dubious49 Posted May 16, 2003 Share Posted May 16, 2003 ok. i've cycled many FW tanks in the past and i'm used to the wating period. this is my first SW setup with LR and LS and my tests indicate that the tank is cycled after only 3 days. here are the specifics of the cycle: tuesday PM added 15 pounds LR & 20 pounds LS (10 gallon tank) wednesday test readings at 10am am - 0.25 trites - 0.25 trates - 0 lights on for 12 hours thursday test readings at 10am am - trace trites - 0 trates - 0 lights on for 12 hours friday test readings at 10am am - 0 trites - 0 trates - 10 other params: SG - 1.023 pH - 8.5 Alk - 3.2 Temp 78F what do you think? should i wait a few more days? do a water change? thanks! Link to comment
littlec Posted May 16, 2003 Share Posted May 16, 2003 dubious, My knee jerk reaction is that your tank has not completed it's cycle. Based on my experience, the only way that you would have cycled that quickly is if your rock, sand (and possibly some of the water) came from an established tank. Was the rock and sand cured or from an existing set up? My advice is to add a piece of shrimp or scallop, wait about 7-10 days and do a water test. If your tank has cycled it should be able to handle the increased waste load and you won't see a nitrite spike. If you do see nitrites showing up around 2-5 ppm at this time, then your tank definitely has not cycled and you should continue to wait for the typical 25-45 day period to run its course. HTH Link to comment
freakaccident Posted May 16, 2003 Share Posted May 16, 2003 What littlec said. Stick a piece of cocktail shrimp in there. You don't want to rush it and end up with algae out the ying yang or kill your livestock. Link to comment
blissdon Posted May 23, 2003 Share Posted May 23, 2003 Hi, My advice for you is to slow down. Think weeks/months instead of days/weeks. Forget fresh water... You have taken the next step into reproducing a very specific environment for very suseptable inhabitants. Make thier home comfortable before putting them into it. Kenny Link to comment
Physh1 Posted May 23, 2003 Share Posted May 23, 2003 Just because the tank may appear cycled it is nowhere, and I mean nowhere near stable!!!! I'd throw a bit of food or piece of shrimp in there and see how the tank reacts to it. I'd bet you see a spike in there of amm or trites. You need to be patient here and wait at least 2 weeks before you attempt to add anything. You need to monitor the tank parameters and if it stays stable for these 2 weeks than you can feel safe that it's cycled. It is also possible you tank has not even started to cycle.... .25 is not anything ammonia wise and that could have just come from the tap water your using. .25 is far from a cycling level of ammonia... Patience is a virtue... Cameron Link to comment
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