Cycling my 26 Bow

Just thought I would chime in also. Packleader and I tend agree on things and his posts are no exception to the rule. But I will add a few things just because.

I don't think you need to run carbon at this point. Your tank needs those impurities to condition IMO. That is something I steered clear of during the cycling process. I don't think the carbon had anything to do with the behavior of the B/W, but I can tell you IME the B/W damsels will die first. I have lost many.

Oh yes, to all points, especially the Petco thing. Find yourself a good LFS that has healthy stock and staff that know what they are talking about. Seriously.

Personally, I would let the fish do their thing in the tank. If one of them dies, do not replace it. I would only cycle a tank with one damsel anyway. The Yellow-Tail is probably the toughest damsel I have ever seen.

I have not checked the thread yet, but three weeks into it you probably have a diatom breakout. This is normal. Just let it go. Don't clean it up. The cleanup crew you eventually put in there will do that job for you but quick.

So have fun and be patient. And do your research as to what you want to put in there. That goes for corals, fish and inverts. You will run into many incompatabilities. Some are absolute and others you can get away with. If you have questions, just ask. Not only is there much information in past threads, but there is a lot of brain power here also.

Enjoy!!!!

 

I have not checked the thread yet, but three weeks into it you probably have a diatom breakout. This is normal. Just let it go. Don't clean it up. The cleanup crew you eventually put in there will do that job for you but quick.

someone said on the other thread to increase the flow, i have the prizm protein skimmer, the return from the canister(eheim 2026) and the hydor #1 power head running, should i add something else? i also have a maxijet 1200 i can add? is too much flow bad? its only a 26 gal.

 

Too much flow can be bad. Not knowing the specific numbers on a lot of your equipment its tough to say, but I would think your probably doing fairly well on flow.
The way to check is by adding up the gallon-per-hour (gph) rates on all your equipment. For a reef tank, this should be somewhere in the area of about 40x the total capacity of your tank. This is called a turnover rate. So, for a 26 gallon tank, aim for about 1040 gph total.
If your not up to that much flow, it wouldnt hurt to add more. But I dont think that at this stage it would make much of a difference with your diatoms. They are going to happen as the tank matures, thats just the way it is.

 

ok thanks, i think im at about 250 EHEIM+400HYDOR#1+ red sea prizm maybe 200?

850 GPH i think

if i add the maxijet1200 295gph 1145gph maybe too much

 

Might be a little much, but no where near overboard. You could also add a Koralia Nano instead of the maxjet. The Koralia's will give you a much better flow pattern anyways.

 

Added the maxi jet, because my budget is going over board, i will buy the koralia when i get a chance, everything is getting covered in the diatom stuff, i was seeing some spots of coraline algea. Now with the diatom bloom can hardly see it. After the diatom bloom will it come back? When i turned on the maxijet it blew crap everywhere. In the morning it cleared up though. Fish seem to be doing fine with the extra flow, they are playing in it from time to time

 

I mis calculated how long my tank has been set up, its only been 2 weeks since sept 11th. In my mind it had been longer, is it normal to see the diatom bloom so early? When can i add snails or hermit crabs to clean the diatom bloom? what do the water parameters have to be? Can they tolerate amonia? Also i shouldnt be cleaning any of the filter media during this cycling time right?

Both of the damsels look healthy/energetic and are eating well, i thought the B/W one was going to kick the buket but its his normal behavior.
Also should i be switching up food on them or should i just keep feeding them the marine flakes?( what petco said to feed them, thats what they give them).

 

Green Algea

Ok so now it went from a diatom bloom, which goes away over night and then comes back through out the day, i think its because of the lights?
To, now i have green algea growing. Is this normal when cycling? Will the damsels be effected by this? should i do any water changes?

Also i am begining to think that the prizm skimmer is a big piece of crap like everyone else had been saying. Whats the best one that i can get that hangs on the back for a 26g tank? i looked at bakpak or remora?

 

cpr bakpak's are ok i guess, but they take extensive mods to get working right. I have heard good things about the remora's. I have an octopus HOB that is great, I would always recommend an octopus to someone.

 

well i got it producing some bubbles on saturday and now my diatom bloom seems to have gone away, does that have to do with the water been cleaner from the skimmer? but now i have some green algea on the sand instead, ill take some pics and post them later. I cant believe how much the water gets clearer when the skimmer is working the right way.