CYCLING RED SEA TANK USING RED SEA MATURE STARTER KIT

[gabrielquissak32]

Hi lads I’m new to the hobby. Day 10 of cycling my fishless ( at the moment) tank (88g) using the Red Sea starter kit readings should be as following
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10

My readings are
Ammonia Had a spike couple days ago was at 2. Yesterday was 1.2 and today again Ammonia 1.2
Nitrite 0.2ppm
Nitrate 0ppm
1- Is that to be expected?
Also added first part of CUC today. Local pet store didn’t have much so added 3 strombus snails. Have also ordered online 5 trochus, 3 turbo and 2 nassarius.
2- Is that a good amount or would y’all change anything?
Have also noticed some orange stuff blooming on the sand snails look like they’re eating 3- it is that Algea?
Also ( last question if you made this far what a legend! ) on day 14 they recommend adding 1 fish/25g and I had organised with a guy to get a pair of clownfish. With my parameters should I wait a bit more or should my ammonia have gone down by them and I’ve read clownfish are very hardy so would they be alright?
Thanks for reading it
Cheers reefers

 

[gabrielquissak32]

.

 

[Reef Psychology]

I’ll try to answer your q’s. I used their method years back and wasn’t really impressed, but it did work.

1. Yes. Looks like you cycled fine. Just keep testing every few days until a month has passed to make sure you don’t get a new spike. At the month point you should see a decrease in nitrates to near 0. At this point it becomes dangerous because if you stay at 0 nitrates and 0 phosphate you might see a cyano/diatom bloom. You should also keep a bottle of Prime just in case there is a sudden ammonia spike.

Cleanup crews are only needed when there is something they can eat. Else they die. The best snail for new tanks are astrea snails. Don’t add any more until you need them.

What light you using? If I remember correctly they recommend lights right from the start.

2. That’s probably diatoms. They’re eating it because it’s there, not necessarily because they like it or get any nutrients from it. Astrea like it though. It should burn off within a few days if there isn’t anything feed it (poor water).

3. Two clowns should be fine. Ammonia needs to be at 0 from now on. Don't feed them the first day and feed them as much as they can eat in a minute. They’ll always look hungry btw. Don’t give into their sad pleading eyes for the first month! Your tanks ecosystem is very delicate for the first few months. If you want to be safe get a bottle of Stability and follow the instructions. If you start to see your water getting foggy then your bacteria is not fully stable enough and you need to slow down and need to get more air into the water with more surface agitation (air stone, skimmer or point a power head at the surface of the water). And be warned, clowns will get more aggressive as the months go on. They will even attack your hand if you get near there territory. Maroon and Clarkii are very aggressive while ocillaris are pretty calm. But most fish can and will kill other fish no matter what labels say. So research very carefully.

Hope that helps.

 

[eliaslikesfish]

I’ll try to answer your q’s. I used their method years back and wasn’t really impressed, but it did work.

1. Yes. Looks like you cycled fine. Just keep testing every few days until a month has passed to make sure you don’t get a new spike. At the month point you should see a decrease in nitrates to near 0. At this point it becomes dangerous because if you stay at 0 nitrates and 0 phosphate you might see a cyano/diatom bloom. You should also keep a bottle of Prime just in case there is a sudden ammonia spike.

Cleanup crews are only needed when there is something they can eat. Else they die. The best snail for new tanks are astrea snails. Don’t add any more until you need them.

What light you using? If I remember correctly they recommend lights right from the start.

2. That’s probably diatoms. They’re eating it because it’s there, not necessarily because they like it or get any nutrients from it. Astrea like it though. It should burn off within a few days if there isn’t anything feed it (poor water).

3. Two clowns should be fine. Ammonia needs to be at 0 from now on. Don't feed them the first day and feed them as much as they can eat in a minute. They’ll always look hungry btw. Don’t give into their sad pleading eyes for the first month! Your tanks ecosystem is very delicate for the first few months. If you want to be safe get a bottle of Stability and follow the instructions. If you start to see your water getting foggy then your bacteria is not fully stable enough and you need to slow down and need to get more air into the water with more surface agitation (air stone, skimmer or point a power heat at the surface of the water). And be warned, clowns will get more aggressive as the months go on. They will even attack your hand if you get near there territory. Maroon and Clarkii are very aggressive while ocillaris are pretty calm. But most fish can and will kill other fish no matter what labels say. So research very carefully.

Hope that helps.

This^

i’ll emphasize on not needing a CUC yet, once you add your first fish after the one month mark I’d wait another couple weeks then add, they’ll starve otherwise

 

[taricha]

My readings are
Ammonia Had a spike couple days ago was at 2. Yesterday was 1.2 and today again Ammonia 1.2
Nitrite 0.2ppm
Nitrate 0ppm
1- Is that to be expected?

This is consistent with the phase where bacteria have become active and started moving measureable amounts of ammonia->nitrite and things will go faster from here, but the nitrifiers aren't ready yet.

Others have also said that their results lagged well behind the schedule that Red Sea suggested. Which is ok. There's no hurry - and not being on their printed schedule doesn't mean anything's wrong. It's just slower.