Cycling A Marine Tank

[Bur01014]

Another q- sorry for so many posts

Ammonia- reading close to one and nitrite now up from 0 to .25....should i remove the 3 shrimp? Or keep them in for days at a time? The krill is just tiny so no way really to gather that up.....one of those cubes that have small little bits....remove shrimp or keep it in? Verdict....

[totalfishservices]

i was told to put 2 damsels in to help cycle my tank but its not working 1 month in and my readings are all over the place should i take the fish out......

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

IMO, you should never use fish to cycle a marine tank, it is simply not necessary. If you have sufficient live rock in your system, there will be a certain amount of die-off and that alone will create the ammonia needed to cycle the tank.

How do you have the tank setup and what have you been doing with it?

[totalfishservices]

ive got a 140 ltr tank with a 1000lhr exturnal filter with bio balls and ceramic medium and carbon in it,2 x 3000 lhr power heads 1x 250lhr protine skimmer,5kg of live rock, 5kg ocean rock, coral sand and finally a 25w marine t8 light... can you help .... fist 2 weeks nothing happened .. turned on skimmer on week 3 .. amonia started to rize but then everything went strange all values of no2,no3,amonia randomly changing between 0-1.25.... thanks....

[totalfishservices]

any advice you can give me would be great........

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

2 things jump out to me right away. First, you will want to remove the bioballs. While they are helpful in freshwater tanks, they can cause problems in SW tanks. The carbon is also not necessary at this time. Second thing I see is that you don't have nearly enough live rock.

Finally, what kind of test kit are you using? Almost sounds like test strips.

[totalfishservices]

no im using an API saltwater master test kit...

[totalfishservices]

as we spaek ive just removed my bio balls and carbon from my filter.......should i remove the fish i have in there. the guy next door has a 8ft marine that will take then on for me.....

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

It probably wouldn't be a bad idea, and then if you can afford it, I'd add another 10kg of live rock.

[totalfishservices]

thanks for the advice hopfuly it will all come together.. any other avice for me while im doing every thing else wrong....lol.....