cycling time?

[Shinguuji]

ermmm..hello, i'm using a 2ft tank with only a external filter equipped cos i'm only keeping 3fishes..

ok, i set up my tank last week, the nitires started to climb last thursday, and by sat. it has gone so high that my test kit can't even read how hihg it is(my test kit max. 5ppl) i used some bacteria thingy right from the start, and i cycled it by letting a cube of brine shrimp melting in it...

i noticed that nitires coming out in a few days is rather fast, but after reading some books, and comparing ratios, i found that the days the nitrite were in the tank was way too high as compared to the number of days it took for the nitrite to appear, i have added live rock the past few days, but it didn't seem to help much

i tried diluting the water in order to test it(filled bottle to 5ml with tankwater, then filed bottle to 20ml by using tap water, mix, then drain out the excess water and test) the test reading were still max, but this time, it took much slower for the 'max reading' to come out, about 1 minute more(the max. reading is instant usually, but the instructions said the 'max reading' would appear in 5min!!!)

is my tank stuck or scewed or anything? any predictions when the nitrite will fall? i booked all the fishes in my LFS and must get them by next monday, but i need a cycled tank by then, so any predictions? help!!!

[Shinguuji]

ah yes, my tank's live rock is cured and has stuff growing on it...

[Octopuffy]

Ask the LFS to rear the fishes for you 1st. Pay a little more if they want. Better than u dump them in the tank to let them die.

Waste more money

Give your tank more time.

Btw, how many gallons is your tank? How many KG of Live rocks? Also, check your filter (cannister type?)

[Achilles Tang]

If your tank was just set up last Thursday... and you still have very high nitrites .... chances are ... or the fact is.... you are still in the midst of a cycle.

It's barely a week... and a cycle should be around 30 days before it ends. For a small tank... please be very careful.. crashes can happen very easily.

What do you mean by external filter? Pls explain in detail.

You have to hold back your stocking, unfortunately. Speak to the LFS and say that your tank isn't ready yet. If they won't hold it for you... change LFS.

[Shinguuji]

2 live rocks, one is 400grams, the other 700g, what is a crash BTW?

a few weeks???arghhh....

how many days to go for me till the nitrite drops to a readable level(less than 10-15ppm?)

[Shinguuji]

ermmm..its not last thursday, its last last week(last X2 week), it was last thursday where the nitrite started to show quite significantly( 3-4 ppm?)

[Achilles Tang]

Readable level?... it should read '0'!!!

Do you know anything about the nitrogen cycle? There are some links in the newbie forum... go read it first.

[Shinguuji]

readable level, as in it is shown that the nitrites are falling, so as to put my heart to rest, its cos i have kept mny discus for several years, and while cycling one tank, it took me nearly 2 months, but the nitrites were still at max, i had to dimatle the whole tank and rebuild it again...

its bcos of this incident that i get jumpy whenever nitrites rise, iknow they need high levels b4 any bacteria comes out...i have been reading a lot u know?

ermmm...and what is a crash?

and can u predict the number of days for me to be able to see a fall in nitrite?

[Achilles Tang]

I can't really predict your tank's cycling period... as every tank is setup differently. In general, a typical cycle will take about 32 days.. give or take a few days.

Right now, bacteria is processing your high ammonia to nitrites... and you have to wait for them to process enough nitrites to nitrates... the next phase.

Please read up as much as you can about marine tank setups and the nitrogen cycle. You have to evaluate your own setup esp. the filtration aspect. For a marine tank, it's life or death or long-term suffering.

A crash is a tank 'wipeout'.

[hongqixian]

A crash is when everything dies. And please do find somewhere else to keep your mandarin( u stated in some other thread). It's probably not going to be able to survive long in a new tank. Feeding in excess might get it to eat but it'll just pollute your tank and elevate the nitrite and nitrate levels too.

whoops posted a few secs after AT replied about the crash.

[Achilles Tang]

You already have fishes in there??

And a mandarin fish too??? This fish requires an established tank with loads of liverock to sustain a large enough population of copepods for it to survive!

What other fishes do you have in there now?

No wonder!! You are constantly adding an ammonia source.. when your biological filtration population is not even established yet!

Please remove your fishes and house them somewhere else... you'll end up heading for a crash and death of your livestock.

[Shinguuji]

ermmm.i thought of using those fighting fish type of boxes to hold the mandrin fish while its eating, i just use one of those boxes, net the fish into a box, put some brine shrimp in, off the lights, close the room door, wait, open the door, check whether any food has been eaten, if eaten, release the fish, if not, close and wait...will this work?

NONO, i have NO, NO fishes in it, i repeat, NO fishes in it, u read wronly, go members lunge and see what i originally wrote, i was PLANNING to keep a mandrin fish, so i BOOKED it, there's NONE, ZERO, ZILTCH number of fishes in my tank now

[Achilles Tang]

Oh I see!

[Shinguuji]

ermmm...ok in ur opinion, would the fighting fish thingy work? that's what i thought of after thinking for quite a while....

[hongqixian]

ermmm...ok in ur opinion, would the fighting fish thingy work? that's what i thought of after thinking for quite a while....

it might, but you wouldn't want to do that all of it's lifetime, as a 2ft tank with fish can never generate enough pods for it. the pods would get eaten up too fast.

Frozen food cubes may be high in pollutants like phosphates -> high algae growth.

Defrosting and rinsing them in tapwater before feeding might help reduce the amount of pollutants in them.

[hongqixian]

They are also rich in oil. If you rinse the frozen food in a plastic cup and then touch the cup later, you'll see what i mean.

just for interest, what does shinguuji mean?

[Shinguuji]

or do i train it to eat flakes? can it be trained at all int the first place? does brine cause so much pollution? i drop 2 cubes of bloodworms/brine into my discus fishtank each time, and i do it 3 times a day, but its still fine....are marine tanks really so pollution sensitive???

and Shinguuji is the surname of a anime character, Shinguuji sakura, its the only anime i watch, i dun really like the anime genre though, i think she's hot, so i used her surname as my user name, thats all...

i added some product called 'psb bacteria' since day one, will it speed up the cycle?

so my cycle will end next week right? but when will i see a fall in nitrites? predictions anyone?

[Achilles Tang]

Mandarin eat flakes... NOPE!

Try reading up on marine fishes before buying them. There's a lot to learn about their feeding/housing requirements and compatibility with other livestock.

Marine keeping is a lot more complicated than you think compared to FW.

IMO, you should not have a mandarin until much later when your tank is more established or as HQX pointed out, you'll end up polluting your tank if your mandarin ignores whatever your try to feed it with.

[Shinguuji]

okayyyyyy.........so what do i tell my LFS?

damn! i just wanted that one unique fish....arghhhhh....

so for 'normal' fish i feed flakes? am i right?

does brine shrimp really cause so much damage? its a little shocking, considering what i throw into my discus tank...

btw, do u know any marine fish shops in the east? there's two in marine parade, i'm going to one of them...want to know of other shops though

so if i feed brine now, my tank's gonna explode? or can i feed the mandrin a little bit of brine, while the rest eat flakes, i dun think mandrins eat a lot considering their size and in some webbies, ppl feed them using stuff from the live rocks... so if i feed them a small amount, my tank won't go boom right?

errr...on the matter of feeding them, i'm mugging like for an hour each time to prepare for my A's, so netting a fish and playing the eating game with it is very entertainng compared to studying how a BOP surplus in singapore is going to affect america or how energy is conserved when two 'balls' hit each other

anyway, i'll be getting a larger tank for my other fish after the A's, so my 2ft. tank is all for my mandrin, might consider downgrading it though, 2ft. for one fish is a blatant waste of space...

errrr...and yes, i won't be putting any lifestock into it anytime soon till the tank its ok, already exp. the temptation when keeping FW fish...

[Rufff]

U have 2 B patient when it comes 2 marine keeping ... 1 month is nothing if U consider the fact that U will B in this hobby 4 a lifetime, hopefully. If U start out right, U won't have yr precious fishes dying on U.

Basically your tank is just not ready 2 "accept" any life stock yet, so please dun introduce any in the tank coz they will definitely DIE. Even if they don't, they will die a SLOW & AGONISING death ... so please spare them the torture.

All newbies go thru the same stage, me included. Excited, go LFS recee ... see fish/corals, "itchy" hands - see, die die must buy. Bring fish home, chuck it in tank just 2 C it die on U. Poor thing right ...

Anyway, learn frm our mistakes & spare the marine life. Be patient & U will B rewarded in time ... trust me

Good Luck!

[Shinguuji]

anyway, esp. to achiliestang and HQX, thanks a billion, i do not feel so worried now...

[hongqixian]

anyway, esp. to achiliestang and HQX, thanks a billion, i do not feel so worried now...

This thread is practically ancient and i dunno if you'll see this post but yeah, you're welcome.

I'm ashamed to say that my 2ft crashed at least 3 times in the long past (2 yrs ago), so i started reading up more.

hmm. do you download your anime or watch on TV? Generally the subtitled Japanese ones are better, the english dubs can be really awkward. There's a few nice animes about now, like Inuyasha etc. The humor can be a bit childish though.