Protein skimmer when cycling the Tank?

Hi all, found this forum very helpful, and am reading a lot as I have just started a tank a week ago...

I got a 30 gallon tank with 10 lbs of LR (for now) and started to cycle the tank last week. I have a canister filter, a fluidized bed filter and a protein skimmer running at the moment, and my conditions are as follow

Temp: 77 C
specific gravity: 1.021
pH: 8.2

I have be testing my water daily and I found something funny as my ammonia increase these past 6 days to like 0.035 ppm it has dropped to about 0 today. Same thing to my Nitrite level, it was around 0.2-0.5 ppm, and now it's been dropped to around 0.1?

Do you guys think the Protein Skimmer has anything to do with it? As I know that the main purpose for it, is to remove detritis stuff in the water, and I am thinking my bateria is not getting enough "waste" to work on and grow... is that possible? should I remove the protein skimmer for now? TIA!!! [smiley=2thumbsup.gif]

 

Did you get your lr from a lfs? Did you use live sand? If the rock was already cured you may have seen the spike come and go this DOESN'T mean go nuts and start filling the tank it just means the die off is done or close to being done and the bacteria you need to handle the bioload of the tank is growing. I would leave the skimmer going but it is a preference thing if the rock has been cured.

 

heh, what is lfs?

I got them Fuji live rock from a local pet store that I have been observing for awhile and they're pretty trustworthy. the rocks are 100% cured. And no, I used aragonite substrate because I think the fluidized bed filter should be just as good as if not equivalent to the function of the live sand.

So there should be an ammonia peak sometime down the road soon, right? And then it'll zero out, and then a nitrite peak?

I'm somewhat confused with my reading since I got some nitrite reading and today it's has dropped to a very miniscuous level...

 

lfs=local fish store or local pet store.
If the rock was 100% cured what you saw may have been all the spike you will get for now. The fluidized bed filter is great but didn't add bacteria it will grow as tank matures. What are your nitrates doing? remember the cycle goes ammonia nitrites then nitrates

 

100% Cured LR may not experience much of a cycle. If the LFS was close to your home and the rock was damp all the time. I would put a piece of shrimp or squid in the tank let it be in there for a couple of days and then do your readings.
The shrimp will act as an artificial bio-load and promote the growth of the beneficial bacteria. That is the point of a cycle is to populate the LR with these organisms.

J

 

Cool, I'll go ahead and order a cleaner shrimp. I did not put any bioload in there (as the LFS told me to add some damsel), but anyway, thanks for the help guys!

 

DC5
\The shrimp dat we say is da one u buy in publix. its allready dead. a coctail shrimp is just fine. This shrimp take da place for the exrection of the livestock wich creat amonia and stuff that are essencila in cycling.

And welcome to three reef. i recomend u read those three steps to an aquarium on the tabs above, they have been very beneficial.Keep us posted

 

I would not put any live stock in your tank (like lfs suggested damsels) if you don't intend on keeping them there Removing unwanted fish can be difficult and stressfull on the fish, yourself and other occupants of the tank. I understand the misunderstanding of the live vs dead shrimp but why a cleaner shrimp as your first purchase? there is nothing or nobody to clean? You may want to slow down do some reading, ask more questions and plan your tank out so you make less mistakes and save big $$$. Plus no unwanted deaths due to poor stocking procedures.
Good luck and happy reefing!

 

defenitely no unwanted deaths buddy

 

Hey thanks for all the help guys! As you guys suggested, I did not purchase any live stock yet.

But like I said, if anyone can explain what's going on with the drop off with my ammonia and nitrite reading... Phil, my nitrate is at 3 ppm.

I understand the Nitrogen cycle and all, actually I have read a couple books before I started. So how much of an ammonia spike would you see before the nitrite to nitrate bacteria starts working? A ballpark in ppm?? someone?