Latest Water Tests - Cycling over??

[newnano]

These pics are of tonight's (11/26) water test results of my cycling 15g high tank. It will be a FOWLR tank. These are the specs:

 

15 gallon high acrylic tank

20 lbs. Aragonite sand (approx. 2" deep)

15 lbs of Live Rock (added 11/19/03)

Skilter 250 HOB filter/protien skimmer

heater (not sure of the wattage)

standard lighting from my freshwater tank

 

 

I started the setup on 11/18/03. I added the Live rock on 11/19. I've been testing for ammonia and nitrite almost every day. On the left is Ammonia on the right is Nitrite. My guess is Ammonia-0.12 ppm, Nitrite - 0.0 ppm. What do you think the readings are. Can the cycling be over? Or can I still expect to see an Ammonia spike?

 

Thanks.

[mattie]

your cycle will be done just in time for x-mas

you should see the spike around the 8- 10th day

[ninhsavestheday]

you can expect a spike. im cycling right now. my ammonia stayed at .25 for about a week and a half. and then it spiked to .5!

[T11mog]

you could possibly be done if you have good water movement in the tank...a week if good for a cycle..

[Physh1]

Originally posted by T11mog

you could possibly be done if you have good water movement in the tank...a week if good for a cycle..

Good water movement doesn't really halp a cycle that much. The cycle depends on how much dieoff your rock and live sand has when it is reintroduced into a new aquarium. If a tank cycles in a week it mean that there is no dieoff OR the dieoff hasn't broken down yet.

 

I would wait at least another week and keep checking the water. I couldn't even begine to tell you how many people thought their cycle was over, added a bucnh of stuff, and had a huge friggin' spike pop up.

 

Cameron

[Coral Dilema]

I set up my 10g nano with 15 pounds of seaflor special grade aragonite sand, and 3 pounds of garf grunge . . the garf grune is awesome stuff, ammonia spiked at .25 2 days after putting in grunge, nitrite spiked at 7 days after putting in grunge . . on 9th day no detectable ammonia or nitrite or nitrate . . . . its now day 20 and still no detectable ammon, nitrite or nitrates . . macros in the refugium are taking care of nitrites and have completly stopped the hair algae from growing, the hermits and snails are slowly wiping it out . . I should have a clean tank within a week or so . . . . time to find some zos and stuff.

 

From the looks of those testkits yoru going with doc wellfish or somethign like that, cant remember the name of them. I would highly recommend gettig a better set of test kits. The very basics your going to need for a reef are PH, Alkalinity, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and calcium. DO NOT get Redsea calcium kit, its worthless. I use red sea ph, alk, amon. NO2 and NO3 kits, they are not the best but they are ok . . I use seachem suppliments in my tank and the red sea calcium kit is not compatible with seachem reefbuilder. 1 day after adding 1 teaspoon of reefbuilder to my 10g, i read 600+ ppm calcium on the redsea kit. If the calcium concentration were this high I think it would look like it was snowing in my tank.

 

A good set of testkits are priceless. I use the redsea marine lab kit. Not the best but OK to start with. You might want to check into getting one. It has 100PH tests, 60 alk tests, 45 ammonia tests, 80 nitrite tests and 60 nitrate tests. I think I paid about $25 for the entire kit from www.marinedepot.com

 

My final advice is to be patient, only bad things happen quickly in a reef tank.

[Coral Dilema]

oops, just noticed you going fish only so the calcium kit is not a necessity. Still would be good for the corraline algae on the LR to keep good calcium levels.

[Chamkeeper]

We all understand the excitement, believe me, but patience is critical. For a new tank, give it a solid month or 6 weeks, if it cycles in 3 days, good, if not, you're still safe. Use that time to READ, READ, READ, meet some local reefers, find a good LFS, and decide how soon your tank is going to go to from FOWLR to Reef.

 

Cham