Cycle done in 48 hours?

Warthur · May 31, 2017

hey guys,
I set up a 10g nano for my friend with 15lbs of procured live rock and 20lbs of live sand. He seeded the tank with fluval cycle as well. He threw in a shrimp yesterday. Last night the readings were 3ppm ammonia 0ppm nitrite 0ppm nitrate. This morning it read .5 ppm ammonia 0 ppm nitrite 5 ppm nitrate. I just went over and performed the next test and it came out zero ppm ammonia .25 nitrite and 7.5 nitrate. Could this cycle really be nearly done? I have not taken the shrimp out yet

Tahoe61 · May 31, 2017

I would leave the shrimp in for another day or two and retest.

Warthur · May 31, 2017

Sounds good, I've heard of small nanos cycling quick but never in 2 days. Maybe will add a hermit in a day or two if trend continues

brandon429 · May 31, 2017

remember this catch as well

moving bacteria among tanks never kills the bacteria, it will spike them before it will reduce them through means we cover in large threads.

to me, the key question is whether or not the rocks were already cycled before being moved. that brings into question whether to use anything at all in this system. to do anything cyclewise implies the bacteria cannot transfer without a numerical loss or loss of ability (but the rule says xferring items among tanks adds to bacteria before it will detract from them)

second rule
anywhere there's water there's bacteria, and for there not to be filtration bacteria mixed in with any marine or aquatic bacterial community astounding measures will have to be taken. Its hard to have a wet system and not have bacteria, so by assumption anything wet brings in filtration bacteria. that covers the status of your sandbed in all this, by rule

vdubtech25 · May 31, 2017

Cured live rock might have cause the tank to barely cycle in that sized tank. Id still let the system sit, ghost feed for a few weeks let bacteria die off and populate as needed.

Warthur · May 31, 2017

Rock was precycled, everything in there was. Just wanted to create a mini cycle to ensure the rock and sand was good in the new tank (with traffic drive was 30 minutes to his place out of water) did this to see how large of a die off there was

brandon429 · May 31, 2017

if it helps, I leave my entire tank drained for that long, with corals, fully drained just to condition it

30 mins is ok on the energetic reef front. nature does 8 hours at times or better, my 30 mis is like jumprope

that level of emersion will not kill the bacteria in the rock either, thankfully. I bet it would take a week and for bacteria on the inside, months maybe depending on conditions.
how to skip cycle, always:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-microbiology-of-reef-tank-cycling.214618/

ever wonder how they set up all the tanks at MACNA after moving livestock among states> they give no time for the tanks to settle either. set n go, using that kind of science above.

Mr. Bill · May 31, 2017

Tahoe61 said:
I would leave the shrimp in for another day or two and retest.

Totally agreed. In fact, a week or two would be even better. Although you introduced the biofilter with the live rock, live sand, and additives, they have been disturbed. The entire system needs time to balance and stabilize before introducing livestock.

BoomCorals · May 31, 2017

Skip cycle tank. Totally normal. All you did was move cycled rock and sand to a new location.

ReeferMaddness843 · May 31, 2017

Same concept when I transferred tank. Only had a mini cycle due to new sand, but had enough rock to process any ammonia fast enough to totally skip the cycle. By mini cycle in my case, I mean a quick bout of the uglies on the sand as bacteria colonized there. Diatoms and a small batch of cyano. Diatoms are almost gone and the cyano is on its way out as well. Good husbandry rather than drastic measures is the key if something minor pops up. (Used dry aragonite, not live sand in my case). Transferred from a 90 tall to an 80 shallow in 8hrs with 0 losses or issues.

Bdog4u2 · May 31, 2017

I'd start slowly adding livestock. I fully stocked my sons nano sps tank in a week. if it's processing ammonia already the way it is its fine. I've never cycled a tank in 20 years