Tank cycled in three days?

[Jakepen]

Ridiculous title get your attention? I have a innovative marine, fusion 30 long. It's filled with dry Pukani, and Carib sea alive sand, 30lbs. I'm using the Red Sea reef mature pro kit to cycle the tank. Following the dosing, and in on day three now. Tested ammonia and it was very low, under 1. So I figured I would check the trites, and they were present. So I decided to check the nitrates, and the are high! Around 30ppm I would say (see picture). It seems so unlikely, but is my tank; I don't want to say cycled, but cycled? Or in the process at least? Seems to quick..

 

[brandon429]

It means the sand is doing most of the work that's all. Since your rock history is known, you need to cycle them too so it carries fish bioloading easy, what your sand can do is likely closer to maxed

 

[Jakepen]

It means the sand is doing most of the work that's all. Since your rock history is known, you need to cycle them too so it carries fish bioloading easy, what your sand can do is likely closer to maxed

So my sand will keep getting rid of small amounts of ammonia, but to large amount of ammonia will stick around for a bit longer? In other words, my tank is not cycled, not fish ready.

 

[jetmaker]

I would add some bio speria it be ready about a week

 

[Jakepen]

I would add some bio speria it be ready about a week

Well I was going to get the bio Spira, but BRS didn't have the 250ml bottle. So I picked up the red see reef mature pro kit. It seems pretty promising so far.

 

[jetmaker]

Yeah that works

 

[brandon429]

Jake this is handy because it tells the start date as a specific measure
http://reef2reef.com/threads/new-ta...d-cocktail-shrimp-live-rock-no-shrimp.214618/

 

[Jakepen]

Is it normal for the water to be yellowish? I just started running carbon about 12 hours ago.

 

[brandon429]

Yep that's all normal it's likely organic stuff leaching from the rock as it cures and it can also be light algae blooms combined from running full on lighting if that's the case

 

[Jakepen]

Yep that's all normal it's likely organic stuff leaching from the rock as it cures and it can also be light algae blooms combined from running full on lighting if that's the case

I'm keeping the lights off. Thank you for the reply. This is so exciting!

 

[Lonny]

Lights off for sure. Ammonia and nitrite will be zero when it cycles. If your curing the rock in the tank it might take longer to cycle. Pukani has a ton dead stuff on it so watch out for algae blooms! Check out brandon42 120 slow build.

 

[Jakepen]

Lights off for sure. Ammonia and nitrite will be zero when it cycles. If your curing the rock in the tank it might take longer to cycle. Pukani has a ton dead stuff on it so watch out for algae blooms! Check out brandon42 120 slow build.

I actually soaked the Pukani for two weeks, than bleached it, I than dunked it in muriatic acid for a couple of hours, than soaked it for 24 hours. Tried my best to get all the dead stuff off, but I'm sure there is still some stuff that will leach out.

 

[Lonny]

I actually soaked the Pukani for two weeks, than bleached it, I than dunked it in muriatic acid for a couple of hours, than soaked it for 24 hours. Tried my best to get all the dead stuff off, but I'm sure there is still some stuff that will leach out.

Oh ok. Your fine than. I cured my pukani for six weeks while getting everything ready. An acid dip did the trick for sure. And it is exciting! I think that's the reason so many veteran refers like the build threads is because starting a new reef is very exciting[emoji6] fwiw my 130gl cycled in four weeks three days

 

[Jakepen]

Oh ok. Your fine than. I cured my pukani for six weeks while getting everything ready. An acid dip did the trick for sure. And it is exciting! I think that's the reason so many veteran refers like the build threads is because starting a new reef is very exciting[emoji6] fwiw my 130gl cycled in four weeks three days

What method did you use to cycle? Like I said, I'm using the Red Sea reef mature kit. What I don't like about it is, I just tested my ammonia and it is reading zero. And it doesn't tell me to dose, very small amount until tomorrow. Doesn't seem I will build a very strong system, dosing my ammonia to .5 every time. I have pure ammonia, which I planned on using initially. Should I dose my tank with some of that as well?

 

[brandon429]

Consider post 6 from the linked thread, has pics along with all doses and times

 

[Lonny]

I used ATM colony. Same thing, bottled bacteria. I have 75 lbs of rock and 120 lbs of live sand. I used a raw shrimp for ammonia but I should of used pure ammonia because the shrimp made my water cloudy. The bacteria multiplies to meet demand. I read a thread that had some good info. Said if you dose pure ammonia to a .25 or so and the next day it reads zero your bacteria is working great. I never did this but I did lose a four inch long watchmen goby, died under a rock weeks ago and I never once saw ammonia. Bottom line is you can't stop the cycle from happening even if you didn't use bottled bacteria. Your bacteria will grow to meet demand as long as you don't overwhelm it. That is why they say add fish slowly. They are gonna put the biggest load on the system. One fish this month, two next month and so on. The bacteria will have time to multiply to meet demand this way. Hope this helps

 

[Lonny]

Oh one more thing. This is my opinion so take it or leave it. Ammonia is really bad for fish. Nitrite in marine aquarium is not. Yes nitrite will kill fresh water fish but not saltwater. I put two clown fish in mine a week after ammonia read zero. My nitrite was 1.0 and the fish never showed signs of stress. They ate well and were very active with good color. They are the same today just bigger now. [emoji6]

 

[Jakepen]

Oh one more thing. This is my opinion so take it or leave it. Ammonia is really bad for fish. Nitrite in marine aquarium is not. Yes nitrite will kill fresh water fish but not saltwater. I put two clown fish in mine a week after ammonia read zero. My nitrite was 1.0 and the fish never showed signs of stress. They ate well and were very active with good color. They are the same today just bigger now. [emoji6]

Oh I know, I don't plan on adding fish until down the road. Most likely once my tank can process 2ppm of ammonia within 24 hours.

Also I added a bit more ammonia to the tank. Well the ammonia that Red Sea included in the kit, seems pointless to have a tank cycling with no ammonia present.

 

[Lonny]

What's in a red Sea cycling kit? I didn't know they had them

 

[jetmaker]

I cycled my tank by dosing pure ammonia to 3.0 and keeping that until it prosessed in 24 hrs I used bio speria it cycled in 10 days. Strong cycle I added 5 fish at a time 75 gal dt