Fast cycling?

[Vegas Marine]

Hi all;

I started a 47 gallon marine tank on 7/9/04 and added three damselfish on 7/11/04. Sense then, I have watched the ammonia slowly rise, and now it appears to be dropping. This seems awfully fast, from what I've read??? I have only two pounds of live rock, 40#'s of live sand and a canister filter, no skimmer.

Here's some numbers:
7/11/04
NH4 @ 0.25
NO2 @ 0.25
NO3 @ 5.0

7/15/04
NH4 @ 0.75
NO2 @ 0
NO3 @ 0

7/18/04
NH4 @ 1.0
NO2 @ 0
NO3 @ 5.0

7/22/04
NH4 @ 0.25
NO2 @ 0
NO3 @ 10

Does this seem right???

Thanks
Dan

 

[bjdrake]

It all depends on how cured your liverock is. I have moved rock from an established tank into a smaller setup and never really saw the ammonia spike. Do you test for nitrites?

 

[Vegas Marine]

Yes, That's the NO2, it's always been pretty much at zero.

Today, 7/31/04 I'm at:
NH4 @ 0
NO2 @ 0
NO3 @ 5

Tank has 3 damsels, 1 clown, 1 cleaner shrimp, 3 turbo snails, 1 sand shifting star, 4 red leg hermit crabs, and 1 yellow tang...

 

[bjdrake]

Sorry I overlooked those numbers. Looks like your cycle is complete to me. Liverock and livesand can contain quite a bit of biological filter. Looks like it did what it was supposed to do.

On another note, how do those Damsels get along with the Clown? Mine didnt and one blue damsel died as a result. The other resides in it's own tank now. Oh yeah what type of clown? I have two false percula.

 

[Vegas Marine]

Cool! It just seemed like it went fast, and the ammonia never really spiked. I guess the sand and rock did it's job

So far everyone is getting along pretty well. The bigger of the two Blue Devil Damsels has been picking on my Domino damsel from day one. He took a run at the Clown a couple of times, but is leaving him, and everyone else alone now.

On another topic, The clown and tang are new to the tank as of yesterday. The clown seems a bit stressed, just swims up and down in one corner of the tank, and wont eat. He arrived at the LFS the day I took him home, so I hope he's just suffering 'jet lag'

Oh, he's a false percula too. about 2 1/2" and really nice looking. Just wish he would calm down a bit and have a snack...

 

[bjdrake]

I used to gamble with buying fish and putting them directly into the tank and I never really had a problem. Now that my reef is established, I quarantine all new purchases for a couple of week first. Medicating with liverock and inverts is a bad thing.