longest cycle ever????? Please advise!!!

kevNnic · #1 06-07-2010, 05:44 PM

well, im still in the process of cycling my tank i guess.... Seems to be takin light years!!

started my cycle around april 20th and began with 30lbs of dry rock and 10lbs of live. realized i wasnt going to get anywhere with 10lbs of live rock so i added 30 more pounds of live rock on MAY 10th.

It is now june 7th and i have noticed no changed in my tank... no algee other than what was on the live rock, when i purchased it. The dry rock appears to be about the same as when i first got it.

How long can i expect this to take? ammonia has stayed quite low the whole time as well as no nitrate or nitrite spike.

what can i do to speed things up, and what are th proper methods in doing a cycle. should i be doing consitant water changes or just topping up the tank.

Had ignored it for the past 10 days and did a quick test and my specific gravity was 1.030, didn't bother testing anything else, did a water change and brought it back down to the normal range.

its a 65gallon tank, how often should i be changing the water and how much?

i feel i am being pretty patient but it would be nice to notice a change even if minimal!

please help,

thanks

kevin

bioload · #2 06-07-2010, 06:02 PM

With no bioload I would guess it would take some time. Was the live rock cured? Suggest you feed which seems strange considering there are no fish, but the food should provide the fuel for the cycle.

kevNnic · #3 06-07-2010, 06:10 PM

all the live rock was fully cured. which is odd why i haven't seen any diatom bloom, i was wondering what the heck im doing wrong or if its just cuz i have dry rock and its taking along time to seed?

bioload · #4 06-07-2010, 06:36 PM

all the live rock was fully cured

Which may the cause of no/slow cycle being observed. Decaying material would be required in order to "start" the cycle. I wouldn't worry about adding a small bioload at this point.

bioload · #5 06-07-2010, 06:37 PM

......and keep monitoring.

marie · #6 06-07-2010, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kevNnic

all the live rock was fully cured. which is odd why i haven't seen any diatom bloom, i was wondering what the heck im doing wrong or if its just cuz i have dry rock and its taking along time to seed?

If all the live rock was fully cured then you won't see any signs of a cycle (It's already happened).
If this is to be a FOWLR, then I would go ahead and start adding small fish. Add them one at a time and feed sparingly so the existing bacteria have a chance to keep up with the extra bio-load.
If you want to add larger fish right from the start then I would throw in a few cocktail shrimp and let the tank cycle a bit longer before adding fish

kevNnic · #7 06-07-2010, 06:45 PM

i will be adding two clown fish this week than, just thought my dry rock would cause a cycle.

BlueWorldAquatic · #8 06-07-2010, 06:45 PM

I have experienced in the past with good quality rock, you spikes can be minimal, if not non-existant.

I can personally attest that I have set up a customers tank with cured live rock, and we never saw an ammonia spike. This was due to the tank being dosed with Stability also though.

Sounds like it may have already spiked, just very low.

If you are concerned, you can use ProdiBio Startup, or dose with Stability, and should be able to add livestock shortly.

Ken - BWA

kevNnic · #9 06-07-2010, 07:00 PM

Thank you ken, we have been using tap water with prime as well for topping up water. I thought i noticed a very small spike about 2 weeks ago, but my nitrites and nitrates never spiked so i waiting for them. i will monitor my specific gravity for a couple days to lower it and keep it constant and aim for fish in a couple days.

Thanks for all the great info once again guys!

reefbyremote · #10 06-07-2010, 07:15 PM

I had nearly the same experience and others have talked about instant cycling before.

See this thread

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=38249