Cloudy Water

[Mek0ng]

You have a skimmer right? It is probably a bacterial bloom, and a good skimmer should make short work of the bloom.

[MeggyPuff25]

Well today I bought about 3 - 4lbs of Tuffa Base Rock, love this stuff And I added it into my 10g with the 3lbs of LR and wow my water has cleared up alot!! I can now actually see right threw it to the other side I will do another water test today and see where my cycle stands. Anyone here use the tuffa base rock before? I have some in my 45g FOWLR and its really nice and the price isn't to bad, I get a bit of the tuffa then add a bit of LR to seed the tuffa.

[MeggyPuff25]

Ok so I just did my water test for today and these are the results:

Ammonia 4.0
Nitrates 20
Nitrites 5.0
Ph 8.0
Sg 1.023

Temp 80

I did add 3lbs of Tuffa Base Rock, I boiled it for about 30 min then let it cool before I added it. Is my tank at the peek of the cycle and will the ammonia and nitrites start to come down and get to 0?

[Mek0ng]

the tank wont be fully cycled until you stop adding rock.

[MeggyPuff25]

Even if its not LR that I added? And I did boil it to clean it even though its dry and what not. I dont mind waiting because money wise I have to add rock slowly, Next weekend Im going to be getting a bit more cured LR to add, will that affect my cycling?

[Mek0ng]

Ohhh okay, didnt know exactly what tuffa is, here they sell it as 'lace rock' That shouldnt add to a cycle.

Any live rock you add, even if cured has a chance to cause an ammonia spike, its a gamble.

I understand where you are coming from on this one. When I first started salt water I didnt have enough to buy all the rock at once. I found a craigslist tank break down, bought about 50lbs. After that I could only budget my self to monthly additions to finally fill out the rest of the rock. After the initial cycle, each batch caused a minor increase in ammonia for a few days. In the end the wait was worth it.

[Nick]

Tufa is a rock primarily composed of carbonates, while also having MANY pores. It is a great addition to any high carbonate environment; originally and to this day, it is popular as a buffering agent as well as a way to encourage rift lake cichlids build caves, but because it is similar to the coral skeletons of the reefs in many ways, it's a great "base rock" which will quickly turn to real live rock if exposed to good quality rock from an established tank.

[MeggyPuff25]

I really like using the tuffa base rock, it's a good price and some pieces are light so I can get more

I did my water test today, should I do a water everyday during the cycle to see where its standing or every few days?
These are the results:
Ammonia 3.0
Nitrates 20
Nitrites 5.0

No real big change from yesterdays test though but thats ok.

[Mek0ng]

no changes until cycle is done, it will just prolong the cycle.

[CarmenH]

FWIW, the red-legged hermits I started out with were all jerks...they seemed to love picking all the coraline algae off my LR; took a few nice pieces from purple to white within a few days. I started buying blue legged hermits instead (I bought all the crabs in several increments for budget reasons) and they have been much less destructive. Scrappy with each other, but less destructive. They are also more fun...when I feed, they all come running as fast as possible, unlike the red-legged ones that would just keep on eating my coraline
The red legged ones get tossed into Zephyr's tank now when I see them, and provide him with entertainment. The lights on that tank aren't great for caraline anyhow...

Also I was wondering on what others find as good cleaning crews, Im thinking of going with 5 red or blue legged hermits,