Novice Startup

[Aces]

Originally Posted by allim

Hi,

check if your water smells? If so, it is an indication of dying or dead organisms like the bristleworms and crabs. Another indication of dead organism may be a thin layer of oil on the surface of the water.

It is normal not to see bristleworms, crabs and brittlestar during the day as they usually come out at night. If you can see the dead creatures, remove them as they will contribute to both the organic and nitrogenous load inside the water. A partial water change, perhaps more than 10% may be required. I will also prepare the water using salt mix as that will normally give you a pH closer to 8.0. At the same time, check that the pH test kit you use is suited for saltwater and not fresh water.

Look out for the tiny copepods which will come out at night. They are good indicators that your tanks are cycling well. I once had bad water quality and the copepods were almost wipeout.

These are my opinions and practice. Hope the information will be useful!

does it affect the cycling if I change the water now. I'm using red sea reef salt. I think the PH dropped is due to my water circulation + tank cover which i removed yesterday.. I'll check the PH again this weekend. Yesterday morning i saw a bristleworm wiggling about in the water and today saw those very tiny worms on the live rock. But was surprised I can't see the 4 bristle starfish anymore. There are indeed some sort of oil on the surface.. =s I saw a bristle starfish leg at the bottom of the sand no body and use touch light shine here and there can't find them.. don't wann disturb the live rock hence i presume they just hiding.. the live rock are turning brown =s

[allim]

Originally Posted by Aces

does it affect the cycling if I change the water now. I'm using red sea reef salt. I think the PH dropped is due to my water circulation + tank cover which i removed yesterday.. I'll check the PH again this weekend. Yesterday morning i saw a bristleworm wiggling about in the water and today saw those very tiny worms on the live rock. But was surprised I can't see the 4 bristle starfish anymore. There are indeed some sort of oil on the surface.. =s I saw a bristle starfish leg at the bottom of the sand no body and use touch light shine here and there can't find them.. don't wann disturb the live rock hence i presume they just hiding.. the live rock are turning brown =s

Doing water change will have some, but not dramatic impact on the tank cycling. Most of the bacteria will reside on the liverocks and sand, and perhaps some of them on the filter of the IQ5. Hence, you will not reduce the qty of bacteria significantly with just the water change. By doing the water change, you are diluting the nitrates, ammonia and organics in the water which will be helpful to control algal growth. If you see algal growth on the walls of your IQ5 or excessively on the live rock, there is too much nutrients in the tank. When introducing liverocks into a new tank, there is bound to be some organisms that will not survive the new environment and start to died off. This is the time where there will be a spike in the organics and nitrogen level in the water. The bacteria no. will build up gradually again once they are acclimitised to the environment (process and aim of cycling) and we just have to be patient. The challenge now will be to cycle the tank without excessive algal growth due to the elevated nutrient level. Phosphate is another source of nutrients for algal growth. Again, biological phosphate removal takes time, easiest way is to do water change.

I don't think that removing the tank cover will cause pH to drop significantly due to dissolution of atmospheric CO2. This will only occur if the alkalinity in the water is low. You can check the specs of the red sea salt. If you intend to add a marine buffer (e.g. API), please note that many of these buffers are not completely soluble in water. The solids will dissolve over time to form an equilibrium (balance) based on pH in the water.

I have an IQ5 for freshwater shrimp aquarium. The fine wool at the top clogs pretty fast. If you see that there are large debris trapped on this wool, remove it as the decomposing debris will not be good for the water quality.

[Aces]

Originally Posted by allim

Doing water change will have some, but not dramatic impact on the tank cycling. Most of the bacteria will reside on the liverocks and sand, and perhaps some of them on the filter of the IQ5. Hence, you will not reduce the qty of bacteria significantly with just the water change. By doing the water change, you are diluting the nitrates, ammonia and organics in the water which will be helpful to control algal growth. If you see algal growth on the walls of your IQ5 or excessively on the live rock, there is too much nutrients in the tank. When introducing liverocks into a new tank, there is bound to be some organisms that will not survive the new environment and start to died off. This is the time where there will be a spike in the organics and nitrogen level in the water. The bacteria no. will build up gradually again once they are acclimitised to the environment (process and aim of cycling) and we just have to be patient. The challenge now will be to cycle the tank without excessive algal growth due to the elevated nutrient level. Phosphate is another source of nutrients for algal growth. Again, biological phosphate removal takes time, easiest way is to do water change.

I don't think that removing the tank cover will cause pH to drop significantly due to dissolution of atmospheric CO2. This will only occur if the alkalinity in the water is low. You can check the specs of the red sea salt. If you intend to add a marine buffer (e.g. API), please note that many of these buffers are not completely soluble in water. The solids will dissolve over time to form an equilibrium (balance) based on pH in the water.

I have an IQ5 for freshwater shrimp aquarium. The fine wool at the top clogs pretty fast. If you see that there are large debris trapped on this wool, remove it as the decomposing debris will not be good for the water quality.

Thanks for ur explaination. think maybe will do a 5 or 10 percent water change this weekend. Since ur using IQ5 I have a question.. does those carbon need to be change periodically? don't know go where find such small pack of carbon.. You have any good suggestion to put in the middle comparement? since i'm not using any skimmer the middle comparement is empty.. I was thinking maybe to add some coral chips to buffer the ph..

[ethanleow]

for carbon, i only use it for the 1st week of cycling to remove any chemical or medication within the water... thereafter i threw it away, imo u dont need carbon once the tank is cycled.

mind sharing your different layer of medias? or are u using the stock media?

[Aces]

Originally Posted by ethanleow

for carbon, i only use it for the 1st week of cycling to remove any chemical or medication within the water... thereafter i threw it away, imo u dont need carbon once the tank is cycled.

mind sharing your different layer of medias? or are u using the stock media?

I'm just using the stock media =p think i'll throw the carbon away next week. Haven't decide what to change or what to put in the comparement.. I may ultilize the middle compartment since most likely wun add a skimmer as i heard small skimmer does not really work well. I'll be doing a 10 to 20 percent change of water weekly so i guess it's ok.

Do you think it's ok if I pre mixed the salt + distilled water and hold it in the mineral bottle till i need to use it?

[Aces]

Today reading ammonia 2.0ppm, nitrate 10ppm and ph goes back to 8. Sians -ammonia and nirate goes higher today seem to be things dying inside.. Hopefully by weekend will drop abit..

[ethanleow]

why sian?? anyway u use the die offs from the LR as your source of ammonia??

[Aces]

Originally Posted by ethanleow

why sian?? anyway u use the die offs from the LR as your source of ammonia??

Yeah, i thought suppose to do it this way. U using the prawn method? Honesty speaking i don't really know the best method.. The first night seem to be alot of lifes in there now i found nothing and the water did not smell of foul..

[allim]

Originally Posted by Aces

Today reading ammonia 2.0ppm, nitrate 10ppm and ph goes back to 8. Sians -ammonia and nirate goes higher today seem to be things dying inside.. Hopefully by weekend will drop abit..

Converting ammonia to nitrate (nitrification) is the easy part. Converting nitrate to nitrogen gas (denitrification) is the difficult or more time consuming part. This is because nitrifying bacteria are aerobic in nature (i.e. they need oxygen). In circulating water, aerobic conditions are not difficult to achieve, hence, nitrification is achieved quite readily, especially under tropical conditions. A common misnomer is that nitrifying bacteria requires organics to suffice. In fact, nitrifying bacteria are mainly autotrophic (they require inorganic carbon source like carbonates or CO2). It is not required to dose CO2 as carbonates are available in the water. CO2 is also produced by aerobic organisms in respiration.

Denitrifying bacteria are anoxic organisms (don't need dissolved oxygen) and require organic carbon source. They thrive in the absence of oxygen. They derive the oxygen requirements from the oxygen atoms in the nitrate ions. As such, anaerobic organisms in a well circulated aquarium will take time to build up. On live rocks and sands, bacteria will gradually form a biofilm on the surface and crevices. Initially, when the film is thin, the film consists mainly of aerobic organisms and there will be little denitrification. As the aquarium matures and the film thickens, the inner layer will gradually turn anaerobic due to poor oxygen transfer. This is the time when nitrate will be kept under control.

To expedite denitrification, deep bed of live sand can be used. The deep bed prevents effective oxygen transfer and helps to promote the growth of anaerobic organisms like the denitrifiers. However, one must be careful that a very deep live sand bed (anaerobic zone) can also produce toxins like H2S.

If you have a live sand bed, you will see tiny bubbles in the sand bed (nitrogen gas) when the denitrification cycle is established. if the sand bed turns black, it will not be a good sign as that means that complete anaerobic zones are formed. The sand bed may be too deep. When these dark zones are disturbed, they will release toxins that can kill the livestock inside the aquarium. (If you go to any sandy beach with tidal action, you will see these zones when you dig 10 to 20 cm inwards. The sand will be black and give off a pungent smell.

Just to share, it took me more than 2 months before the nitrate level drop to less than 10 ppm in my 1.5' tank. I succumbed to the mistake by many first-timers to introduce many livestocks like fish and coral at one go, at the expense of losing some nice corals and fishes.

Hope this information helps!

[Aces]

Thanks bro.. I guess i really need to be patience but my natural curiousity make me test the water everyday and get fustrated over it