Ammonium not dropping

[SeaHermit]

My cycle is going on strange. I had a normal spike in my Ammonium (8), Nitrites (2) and Nitrates (60). After spiking they started to drop. Now I have 0,08 Nitrites, 5 Nitrates, but my Ammonium is still 0,75-1. How can this be? The ammount of Ammonium hasn't gone down at all for 1 week now.

[dattack]

Don't worry about it. It's only been a week and sometimes ammonia can last more than a week if there is continued dieoff from live rocks or fish waste, especially when the biological filtration is not up to par yet.

What are you cycling with? Dead shrimp? Live rock? Fish?

[SeaHermit]

I cycled with only live rock. It had a lot of living matter on it so I didn't think I would need any starters like dead shrimp.

My cycle has lasted for 5 weeks now. Just the ammonium hasn't lowered at all for 1 week now.

[dattack]

You cycling with live rock is fine.
How large is your tank and how many pounds of live rock do you have? What livestock do you have in there right now?
Maybe there's still a rotting hitchhiker on your rock or on the sand that is slowly disintegrating.
Maybe you can do a small water change to see if your readings do go down.

[SeaHermit]

I have a 120 gallon tank with 120 pounds of live rock and a 4" DSB. I haven't done any water changes yet. Do you think I should? I haven't bought any creatures yet because I am afraid my ammonium will kill them.

[dattack]

Your tank is still cycling and at least you know you had a peak in ammonia. Also, your tank is cycling on schedule although it is just slightly longer than you wanted.

Some people do some water changes after a couple of weeks and it appears that they have had no problems in terms of success with their reef tank. Others don't do water changes until the cycling is over. It's pretty much up to you if you want to do water changes now given that you've gotten over the ammonia peak.

I have a feeling that your ammonia level is going to disappear within a week but you can probably do a partial water change with the same results.

[DgenR8]

SeaHermit,
Listen to Dattack, as far as I'm concerned, he's right on the money. Do a water change if you want to, but the most important thing to add to your tank now is patience.
BTW, very responsible of you to use live rock to cycle your tank! Too many LFS's are telling people the only way to cycle a tank is to kill damsels. You are off to a great start, tank sounds sweet!
Best of luck to you and, don't stop asking questions!

[SeaHermit]

Do you think it would be wise to pump some air to my tank? My powerheads can mix air with the water they are pushing.

[DgenR8]

Couldn't hurt anything to add air at this stage, but I don't think it will help either.
Should you decide to do that, remove the source of bubbles before eventually adding corals. As a rule, they don't appreciate bubbles.

[Mad Scientist]

Sound like good advice, I hope, though, that you are running your skimmer by now (once you see nitrate you can turn it on). Hope you have Deep sand bed too. Good luck