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Old 08-05-2013, 10:40 PM
Summit09 Summit09 is offline
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Default Cycling a tank
I've just started my first reef tank four days ago. I went and did a water test today and found 0 ammonia, nitrates at 5 or less, nitrites at .1 or less. The live rock in the tank has been cured, as for the live sand it did have a smell and I thought it would be enough to start a cycle. Should I have seen a rise in my water parameters already or may I have to add something to kick it off ?
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Old 08-05-2013, 11:31 PM
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Craigdillman Craigdillman is offline
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How big is your tank? If you started with live rock and live sand you could have cycled that quick. I would still wait a bit for the nitrites to come down and complete the cycle

When I started my 29 gallon with live rock and sand it only took like 6 days and everything was leveled out
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Old 08-05-2013, 11:43 PM
Summit09 Summit09 is offline
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It's 150gallon tank.
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Old 08-05-2013, 11:46 PM
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how much live rock did you use
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Old 08-05-2013, 11:58 PM
Summit09 Summit09 is offline
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140lbs of live rock and 100 lbs of live sand.
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Old 08-06-2013, 12:02 AM
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Craigdillman Craigdillman is offline
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Maybe someone else will chime in but i bet you cycled that quick give it a few more days and see what the parameters do
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Old 08-06-2013, 12:59 AM
NIVLEM09 NIVLEM09 is offline
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you can dose prodibio start up,if you like?also,PATIENCE is also good
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Originally Posted by Summit09 View Post
I've just started my first reef tank four days ago. I went and did a water test today and found 0 ammonia, nitrates at 5 or less, nitrites at .1 or less. The live rock in the tank has been cured, as for the live sand it did have a smell and I thought it would be enough to start a cycle. Should I have seen a rise in my water parameters already or may I have to add something to kick it off ?
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Old 08-06-2013, 01:11 AM
Summit09 Summit09 is offline
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I'm in no rush, I was just told that I should have seen some kind of higher readings when checking within a couple days of starting the tank.
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Old 08-06-2013, 01:58 AM
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It could be fine right now, it depends on how cured the live rock was.
If the live rock was taken from a mature tank and immediately put into your new tank you could have very little die off to give you much of an ammonia spike.
It's good you're not in a rush, and whatever the state of the cycle, make sure to add new additions spread over a period of time, not all at once.
Keep testing the water every few days to be sure.
You could try a fishless cycle to make sure that the ammonia gets consumed and that the bacteria colonies are established.
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Old 08-06-2013, 08:45 PM
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Your tank probably has not started to cycle. Throw in a dead shrimp and wait.
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