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cycle question?


Wjcastiglione

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Wjcastiglione

Hey guys,

 

So my tank has been set up for about a week now - and I did my first test today of the water.

 

Ammonia is 0. Nitrite is 0. Nitrate is between 5-10ppm.

 

Am I to believe that I'm towards the end of my cycle already? I have live rock and live sand in there.

 

Water is very clean - I haven't got an algae bloom. Water is crystal clear. the only media I am running is filter floss. I've been running a powerhead in the water since I put it in and heater, filter pump came on roughly 3-4 days ago.

 

 

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Wjcastiglione

was there an ammonia and a nitrite spike?

 

Not sure. This is the first testing I've done. I was under the impression a cycle follows the following formula - ammonia spike then zero, nitrite spike then zero, nitrate spike then zero - am I wrong?

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yes, i would put some ammonia in or something just to be safe because a week seems too short, it can happen, but i wouldnt risk it

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Wjcastiglione

yes, i would put some ammonia in or something just to be safe because a week seems too short, it can happen, but i wouldnt risk it

 

unscented ammonia from the grocery store? Just a couple drops or what?

 

and if it's cycled properly - what should my water perimeters do once I add it?

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Wjcastiglione

Yeah, just a small amount of ammonia then as you said ammonia spike, nitrite spike then you will end up with nitrates

 

http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/images/thumb/1/1f/Cycling_graph.png/350px-Cycling_graph.png

 

Thank you, sir! I hope that's the case. We'll check it out - I'm anxious to get fish in here - but not too anxious to rush it - slow and steady wins the race.

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Wow really?

 

Do not add ammonia to your tank.

 

If you started with live rock and live sand from the your local fish store then you need to start adding livestock slowly. Having nitrates is a clear indicator that your tank is doing just fine.

 

The only way you'd have a cycle is if you brought home a 5lb piece of LIVE rock and added 20 fish to the tank. Please clarify the amount of actual live rock and the amount of gallons the tank is.

 

Now if you had live rock shipped to you thats another story. Clarify this?

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Wjcastiglione

Wow really?

 

Do not add ammonia to your tank.

 

If you started with live rock and live sand from the your local fish store then you need to start adding livestock slowly. Having nitrates is a clear indicator that your tank is doing just fine.

 

The only way you'd have a cycle is if you brought home a 5lb piece of LIVE rock and added 20 fish to the tank. Please clarify the amount of actual live rock and the amount of gallons the tank is.

 

Now if you had live rock shipped to you thats another story. Clarify this?

 

15-20 lbs of live rock. I bought 22 lbs from LFS but I didn't use some of it. 20 lbs of live sand from oceans direct. in a 29 gallon bio cube.

 

So, I came home tonight to this - I'm assuming this is the start of the diatom bloom?

post-86110-0-63883500-1415580283_thumb.jpg

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Wow really?

 

Do not add ammonia to your tank.

 

If you started with live rock and live sand from the your local fish store then you need to start adding livestock slowly. Having nitrates is a clear indicator that your tank is doing just fine.

 

The only way you'd have a cycle is if you brought home a 5lb piece of LIVE rock and added 20 fish to the tank. Please clarify the amount of actual live rock and the amount of gallons the tank is.

 

Now if you had live rock shipped to you thats another story. Clarify this?

 

If his tank is fully cycled, adding ammonia will only cause a temporary spike. The ammonia and nitrites will convert to nitrates within the day. So unless he has livestock in the tank already, there isn't an issue of adding ammonia to see if the cycle is complete.

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Buying live rock locally knocks out a cycle time. That's why its called "live rock" its a miniature biocycle in itself. A lot of people tend to be scared of the cycle monster no matter what the details of the setup are. If the question is cycle based they have one default answer to answer every application. As long as you are dealing with local cured items it's pretty safe from my experience. There may be cases where a shady lfs sells you uncured live rock. That scenario is left up to you to determine though.

 

Having live rock shipped to you is a different story because there is dieoff that causes your cycle to be unstable as things die off.

 

Adding too much livestock at once can create a spike in ammonia and alter your cycle, that you have to be careful with also.

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