cycling my tank

kurtkont · Jul 15, 2013

hey everyone,

I am new to the hobby. I am cycling my tank like i have read and everyone has said for me to do. I used live sand live rock and four damsels. my question is when the levels are spiking how big of a jump will it be? i feel like they have started but im not sure.

eliramos · Jul 15, 2013

uh oh so youre not supposed to add anything living until the levels stabilize which is usually a two week to a month period.
by using fish you are technically speeding up the cycle but it may cost you some fish.

Reefing Madness · Jul 15, 2013

Everyones tank is different, no ones numbers will be the same, but you will see Ammonia run up, then Nitrites then Nitrates, the end product. When you see only Nitrates and the other 2 numbers have fallen off, your cycle is done.

kurtkont · Jul 15, 2013

I was prepared that I was going to loose fish. I'm just not seeing a real high influx in my levels is it possible that they haven't started to spike yet?

uall8up · Jul 15, 2013

How long have you been cycling?

kurtkont · Jul 15, 2013

Missy I have been cycling for about 2 weeks now. I want to start adding things to my tank but I'm afraid it's to soon. All my levels stabled out and are looking good. But they were never horrible to start with from what I am understanding.

Reefing Madness · Jul 15, 2013

Welp, if you used Fully Cured Live Rock, your not going to see any jump in numbers, as the bacteria is already present to keep the tank from cycling. For being into it for 2 weeks, you shoulda seen something by now, especially if you have fish in there. So i'd say your already good to go.

zoechance · Jul 15, 2013

poor fish... just saying....

kurtkont · Jul 15, 2013

All the fish are still living... I was told to put them in there was told it would help a lot. They are damsels a hardy fish. I did enough research on them before I put them in there.

zoechance · Jul 15, 2013

kurtkont said:
All the fish are still living... I was told to put them in there was told it would help a lot. They are damsels a hardy fish. I did enough research on them before I put them in there.

Good News.....

zladson · Jul 16, 2013

I had my QT tanks cycle in 6 days. No fish were used and I have a zoa that has been doing fine in one of them for about 3 days now. Currently the DT is cycling.

BCN_Sumps · Jul 16, 2013

Did you use any "stability" or other quick cycle additives?

nater · Jul 16, 2013

i used all live rock from my lfs and a friend who gave established live rock. i went bare bottom. there was no cycle and i added a fish right away , had coral in the following day or so and everything is just fine today. never had one bit of an algae bloom. here is a shot of my 34 gallon. if you used real live sand , and actual live rock that had minimal to no die off, then your cycle was complete from the beginning. yes , you may have some cycle with lets say the actual tank itself , plastic , glass ect, but with the use of the right amount of gfo that can be subdued.

ajwalker261985 · Jul 16, 2013

+1 that you shouldn't of added anything until its done cycling,when I cycled my tank for the first time I hardly saw any spike as I used fully cured rock and if you have your skimmer on at the same time as cycling you may not see a spike at all as the skimmer would be taking it all out.

ReeferBob · Jul 16, 2013

kurtkont said:
All the fish are still living... I was told to put them in there was told it would help a lot. They are damsels a hardy fish. I did enough research on them before I put them in there.

Told by who, the petstore? Also did you give any though to what you want in the tank long term? Damsels are territorial and can be aggressive fish to their own kind and other species. What was your long term plan for stocking the tank? Just flush the damsels?

glb · Jul 16, 2013

ReeferBob said:
Told by who, the petstore? Also did you give any though to what you want in the tank long term? Damsels are territorial and can be aggressive fish to their own kind and other species. What was your long term plan for stocking the tank? Just flush the damsels?

The current trend among many if not most aquarists is fishless cycles. There's bacteria you can buy to help cycle the tank. Damsels used to be used for cycles because there was no other option. Respectfully, I think the Lfs gave you dated advice. Even if fish are hardy, cycling is tough on them, and now that there's another option, my thought is why put them through that if you don't have to? Good luck.

jservedio · Jul 16, 2013

When I set up my 20g it was cycled in 5 days using decent live rock with little die off and my ammonia never got above 0.25ppm, never saw nitrite, and nitrates weren't very high either. I had some zoas on my LR when it came from the LFS and they survived the "cycle" (they didn't survive the Kalk paste to blast those ugly suckers though).

If you started with quality rock/sand, you may never see a cycle. It is really hard to buy uncured rock anymore from your LFS - so most of the time your cycle will be super short. The damsels were a waste. You are certainly ready to add stuff to the tank as long as you don't have ammonia.

You might want to start with a CUC because you will probably get a diatom bloom really soon, even if using RODI, that will burn up any silicates that were initially in the tank.