Cycling Help

[kred47]

Sorry if this has been posted before, just want to get a definitive answer. So I just setup a 28g cube tank with dry rock (~25lbs), live sand(~25lbs) and rock from other nano reef for seeding. i used the cocktail shrimp method and after two days my ammonia was at 5.0ppm. As of today it is down to 2ppm and nitrates have climbed to 20ppm. The tank has only been cycling for 6 days but obviously there is presence of nitrifying bacteria from the established rock. My concern is I haven't seen much diatom growth on the new rock, although there is some on the established rock. When ammonia drops to 0 which I assume will be tomorrow is the tank considered cycled? I would like to add my clown and my firefish to the new tank, but I want to make sure it is safe and there wont been an ammonia spike after theyve been in there a couple of days.

 

[brandon429]

the cheap test kit being used to track ammonia (anything other than seneye is cheap, and found in ten thousand ammonia misread threads) may or may not show a drop on day 6 as planned.

but

the time it takes for bacteria from ready rocks to commute over to dry surfaces in the same mix has been charted by Tuffloud to be at maximum 20 days, likely sooner, but nobody has charted it to see if that's faster.

the time it takes for a dry only setup, feed only but no bottle bac is also 20-30 days. so in this arrangement if you wait 20 days you're done, however soon before then is tbd once someone with a seneye checks out day 6, 10 etc.
if your test kit shows a clear discernible color drop soon then I'd agree it is safe, likely because the live component of the mix is pulling all that motion. what % of the rock setup is the skip cycle live portion-half of it? a tenth?

 

[kred47]

the cheap test kit being used to track ammonia (anything other than seneye is cheap, and found in ten thousand ammonia misread threads) may or may not show a drop on day 6 as planned.

but

the time it takes for bacteria from ready rocks to commute over to dry surfaces in the same mix has been charted by Tuffloud to be at maximum 20 days, likely sooner, but nobody has charted it to see if that's faster.

the time it takes for a dry only setup, feed only but no bottle bac is also 20-30 days. so in this arrangement if you wait 20 days you're done, however soon before then is tbd once someone with a seneye checks out day 6, 10 etc.
if your test kit shows a clear discernible color drop soon then I'd agree it is safe, likely because the live component of the mix is pulling all that motion. what % of the rock setup is the skip cycle live portion-half of it? a tenth?

Id say a tenth is about fair. I added about 1 pound of sand from the other tank and 3-4 pounds off rock. I also have filter pads and ruble in my media basket from the other tank as well.

 

[brandon429]

nice. that will certainly transfer to the rest of the surfaces in flow within 20 days. its less than that, but nobody with a seneye has charted it for us to know.

 

[BostonReefer300]

I agree with Brandon. However, if you want to get going immediately, buy a cheap, small bottle of biospira at your pet store and dump it in. You'll be instantly ready to go assuming your other key parameters (temp, salinity, etc.) are on target and stable. Measuring ammonia with anything other than the seneye is a waste of time and unnecessary.

 

[brandon429]

that biospira might be the best. Fritz tested fastest adherence time in Dr Reefs timing measure thread, but it has a finicky storage/fridge requirement and 'spira just sits on the shelf and processes ammonia fast and Dr. Reef measured its deposition onto surfaces in like 3 days or less if I'm not wrong.

the deposition rate honestly doesnt matter that much, that's just the date where a 100% water change will not strip out the cycle and its permanently set in.

once we dump in that 'spira the suspended bacteria would handle any common bioload we'd add anyway. re: fish-in cycles, nobody gets burnt on day one even with zero wait time lol. its good stuff.

Dan in chats has even tested biospira to earn true nitrite control about as fast as it handles ammonia, its good all around stuff for sure.