Purchased 13 lbs of tonga and fiji LR. added 11 lbs of aragonite. (LS) in a 12 gallon jbj nano dx. this setup has been running for 10 days now. i have tested nitrite, nitrate and ammonia everyother day, all readings have been steady at "0" since day 1. ph is 7.8 to 7.9 no coral or fish. there was a few dead organisims on the rock when i purchased it so i had lightly scrubbed the rock in r.o. water. (the rock was never out of water more than a few min). the lingering question is might this tank ever cycle? i have read the nitrites and ammonia should spike then fall back down. have not done a water change yet. not entirely clear on how to raise the ph. i know its to soon to be adding buffering agents. i have "reef builder" on hand.
not cycling?
- Thread starter dga
- Start date
IMO the idea that a tank must "cycle" is left over from the days before systems were setup with live rock. There's nothing unusual about not having spikes if you add quality cured live rock to a setup because often times (at least IME) there's enough bacteria on/in the rock to keep up with the bioload provided by whatever little decomposition is taking place. These bacterial colonies are very responsive to increases in bioload, so if you stock slowly and practice good husbandry it's not uncommon to never have a detectable level of ammonia, nitrite or nitrate. I've experience just that scenario, several times. I generally wait several weeks to a month before I start stocking regardless of what test kit readings are.
thanks for the good info. thats what i was hoping. i plan on waiting about another month b4 i add a couple of the clean up crew. 2 or 3 snails and a hermit or shrimp is what i had in mine. wait another month and a couple of mushrooms etc... after a year i think i'll stuff a 200 lb grouper in there. ya think its to much of a bioload.
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