clean up crew vs toxic water

[dixonstanley50]

Hi everyone! just wondering what i should do. My tank is in the middle of cycling, amonia is basically zero but trites and trates are both off the charts, im worries about my clean up crew hermits and turbo snails. they have all been good but all appear slow now. How is their tollerance to toxic water, what should i do? thanks

 

[Ulta]

You should('ve) waited till your tank was done cycling to add CUC.

They may not make it.

 

[dixonstanley50]

should i mix up some fresh water and put them in a bucket or another tank or something? im still doing water changes every other day (30%) but it isnt really affecting the nitrite level.

 

[14 gallon nanocube]

should i mix up some fresh water and put them in a bucket or another tank or something? im still doing water changes every other day (30%) but it isnt really affecting the nitrite level.

by doing water changes you are slowing down the cycle.slow down be patient.:frustrat:

 

[little_fish]

But yes, i would mix up some new water, let it sit for 24 hours and keep them in there.

+1 to 14 gallon nanocube

 

[Aquatic]

What type of water are you using?

 

[dixonstanley50]

its just tap water but we live in a small town in canada and my friend who works for the town assures me it is strictly well water with no additives so i think it is ok. I did tests on it and the only thing it had was very low nitrates

 

[little_fish]

But if your adding nitrates to the nitrates that are going to be produced by the waste in your system, which is going to cause algae growth.

Plus if you have copper pipes, copper is going to leach into the water and make it impossible for you to keep inverts. Copper in tiny tiny tiny amount is lethal

 

[dcantucson]

You're probably adding a lot of phosphates too. Bad for everything.

 

[dixonstanley50]

hmm well thanks for the tips we are going to vancouver this weekend to get some liverock so maybe ill do a water change with RO grocery store water before we go? i have enough jugs to do a 50% I also have some Kent Marine phosphate sponge, should i try that also, or just the water change, or nothing at all?

 

[little_fish]

I would switch over to RODI with your top offs and water changes. but I wouldn't change more that 40% at one time. Doing more than that can cause a mini cycle. Over time all the tap will be replaced with the RODI water. I just wouldn't add anything sensitive until most of that is cleared out

 

[phastroh]

I have a ton of Hermits and Snail and Cucs and Starfish and a Goby and Crabs and stuff and my Ammonia is about .25 and my Nites and Nates are high and they are fine.

I have clean water from an RO/DI system I have but still they are having fun and have cleaned up my rock a lot.

I have only done 2, 22 gallon water changes in 3 weeks on my 80 + sump tank.

I got my rock local so there was no real spike. I can't get my Nates down but my Nites are slowly dropping for sure so they will most likely follow.

Next time I will just leave it. I mean why even check it for 2 weeks it is pointless if you only have rock cycling. I mean dry rock. That is what I heard from a few local nice places. They don't even touch it for weeks in the beginning. They say it is a waste of time you have to be patient.

Easy to say when it isn't your first tank I guess.

 

[sen5241b]

Nitrites are deadly.

 

[phastroh]

I guess my stuff likes them cuz it has been high and nothing has dies for two weeks. I can't explain.

 

[little_fish]

I think you're tests kits are bad or you aren't reading them correctly (easy to do) because those nitrates are lethal

 

[dixonstanley50]

well thanks for all the advice! a quick update, we left for Vancouver for the weekend with trites and trates off the charts and the tank brown with algae. and much to my surprise when we got back with the liverock the tank was crystal clear, nitrites zero nitrates only 5 and ammonia zero!!!! The ammonia might be up to 0.1 this morning but hard to tell. We had been putting Stability by seachem in all week so maybe it finally caught up!!!
Regardless, i am very excited to get some residents and start thinking about an aquascape design.

 

[phastroh]

I just took all new tests this morning.

Ammonia .125
Nitrate 45
Nitrite 20
PH 8.2
Alk Perfect
Calcium 400
Phostphate 0
Salinity .022
Temp 76

This is 3 weeks and 3 days since I put my first sand and rock in the tank.

It is full of tons of animals.

If the test kit is bad I wouldn't know but as far as testing and reading it is not hard so I seriously doubt I am reading it wrong.

I follow the directions for each one then compare the colors to my charts.

I do not know why my Nitrates are so high but the color of the water is really red at the end but just a hair under the 50 mark but the 20 mark is pink and it is not close to that.