Really fast cycle??

JonnyRingo · 02-05-2008, 12:17 PM

OK heres the deal, I added LR from midwest coral (which I assumed was cured, they had livestock in the vat with it) on 1.25.08 I have been testing the water params daily since then and since 02.01.2008 have had low levels on all the critical water params. I have never cycled a tank with cured LR so I do not if this is helping to bring the levels down so fast or what. I am not saying the tank is fully cycled, just never got readings from a tank this early after setup.

NOTE**** All tests done with Salifert Kits.

NOTE**** The NO3 is less than the .02 reading but my test doesn't have a reading between .02 and 0.

Date	pH	NH3	NO3	NO2
01.25.2008	7.9	0.25	50	0.5
01.26.2008	7.9	0.25	35	0.5
01.27.2008	7.9	0.25	30	0.5
01.28.2008	8.0	0	20	0.5
01.29.2008	8.0	0	35	0.25
01.30.2008	8.0	0	35	0.25
01.31.2008	8.0	0	15	0.25
02.01.2008	8.1	0	2	0
02.02.2008	8.0	0	0.02	0
02.03.2008	8.0	0	0.02	0
02.04.2008	8.0	0	0.02	0
02.05.2008	8.0	0	0.02	0

mlandrigan · 02-05-2008, 12:23 PM

If you haven't done this I would suggest throwing in some fish food as if some fish were in there. It may be that sufficient bacteria from the LR lived and can handle the increased bioload. However, if it isn't fully cycled, then the added fish food will spike the ammonia in a couple of days. My guess would be that it isn't fully cycled (but I don't know how much or in relation to the size of your tank) and that the little ammonia and nitrites present were cleaned out by the existing bacteria. I would think that a sudden increase in bioload will take some additional adjusting, albeit probably shorted due to the live rock. Just my 2 cents!

- Matt

ckusnierek · 02-05-2008, 12:30 PM

When I cycled my tank (LR from MWC) I never detected amonia. I tested every three days for 5 weeks.

I would still wait for the diatom bloom before adding livestock.
The diatom bloom will look like brown "dust" on everything and last for about a week. After that suphion the diatom, do a 20-30% WC and then start adding slowly.

BTW are you testing Alk?

grallster · 02-05-2008, 12:55 PM

I think that using the cured live rock allowed the bacteria that lived on the rock to negate any die-off that was present in the rock--but there is not enough bacteria yet to deal with any higher bioload (because there is no bioload--the bacteria won't continue to multiply unless there is more food to support a higher bacteria level). Putting a little fish food in there would be a good idea--or if there is a hardy fish that you want to keep long term (damsels really aren't a good choice unless you want to deal with taking them out and trading them in--it would probably already be too aggressive by the time you put in fish #2).
Do you have lights on the tank already? If not, personally I would wait until you did and let it stabilize a while longer.

JonnyRingo · 02-05-2008, 01:08 PM

I had the diatom bloom already, just didn't vacuum it yet and I have water made up for a changed just haven't had time to do it. I just think it is weird that I never really saw a spike. ALK is at 10.5, Cal. is at 410, and Phosphates are < 5. I still want to test Mg just haven;t bought the kit yet.

JonnyRingo · 02-05-2008, 01:17 PM

No lights on the tank yet either (I should have those by Thursday), I don't feel comfortable putting anything in the tank till at least 3 weeks of readings where all water params are at normal levels. You think that I could put some DT's in there to kinda test how strong the bacteria is? That really is the only "food" I have laying around. What about throwing in some raw uncooked shrimp?

mlandrigan · 02-05-2008, 01:31 PM

Not sure what DT means, but when I cycled my 125, I used some shrimp and a couple krill - all whole. Doing it again, I would grind all that up either in a food processor or just mince it as small as possible to get a greater surface area. The shrimp ended up getting all nasty while it decomposed and ruined the sand around it. Getting the food in the water column and moving it around I would think would be the best. What size is the tank?

- Matt

bklynmet · 02-05-2008, 02:16 PM

i do not think you need to siphon the diatoms as it will just start disappearing on its own if I am not mistaken. besides, i belive copepods feed off of it and you should start seeing white specs (copepods) moving around if that is the case... adding snails will help clean up diatoms...

JonnyRingo · 02-05-2008, 03:35 PM

I put a piece of shrimp in there, I am only going to let it set for 12 hours at the most though, I really want this to be a test of the amount of bacteria in the tank. And I am using the shrimp as a dead fish analogue, and in my experience dead fish don't stay in the tank longer than 12 hours.

EDIT: Shrimps been in there almost 1.5 hours and if get nothing else out of this little test, My octopus PS-150 is finally producing some good foam now! Before I never even saw the thing pull out anything.

JonnyRingo · 02-06-2008, 06:12 PM

Well i left the shrimp in there for 15.5 hours then before I could test the water i got called on a job for work, just tested it now and the ammonia is still reading at 0, Nitrates are higher around .1 everything else reads the same.