No ammonia spike

[Mmsetta]

I have had my tank up for about two months and have never had an ammonia spike.

38g- 30lbs Marco dry rock, 10lbs Fuji live from lfs.

Tried to cycle one month with just live rock- nothing

Added a damsel and 5 snails for about a week - nothing.

Added two clowns and 5 more snails for the last couple weeks - still 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite. Nitrate is low too.

I have purple algae starting my Marco rocks so that's good. Skimmer is pulling a little bit of muck, but not much.

Worried that all of a sudden I will have a spike And kill my clowns or that I will just have an unstable tank in general.

Any suggestions? Should I continue to run my skimmer? Should I wait till nitrates go up to do any water changes? (No water changes yet).

 

[oicani]

When you add live rock or live sand you don't cycle your tank because the bacteria your looking to create with cycling is already present in the live rock. At this point, just keep up with your water changes and testing.

 

[Mmsetta]

That's what my lfs said, but thought they might be trying to sell me fish right then. Thanks. Should I wait till nitrates go up to do water change or just get on a weekly schedule?

 

[Gadsby15]

Don't worry about it mate, my tank never had an ammonia spike either, if you had good quality live rock this is probably the reason. As long as you don't add to much live stock too soon you will not get an ammonia spike.
Just keep doing your scheduled water changes and enjoy it!!!

 

[Gadsby15]

Beaten to the reply lol, need o speed up typing on the iPad

 

[oicani]

Like Gadsby and I are saying... Stay on top of the water changes... Waiting to do that can spell disaster! Don't wait for increase levels when you have livestock in the tank.

 

[Mmsetta]

Awesome! Thanks for the feedback

 

[oicani]

Some additional info: Ammonia is very toxic to fish. Even at low readings .25-2.0 ppm is dangerous. Over feeding, too many fish in the tank, or too much animal or plant waste will cause ammonia spikes. Nitrite is just as dangerous for fish, but in new tanks it's common to see levels go up to 10-20 ppm especially of your filtration & rock hasn't been established with enough bacteria yet to consume the nitrite. Keep in mind there's different bacteria at work. Oxygen-loving bacteria called Nitrosomonas covert ammonia to nitrite. A different bacteria called Nitrobacter will then convert nitrite to nitrate. Once your new tank is established you won't see elevated levels in ammonia or nitrite especially if your doing your regular water changes, but keep in mind the end of the nitrogen cycle is nitrate. If you start to see algae growth, this is one indicator to know you have nitrogen cycle at work. The trick then, is making sure you keep algae under control. A phosphate test kit may be beneficial to you. Also, how you filter your water for water changes contributes to phosphate control as well as other methods can help as well.

 

[Mmsetta]

Thanks. So, actually I did have a lot of hair algae. The turbo snails are making good work of that. I do have some phosphate but nothing too bad. I am going to check nitrites and amonia again tonight. I notice a good amount of purple algae and some more green (though not hair algae) on my other rocks. Maybe this is a sign of a good cycle going now. I will begin my weekly 10% water changes now. FYI, only using rodi from my lfs. Fish look very healthy so far. Woo hoo!