New 90 gallon

[ridgeburyreefer]

Set up my first saltwater tank, a 90 cornerflo! A little cloudy bc I only had one clarifier packet, but I’ve dosed it w dr tims ammonium chloride and microbacter7 started w 8.2-8.3ish pH and zero nutrient, what should I be looking for in this cycle to indicate it’s completed?
Loving my rockwork, a few holes to poke out of, but an almost hidden inner large network tunnel! Left a lot of room up top, plan on having lots of coral eventually

I wanted to do a fishless cycle bc my first fish will be two clowns, I won in a raffle at

Robert kings clownfish on FB, owner of zombieclownfish.com <<—- check it out!

 

[Dkmoo]

Do you have nh4, no2 and no3 test kits? Testing every couple of days will indicate cycling status. Should end up with 0 nh4, 0 no2, and some no3. Then put in more ammonia and see how long it takes for that to go down to 0 and 0 no2 with more no3. This will test how efficient the cycle is.

@brandon429 is our resident expert here, might have more inputs.

 

[ridgeburyreefer]

I have all of the above, excellent advice, thank you! About how long would you imagine it would take? I don’t want to miss it I guess, so if I were to miss it, nitrate would have small levels w no ammonia nitrite?

 

[rubertoe93]

Yes the cycle ends with nitrate, so if you don’t catch the ammonia it will have changed, but if you’re like me, you will test it everyday, besides gets you used to testing

 

[fg_aquariums]

Welcome! Nice tank set up. Just be patient with the cycle. Tank can take some time to cycle. Just keep testing until levels look steady. Clownfish are usually a good start fish, just make sure you add any additional fish slowly to keep the tank steady. Slow and steady win the race lol.

 

[ridgeburyreefer]

Yes the cycle ends with nitrate, so if you don’t catch the ammonia it will have changed, but if you’re like me, you will test it everyday, besides gets you used to testing

Cool beans! After the cycle, the fish, and the fun stuff- how often do you test?

 

[ridgeburyreefer]

Welcome! Nice tank set up. Just be patient with the cycle. Tank can take some time to cycle. Just keep testing until levels look steady. Clownfish are usually a good start fish, just make sure you add any additional fish slowly to keep the tank steady. Slow and steady win the race lol.

Thank you!!

 

[rubertoe93]

Cool beans! After the cycle, the fish, and the fun stuff- how often do you test?

When I cycled my tank I added a bottle of atm colony with 2 clowns, the Bactria yiu add works along side the fish, it took a week for mine to cycle,
I’m not sure on the others, but if you don’t mind and enjoy it, I would do it everyday, you don’t need to, but it’s exciting when you get your ammonia spike!

 

[Dkmoo]

Cool beans! After the cycle, the fish, and the fun stuff- how often do you test?

you test as often as you need to, and as much as your time allows, to a point where you can get comfortable that during the days you are not testing, you are still confident that you have have no ammonia and nitrite. I know that's kind of a nebulous answer - but at its core, that's what really determines your frequency. There is no "golden rule" saying how frequent you need to test b/c at the end of the day, all that we are trying to accomplish is to make sure there's no ammonia/nitrite in the system. As you go thru it on your own you'll understand what i mean.

practically what that means could be something like - (again depends on what your comfort level is and how much free time you have) - first week, you test every day, then maybe on day 7 and you see the same results you are expecting, you'd feel comfortable skipping day 8 and day 9, then on day 10 you test again that the result is still what you expect, and that makes you even more comfortable of skipping more and more. then eventually your tank matures and you are confident that it will take care of the full cycle and you understands how nutrients run through your system and what can cause sudden spikes and when to test. my tank is 4 years old now and i only test ammonia/nitrite/nitrate when i have a sudden fish/snail die and i didn't take it out fast enough and left it rot in the tank. Last time i did that was 2 years ago. (i test a lot more frequently my other parameters like alk,ca,mg, no3, po4 for corals, but not amonia or cycle related params)

For you, things that could change the cycle during the early days and cause spikes coincides when you change your bioload - such as when you start feeding, or feeding more, or when you add new live stock, or when you add new rocks/sands etc.. so maybe when these things occur, go back to to daily testing until you get comfortable that the cycle is still working and stable. Dosing extra bacteria that coincides with these changes is often a good idea.

 

[ShepherdReefer]

Looks like you have a great tank setup. Thanks for sharing

 

[ridgeburyreefer]

Thank you!!!

 

[ridgeburyreefer]

Current inhabitants:

10 hermit crabs

tank appears cycled, currently doing a water change, and finally getting the ball slowly rolling

 

[ridgeburyreefer]

we now have
10 Mexican red leg hermits
1 large thin stripe hermit
1 gold headed sleeper goby
7 green reef chromis(bought high anticipating death/murder lol)
1 smalller gsp colony

everyone is doing great, the sleeper was the first fish, he was in for 3 days and very social out of the reef, with the chromis addition it made him much more scared- now acting more like what I imagined he would. HE has a high dorsal so we know it’s a male, so neat.

the GSP wasn’t opening up right away I got nervous, turned the lights off by morning when they dimmed back on it was out a lot more and seems to be doing great.

I purchased alkaline and carbonate dosing, I need to buy a test. I’m sure with how new the tank is, how hardy gsp is I’ll be ok for a little longer.

 

[ridgeburyreefer]

Finally got the doors refinished and installed, nothing fancy but I wanted to share, the hinges are self closing. Time to start working on other parts of the whole deal

 

[Jekyl]

Keep an eye on your parameters. That's really fast for all those fish.

 

[ridgeburyreefer]

Keep an eye on your parameters. That's really fast for all those fish.

Testing twice, daily. Definitely keeping a close eye, so far so good- I promise I’m done for a bit lol

 

[ridgeburyreefer]

Current readings

pH 8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0

I documented today for the #GIVEAWAY from #Reef2Reef by #hannahinstruments

 

[ridgeburyreefer]

I’ve gone an purchased the 48” noopsyche t5 hybrid along w 3 noopsyche lights, time to get in the game LOL

will be posting a review

 

[ridgeburyreefer]

I’ve gone an purchased the 48” noopsyche t5 hybrid along w 3 noopsyche lights, time to get in the game LOL

will be posting a review

I’m loving these lights and learning how they work, I am so happy I’ve purchased them!