Please read as the title is a little misleading.....as I’ve waited for my new tank to come in, I’ve cured all my rock. I went from off the charts ammonia to the rock being able to successfully convert ammonia through the nitrogen cycle. I added 2ppm of ammonium chloride to my bucket of curing rock and 24 hours later, I read 0ppm. The tank comes in tomorrow. Super excited! I’ll of course be adding the rock along with CaribSea Fiji Pink live sand. So my question is, how much of a cycle will my tank go through since everything going in is already full of nitrifying bacteria? My thought is that I’ve technically cycled the tank.....or am I missing something? My thought process is this: get the tank setup, add ammonia, and make sure it cycles the way it should and the way it has with the live rock. If it does, all should be good to start slowly adding fish. Right?
Do I need to cycle?
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codytbuckner
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Of course! I’ll make sure to test after setup for any ammonia that may be in the sand, and add enough ammonia to bring it up to 2ppm and make sure it can cycle through it.
AdamB
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Did you check your nitrites as well. Both needs to be at 0 within 24 hrs to be cycled .. You still might have a mini cycle with your tank but you should be okay if you check your nitrites and they were at 0 as well.
codytbuckner
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Yes. Yesterday at noon water read 0ppm ammonia and nitrites. I added 2ppm of ammonia and today at noon it was 0ppm for both. I’m doing another round today to make sure before the tank comes in tomorrow and to keep feeding the bacteria, but it seems that it’s cycling well.
