Another reef question

[GhostKnife]

My water readings showed almost an instant cycle within a week. I did add 75 lbs of cured live rock to my aquarium when I first started. Is this normal. I have double checked my tests I just dont see how this could happen. My freshwater tank took a month and a half. I am thinking about getting a small clean up crew as I dont want all of their food to run out. That is why I dont want to get all the CUC I need at once. So... any thoughts. Ive tested 3 times so far these are my last readings.
pH 8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 15
Calcium 360
KH 8 deg
I did a PWC today of about 15%

 

[Sadielynn]

It is infact possible ..Give it a couple weeks testing only once a week (this will prevent you from going nuts and jumping the gun) Try to wait until you are at the 4-8 week mark to do a water change as changing the H20 too soon will likely prolong the cycle (IME)
Also the wait will insure that you wont be mid cycle before adding your clean up crew (inverts ) that are especially sensitive to a cycle and would not likely survive it ...

 

[thincat]

did you add an ammonia source besides the LR to start the cycle. If not you may have gotten a mini-cycle and will get an ammonia spike if you add a larger bio-load to your tank.

 

[GhostKnife]

The only thing that confuses me is I had the Ammonia spike and definitely a nitrite spike. I have not been on for a while and I may or may have not done something bad. I got about 10 hermits and some various snails turbo, nassarius, and some cerinth snails. The have been in the tank for 3 days I think. They have all been fine and no deaths. I will wait on anything else then for a while. What should I do now since I have done this. I was under the impression my cycle was over. I was also told that putting that much live rock in (75 lbs) would more than likely cycle quickly due to some of the die off in shipping and that a shrimp(fishless cycle) would not be necessary unless I didnt see a cycle.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

If your rock was truly cured, then you may not see much - if any - of a cycle. That was my case, even with cured rock that was shipped overnight and was only out of water for about 18 hours, but kept damp all during that time.

With cured rock, there might not be much die off at all. If it was me I'd throw some fish food or a shrimp (dead) in there for a few days and watch for the nitrAtes to go up. If they do, and you're not seeing any ammonia or nitrItes, then you're definitely cycled and good to add livestock.

The shrimp may not be "necessary", but it won't hurt anything either.

 

[thincat]

Good point