No ammonia showing in cycle.

[JacksonReef]

I have a 13 gallon evo aquarium it has been 'cycling' for 4 days. Lfs gave me a tiny piece of krill to start the cycle also I purchased a bottle of aquavitro seed I have been dosing for every day of the 4. No ammonia is showing in the API test I do 2 test each time to double check? Please help also my skimmer is still producing micro bubbles thanks.

 

[saltyphish]

Most likely your cycle is already past the ammonia stage. If your live rock was already cured, with the added bacteria in a bottle your bacteria is already growing nicely

 

[JacksonReef]

Most likely your cycle is already past the ammonia stage. If your live rock was already cured, with the added bacteria in a bottle your bacteria is already growing nicely

Great when would you say start adding slowly.

 

[saltyphish]

When you have no detectable ammonia and nitrites. Start slow as you mentioned adding only a fish or two. I ussually add my cuc first.

 

[brandon429]

was this live rock with coralline and growths on it? or barren dry white rock you started with?

 

[Reefnewb]

You could have gotten completely live live rock... sometimes the cycle is t as long if nothing dies off. But depending on what sand you used It could spark a mini cycle... that or your cycle didn't happen yet! Id play it safe and wait a full week or two. Better to play it safe than sorry!

 

[JacksonReef]

was this live rock with coralline and growths on it? or barren dry white rock you started with?

I used live sand and cured live rock.

 

[brandon429]

I never cycle a reef tank, I just start reefing using that exact combo. I don't even transport the rocks home nicely, usually they're in a pile in my trunk in the air.

if concerned, people can bring them home wet but it wont matter either way, never has for me. sounds like you skip cycled

they do this at big marine aquarium conventions where instant setup tanks have to sustain thousands of dollars of overpriced bounce mushrooms

 

[JacksonReef]

I never cycle a reef tank, I just start reefing using that exact combo. I don't even transport the rocks home nicely, usually they're in a pile in my trunk in the air.

if concerned, people can bring them home wet but it wont matter either way, never has for me. sounds like you skip cycled

they do this at big marine aquarium conventions where instant setup tanks have to sustain thousands of dollars of overpriced bounce mushrooms

By skipping you mean basically had little effects correct?

 

[Brew12]

By skipping you mean basically had little effects correct?

Cycling is such a bad term for this. It gets the name from the fact that it is about establishing the "nitrogen cycle", not because it is a cycle your tank must go through. It is all about having the bacteria populations you need for your bio load.
Like Brandon said, if you started with live rock and didn't dry it out, you should have all of the bacteria you need.. so you "skipped the cycle". Bacteria are resilient lil buggers so if your live rock was already cured you are just fine.

 

[brandon429]

yep for sure. I just kicked up a huge cycling thread below this one on the matter, we were showing how moving rocks among tanks, even from pet store to home, doesn't ever kill bacteria. The reason you have no ammonia is because nothing died and theres still the same bacteria as there was before the move.

many people claim small spikes in ammonia from moving rocks, and coincidentally they are always reported as the exact same measure among tanks, .25, and we talked in the thread how that was misreading and not really true ammonia.

sometimes during rock transfers a large worm can die inside a hole, but it will never manifest as a constant .25 rating across 1000 tanks so the real hard part of cycling is knowing where you can trust bac to be, and remain, and how to ID false low level ammonia readings so we don't second guess!!