Monday, May 16, 2011

Cycling and Waiting!

OK, What do I do Now?

For one thing, take a breather. I'm glad I put a tarp down on the floor because that was sort of messy. Some points to ponder now that the rock is in:

Cycling

Ok, the tank is now cycling. If you used uncured like me, this could take 2-6 weeks. If cured, you could be cycled in 1-2 weeks or less if lucky. Parameters to follow are the usual: pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate. How frequently...there are different opinions. I'm going to test daily.

Lighting

Again...some different opinions here. If you don't supply light to the coralline algae on the LR, you will have more die off. Some recommend 10-12 hours per day for cured. Some say start 2 hours per day in the beginning and increase daily, uncured. If your rock is cured, I'd start light up right away.

Water Changes

Popular posts say to avoid water changes during the cycle to prevent delaying it. Others recommend a change if you have a very high spike in ammonia. If you do do a water change, most recommend a 10% one

Specific Gravity

As the week goes on, you will have some evaporation from the tank. Remember that in a marine tank, salt does not evaporate and the s.g. will slowly rise. This is when one will 'top off' with pure water. If your s.g. needs to be gently raised, eg, you need to go from s.g. 1.023 to 1.025, you can carefully topoff with SW. If you are at the s.g. you want to maintain, you will top off with pure water.

Saltkreep

As water evaporates, it will leave crusted salt on the top of the tank. This should be wiped off with a clean moist cloth. Make sure you don't use any chemicals or a cloth that was used elsewhere.

Algae

Yes..it's coming and hopefully not overwhelming. This when to add ( and I love this term) The Cleanup Crew..to be discussed.

2 comments:

  1. you need a shark, because we can all get down with that

    ReplyDelete
  2. You know about the shark lol ^

    ReplyDelete