Saltwater confusion!

Question
Hello!
Let me start by saying that I am new to saltwater. So many opinions and advice that my head is spinning...Let me give you a run-down of my tank situation.  Hopefully you can point me in the right direction.

I started a 55 gallon (want to be reef) tank on 1/3/09.  I let the tank run with the saltwater mix and dead sand for one week.  
1/12/09 I added live sand on top of the dead sand to seed it.  This was the bagged live sand you get.  (Purchased at That Fish Place in Lancaster). Ran tank with no lights/no skimmer.   
1/16/09 Temp 80, PH 8.4, Ammonia 0.25, Nitrite 0.5, Nitrate 5.0, Spg 1.021, Alk not measurable
1/15/09 Added 50 lbs of base rock, 2 nassarius snails, 1 Margarita snail, 5 red-legged hermits, 5 blue legged hermits, 2 astrea snails.  (All but the Margarita still living)
1/25/09 Tank tests 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, low nitrate.  Tank is fully cycled at this point using only live sand.
2/25/09 Added 45 lbs LIVE rock to the tank to seed base rock.
2/28/09 Added 4 Damsels, 3 Emerald crabs.  Had TFP test my water parametes. They said looks like half-way through another cycle.
Temp 77, pH 8.2, ammonia 0.25, Nitrite 0.1, Nitrate 20, spg 1.022, Alk still undectable.
3/6/09- Tank is now about 2 months old.  I have 2 Damsels left.  
temp 77, pH 8.2, ammonis 0.25, Nitrite .01, Nitrate 30, spg 1.023, Alk still undetectable.  

So what am I missing?  Is my tank REcycling?  My nitrates are very high (still have ammonia and nitrite readings) and my alk is still undetectable using 2 different test kits for comparison.

Do I just let the tank do its thing?  Or what?  I've done 4 partial water changes in the past 4 weeks.  I have never had an algae bloom, but the LR did come with bubble algae (which I added the Emerald crabs for) They are not interested....

Any advise you can give me will be greatly appreciated!
Thank you!
3/1/09

Answer
Hey Beth,  (3/6/09)

(not sure why the delay in getting the message), sorry about it though!!!

I think a lot of folks believe like you do and having fish stores not be as informative as they should be doesnt help.

A cycle is like a pendulum.  IT goes back and forth, up and down... What is IT?  It is the biological organisms that are needed to digest/process the waste/nutrients into nitrate.

You can and probably did, take tests, (a picture as it were) at the time the pendulum was straight up and down, (At a good moment in time when the parameters might be reading OK)

Test kits and parameters cant and dont tell you or anyone that a tank is cycled...

Also, I'm not sure where or why you and others think you need to add rock slowly or over time when starting up a tank.  You can add all the sand and all the rock right at the beginning, then add water, turn on the circulation, and heater, SOME lights, and sit back and wait, (well okay, sit back and READ)

It takes quite a while to have a tank fully cycled.  The process may involve adding only one or two fish then waiting for the pendulum to start and stop swinging again.

Everytime you add fish or substract fish, or add rock or subtract rock, you are forcing the biological organisms to grow or shrink in population, which is known/called a mini cycle.

(if you disturb the sand bed, you stir up nutrients which will cause an explosion in growth, only for that nutrient to be temporary, then the new organisms will starve when that stirred up poop gets eaten, then they will decompose adding more waste nutrients which will force another smaller explosion, etc.. and on and on, as the pendulum finds a balance)


My suggestion is to WAIT.  Let the tank age and mature on it's own.  during which time, start up a maintenance plan.  What to do daily, what to do weekly and what to do monthly...

Start reading about each fish you want to add, to see if it is a friendly fish, or a bully, or will it even eat other tank mates.



I would test for nitrites, and if you have ANY, then i would test for those daily. (along with ammonia)

When the nitrites are gone, then i would test for nitrates and ammonia, till there is no more ammonia left.

Then i would test weekly, until the tank is stable, and then test bi-monthly..

As for the bubble algae, you need to remove them by hand, (outside of the tank water if possible, but if you can not remove the rock, just roll/pry the bubbles off.  Dont count on things like that crab to do the work, unless you want to say the tank is maintained by crabs!!???

Also, the temperature swing is kind of large.  You want to keep the temperature about the same if possible, with the least amount of swing/drop or increase.

SG is also kind of low.  It should be up around 1.026


Can you please let us know what type of filter you are using, or do you have a sump? (and if you have a sump, do you use a filter sock?)


good luck and keep up the work, it will pay off soon.


Mr. Bill