? Tank Not Cycling ? ! ? !

[jeep4x4greg]

set up the tank on friday afternoon.....

ammonia, nitrite and nitrate all read zero still......4 days

i thought there was enough stuff on the rock to get it cycling? guess i was wrong... the rock was previously cured at the LFS

it still had some crud on it though so i thought i'd see some sort of spike somewhere....i think the highest my ammonia got was .25??? then went to zero again yesterday

i tohught even with cured rock i should see spikes for amonia then nitrite then nitrate and i would have to cycle it a few weeks before adding anything? did i understand incorrectly?



so now i have to add a piece of shrimp or something right?

whole shrimp, or a piece of one? raw, cooked (if it matters)?

or am i missing something ? ? ?

wish i woulda caught this sooner, i coulda saved 4 days of cycle time!

thanks!

[comatose]

give it time, 4 days is not enough.

[Benj]

If you are going to add shrimp, just a raw, regular grocery store variety will work fine.

[comatose]

I've also heard of adding 1 tsp of plain garden soil. but some people would go with the small piece of raw shrimp.
Personally i would just leave it alone and let it work natuarally since you already have the rock in there.

[jeep4x4greg]

i know i gotta give it it time...but shouldnt i have some reading of sometihng after 4 days??

its zero across the board..... i should be reading ammonia by now...hence why i was thinking it might need a dead shrimp

[MCary]

There's a possibility that the bacteria colonized in your liverock is already handling the small bioload. Could be an instant cycle situation. Check in a week for nitrates. A small nitrate increase will show that the bacteria are already working.

[comatose]

Not really, all tanks are different, i seen tanks cycle in a week and some take as long a a few weeks or more. this is one hobby you should be very patient in.

[jeep4x4greg]

MCARY: i think that could b the case with what has happened.... what is your recommendation if that is in fact the case? add small things lik clean up crew and wait before adding stuff.....

or should i try to force a more pronounced cycle?

[bertoni]

I would just wait a couple of weeks to make sure nothing dies, and then start stocking up slowly. I certainly wouldn't dump dead shrimp or dirt into the tank. I've set up 2-3 tanks that never showed any ammonia. It's not a big deal.

[snorkelmark]

I agree with MCary - you may have enough pounds and volume of good well cured live rock that there is enough bacteria to handle the existing bio-load. Here is what I would do:

1) Wait until this weekend
2) Take a water sample to LFS and have them test
3) If still all 0 zero and good, add a small clean up crew and maybe a tolerant coral like one small toadstool leather or even better a rock of zoos. By small clean up crew I mean small (there's not much for them to eat yet) - maybe 2 or 3 hermits, 2 Astra snails and 1 or 2 Nassaris (sp?) snails - the ones that move fast buy live mostly in the sand. Then give it two more weeks and measure again.

If you do it right, you can avoid traditional "cycling" by just being smart - use good well cured liverock, live sand, and start small stocking a week or two later. The bioload will build slowly but bacteria will mostly grow and keep up with it. I call this intelligent cycling and it avoids waiting 8-10 weeks by using uncured liverock/dead cocktail shrimp and stuff like that and all that. It's much more fun to have a tank with several corals and a clean up crew and no or very little hair algae or nuisance algae at the end of 8 weeks - don't you think?

You can help by - besides using good well cured LR - also running a refugium/sump with chaeto macro algae and a GOOD (read not el cheapo toy) protein skimmer. The macro algae and skimmer will help remove organics from the system and help maintain success long term

[reefman77]

try getting some sort of cheap fish like a damsel fish. I my 55 gallon wasnt cycleing until I added a few damsels. one fish would be pleanty for your tank.

[Randall_James]

Originally posted by jeep4x4greg
set up the tank on friday afternoon.....

ammonia, nitrite and nitrate all read zero still......4 days

i thought there was enough stuff on the rock to get it cycling? guess i was wrong... the rock was previously cured at the LFS

it still had some crud on it though so i thought i'd see some sort of spike somewhere....i think the highest my ammonia got was .25??? then went to zero again yesterday


The .25 is fatal to most organisms. If the rock was already cured by the LFS then the bacteria populating the rock is already doing its job when you saw the level drop back to 0.

You should be getting some nitrite/nitrate readings as well. I would still give it a good 10 days before I got to excited anyway.
I have had tanks that were technically ready for fish in a few days with good live rock so it would not be a big surprise.

Stay away from the "Cheap Fish" for cycling as well, that is old school, inhumane to the fish and then you also have to deal with a mean territorial damsel when done. Fish food or dead raw shrimp do the same thing...

[clomon]

i used cycle to cycle my tank great stuff still use it and never get bad alge in my tank.pick some up

[Randall_James]

Originally posted by clomon
i used cycle to cycle my tank great stuff still use it and never get bad alge in my tank.pick some up Cycle is actually a synthetic bacteria and just helps until natural bacteria levels can get up to speed. Natural bacteria with out a food source die off in an incredibly short amount of time.

In a new tank with nothing in it, it is unlikely that it serves much purpose at all. There is a product called "Stabil" that is a very similar product.