i tryed to sycle my tank and it went bad please help me

[pjk030]

i was trying to cycle my tank with a cromie and as soon as i put him in he went in to shock i had to go to work for 7 hours i got home and hes dead should i take him out or let him cycle the tank dead

 

[APISTOBORELLI]

PM sent...........

 

[naturebatslast]

Ummm.
Take the the fish out. There's a few ways to cycle tanks, and some people recommend using damsels, or chromis in your case. It leads to dead or unwanted fish. Patience is the best route, fast actions with your tank usually lead to quicker problems.
How big of a tank do you have? Are you testing your water, if not, you should? Are you familiar with what has to happen with the cycle?

 

[pjk030]

no this is my first tank all the levles were good but the alclinity the salintiy was good the fish died right when i put him in

 

[MikeG]

Can you explain what you did? When did you start up the tank? Was anything established like rock that you got from a member of a LFS? What parameters are you measuring and what are the numbers? If you have live rock then you don't need to cycle with fish. Many people also use a raw cocktail shrimp to avoid the harm to the fish from the nitrogen cycle. Need more info to really help.

 

[pjk030]

i added two pounds of live rock right before i put him in i also have about 40 pounds of dead rock all the water quality were good and teh salinity was good

 

[Duds]

did you acclimate the fish to your tank if not then there is your problem more than likely, you have to slowly acclimate the fish to the tank so they can get used to the water conditions otherwise they mgiht go into shock like your fish did, take your time, i would suggest raw shrimp so you dont harm any fish in the process of the cycle
Duds

 

[pjk030]

i acculimunated the fish i did it for a half houre i probbley should have done it lonnger i had to go to work and i spent more time a skipptons than i planed on

 

[Duds]

do you have any of the following test kits ph calcium magnesium alkalinity nitrate nitrite ammonia??
if not i would suggest on investing in those the best test kits are salifert, the best prices i have seen for them is on everythingreef.com a sponsors store (Ray)
Duds

 

[pjk030]

i have a safarie test kit it tests for nitrate nitrite alkalinity and ph

 

[MikeG]

i added two pounds of live rock right before i put him in i also have about 40 pounds of dead rock all the water quality were good and teh salinity was good

What are your numbers for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate? What is your pH and what are you running for a salinity? All of your test kits are salifert? Was do you use to measure salinity, swing arm hydrometer?

What do you mean by dead rock? Was this live rock that was left out of water for a while? Did it have a lot of organic dye off?

 

[pjk030]

coral life deep six they were all ideal but alkalinity was blue and thare is no blue on the chart it has to be above 300

the dead rock i think was never live i picked it up at skiptons

 

[Duds]

first off i would start by getting salifert test kits order them from (Ray) at everythingreef.com they have the best price i have seen, what measure does your test kit go by meg/l?
Duds

 

[pjk030]

results for tests nitrate 0
nitrite 0
alkalinity idk well over 300
ph 8.4-8.6

 

[pjk030]

the salinity is between 1.021 and 1.022

 

[Duds]

everything seems fine to me but my alkalinity is in dkh so i will see what kmmeasure out to be in dkh
Duds

 

[penguinsix]

What is the alkalinity measured in? If ppm then it is really somewhere around 10 or 11 dkh.

 

[pjk030]

my test kit sayed i deal is 180 -300 and that was a dark green almost blue myn was blue

 

[Duds]

he said it is measured in km which doesnt make sense because km doesnt exist for alkalinity, here is a link http://ozreef.org/library/tables/alkalinity_conversion.html
Duds

 

[MikeG]

coral life deep six they were all ideal but alkalinity was blue and thare is no blue on the chart it has to be above 300

the dead rock i think was never live i picked it up at skiptons

Have you been testing ammonia since that is the first thing that you will see with the nitrogen cycle?

If you added dry rock then there should be no die off causing problems, although I have found dead carcassas in dry rock.