New tank cycle

MikeLipyeat · Jul 7, 2013

Hi guys. Before i start i will tell u my set up.... i have a 40gallon tank with cured live rock and coral sand also dried. 2 canister filters, powerhead, uv sterilizer, and inline heater. 2 clownfish, 2 turbo snails, 2 red hermits, 2 cleaner shrimp........being fed on frozen brine shrimp 1nce a day and denitrol bacteria starter daily since day 1... my tank has been running for 2 weeks now, and about 4 days ago my ammonia spiked to 0.5ppm and has stayed there since.my ph is 8.3, nitrite 0.1 and nitrate 0. Salinity 1.023 and temp 79...how long will this ammonia spike last. As i am not wanting to do a water change and upset the cycle as all my livestock seem very happy... any advice?

Mike J. · Jul 7, 2013

Actually you should have cycled the tank before you added the fish. So now you have to keep the fish alive with daily water changes. Remember "the solution to pollution is dilution." I think Anthony Calfo coined that phrase; I've got all his books. Any amount of ammonia is toxic to your fish. Now your in a position that you will have to dilute that poison daily. I'd do 20 % at least water changes a day, or more.

MikeLipyeat · Jul 7, 2013

My local fish shop and experts in the uk recommend cycling with 2 hardy fish. I weighed up both options and went for this one

it going fine atm just wondering how long the ammonia spiking stage lasts? No one seems to have any idea lol

Mike J. · Jul 7, 2013

It'll last long enough to kill your fish if you don't start doing water changes. If you want a typical non-caring answer approximately 10 days.

Mike J. · Jul 7, 2013

There's a lot of people on here that know the answer and have cycled many tanks. I guess here in the U.S. we've advanced past the barbaric stage and don't believe in torturing fish, not even damsels or clownfish. Typically a tank with live rock will take two weeks to cycle and a tank with clean rock and sand will take about four weeks.

glb · Jul 7, 2013

It would be better to take the fish out if you can and do a fishless cycle, which involves adding beneficial bacteria to speed up the cycle. If that's not an option, add the beneficial bacteria in with the fish to speed things up. Also add something like Seachem prime to detoxify ammonia, nitrites and nitrates without stalling the cycle. Also the water changes mentioned above. That will hopefully save your fish. Good luck!

zladson · Jul 7, 2013

Since we are on the topic of cycling here, I have started my cycle yesterday (2x 10 gallon tanks, live rock, medium grain sand). These are going to become my quarantine tanks. I added some salt today to bring up the salinity/gravity and also added some of that bio stuff to decrease the time it takes to cycle. How long would you guess it takes to cycle the tanks. I plan on doing chem tests every other day to be sure levels are good before adding a clean up crew and then fish. This brings up another question can you cycle and have a clean up crew at the same time?

Recap:
Estimated Cycle time?
Clean up crew while cycling?

Mike J. · Jul 7, 2013

You should wait until tank is cycled then add cuc then add fish spread out every couple weeks. You'll want to remove the rocks and sand from the QT tanksbefore using them for QT. You'll need some type of sponge or filter for the bacteria in the QT because there will not be sand or rocks in there.

Mike J. · Jul 7, 2013

Here is a great article.The Mature Aquarium

Clammania · Jul 7, 2013

It might be a while mate. Feed less and good luck. Add some bateria in there to lessen the nutrient swings, less stress for the system.

ajwalker261985 · Jul 8, 2013

No,even here in the uk I got a 40g,live rock,coral sand and I was advised to wait at least 5 weeks to cycle my tank and told to add nithing until it had cycled naturally,just added my first green chromis last week and first couple of critters two weeks ago and all I doing good.i think you been given some bad advice and rushed it all a bit too quickly,a skimmer would have helped with taking the ammonia out if the water too as I noticed you got 2 filters but no skimmer???

glb · Jul 8, 2013

ajwalker261985 said:
No,even here in the uk I got a 40g,live rock,coral sand and I was advised to wait at least 5 weeks to cycle my tank and told to add nithing until it had cycled naturally,just added my first green chromis last week and first couple of critters two weeks ago and all I doing good.i think you been given some bad advice and rushed it all a bit too quickly,a skimmer would have helped with taking the ammonia out if the water too as I noticed you got 2 filters but no skimmer???

We've all been there with the bad advice as beginners. Everyone here wants to help you, so I'd read a lot and you'll figure it out. Good luck!

zladson · Jul 8, 2013

Another New Cycle question has come to mine and the internet is all over the place on this one. Should I water change while cycling a new tank? Again cycling with live rock and sand, no fish.

Mike J. · Jul 8, 2013

When I cycled my tank I did frequent large water changes (two buckets of salt) because I was trying to keep critters on my imported live rock alive through the ammonia spike. If you're cycling clean rock I'd wait until ammonia and nitrites are 0. So, it depends.

nater · Jul 8, 2013

zladson said:
Another New Cycle question has come to mine and the internet is all over the place on this one. Should I water change while cycling a new tank? Again cycling with live rock and sand, no fish.

if using dry rock you should not do a water change. you should add ammonium chloride to your system to reach 4ppm, then add bacteria and sit back and wait. the bacteria will cultivate on your rock and sand , then eat the ammonium chloride and grow. the bi product will be nitrate which will cause more bacteria to grow to eat the nitrate thus producing the final stage of your cycle, Nitrate. once ammonia and nitrite are undetectable and your nitrate is up, then you do a water change and add livestock. all this is done without having a single fish in the tank and is very successful. i am cycling my tank this way right now.

zladson · Jul 8, 2013

Our measurements can be viewed here. This is after one day of cycling. I am just trying to determine if I should water change this weekend. We have two tanks, I suppose we can change on and not the other and see who performs better.