cycling a new reef aquarium

Join Matthew from My First Fish Tank to discuss the process of cycling your saltwater aquarium. At Marine Depot we have all the tools you need to get your aquarium cycled and ready for a wide variety of livestock. Check out our YouTube Channel and please like, comment, and subscribe to learn...

I'm very new to reefing, this is my first ever salt water tank... It has been up and running for around 4 weeks now and has been dosed with microbacter quikcycle and a few doses of microbacter start xlm... My ammonia and nitrite levels have been a bit all over the place but have been holding...

Hello all, im new to reef tanks so please bear with me. Ive made the change from Discus to reef and need as much help in laymans terms until i get my head round anything. So ive a 60litre tank in my apartment. Biggest im allowed for now . Ai prime hd 16 light with live rock and sand. Set up...

So I am cycling my new tank and I have some nitrites, no ammonia and a lot of nitrates. but I need help on what to do next to make sure it is actually cycled or not. I am listing my levels for the past 10 days: I am using the Red Sea marine test kit for reference to numbers/colors. Day2 May 21...

Hello everyone! I recently bought a 4 feet (100g) tank but we're having problems with our cycle. You can see my pics below! To give context, here is our detailed timeline for your understanding. In blue are the key events that I did. 1. Day 1 - our DT came but there was a scratch on the...

I am pretty new to saltwater tanks and I seek your advice. About a week and a half ago I started the cycling proces for my newly set up tank by dosing a bottle of Dr Tims the One and Only Nitrifying bacteria. I followed all the steps and I am a bit worried about the results. Day 1: I added the...

Hello everyone! I've been cycling my 20 long for about a week now, I know I still have a long ways to go. I'm doing a fishless cycle and I threw in a cocktail shrimp about 2days in and I'm wondering if I should remove it? I have about 5lbs of live rock in there and I'm just letting it do its...

Hello! I will summarize at the end and provide photos if you don't want to read my initial tank journey from start to now, but here we go! I included the journey only because maybe there was a misstep I took that can explain things. Look for the colored markers if you want quick notes, and...

Hi All, Have just started my Waterbox 70.2 Reef yesterday using the ATM Colony route. Wanted to get an example of how peoples parameters read daily for the first week through using this route as i have not seen this anywhere online and want to get a view of how this approach has worked for...

Hello Reefers. I don't know if this had been made here before but I want to built a innovative marine 10 gallons tank with all idea and help from you guys. it a long shot but it could work. please help me from pick a rock, sand, light and other stuff that I don't have. as of now I only have...

Hi there! I’m new to the saltwater hobby and I’ve recently ordered a fluval evo 13.5 gallon aquarium. While researching, I’ve had some questions about cycling the aquarium that I’ve been unable to find answers to or that I’ve found answers to and want to clarify and confirm. My first question is...

This is my new biocube 32 I started a couple weeks ago, 25lb of live sand and 1 6lb live rock along wit some dry rock and two clowns, waiting on it to mature more before I do anything eles to it, fish are eating great and seem very happy, if you have one of these tanks what do you run your...

So it’s my first time cycling a tank and the first few days my salinity was at .025ppm but then on the fourth day it went down to .022ppm I read about salinity going up but not going down. I checked again today and it’s back up to .026ppm. So my question is if it’s normal for salinity to change...

Hey Guys, I’ve been cycling my tank for about 2-3 weeks now and I did my first water test without the help of my LFS today. My results were: Salinity: 1.024 Temp: 25 Degrees Celsius dKH: 7 dKH pH: 8.6 Ammonia: 0 - 0.1 Nitrite: About 0.5 Nitrate: Between 10 & 20 What are your thoughts on where...

I read all the articles on here and elsewhere about fishless cycling and I'd done it with ammonia before on freshwater tanks. I still had a lot of questions and there were things not explained elsewhere that led my cycle to stall and take a lot longer than it could've. I figured I would share...

Hello there, Im new in the hobby, I just started my reef tank, 20 gallons, I started my cycling period about 25 days ago using Brightwell Micro Bacter Dry Rock Starter Kit, I made the cycle, brought down Ammonia and Nitrite to zero and my Nitrates where reading at 80PPM, the instructions on the...

Hey everyone, I am new to the hobby and cycling my first tank. I have a 32.5g Fluval Flex. I started the cycle on 3/21. I used Dr Tims One & Only at the start. Inside the tank I've got the Caribsea Arag-Alive sand and Carib Sea Shapes rock. Currently, my readings are: Ammonia: 1 PPM Nitrite...

I have been cycling a 10g with fish food for 32 days and nitrites and nitrates are still very high, any tips? water change?

I bought a torch coral few days back and it's gonna arrive on friday. I was expecting my tank to be cycled soon but it doesn't seem the case anymore. I have Zoas and GSP in tank. Do you think my Torch has any chances of survival in this env? I do have bacteria to seed the tank which I've already...

Its Been 40 days since starting cycling my new tank. I added 4 mollies by slowly converting them to saltwater environment. Its in the tank for the past 5 days they are doing good and taking marine pellets. My question is when shall i add marine fishes and when should i turn on the protein...

Hey fellow reefers, I've very new to aquarium hobby and I have a (maybe stupid) cycling question. I've had my tank cycling for past 3.5 weeks and now my Nitrites(NO2) are extremely high(full purple) for past 1 week. I have very minimal to low algae growth. Equipment used. - Dry rocks and Dry...

Is there a difference in the shrimp VS damsel methods when it comes to cycling a tank. Some people put a bit of shrimp in for 3 days to get the ammonia started and some put 1-2 damselfish to get the cycle started. What’s the best method? Is one faster than the other? What have you had a good...

I need whatever tips tricks and knowledge people can give me. This is my 2nd try the first time ended miserably all my fault with many mistakes. Now im starting fresh in a new house trying to get a tank set up for a Mantis shrimp and maaaaaybe two clowns. If all goes well in this tanks first...

I just got into saltwater fish. I have take. Care of freshwater for a while and I wanted to try saltwater. I got a 75 gallon with a c360 mairinland canister filter. I have a hand on the back protine skimmer. 2 wave makers from amazon. I have had 2 clowns for 2 weeks then I went and got a fire...

Hi, I am new to the hobby and have just begun cyclying my first reef tank. I have placed 5kg of live rock in my 24L (6g) tank and with 3-4 days it began to small bad. Since then i have done a 40% waterchange, and it only seems to be getting worse, there has been a plethora of worms (majority...