everything in your tank for one month at least, whatever fungus or nonsense should be good in your tank. You want things in your tank to decay to kick off the NO cycle. If you added carbon to your first batch of LRs, the smell would probably have cleared too.

last night i found some sponge on the LR and i dig them all out . one of them got real bad smell.

Sponges on LRs are normal. Leave them alone. Bad smell is good. Bad smell = decay. decaying stuff = kicking off NO cycle.

all in all this is my 2nd week on this tank and the reading is still very high on the Sera NO2 test kit. i have added aqua pharm bacteria.

NO2 high is normal. Pls read up more on the NO cycle. Read the pinned threads in this noobie sub-forum. You will understand more. Bacteria gunk is always nonsense to me. Try not to add too much formulated nonsense in your tank. That is what I believe in.

i have added new water into my tank due to evaporation.

Normal. you will be doing that alot in your reefing career.

what can i do now?

Pls read up more so that you will get more knowledge. Ask around if you have read and still can't find the answer you want. You can always google whatever you want to know, but remember to read more sources of information and choose which one you think is best. The knowledge in the internet is alot, but remember to every question there are more than one answer and not all of them are right!

[chercm]

but how come there is ppl asking me to dig out the sponge ?

[mUAr_cHEe]

every question there are more than one answer and not all of them are right!

I may not be right, and also they might not be right.

My experience is that I had alot of these sponges growing in these dark corners of my tank, and it stayed there, never really killed my fishes or my corals. It just stays there.

Maybe a pic can get a more accurate sponge. althou you said it is a sponge, you might mis-id it. Just a thought.

[chercm]

[chercm]

the second one is the smelly one and i end up digging a big hole in the rock

[mUAr_cHEe]

Thats what i got too. Its harmless, just leave it alone. it should be fine, unless you find it an eyesore.