Can my tank cycle in 2 weeks?

tdowning · Oct 23, 2016

I have a BioCube 29 with almost 2o pounds of live rock from an established tank and 20 pounds of dead rock from my LFS and 30 pounds of live sand. I've had a clean up crew in there the past 6 days and ran a water test today. Ammonia and Nitrites were both at 0, Nitrates tested at about 2.5. My PH 8.0 and my specific gravity 1.o25. Is it possible that my tank is already cycled?

Thanks for your thoughts in advance!

Coastie Reefer · Oct 23, 2016

If you used 20lbs of established rock it's not only possible, but even likely that it's good to go.

Arron209 · Oct 23, 2016

My tank cycled in 2 weeks using the Zeovit method.

MaccaPopEye · Oct 23, 2016

As said above if a lot of the rock was from an established tank then there was probably no cycle. If it spend a bit of time out of water there might have been a small one, but nothing significant. The LR will help seed the dry rock with bacteria over time, but that's not a cycle, its just bacteria spreading.

My cycle was done in less than a week. LR went straight from the ocean to my tank with only a 15min drive. Really there wasn't a cycle but I gave it a week to settle in.

Albz · Oct 23, 2016

My tank cycled in a 2.5weeks.. I used pure ammonia and had dry life rock and live sand only. Used bispora and some marine colony and my tank has fish now and its running at 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites so it is possible

aythatguy26 · Oct 30, 2016

I purchased a new Coralife Biocube 29 and added 25lbs live rock, 20lbs of live sand, and a little over 20 gallons of sea water ordered from petco.

This past Thursday was 6 weeks of it running.

I still to this day 6 weeks later have not had any bit of nitrates.

I've had slight amounts of ammonia but the next day it was always gone.

Now my levels stay at 0 across the board.

So yes you can have little to no cycle at all.

I waited 2 weeks to add a clean up crew.

And another two weeks to add my Clowns.

I have now :

10 Blue legged hermets
5 snails
(Found a hitchhiker brittle star)
2 clowns
Skunk Cleaner Shrimp

Zoas
Green star polyp
Kenya tree
Pulsing Xenia

Congrats and good luck!

4FordFamily · Oct 30, 2016

My definition of cycled takes about one full year. However if the only cycle you're discussing is the nitrogen cycle as mentioned it's highly unlikely. To be stable especially with fish it will take a lot longer.

Diesel · Oct 30, 2016

Most likely you're good to go.
But start slow as the established eco system as of now needs to get used to what you add in there.
What kind of plans you have on Fish and/or corals?
You have a pic of your tank?

You always can test it by adding a few drops of straight ammonia in there and test for ammonia, test again after 24 hours how much it dropped or where it sit at.