Good morning everyone,
The other day my niece gave me her 14 gallon Coralife Biocube. She had owned it for only a few months; she had bought it from another aquarium enthusiast. The tank has live rock, live sand, and some critters (but so far I've only seen 1 snail and 1 hermit crab). I doubt my niece did much in the way of maintenance in the short time she had it.
So I reassembled the unit, and put back all the water that she had given me, and it is up and running. I did a water test last night and it showed: pH 8.4, nitrite 0, ammonia 0, but nitrates were high--40.
I am not very experienced with saltwater tanks. I have a 6 gal nano cube with live rock, live sand, some hermit crabs, and a couple of clownfish, but it was set up for us by someone else, and I wasn't involved in the cycling process. Other than periodic water changes, replacing media, and feeding the fish, I really don't do much else with it, and by sheer luck, the fish have managed to stay alive for the last 3 years! I would like to eventually put the clownfish in the bigger tank, perhaps along with a couple of hardy corals, but I know I have to wait until the bigger tank is optimally running.
At this point, I have some questions:
1 - There seems to be an awful lot of live rock for a 14 gallon tank - is too much of that a bad thing?
2 - Even though it had been an established tank, I am assuming there will be some kind of cycling process since everything was disrupted in the move?
3 - I did a partial water change last night and will test the water again tonight. If nitrates are still high, do I do partial water changes every time after I test the water until they level out?
Any advice will be greatly appreciated!
Angie
The other day my niece gave me her 14 gallon Coralife Biocube. She had owned it for only a few months; she had bought it from another aquarium enthusiast. The tank has live rock, live sand, and some critters (but so far I've only seen 1 snail and 1 hermit crab). I doubt my niece did much in the way of maintenance in the short time she had it.
So I reassembled the unit, and put back all the water that she had given me, and it is up and running. I did a water test last night and it showed: pH 8.4, nitrite 0, ammonia 0, but nitrates were high--40.
I am not very experienced with saltwater tanks. I have a 6 gal nano cube with live rock, live sand, some hermit crabs, and a couple of clownfish, but it was set up for us by someone else, and I wasn't involved in the cycling process. Other than periodic water changes, replacing media, and feeding the fish, I really don't do much else with it, and by sheer luck, the fish have managed to stay alive for the last 3 years! I would like to eventually put the clownfish in the bigger tank, perhaps along with a couple of hardy corals, but I know I have to wait until the bigger tank is optimally running.
At this point, I have some questions:
1 - There seems to be an awful lot of live rock for a 14 gallon tank - is too much of that a bad thing?
2 - Even though it had been an established tank, I am assuming there will be some kind of cycling process since everything was disrupted in the move?
3 - I did a partial water change last night and will test the water again tonight. If nitrates are still high, do I do partial water changes every time after I test the water until they level out?
Any advice will be greatly appreciated!
Angie
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