Cycling Help

[apieceoftheocean]

I recently setup a 29g BC. It has been cycling for 4 days. I have about 35 lbs of cultured live rock covered in corallone algae in tank. Hitchhikers and feather dusters on rock doing fine.

 

Had a small ammonia spike and these are my levels now, thoughts on my progress? Seems like results are doing well but I know 4 days is an extremely short cycle time.

[apieceoftheocean]

Tank pic, starting to get a little algae bloom (green)

[tetraodon]

if you used fully cured live rock then you can cycle tanks very quickly, ever watch tanked? they throw in live rock live sand and premixed water and throw live stock in a few hours or the next day in. a good test is to dose ammonia in a specific amount and see how long it takes to disappear

[apieceoftheocean]

Thanks for the feedback. I think it could be nearly cycled, dare I say. I will def try the ammonia dosing to see if it will disappear in 24 hours. I think I've almost done too much research on this topic at this point and there are so many opinions. Thanks again!

[tetraodon]

Thanks for the feedback. I think it could be nearly cycled, dare I say. I will def try the ammonia dosing to see if it will disappear in 24 hours. I think I've almost done too much research on this topic at this point and there are so many opinions. Thanks again!

no problem, every aspect of this hobby has been or still is debated and many aspects are very individual. youll learn the feel of things after a while, but ive always said there is no such thing as too much research. just use common sense when researching things, i always keep a good reference book to compare to, extremely helpful. good luck

[Cencalfishguy56]

Thanks for the feedback. I think it could be nearly cycled, dare I say. I will def try the ammonia dosing to see if it will disappear in 24 hours. I think I've almost done too much research on this topic at this point and there are so many opinions. Thanks again!

i cycled my QT tank in 3 days, old LR that I had In a bucket, 5 gallons of water from from DT when I did a water change and a small bottle of bottled denitrifying bacteria did the trick!

[brandon429]

http://reef2reef.com/threads/new-tank-cycling-tank-bacteria-and-cocktail-shrimp-live-rock-no-shrimp.214618/

 

this should clear things up. it isn't required to test your live rock with ammonia, and hurt its little animals (although you can just fine, they are tough and not likely to die)

 

we can see from your pics its fully cycled 100%.

 

per that thread, when dealing with dry substrates you add ammonia and test back 24 hrs later.

 

when dealing with live substrates, you only test to ensure they are not leaking ammonia from internal death, when that's certain not occurring you begin reefing. your bac are just as numerous 2 mins after adding into your reef as they will be in 5 yrs, considering natural population fluxes. they arrived in full is the whole point of that thread above, trusting cycle biology.

 

your live rock literally has the visual benthics I built the whole thread around.