Cycled?

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When you add a source of ammonia and within hours all of the ammonia is gone and you have nitrates, nitrites. Don't add anything to the tank until nitrites and ammonia are zero and nitrates are under 20 ppm.

If after you add ammonia all of it is converted to nitrates, do water changes to get it under 20 and then you should be good to add a fish.
 
The source of amonia being something like fish food and such. DO NOT ADD pure ammonia like is done in a fishless cycling of freshwater. :)

What do you have in the tank? Live rock? Live sand?
 
I have six crabs and three damsels in the 60 g tank oh and one snail. I also got conned into buy a small coral because it was attatched to one of the live rocks I bought. Probably have 40+ pounds of live rock and 24+ pounds live sand.

So far I have all levels perfect with nitrates holding around 10ppm. Im also starting to see some alge popping up on the glass- expexted because the tank gets a lot of natural light in additon to the artificial light.

So far so good?
 
The source of amonia being something like fish food and such. DO NOT ADD pure ammonia like is done in a fishless cycling of freshwater. :)

You can fishless cycle with pure ammonia in SW too. People do it frequently.
 
You can fishless cycle with pure ammonia in SW too. People do it frequently.

Yes, but not when the tank is inhabited. Besides, with live rock, it provides its own ammonia source..no reason to add more.
 
tlkng1 said:
Yes, but not when the tank is inhabited. Besides, with live rock, it provides its own ammonia source..no reason to add more.

Only if yoy have enough lr for it, there is nothing wrong with dosing in a sw tank; as long as it's a fishless cycle. Also you can't dose a fw tank if it's not fishless...
 
Well all my parameters are perfect except for nitrates which is around 30ppm. I am reluctant to do a PWC because of the parameters being so close. I know 20ppm or less is preferred but according to my lfs they say their tanks hold around 80.
 
Yes, many lfs` have higher parameters than you would have in a home tank. You have to remember that nitrate is poisonous to your fishy friends. PWc`s removes these toxins. You can also remove some using macroalgae, but pwc`s are still needed.
 
Flake said:
Then it wouldn't be a fishless cycle eh? :)

Wait... are you saying that cycling a tank with fish in it isn't a fishless cycle? I can't imagine where you would come up with such a concept... :p
 
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