New Reefer!

[Jeff Jarry reef]

And another good thing is to get a ATO for nano tank so your salinity doesn't get to high. And only put rodi water for top off not salt water.

 

[Auquanut]

Sounds like you've already gotten some great advice, so I'll just say Welcome aboard! Go slow, take every setback as a challenge (and there will be setbacks), and enjoy the ride.

 

[Lysh87]

Welcome to R2R yes carbon should be submerged under water. And you at the right place for any help you need. There are alot of great people here that will help.

Thank you!!

 

[Lysh87]

Sounds like you've already gotten some great advice, so I'll just say Welcome aboard! Go slow, take every setback as a challenge (and there will be setbacks), and enjoy the ride.

Thank you That is encouraging! So many questions lol

 

[Lysh87]

Bacteria need food to grow. Some people add ammonia (see Dr Tims for more info on this) Some people add a pinch of flake food every few days or a piece of raw table shrimp. This is ghost feeding.
Nitrates will start out at 0 then climb as ammonia is processed by the bacteria. The level is not important.
Being able to process ammonia into nitrate before it harms fish is important.

Oh okay this makes sense! I have biomedia in the tank, won't that just take away the ammonia that comes from ghost feeding though?

 

[Lysh87]

Welcome! There’s lots of great information here to help you. You can search for each of your questions and find great threads with a lot of detail, cycling, ghost feeding, fish less cycling, bacteria in a bottle, etc. I agree with the comments above, testing ammonia, nitrites and nitrates will let you know where you are in the cycle. For bacteria in a bottle, I really like fritz turbo start 900. May cost a little more and has to be refrigerated, so a good one to find at the local fish store or it can be shipped with cold packs. Here’s a thread link from here on R2R with a member testing various products and a great example of some of the information you can find here to help.

Bacteria in a bottle, Myth or Fact

Call me old school, back in the day we placed a deli shrimp in a tank to kick start the cycle. When tank reached 1.5-2 ppm ammonia we pulled it out and waited sometimes weeks to months for bacteria to colonize and drop ammonia and nitrites down to 0 to make tank safe for livestock. With recent...

www.reef2reef.com

GREAT thank you!!

 

[vetteguy53081]

 

[Lysh87]

Oh cool! Thank you! I am loving this forum! Haha!

 

[Vincent Azzano]

Hi everyone I am brand new to this hobby! I have had my tank set up for a day and a half and still trying to figure some things out.

I have a Fluval Evo Sea 13.5 gallon. The carbon and sponge filter are in the middle compartment how far down is it supposed to be? Is the bag of carbon supposed to be under water?

Make sure you put the carbon bag completely under water