Cycling oddity, have some questions.

[FunWithFishes]

Hey everyone. So I started my tank Friday (4 days ago) it is a 55 gallon acrylic. It has about 3 inches of live sand (I want some gobies, which I was told need a deep sand bed) and about 30 pounds of live rock that came pre-cured from the store.

So I have been testing my ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates and expected to either get no readings or the ammonia to go up. However, every day I have gotten no ammonia, no nitrites, and about 10 ppm of nitrates. Everything I read says that once the nitrates appear and everything else is 0, the tank is cycled, but I had assumed that even pre-cured live rock would still have to cure in a new tank.

So my question is: does that mean my tank likely won't go through a cycle since enough of the live rock survived to compensate the die-off?

Also, does my set up sound good (enough live rock, deep enough sand, etc)?

 

[Scott.h]

Neither will go up (unless you have die off from something on the rocks) until you increase the bacteria load with a fish. As long as the dust has settled you could add a fish and let it go for a few weeks. You could also add "Dr tims one and only" if you are worried about it. Keep in mind once the tank is "cycled" it is only cycled to the point of its current bio load, and its not a green light to add multiple fish. This is what many do, and what starts a chain effect of problems for the future. With every thing you add, wait a few weeks to add something else to let your bacteria catch up. Especially with limited water volume and rock.

 

[brandon429]

a better way to see your cycle involves ammonia and not nitrate or nitrite at all, we don't test for them in cycling here below.


https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-microbiology-of-reef-tank-cycling.214618/

I wrote that thread solely for your type of thread FWF hope that helps. a bit long, but all confirming as to why you have no cycle at all. we rely on that biology to set up tanks at marine conventions, to move tanks, to upgrade or downgrade or setup hospital tanks. you are skip cycling, its not luck its a design. a single tank cleaning event in my old reef is orders harsher than you transporting rocks home from a pet store and back into water.






if your rock is group B its ready and you don't need to confirm anything, you just reef like if a mini aquarium convention was just set up at your house.

 

[FunWithFishes]

Thank you both for your replies. I will make sure to progress very slowly from here on out. Im thinking of a yellowtailed damsel for my first fish. I read they are very tough and can survive less than ideal waters, so will help me make sure the cycle is good.

 

[underdog493]

You could add a cooked shrimp to the tank to add something to the bioload.

 

[beaslbob]

Hey everyone. So I started my tank Friday (4 days ago) it is a 55 gallon acrylic. It has about 3 inches of live sand (I want some gobies, which I was told need a deep sand bed) and about 30 pounds of live rock that came pre-cured from the store.

So I have been testing my ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates and expected to either get no readings or the ammonia to go up. However, every day I have gotten no ammonia, no nitrites, and about 10 ppm of nitrates. Everything I read says that once the nitrates appear and everything else is 0, the tank is cycled, but I had assumed that even pre-cured live rock would still have to cure in a new tank.

So my question is: does that mean my tank likely won't go through a cycle since enough of the live rock survived to compensate the die-off?

Also, does my set up sound good (enough live rock, deep enough sand, etc)?

with cycled live rock full of algae (corraline or otherwise), it is possible you have the silent cycle going on. I also call it the ghost or planted cycle.

What happens is the plant life (FW plants, or marine algae) will consume ammonia for its nitrogen forgoing nitrates. Then as aerobic bacteria build up and consume the ammonia, the plant life reluctancy is forced to start using nitrates for nitrogen.

I have see you type of cycle many time in FW planted tanks (and a couple of marine tanks). With a fish load present. In about 3 weeks the nitrates drop down indicating the cycle has matured.

You could wait until the nitrates drop down and then introduce a single male molly. And see if nitrates bump up again.

then once you get the molly to live for a few weeks, take it back to the LFS and get the more expensive and more delicate marine only fish.

my .02

 

[FunWithFishes]

Thank you for that. I hadn't heard of that.

 

[beaslbob]

Thank you for that. I hadn't heard of that.

Understand completely.

Many many very experienced and successful reef guys have not heard of that either.

In my case I have been running fw planted tanks for literally decades before I heard that. Well each tank for only a single decade. LOL

my .02

 

[brandon429]

a very fun google scholar search would be to find which grouping has the quicker uptake abilities for raw ammonia...plant incorporation into matrix or bacteria/metabolism I must vote bac but I haven't searched. w be a fun read to find the answer.



when we skip cycle a reef tank using typically purple coralline rock, or verified cured rock (which can be without coralline agreed) it has no ammonia phase due to excessive active surface area and bacteria that rode over in the transfer

Uncured ocean rock with so many plants you can't see rock surface may very well grab the ammonia first, or in the cases where the keeper inputs lots of macros agree that can create an uptake with measurable benefits

most of the time people want certain levels of ammonia when cycling dry materials, the uptake from plants is a little counterproductive at those times but not in a big way/ once we hydrate a surface, that cycle is coming regardless of what we do. all we're doing is altering time.


for moving live rocks among tanks, and absorbing spikes of ammonia created by worms that died, plants would be ideal shock absorbers.

I too use BB's mode in my planted tanks. I don't cycle marine or planted setups, I use plants and or transferred bacteria depending on substrate availabilities at the time of the build.