Please confirm parameters and next steps

[Starkrost]

This is Day 2 of a brand spankin’ new, first time ever, reef. I’ve read the various articles on cycling and now I’m even more confused. I used live Fiji Pink sand and LifeRock. Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are all 0. pH is 8.1. Temp is 77.5. All zeroes is correct at the beginning, right? Now the cycle will slowly start? I don’t really want to add anything out of a bottle. I’d rather just watch the natural progression of the cycle. So doing nothing other than watching and waiting is my course of action, right? What about turning on the lights? Thanks!!

 

[cvrle1]

In order for cycle to start you need to have source of ammonia. Without it, you will never start the cycle. Few different ways of going about that:

Ghost feeding, using shrimp or adding pure ammonia.

See here for lot more info and benefits and drawbacks of each: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/cycling-an-aquarium.306554/

 

[SMSREEF]

You have a couple ways to start the bacteria growing. You can either get a piece of shrimp and put it in the tank or you can get some of Dr Tim's ammonia and dose it to about 2ppm.

This will give the right food for the first bacteria to grow which is ammonia. Bacteria break this down to nitrite. You will then get bacteria to grow that break nitrite down to nitrate.

Edit: I must have been typing when the above was posted. Good info there.

 

[Starkrost]

Thanks!

 

[PatW]

I use Dr Tims as an ammonia source. You can get a bottle of a bacteria culture from your LFS jump start the process. Or you can just let the bacteria develop on it own. The bacteria for the nitrifying cycle are pretty much everywhere.