Where is the ammonia?

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Purevil21

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Feb 13, 2011
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Florida
So I bought the 65 gallon tank Friday. It was established 6 years, but badly abused (If you read the thread you know). I set it up with new sand, new bio balls, and I couldn't save any of that putrid water. I finally have my salinity in line, no nitrate, nitrites, Ph is perfect, but here is the problem NO AMMONIA. Shouldn't the mature rock be essentially starting a cycle as though the tank was being set up for the first time? Or will this not happen because the rock is obviously cured and has been submerged for 6 years, I transported all of the rock fully submerged in SW.

I don't want to put my livestock in the tank and then it starts cycling and kills off everything. Does anyone know what's going on?
 
The live rock will die off creating ammonia but they may take a little while and wont produce a lot. You need to put a raw piece of shrimp or something in there to get it started. Or some will say dont do this but with a lot of cured live rock and a big tank you could prob get away with adding a single fish, this will create some ammonia. Essentially what you are doing is just moving a tank. Very little people do a new cycle when they move or upgrade to a new tank anyway.
 
Yeah I just moved it, but I dumped all of the water and she had crushed coral. I dumped it as well, the only thing from the old tank is the rock, EVERYTHING else is new, new bio balls, new sand, new water, new lights, I scrubbed the sump and skimmer clean. I scrubbed the tank clean as well, there was slime algae and dead matter throughout the glass and overflow. That is why it's kind of a gray area, I'm not sure if I should expect a nitrogen cycle like a new tank, or just a small "mini" cycle. Upon re-checking the ammonia it is now showing 0.25 ppm Ammonia. So now I have some activity, I guess now I just need to monitor and once it zeros out I should be good to go.
 
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