I have a 60 gallon tank with 50 pounds of dry rock and a piece around 5lbs of live rock from an established tank. I have a 20 gallon sump with a Skimmer, media reactor, and Chaetomorpha. It has been up and running for about a week and a half. I added a raw shrimp the first day and contually feed flakes every day. I have yet to see any ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. I use an Api test kit. The Chaetomorpha has quadrupled in size. So could the tank be cycled and the Chaetomorpha be sucking up all of the nitrates? Thoughts?
Thoughts on cycling
- Thread starter Aggie14
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Diesel
ME=1, CANCER=0.
Nah, normal cycle should show some kind of ammonia and nitrite.
Your Chaeto might have slowed down your cycle.
When you cycle you don't need any filtration as in skimmer, reactor and even macro algae, that all comes later in play.
But what you can do is add a few drops (1ml) of straight ammonia into the tank and test 30min later.
You should see a elevated ammonia level.
If the tank has cycled that level should drop down a lot close to 0.0 within 24hrs.
If not your tank isn't cycled yet.
Your Chaeto might have slowed down your cycle.
When you cycle you don't need any filtration as in skimmer, reactor and even macro algae, that all comes later in play.
But what you can do is add a few drops (1ml) of straight ammonia into the tank and test 30min later.
You should see a elevated ammonia level.
If the tank has cycled that level should drop down a lot close to 0.0 within 24hrs.
If not your tank isn't cycled yet.
Well I have called everyone close by and no one has pure ammonia. I went ahead and added two more raw shrimp. I blended them as well. I'll give that a day or two and see how that goes. Need to rearrange the rock anyways
