Cycle?

[JoshuaBrun]

I've had my 200 gallon set up for around 2 weeks now.
I have a deep sand bed, and I used RO water.
I've been checking for nitrates, nitrites and ammonia, but I havn't had any. I put some of my cured liverock in it the other day, and still nothing.
Is it just happening really slowly, or am I an idiot for assuming it would cycle with only sand it it?

 

[ElMonoCalvo]

Was there anything in the tank to die off and create nitrate/nitrite/ammonia?

I'm currently cycling a nano w/ cured LR and it took about a week after the LR was in before I noticed a spike. Be patient, it'll come.

 

[Anonymous]

Is it just happening really slowly, or am I an idiot for assuming it would cycle with only sand it it?

not an idiot, but plain 'dead' sand won't cycle because there isn't any of the necessary bacteria or waste products to cycle with. As posted above, you added live rock and all you have to do now is be patient.

 

[JoshuaBrun]

Well I used "live" sand.
And added cycle and such.
But I assumed it wouldn't work.
But I had to fix things anyway, so it's cool.

 

[ChrisRD]

IME it's not uncommon to see little to no evidence of NH4/NO2/NO3 in systems setup with cured rock. As mentioned above, if there's no significant die off, you may see little or no spikes - especially if you have a decent skimmer.

I would give it a couple of weeks to settle in and then recheck everything. If all parameters are looking good, I'd start stocking at a reasonable rate.

If you do a search here you should come up with a bunch of other opinions as this topic comes up periodically.

JMO & HTH

 

[JoshuaBrun]

Yeah I figured. I had to jet and I was in a hurry.
I put some uncured in.
I had to fix some tank stuff so I didn't really think about the cycling.
So no biggie.

But I have one more question.

It will take me a while to get all the live rock I need for the tank.
Should I cure the new uncured liverock after my tank is established in the quarantine tank, or in the main tank?
I figured it would be a good idea, as to avoid any pesty hitchikers.
Good or bad idea?

 

[ChrisRD]

Curing the new stuff in the q-tank is not a bad idea for the reason you mentioned (ie. gives you a chance to deal with unwanted hitchhikers).