I am new to the hobby and purchased a 125 gallon used tank. I set it up 3 weeks ago. I used 125+ pounds of live rock and 100 lbs live sand straight out of an existing system. I have a protein skimmer, macro algae, and a refugium full of rock that had been dried out. When I filled the tank I used 100 gallons of ro/di water and 25 gallons from previous owners tank. After 2 weeks I added 12 black mollies and a clean up crew of snails, crabs, etc. Ammonia, Nitrate, and Nitrite levels never went over 0. Last week I added 3 small yellow tangs, and 2 baby (1-1.5 inch) clown fish. I've been testing water every other day, no movement on water chemistry. Tested water today and ammonia was at .5 ppm. Prepared 25 gallons of new water for water change. Just tested water again (4hrs later) and ammonia was 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0. Everything I've seen said I should see raise in nitrate once ammonia goes away. Is this cycled properly? Or should I expect a nitrite/nitrate spike before I should consider the process over?
Cycled?
- Thread starter Danny N
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Whatnow
Active Member
Possibly the bacteria could have been catching up with the increased bioload.
This covers your kind of setup
http://reef2reef.com/threads/new-ta...d-cocktail-shrimp-live-rock-no-shrimp.214618/
You may not see nitrate due to dilution. If you aren't adding a notable source of ammonia the small amounts from the mollies probably won't convert into enough nitrate for api to register.
The chances your tank is cycled is high, and minor test variances at low levels is common with api
The ammonia digestion test is the specific way to know when a cycle is complete.
http://reef2reef.com/threads/new-ta...d-cocktail-shrimp-live-rock-no-shrimp.214618/
You may not see nitrate due to dilution. If you aren't adding a notable source of ammonia the small amounts from the mollies probably won't convert into enough nitrate for api to register.
The chances your tank is cycled is high, and minor test variances at low levels is common with api
The ammonia digestion test is the specific way to know when a cycle is complete.
Davileet
Active Member
Why do you expect a cycle if you transferred rock and sand that is already cycled? If it was transferred within the same day, you probably won't have a cycle of any kind. If it took a while for the rock and sand to transfer, you would have die off and you're tank would not be inhabitable. So I am guessing you will not have a cycle and are good to go. I think that if your fish are doing okay, you are fine. If the fish start to stress and sit in a corner of the tank then you are having some problems.
A new, cycled aquarium will have a zero reading for Nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia. From here the nitrates will slowly increase.
A new, cycled aquarium will have a zero reading for Nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia. From here the nitrates will slowly increase.
