New tank

[Talon]

I just started my first saltwater tank. It's a 90 gallon tank. I have added about 60lbs of live rock and a mix of live sand and regular sand bout another 50 lbs. I have been checking the ammonia for a week now and it hasn't gone above 1 ppm. Is my tank not cycling or is it done already? Could anyone help me with some advice?



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[Frankie_Garcia]

Give it time! Be patient with it. How do you have it cycling? Just LR?


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[gaker]

Did you get your rock from your LFS? I had a similar experience with no live rock die off on my first tank. I never registered ammonia 'trites or 'trates during the "cycle"

If it was me and I had been going for a week, I'd probably wait another two, and if you haven't registered anything, go ahead and add the clean up crew.

 

[Talon]

I got the rock from a large pet place about an hour from me. read to put in a cocktail shrimp but I'm a little nervous about that. I also read about introducing a cheap durable fish. The rock smelled a little a few days after I put it in but it's gone now and I never noticed any spikes with my tests unless it was very fast and I just missed it.


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[gaker]

Just to confirm, the store had the rock in a tank, right?

Personally, I don't like the idea of putting in a cheap durable fish. The possibility of making them live in a poison environment seems a bit cruel to me.

If you have some fish food, you can dump some in if you don't want to do the cocktail shrimp route.

If the rock came from a tank at the store, I think it is possible you just aren't having all that much die off on the rock, so the cycle is "soft". If you're still sitting there after 3-4 weeks total, I think you're good. This was my experience on two tanks and they have all been in great shape

 

[Talon]

Thank you all for your help. The rock was in water when I bought it and I kept it in water transporting it and put it right in my tank. I was also wondering if 60 lbs was enough for a 90 gallon tank. I also have the sand but I don't know if that counts. Everyone seems to say 1 lbs of rock to 1 gallon of water. The guy I talked to at my lfs told me just to start with 50-60 lbs and see how it looks. Is this enough?


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[Dav3]

1lb per gallon is accurate. But you should still add an ammonia source to make sure you are fully cycled. If you don't want to go with raw shrimp then try getting some PURE ammonia and adding that and see how your tank parameters are after 24 hours. But make sure it is pure ammonia with no additives.

 

[Frankie_Garcia]

Ahh some fish food to get it started


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[SeanMonster]

I have a 90 gallon and 180 gallon reef. Both were cycled with live rock and cycled out in two weeks. I waited an extra week to be sure and everything was fine.


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[jeffaquarius]

If the LR were wet all the time and considered cured then IMO there is not need to wait. As long as you did not cleaned the LR before putting it to your tank there should be no die off. Mixing the new sand with live sand is also a good idea. You can slowly add fish and monitor your parameter. The reason why you pay more for a true LR is because it has already the BB your need and you do not need to cycle it.

 

[Talon]

I guess the tank is ready to go. I put a raw shrimp in yesterday to try and get an ammonia spike and today my ammonia level is .25 which is less than yesterday. Should I just take the shrimp out and start introducing a clean up crew?


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[jeffaquarius]

It takes couple of days to get ammonia from shrimp. Leave it there for a week and if ammonia does not go up and you get high nitrate with no nitrite then you are good. Just replace half of water before adding fish.