wrong

[Psyire]

Maybe if you walked us through your exact process we could help you out better.

Did you start with only baserock and reef bones? Anything else? How long was it before you added any LR? Etc.

[Quagmire]

Its possible your going through a second smaller cycle.You get all this bacteria from the cycle,lots of Amonia being turned into Nitrites by one type of bacteria,then Nitites being turned into Nitrates by another type of bacteria.So then you have all these Nitates,and all those bacteria,but they are starving because to them, Nitrates are just waste.They starve and die,causeing Amonia,and starting a smaller cycle.Give it a bit more time,shouldn't take too much longer,there will still be some bacteria of each type so your not starting from square one.

[asherah]

Ok
1: Added thin layer of sand.
2: added base rock + reef bones
3: left for christmas (9 days gone)
4:drained 1/2 the water and arranged the rocks
5:filled and added salt again (right after arranging the rocks)
6:left it for weeks
7:decided to test and see what it was doing - this was a couple weeks ago
8:decided last week to add some of my live rock to help it along

So that's what I did.... it's also at 75 degrees, ph is 8.2 and just has NO flourescent for now until everything gets moved over.

amanda

[Myanth]

To me, and I know a minimal amount, it sounds like you had no bio load on the system during that first period, until you added the live rock. The base rock was not live right? Until you have something to create ammonia, you have not begun the nitrogen cycle. The popluations of nitrosomas bacteria will adjust for the load on the system. Even the addition of a new fish can cause a cycling as the new amount of ammonia does not immediately have the bacterial population available to convert to NO3 - NO2. This is such a small amount and for such a short time period that it would not be measured, but it happens. Do you have any fish or waste producers in the tank now? If not.... get a damsel, or two. They will handle that ammonia without a problem and start loading the system. Which is why I'm stuck with three of them now..... need one?


Of course, I've been drinking and I think I know everything, except for that which I don't know, which soon I will learn, forget, and not know again.

Good luck
Mike

[mr_alberta]

Since you already have an ammonia producer in the tank (i.e. liverock), you do not need to add anything else to start the cycle. Also, it is no longer reccommended to cycle using fish as it is very stressful on them. The preferred method of cycling a tank is using liverock and a raw shrimp from the store. Chuck the raw shrimp in the tank for a day or two until it starts to decompose and kick off the cycle. Then take out the shrimp and discard it far far away as it is not a pleasant smell.

[Quagmire]

Ahh,so the liverock wasn't added when you first set up the tank.Did you have the live rock in a differant tank curing,or did you get it from the store and put it directly into your tank?If it came from the LFS,they may have told you its fully cured,but thats often not the case.Most LFS wont test the water and wouldn't know for sure if its cured or not.Plus even fully cured rock,may have some die off on the trip home.Depending on how long a trip,and how much the water cools off.Some times when you add fully cured rock,you can still get some die off.Organizms living happily on the surface of the rock suddenly find themselves buried in the sand.

With live rock in the tank,you wont need any other livestock or chemicals for the cycle.When the cycle is finnished,you can add livestock slowly (not 5 fish at a time).If you add slowly,there will be a small amonia spike at first,but it will be small and will quickly be talken care of by the liverock.

[asherah]

The live rock is from my 44r that was set up for a year. The reef bones I got said that you can't put them in a established tank and that it had to be cured.
So I figured it would be enough.


There are 4 fish in my 44 and a few snails. So should I not add those all together then ? One at a time maybe ?

amanda

ps. would it be ok to add hermits and snails after the cycle ? I dont have much of a clean up crew in the 44 =p

[TheReefGeek]

I always recommend 10% live rock if you use dry rock, to kick off the cycle. I know it is hard to be patient, but that is all you can do.

If it were my tank, I would toss a raw shrimp in and let the tank cycle more, I would rater "overdue" a cycle than not build up enough bacteria.

How porous is your base rock and reef bones? If it is really dense it might not support much bacteria.

[asherah]

seems pretty porus.. lots of holes in it. Some of the rocks look like they used to be corals, with ridges and etc in them.
I could post a picture.. maybe that would help ?

amanda

[TheReefGeek]

If it is porous and has holes and whatnot, it will be just fine, all you have to do is wait. Just make sure you add livestock slowly to your tank (1 fish at a time preferably) to build up the necessary bacteria levels for your bioload, and not cause a re-cycle.

If you cycle another tank in the future, make sure there is sufficient die off for a good cycle. (ie, a piece of raw shrimp)