Cycle question please help

[op6rigo]

Good morning,

I set up my tank on January 7 and today is January 20
I tested my water parameters and ammonia is zero. Nitrite is zero and nitrate is between 0ppm and 5ppm.

30 gallon tank eith live sand and aqua culture purple live rock. Can i add fish or do i need to phantom feed as i have seen no spike in ammonia or nitrite.

Thanks

 

[beaslbob]

I suspect you'll still have a cycle.

That said you could try a single male molly and don't add food for the first week.

that will kick off the cycle, the molly with graze on algae, and generally get thing growing.

If you have some local friends with refugiums, I would add some macro algae to help things out.

my .02

 

[op6rigo]

Its a saltwater tank guy

 

[tankstudy]

I would recommend testing out how strong your bacteria load is. Buy some type ammonia source, I personally use mine from Dr.Tims because its comes in a known concentration, and test your bacteria load. If it can process 1-2 ppm of ammonia within 24 hours you are ready for livestock. From my own experimentation, do not exceed 2 ppm of ammonia with any ammonia source you use to test. This stalls/messes up your cycle.

 

[joshkirkland83]

Its a saltwater tank guy

Yeah, mollies can live in saltwater.

 

[Jlobes]

have you been adding ammonia? what are you using to cycle and feed the bacteria/tank?

best way to tell/know if your tank is ready, is to do a digestion test. Add a specified amount of ammonia, test the tank. Wait 24 hours and retest tank for ammonia and nitrites, if both ammonia and nitrites are zero in a 24hour period, youre ready to go. if not, keep waiting/feeding until this is possible.

and lastly, dont rush it!! slower is better in this hobby.

also, do you have a QT for your new inhabitants?

 

[brandon429]

this pic was posted in a recent thread right just to check memory
http://reef2reef.com/threads/new-ta...d-cocktail-shrimp-live-rock-no-shrimp.214618/


you don't have to feed, add ammonia, or anything to the existing bacteria.

 

[op6rigo]

Brandon yes this was posted i learned alot from your response. I guess my question is how do i know the bacteria is sufficient? All levels keep reading zero across the board

 

[Jlobes]

this pic was posted in a recent thread right? I believe we covered this link below in that alt thread
http://reef2reef.com/threads/new-ta...d-cocktail-shrimp-live-rock-no-shrimp.214618/

you don't have to feed, add ammonia, or anything to the existing bacteria.

what existing bacteria is on this rock? are you implying that the bacteria never need to be fed and can live/thrive without a food source? w/o doing a digestion test, how can one know that the tank is sufficiently processing waste in an allotted time frame?

 

[tankstudy]

Brandon yes this was posted i learned alot from your response. I guess my question is how do i know the bacteria is sufficient? All levels keep reading zero across the board

If your bacteria density can process 1-2 ppm of ammonia to nitrite to nitrate in a day, it can easily sustain 1-2 clown fish or smaller species of fish, assuming you don't massively over feed with the new fish.

If your bacteria density is unable to process 1-2 ammonia within a day, you will need to grow more bacteria. You can do so by just using the ammonia source.

I would also recommend looking at Dr. Tims guide on dosing if you need more bacteria grown. There are certain water parameters that need to be kept correct in order for you to grow your bacteria efficiently.

 

[beaslbob]

Its a saltwater tank guy

So?

FWIW a somewhat dirty little secret is:

Fw mollies can be acclimated to full marine and even reproduce in that environment.

Much better than testing the system with a more expensive marine only fish.

This is not to make a saltwater molly tank but to get the system going for the marine fish.

my .02

 

[beaslbob]

Yeah, mollies can live in saltwater.

woopsies.

read this later after posting .

 

[brandon429]

getting other opinions is great too, a prep to be sure.

The specific way you know its ready if you must test is to add ammonia into the tank full of water, sand, and rock and use a non API test kit to see if its zero in 24 hours. if there are living organisms beyond coralline on that rock, then you would just simply begin reefing and not burn them with a test. **other people have tested group B rocks online for decades, you dont have to burn yours**

surely you kept it all full running with water so far, right? can you post an updated shot of the tank running as it is now?

The thread says that if your live rock isn't leaking ammonia (non API test reading) and if you have living creatures we reviewed as verifiers, you can literally begin reefing. go buy some zoanthids and go to town, which fish you use doesn't matter, as the rocks filter just as well now as they do in nine years.

Be sure and read in my links the actual real threads we worked this info in, my recommends are not just words although when they are its in bulk real scenarios are linked to back every claim.

 

[brandon429]

Jlobes, yes Im implying most of that but differently than your summary

-its not to be all rogue and crazy, its a microbiology take we can verify or discount.

The bacteria get myriad support we haven't considered, and you were implying is missing unless the keeper does X action, consider this but only as one of many self supporting pathways for the bac:

-do any animals on live rock respire vs photosynthesize? what is the waste product of aerobic respiration?
-are there any other bacteria on live rock that are not nitrifiers, or even marine bacteria at all? if they die in cycles, and deaminate in decay, whats the fuel that's leaked for the nitrifiers who are there right in proximity?


we do not digestion test live rock with living benthics unless burning them temporarily is the goal, and redundantly testing that which we already fully know (all bacteria present and ready) there are enough posts online of this type of redundancy, such that they will stand in for him burning his creatures above to be triply-redundant.

if he tests, his findings will be the same, always, so we offer to not burn the living verifiers and instead just make sure the current rock is leaking ammonia overcoming the nitrifiers, then treat it as if its a hundred years old and get going as one would from the verified systems we see routinely.

the reason you don't have to test group B rocks is covered in the link in great detail, and open to debate for sure, but its the fact that coralline and benthic life means the live rock is as good as it gets as a filter. true porous LR has football fields of surface area that stay covered in filtration bacteria whether its in high or low bioload tank, no portion goes sterile in the low bioload condition.

 

[op6rigo]

The tank looks identical to the original day i set it up

 

[op6rigo]

Brandon is there a store brand ammonia i can add to this tank

 

[brandon429]

Wait sorry!!!!!!
I couldn't see the water line here I assumed you had this in a dry tank lol ok back on track

 

[brandon429]

You definitely start now, the wait was ready on day 1, now, or 90 days from now, all with no bacterial loss if it just sits there. Literally start any time. reef lightly and enjoy. my first corals was a pack of zoanthids, mushrooms, rics, candy corals and they lived ten years.


The ammonia is Dr Tims, get that from a pet store or online if you must test.

begs the question

So you have a non API test kit? that was positioned as among the most important details in the entire thread

 

[Salty1962]

I used Dr. Tim's and it works great. Started my cycle and tested ammonia breakdown with it. Really cheap.