Okinawa Rob

Hello. I will probably get blasted by the experts, but here goes. I am in Okinawa, Japan. I started my 60 Gal tank. I cycled with Blue Damsels for three weeks. Everything was good. I went fishing and caught some local fish and put them into the tank along with some hermit crab and snails. They were good for about three weeks. I woke up one morning and all fish were dead. Tested the water and nitrite and nitrate was WAY off the scale. I left the local hermit crabs and snails in and bought 3 lbs of cured live rock and let sit for three weeks Nitrite and Nitrate levels came way down. Then got some local live rock from the ocean and now the nitite level is at zero, but the Nitrate level is still at the "stress" level. Should I wait another couple weeks or drain and start over Thanks.

Peterpiper

First welcome to fishlore!
No blasting!
Cycling with fish is not the best way to go, when you cycle with fish the fish are subjected to ammonia (poison).
When you cycle with fish you are trying to get the good bacteria to grow, but the amount of bacteria will you end up with will only handle the fish you have in the tank during the cycle process. When you added the other fish you increased the bio load ( ie more fish=more ammonia )
The bacteria that you grow during the cycle process changes ammonia to nitrite then nitrite to nitrate, but the only way to remove the nitrate is to do water changes, look at doing a 70% water change then retest the water. Yuo should be doing a 15-20% water change each week.
Adding live fish from the sea is not a good idea as you dont know how healthy they are.
I am short of time at the moment so I will post some more later.

Okinawa Rob

Thanks for the reply. I forgot to mention that I was actually doing the 25% water changes every week. What do you think about using live rock from the ocean?? I really looks nice!

Hypnox

Welcome to fishlore.

The live rock should actually help a bit to reduce nitrates. However, 3 lbs of it is not nearly enough for a 65 gallon tank. Typical reccomendations are 1lb of rock per 1 gallon of tank, although some people will go as high as 2+ lbs per gallon. I would suggest you finish stocking your tanks live rock and letting the cycle take hold before stocking any more fish.

I would suggest looking into getting a hang on back protein skimmer for your tank. That will help work to remove other toxins that can build up in a larger tank and work towards it's detriment.

While a canister filter would work, a sump would be a better option. With a sump you would have the option of adding a macro algae into a section of the sump that would help remove a ton of nitrates from your system. Otherwise, if a sump is not an option, there are certain animals you can introduce to your aquarium that feed on nitrates. I can't remember which ones off hand so some research would be needed.