Please remind me....

[starrfish]

that it always looks worse before it gets better! I am in week 3 of my cycle in the 350g and it is U-G-L-Y! I've never seen such a diatom outbreak! Everything is covered in brown algae - the rocks, the glass, even the few hermit shells that I have in there! It is nasty. The ammonia is still at .25. I'm hoping it will end soon...please give me patience....and ultimately a beautiful tank!

 

[~Flighty~]

Could you put some macro in there to help cut down on the micro alge?

 

[Lourdes]

stay patient Daire , it's just part of the routine of things in this hobby..

 

[Aquadiva]

We want pics!!!

It probably isn't any where near as bad as you think. After all, it's your tank. Besides, if it is that bad, just think of the great before and after shots you'll have. Hang in there, It'll be over before you know it. !!!

 

[_Eric_]

Be patient..It will be worth the wait. How about some pictures of the tank.

 

[JustDavidP]

We want pics... of the tank... heck.. of you in the tank

Hang in there kiddo... it gets better. If you saw my seahorse tank a few weeks ago, you'd swear a swamp rat wouldn't live in it. It's now cycled and sparkling. Hang in there....

 

[dedfish]

I really don't think it's going to get any better. As a matter of fact I think it's going to get much worse. You might as well just throw in the towel give it all to me. I think that is the only solution to the problem.

 

[jackie]

Yeah, we want pics It'll be gone before you know it. Look at it this way, it looks bad because you have such a big tank and you have more of it to look at You can always tape a picture on it of what it WILL look like soon

 

[starrfish]

LOL - I'm too embaressed to post pics! It really is ugly. It's been a long time - I forgot how horrible this part of the process is! I'll post pics as soon as it's sparkling clean. I don't have my fuge hooked up yet (it's going to be my current 75 once I get all of the fish in the big tank) so I don't have any macro to put in there. Patience, patience, patience...urgh!

 

[jackie]

3 weeks isn't bad though I'll bet you're almost done, another week or 2. How are you cycling the tank?

 

[starrfish]

Actually, I just tested the ammonia again - I hate these test kits - can't tell the color difference. But I did a test in my current tank - which I know doesn't have any ammonia - and I compared the vials side by side. I think the cycle is done! I tested for nitrites and they were 0 too! Yipeeeee. Now I can add a clean up crew to get rid of some of this cyano! Boy, am I going to need a HUGE clean up crew!

Jackie - I used all dry rock so I had to "fudge" the cycle. I used Fritz-Zyme. Then about a week into it I threw a bunch of huge scallops in there. Left those in for about 5 days - they were rancid when they came out. That was this past Saturday.

I'm so excited!!!

 

[_Eric_]

I'm too embaressed to post pics!

Dont be.

Think of this as a progress shot to show off in a year or too.

 

[chuck]

And I was so excited when I got ditomes LOL

 

[jackie]

That's awesome Daire, it's pretty exciting when you get to starting adding stuff!

Tell me about test kits and cycling my first tank....when I set up my first tank I kept getting the same ammonia readings after 6 weeks (after 3 weeks all other params were 0). I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. So I took some of my tank water to an LFS in So. NH (not a sponsor and not Inland Reef) to ask him if he could test it for me and he refused. I was so crushed, I couldn't believe he wasn't going to help me out. And I had just spent over $600 in his store besides. He gave me a sermon about hobby test kits, and how you don't get true readings from them.....anyway bought another test kit online and my water checked out fine. I'll tell ya, it was a real long time before I went back into that store....

 

[this is me]

I think the first 6 months of this hobby is the most exciting. You keep adding new stuff and you're too busy doing other stuffs, you forget to realize how beautiful it actually is.
After the first initial 6 months of adding, you pretty much sit back and watch everything in your tank grows. Then the word "UPGRADE" is constantly on your mind and thats when you know you're in deep sh**.

 

[Greg Hiller]

>I used all dry rock so I had to "fudge" the cycle. I used Fritz-Zyme. Then about a week into it I threw a bunch of huge scallops in there. Left those in for about 5 days - they were rancid when they came out. That was this past Saturday.<

Just my opinion, but you really need not have added the scallops, or the enzymes. You just added a lot of nutrients. A cup or two of sand and a few rocks from another established tank would be all that you need. There are likely enough bacterial cultures on the dry rock that I'm not even sure any additions are really necessary. Assuming you rinsed the rock a bit, I don't believe there are really very many nutrients bound up in the dry rock that Marc has (I have ~100 lbs in my monster tank). I guess we will see in the coming weeks as I fire up my system whether I'm full of you know what.

If I were you I'd get a bunch of hermits and snails in the tank ASAP before things spiral out of control. A problem in a tank the size of yours becomes a BIG problem quickly.

 

[starrfish]

>I used all dry rock so I had to "fudge" the cycle. I used Fritz-Zyme. Then about a week into it I threw a bunch of huge scallops in there. Left those in for about 5 days - they were rancid when they came out. That was this past Saturday.<

Just my opinion, but you really need not have added the scallops, or the enzymes. You just added a lot of nutrients. A cup or two of sand and a few rocks from another established tank would be all that you need. There are likely enough bacterial cultures on the dry rock that I'm not even sure any additions are really necessary. Assuming you rinsed the rock a bit, I don't believe there are really very many nutrients bound up in the dry rock that Marc has (I have ~100 lbs in my monster tank). I guess we will see in the coming weeks as I fire up my system whether I'm full of you know what.

If I were you I'd get a bunch of hermits and snails in the tank ASAP before things spiral out of control. A problem in a tank the size of yours becomes a BIG problem quickly.

Oh well, live and learn...too late now. I just got a HUGE shipment of hermits and snails today. I hope they start to do their job quickly.

 

[Yaktop]

just jump in with a snorkle and a razor blade. You'll be fine. a tank that large maybe you can invite a few people as a clean up crew

 

[Greg Hiller]

The hermits and snails should fix you up in no time.

 

[starrfish]

I'm happy to say they've already made a HUGE difference - just since yesterday they've cleaned up the sand enough where I can actually see white again! I wish I had a clean up crew for my house.