Cycling Question

[mikenestle]

I started cycling a 120 with live sand and live rock on December 15th. Have brown algae on the glass and diatoms on the sand for about a week.

This morning the diatoms are going away and seeing some green growth.

The entire time I haven't had any readings of ammonia, nitrates or nitrites.

I am used to freshwater tanks where you see big spikes.

How do I know when the tank is finished cycling? I won't be adding fish for at least 6 weeks but this has me curious.

 

[MaiReef]

Do you have the lights on or off?

Try ghost feeding daily with the lights off. That should spike your ammonia a bit at least.

 

[glb]

Agree with ghost feeding. Since you used live rock/sand, your cycle may be very short. Good luck!

 

[Brew12]

I started cycling a 120 with live sand and live rock on December 15th. Have brown algae on the glass and diatoms on the sand for about a week.

This morning the diatoms are going away and seeing some green growth.

The entire time I haven't had any readings of ammonia, nitrates or nitrites.

I am used to freshwater tanks where you see big spikes.

How do I know when the tank is finished cycling? I won't be adding fish for at least 6 weeks but this has me curious.

What you are seeing is very normal. As long as you had high quality live rock, and it hadn't dried out, it should have all the nitrifying bacteria you need. If you would have used dry rock and sand like you would typically do in a freshwater tank you would have seen those spikes.

The most likely reason you are not seeing any nitrates is that it is the food your algae is using to grow.

 

[mikenestle]

I am cycling with lights on. The rock didn't dry out the LFS brought it in bins of water.

I knew I wasn't going to see much but was expecting something.

 

[tankstudy]

I started cycling a 120 with live sand and live rock on December 15th. Have brown algae on the glass and diatoms on the sand for about a week.

This morning the diatoms are going away and seeing some green growth.

The entire time I haven't had any readings of ammonia, nitrates or nitrites.

I am used to freshwater tanks where you see big spikes.

How do I know when the tank is finished cycling? I won't be adding fish for at least 6 weeks but this has me curious.

Your not going to see much of any of the three (Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate) if your live rock and sand contain a good amount of bacteria. However, the diatoms and green algae help indicate you did at some point.

I would recommend getting some known concentration of ammonia and dosing it into your tank. This way, you know how much bacteria you actually have versus using a shrimp. With a shrimp, you really don't know how much bacteria you have cause you really have no idea how much ammonia your dosing with a shrimp at the start. I would recommend Dr. Tim's Ammonium Chloride. You can get that off amazon.

If you follow the directions on the bottle, dose your tank to 2 ppm. Do not dose and test to see if it reaches 2 PPM, this will mess up your cycle. If its 1 drop per gallon to equal 2 ppm and you have a 10 gallon tank. Do just 10 drops. Do not keep adding drops and testing till your tank reads out 2 ppm ammonia.

If your tank can convert 2 ppm ammonia ->nitrite-> nitrate in 24 hours, your tank is pretty well cycled at this point and can sustain fish and corals. Some people like to grow even more bacteria and continue to dose the ammonia source up to 3-4 ppm ammonia to get a really solid bacteria population so they can introduce a ton of fish and corals at once.

 

[Brew12]

Your not going to see much of any of the three (Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate) if your live rock and sand contain a good amount of bacteria. However, the diatoms and green algae help indicate you did at some point.

I would recommend getting some known concentration of ammonia and dosing it into your tank. This way, you know how much bacteria you actually have versus using a shrimp. With a shrimp, you really don't know how much bacteria you have cause you really have no idea how much ammonia your dosing with a shrimp at the start. I would recommend Dr. Tim's Ammonium Chloride. You can get that off amazon.

If you follow the directions on the bottle, dose your tank to 2 ppm. Do not dose and test to see if it reaches 2 PPM, this will mess up your cycle. If its 1 drop per gallon to equal 2 ppm and you have a 10 gallon tank. Do just 10 drops. Do not keep adding drops and testing till your tank reads out 2 ppm ammonia.

If your tank can convert 2 ppm ammonia ->nitrite-> nitrate in 24 hours, your tank is pretty well cycled at this point and can sustain fish and corals. Some people like to grow even more bacteria and continue to dose the ammonia source up to 3-4 ppm ammonia to get a really solid bacteria population so they can introduce a ton of fish and corals at once.

This +1

Cycling in a salt water aquarium can be a bit confusing. If you can dose ammonia to 2ppm and it drops down to 0 in 24 hours you know without a doubt your tank has enough nitrifying bacteria to support fish.

Dr Tims ammonium chloride is great because you know it is reef safe and it is 1 drop per gallon to get to 2ppm. Make it easy. Ace Hardware does carry a pure ammonia product you can use also, but there is math involved in how much to add based on it's concentration. You also have to watch out and make sure you don't get an ammonia cleaner with soap in it. That can be a disaster. Most "Clear Ammonia" products do have soap added so what you find in your grocery store, Lowes, or Home Depot are typically not safe to use.

 

[mikenestle]

Thanks I will do that. I am sure with what I am seeing the tank is cycling.

I am not concerned about adding a bunch of livestock at once.

I am going to QT for 30 days minimum and never more than 2 fish at once. I don't even have my first fish in QT yet.

I am going SLOW. The tanks I see here are inspiring and I am looking long term and the big picture.

 

[brandon429]

one of the coolest cycling tricks involves coralline algae

if you have some on your rock that means something for sure about the presence of bacteria, and if you don't have some, then it might also mean something about duration of the cycle lol.

so, do you have pics of the rock

 

[glb]

Sounds like you're almost done. Good luck!