To good to be true can antone explane(cycle)

[guy0rocky]

I recently set up a new reef I bought 100 pounds of uncured live rock 60lbs of Tonga 40lbs of Fiji I had gotten it fresh from the source I decided to cure it in the tank I expected it to take 4 to 6 weeks I checked my ammonia nitrite and nitrate 2 days after set up and they where all sky high after a week i checked them and the ammonia was fairly low and the nitrite and nitrates where high after two weeks I checked them again and thought my test kits where bad 0 ammonia 0 nitrite and 0 nitrate how could this be the nitrates should have been there. I had taken some tank water to my local pet store who specializes in salt and reef aquariums they tested my water and came to the same results except the nitrates where around 0.5 to 1.0 very little they had no explanation for this.
can anybody explain how I got so lucky or is this a one in a million fluke my tank was fully cured and cycled in the period of 13 days.

thanks guy0rocky

[absolutc]

Depends on alot of factors. Consider yourself lucky! In the meantime, give it 2 more days just incase this is the "eye" of the storm. Test again after that, if everything is cosher - have at it. However, TAKE YOUR TIME - this is not a race.

I find people who take their time and go at this hobby stocking their tanks slowly - get better results and in the end - get the look they want.

Have fun - don't go too fast - don't over stock it!

[absolutc]

Oh and,

Welcome To Reef Central!

[guy0rocky]

Thanks Kris

It has actually been four days and the tests are still the same have to stock slowly out of money for a few weeks.

The thing that surprised me was where did the nitrates go? I have some plant life but not that much.

[anathema]

I had a tank not cycle, or cycle w/ barely detectable anything, but I still waited 3 weeks to put any of my corals into it. THis was in my move up from a 29 to 55.


Better safe than sorry. Your tank probably is cycled, but what do you have to gain by rushing?

[SPasse]

guy0rocky,

[welcome]

Well, you asked for it. Here is my infamous tome about the infamous “cycle� ;)

The cycle, as the term is commonly used by aquarium keepers, Is the time period where whatever biological waste (for sake of argument Ammonia) is converted into first nitrite and then nitrate by bacterial action.

This assumes that there is something to process.

When you add cured live rock to a new system with very little bio-load, there is nothing for the bacterially active live rock to process, hence no or very little nitrate as an end product. Cured or semi-cured live rock, if it was well handled between the supplier and you, can go through a very brief initial cycle, sometimes you even miss it.

Uncured live rock is a very different story, as it puts a great deal of waste into the water for the nitrogen cycle to deal with, hence a large amount of nitrate end product is created.

By adding some “fuel� like the cocktail shrimp, you not only feed the existing bacteria on the live rock, but you build up additional bacteria.

But once whatever “fuel� is exhausted i.e. consumed by the bacteria, the bacteria goes into “hibernation� after a few days. Bacteria cannot stay active without food.

So at this point, the question becomes why force an additional cycles and nutrient spikes, when your system has already “cycled�? Just slowly start building up the bio-load. If you do this incrementally, you give the nitrogen processing bacteria colonies, time to grow in step. This avoids the big “spikes� that can have such a negative impact on your system.

Many people think of the cycle, only in terms of the first cycle, but in reality it happens every time additional bio-load is added and the bacterial and/or fauna communities have to build up to “process� the additional nutrients.

And a reef tank really only reaches a marginal degree of stability after about a year of operation.

Regards,

Scott