jswo
Community Member
I started a 29 biocube 2 1/2 weeks ago with live sand. Exactly one week later added 10 lbs live rock and 10 lbs dead rock and waited 3 days to start testing my ph has been 8.2 , salinity 1.025, ammonia only got to .50 ppm at worst and now is very close to 0 not even half way to .25 ppm by chart and nitrite only got to .50 ppm at worst now at 0 and nitrate was at 10 ppm yesterday now at between 0 and .5 ppm today. Have not done any water changes yet and only added ro water to top off. Also using filter floss and haven't changed it in 1 week. Wondering what I'm doing wrong don't think it could cycle that quick, I'm using the API master test kit and this is my second saltwater setup last was 75 gallon.
... ugh. My tank went from a nice slow soft cycle to red water day 1, day 3 clear water, day 4 brown muck on every lighted surface, LOL. 1 week after that and the brown is starting to receed, so my good bacteria is finally taking over vs the algae/diatoms 
. With a good mix of live it's possible to not get a very strong cycle. Most of it will be from die-off on the live-rock that's come to your tank and bacteria will need to multiply enough to take care of that. ghost feeding makes the cycle more obvious, but truly all you need is a large supply of good bacteria, and that takes time with or without large swings in tank parameters. Heck, Even swapping from a 29G to a 55G using the same sand, rock, and water, and adding more dry rock I still had to go through a small diatom bloom and a large cyano outbreak. Granted, I never had the cyano outbreak in the 29G even at the 1yr mark. My tank was rather well stocked (lightly) and then ramped up a bit when I moved to the 55. Basically at that point I pushed it past what the bacteria I had could handle and started a cycle all over again. Lost almost all of my livestock, and got out of the hobby not long after... :/. Never again will I straight swap to another tank without cycling it first 
