Need help with cycling tank

[Casper27292]

Hello everyone, My name is James and I am new to this site, Not quite sure what I am doing or really how to navigate this right now so all I know to do is start a new thread, If I'm doing this wrong, please feel free to direct me to where I need to be or what I should be doing, I have a 75 gallon reef tank I started about 3 to 4 months ago, when I started it, I started with 150 lbs of live white aragonite sand from ebay, and 75 lbs of live Marco rocks from ebay, I cycled the tank with a canister filter, everything was going great, all the way through the Diatom bloom, I bought a rock from Petco that had 2 hitch hikers in it, a 3 stripe damsel and an indigo dottyback, both survived and are still doing fine, so the tank cycled, I added a clean up crew, 100 cerith snails, a sand sifting starfish, 4 blue leg hermits and 3 red leg hermits, and 5 turbo snails, all was still good, I bought some coral, the corals done great for a while, My problem started when everyone started telling me how I needed a sump/refugium, I decided to go with a refugium, I built a fuge and used the wrong silicone, My water quality started getting bad and coral started getting bad, next day I tore the sump out and re did it with the right silicone with 2 40 gallon water changes, I installed the sump again, added 25 lbs of live rock from marco rocks, and 35 lbs of live sand from petsmart, Nitrites shot up to 5.0ppm, I lost all my coral and my entire clean up crew, This was about 2 weeks ago, I have been fighting nitrites and ammonia ever since, no algae, all my fish are fine and eating good every morning, I have the 3 stripe damsel, the indigo dottyback, a yellow tang, a humu trigger, 2 osc clowns, a lawnmower blenny and a scooter blenny, they are all fine, But now I am starting to get diatom bloom again, Would you say my tank is still cycling? or is it close to finishing? what do I need to do? I have tried several bacteria in a bottle, but none has helped, I have some dr tims one and only coming, I was going to try that, I don't know what else to do, I just want to save my tank and fish and get it back to normal again, I am wondering if the refugium was even worth it now, Please help me.

Thank you for reading all this, I hope I can get some good advice.

Best regards: james

 

[Scooterman]

Sorry we didn't answer your question, Welcome James to Reef Frontiers! :wave::welcome::welcome::welcome:

I'm at work right now, I'll review and help you, I think I can get you back on the right track.

 

[Scooterman]

Ok, Well long story short, take a deep breath, ever heard of the saying nothing ever comes good in a hurry? A marine tank is true to that for sure, I think you caused another cycle because you added the second round of LR and sand, also lots fish etc, lots of changes happening too close to each other that will cause issues, spikes. I would not add anything else to your tank, let if finish cycling, change your water frequently to help keep your fish healthy and let it be, monitor it, test it daily. Do not add anything new to your tank, don't add fish or anything of the sorts. You do have limits on what and how much you can keep, depending on your setup, how much maintenance you do, equipment etc. Just starting out I'd say too much happened too soon, unless your really experienced it is too difficult to accomplish everything in a short time. So if I sound like I'm repeating is because I want you to take a step back and let this tank mature, make slow steady changes.

Can you provide more details of your equipment, maintenance procedures, how much and how often do you water change, siphon? You have a canister filter, do you clean it frequently? How about some pictures of everything to help establish a base, the more information you provide the better we can help you.

I know it must sound like I'm lecturing you but we need to get a grasp of whats going on and try to help you in the best way we can. I would rather you succeed and have a thriving tank rather than have all sorts of issues, getting frustrated, spending lots of money and still not succeeding. Patients is a big word in success.