Not so mysterious bubbles

ExGerminate · Jan 9, 2021 6:57:27 pm

Hello, I bought my first reef aquarium 2 weeks ago to the day. I'm using crushed coral for my medium and a nice piece of dry rock. The person i purchased the tank off gave me some balls of bacteria and told me to fill my tank, put some fish food in, place the required amount of bacteria into my tank, and let it run for a week and if i wanted to then i could add a pair of clowns to the tank. Now 2 weeks later everything seems fine. I noticed diatoms on my sand bed about a week ago but they've kind of cleared up which i think is a bit strange because of how fast they went. I've been testing amonia, nitrite, nitrate and its all at 0ppm. Now i'm noticing these bubbles under my sand which i assume to be nitrogen gas trying to escape to the surface. Am i right in thinking this signals the end of my tanks first cycle? And if so how has it happened so fast?

mightyhatter · Jan 9, 2021 7:42:53 pm

It's strange your NO3 is zero as the cycle has to produce something! What tests are you using?

ExGerminate · Jan 9, 2021 8:03:28 pm

I'm using the red sea marine care kit. Everything in the tank seems healthy. And I've seen evidence of my cycle taking place but still, nothing shows up on the tests. It's really quite odd.

mightyhatter · Jan 9, 2021 8:53:49 pm

Have you seen the ammonia and nitrite levels rise and then drop again? They are the key bits in so far as they are dangerous to fish etc. Could be the Nitrate reading is wrong (or the cycle could have completed but then the bacteria died off if there was no food to keep them going)

ExGerminate · Jan 9, 2021 9:40:42 pm

No although foolishly I didn't start testing until a week in. I'm left abit confused. Do you wreckon i should start feeding abit more to get the amonia levels up again incase bacteria has died off? I feed twice a day and there's 2 clowns in there already so they should producing enough waste...

semiroundel · Jan 10, 2021 11:23:47 am

Quote from: ExGerminate on Jan 9, 2021 9:40:42 pm

No although foolishly I didn't start testing until a week in. I'm left abit confused. Do you wreckon i should start feeding abit more to get the amonia levels up again incase bacteria has died off? I feed twice a day and there's 2 clowns in there already so they should producing enough waste...

Personally, I'd get some Seachem stability and add that as per instructions, the above all seems a bit too quick for my liking. I would've said a month would've been about right, not a week.
But that's just my opion, seek other advice too.

mightyhatter · Jan 10, 2021 11:37:58 am

How long jave the clowns been in the tank? As you say they will be producing waste and something is converting the ammonia otherwise the fish would be suffering.

If the clowns have been in a while and are fine i would be leaning towards dodgy test results!

ExGerminate · Jan 10, 2021 12:10:33 pm

I'll read into that seachem stuff and see what I think, the clowns have been in for over week and they seem fine... They swim about about like mad things, darting from one side of the tank to the other. Like I said amonia, nitrite, nitrate all 0ppm. It's confusing the hell outta me. Then I have these bubbles appearing under my sand bed and algae growing on my rock so the cycle must be taking/taken place. But test results say otherwise. It can't be that the test results are dodgy because I'm testing for 3 separate things and all come out the same

ExGerminate · Jan 10, 2021 12:19:13 pm

Just had a look at that stability stuff, I'm already adding bacteria to my tank so I don't think adding more would be a good idea

semiroundel · Jan 10, 2021 12:53:54 pm

Quote from: ExGerminate on Jan 10, 2021 12:19:13 pm

Just had a look at that stability stuff, I'm already adding bacteria to my tank so I don't think adding more would be a good idea

no problem, but you didn't say what form these "balls" of bacteria were, so I didn't know if it was a one-off, continuous, or indeed if they were bio balls, which is just a media.
If already dosing with bacteria, then as you say, no more needed. Quite right.
However, I still add a small amount each month to top up, and my tank seems to be the better for it, but I've got nothing to compare it to.

ExGerminate · Jan 10, 2021 1:18:49 pm

My bad, I didn't specify. everythings seems fine in the tank so I guess I shouldn't start fiddling with it I'll keep a close eye on it and hopefully all well that ends okay...

mightyhatter · Jan 10, 2021 2:10:08 pm

The little bubbles under the sand are fine. You could always take a water sample to your LFS for testing if you wanted to check

Carol · Jan 10, 2021 4:28:23 pm

I like your rock arrangement 😃

semiroundel · Jan 10, 2021 5:56:39 pm

Quote from: ExGerminate on Jan 10, 2021 1:18:49 pm

My bad, I didn't specify. everythings seems fine in the tank so I guess I shouldn't start fiddling with it I'll keep a close eye on it and hopefully all well that ends okay...

That's a good policy to have. Anyway, there's no bad really, we're all learning from each other here.
The ultimate reef suggestion is good for a quick response-and UK based I understand, however, like a lot of forums, but not this one, sometimes people can be a tad judgemental, not often, but sometimes.

Not so mysterious bubbles

Not so mysterious bubbles

Not so mysterious bubbles

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