I don't get the cycling???

[Enzo B.]

I put in my LR and LS and all my readings are still at zero after 1 week!
Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 0
???

a'm I doing something wrong? Why is theire no spike in Ammonia yet?

 

[aquarist=broke]

what kind or live rock and sand did you put in?

Was the rock cured? Transported under water?

Was the sand dry or wet?

What kind of filtration in on the tank presently?

for starters... =)

 

[Enzo B.]

Fiji cured LR transported under water and Caribsea wet LS
My filtration is a DSB and caulerpa refugium and 70pounds LR.

 

[aquarist=broke]

I'd say that if the tank was running for a while and your readings were all zeros, then the following makes sense to me:

Adding the water from the wet sand may have had nutrients which would probably cause some kind of diatom bloom, and if none of the pieces of rock you added didn't smell like a foot when it arrived, then probably no ammonia spike. You'll probably have a mini-cycle soon.

that's all i can think of. Tanks are never persistant really, and somebody will probably chime in on something that i'm missing. It is late here and my brain just quits on me sometimes...

 

[Enzo B.]

thanks I don't want to keep you up...Good night.

 

[Anonymous]

if i recall, i was well into my second week before my tank began cycling. maybe you just need to give it a little more time.

 

[Lurshy]

JMHO - The rock was fully cured and transported under water, same with the sand. There s/b very little die off to cause ammonia spike. Just add live stock very slowly so bacteria growth can keep up with additional bio load. You also may add clean up crew to stay ahead of algea growth...

 

[Anonymous]

I agree with Lurshy. You probably will see little if any Ammonia Spike.....wait a week and if everything is still 0 add some life slowly. About 200 crabs. LOL Just Kididding.

 

[Anonymous]

You can always add a little food or piece of shrimp to kick in the cycle as well.

 

[Anonymous]

Or you could pee in it! Just a little though...LOL
:twisted:

 

[Anonymous]

L/R transported under water? May I ask what you paid for that? Because shipping would be sky high, I think. :?

 

[Enzo B.]

Well under water means every rock was carefully wrapped in wet paper towel and put in to a bag and then the trip home was only 15 min. and the rock was back into water!

 

[Anonymous]

Oh ok, so it wasn't shipped to you, you picked it out of a tank? You possibly won't have much of a cycle, but thats not a bad thing. Just add livestock slowly and the bacterial life of the tank will build up over time.

 

[Mogo]

My tank took over a month to cycle. Temp related?

 

[Enzo B.]

what do you mean temp related?

 

[Mogo]

The colder the water temp, the slower the cycle time? Just a guess.

 

[Enzo B.]

did you have LR and LS in your tank ant the time?

 

[Mogo]

Yes. When cycling my tank I eventually discovered that my heaters were underpowered, and as I remember, the avg water temp was 75 max with heaters at full tilt during the process. Threfore possibly longer cycling time. I did have a nice ammonia spike. Yep, looking at my notes- ammonia spike during 3rd week. Remember, cooler water temp is just my guess as to why a longer cycling time than some. Many other variables obviosly (ie. quality of live rock). It was 3 months later when I began stocking my aquarium.

 

[bradsark]

I am also setting up a new tank. I bought live rock from LFS and added live sand. It has been 1 week since I added LR & LS and so far I have notice dvery little change in nitrite, nitrate and amonia. I do, however, have some brown algae spreading around.

 

[Mogo]

Algae pretty normal during cycling. If it gets way out of hand try reducing you photo period to 4-5 hrs a day. Maybe should do this anyway.