Ammonia Questions On a Unique Startup

[smiz]

Hey NR!

 

I'm looking for some input on if my tank is truly cycled or not. In my 7 years of reefing I have never actually started a reef. They had all been transfers since the first used tank I bought. So I am fairly clueless when it comes to this. I'll give a brief background of the tank and the concerns I have.

 

The tank is a new IM 20g Peninsula. It has been running for almost 4 weeks now. The tank has reused sand and live rock from a previous build that had been sitting in buckets for about two months. I am guessing there was a ton of gunk on both the LR and sand even after I cleaned it well. The tank is an upgrade to my current IM 10g. Here's where it gets unique.... I currently have all my equipment running on the IM 10g with only a sicce 1.0 and heater on the 20g (No lights). Also I have had to travel about three out of the four weeks it has been running. This means since the ATO is on my 10g, whenever the tank ran low the wife would unplug it until I got home days later to plug it in. So my questions are:

 

1 - Would the "gunk" from previously used be enough to start the cycle? I am certain there was some algae that was still living and had died off after starting the tank up.

 

2 - I am currently reading 0 ammonia with my redsea test kit, have I cycled and am ready for a sacrificial snail?

 

3 - Is running the tank with no lights and at time no flow preventing the cycle from even starting?

 

 

[Boggers]

cycle does not need light, in fact many keep it in darkness to be sure algae is killed off.

 

You can still cycle without water flow, but your bacterial load is likely diminished. add slow and you should not have an issue.

[kimberbee]

Boggers beat me to it. 

 

Agreed. Send in the sacrificial snail!! 

 

(Don't tell anyone, I never really tested for ammonia when I set up my second tank.  I let it run for ~4 weeks with no livestock and once I saw pods everywhere I started weekly water changes and stocked slowly!)

[smiz]

lol ok, thanks guys! I will send him in!

[brandon429]

its true all you needed was hydration, the bacteria don't need our help to get food this is how they takeover puddles in nature without us depositing rotting shrimp in each one

 

if your previous rock didn't dry out, it kept -all- the bac required for the new setup. one confound though can be ammonia leaking from the higher order animals lost just sitting there. it wont ever be a bac loss issue, but with enough rotting worms or sponges if applicable that rock may or may not leak ammonia, you indicated none so g2g. in your case, the dying animals in the bucket if applicable fed the bacteria with their additional rot, just like shrimp rotting. glad its over with, smell it too. our noses beat API any day on detecting faint ammonia.