Did I miss it? newbie question

[TheFirstLoser]

I put liverock in my tank 2 weeks ago, then tested a week after that. Ammonia came up with 0ppm then nitrite came up with 0ppm. I figured it was just too early and didn't bother checking nitrates. So, today I tested again. ammonia was 0ppm, nitrite was 0ppm, but i decided to test nitrate and it came up to 10ppm. Could my biological filter be established after only two weeks, and already have cycled? Or could this be caused by some other factor?

[ferissp]

In order to answer your question we need to know a few things:

 

1. What kind of LR? Fully cured? Out of the gulf less than a few days ago? etc. My gulfliverock cures in about 4 days so I could see how you missed it.

2. What kind of sand are you using? live sand from another tank? Stuff you stole from the beach?

 

You might have missed the cycle. I would check by putting in some fish food (a tablespoon in > 10 gallon tank) or in my personal opinion a cooked cocktail shrimp and see if you get readings or if it just goes straight to more nitrates.

[Rocket]

It is possible the cycle is established. Be slow in adding livestock at first. A very low bioload means additional livestock too quickly can overload the nitrogen cycle, and you will have what we call a Mini- cycle.

[TheFirstLoser]

In order to answer your question we need to know a few things:

 

1. What kind of LR? Fully cured? Out of the gulf less than a few days ago? etc. My gulfliverock cures in about 4 days so I could see how you missed it.

2. What kind of sand are you using? live sand from another tank? Stuff you stole from the beach?

 

You might have missed the cycle. I would check by putting in some fish food (a tablespoon in > 10 gallon tank) or in my personal opinion a cooked cocktail shrimp and see if you get readings or if it just goes straight to more nitrates.

The liverock I bought was called fiji LR, and was most likely cured (everything on it was alive, no dead stuff). As for right now, my tank is bare bottom. I will prob just wait a few more days and test again, since I have to wait to go to the LFS anyways.

[tinkerer]

when in doubt check it out. i will +1 to the shrimp thing as this is now the third time i have seen it (thanks to sweeper who has 2 threads similar to this) throw the already dead shrimp in there and watch and test to see what happens. nobody ever killed any livestock by having too much patience.