No Reef Tank Kickstart Happening?

[sharkiegirl94]

I set up a 29 gal reef tank (no fish or inverts yet) about 4-5 days ago with Fiji Liverock. When I bought it from my LFS, it had green bubble algae on it (which I removed), a bit of red algae (the non-slimey kind), a feather duster worm, and some purple coraline algae. It had probably been at the store for a few months. I placed about 4.74 lbs. of this rock into my tank that currently contained 10 lbs of base rock, 20 lbs of live bagged sand (Nature's Ocean), and approx 20 gallons of Petco's Real Ocean water. I have been testing it every other day and have not noticed any change. I looked up some information online elsewhere, and found this:

"Then, finally, there is cured live rock. Fully cured rock that is quickly placed into your tank with minimal transportation time, such as from your LFS (local fish store) to your home, may 'instantly' cycle your tank. The beneficial bacteria groups are already there in good numbers with no die-off to trigger ammonia spikes of any significance. With fully cured live rock you may never see the typical cycling progression of ammonia —> nitrite —> nitrate. Your levels may initially read — and remain at — zero, even while you are slowly stocking your tank." -http://www.seahorse.org/library/articles/cycling.shtml

Is it possible that the live rock had something to do with my consistent numbers? Ammonia, Nitrate, and Nitrites have read 0 for roughly 5 days. Salinity 1.025, temperature 75 degrees, pH 8.0, etc.

 

[Sniperhank]

If the rock was kept wet, the bacteria stayed alive and is assisting with your constant levels if you have added an ammonia source for the bacteria to feed on. If there is no ammonia, there isn't any reason your would see a change in levels at all though.

 

[KantGetRite]

Put a raw shrimp in some panty Jose and drop it in your tank. Test it in a day or two and see where your ammonia and nitrites/nitrates are...right now I think your getting 0 on your tests because there is no ammonia source

 

[sharkiegirl94]

My LFS stated that the rock was cured, however, I did put bagged live sand in first, then the water, and had that in for about 3 days, surely there was some die off from that that would've started it right?

 

[sharkiegirl94]

Yes the rock was kept wet...I see what you mean. Today I added some reef rock today that I ordered by mail (1 day delivery) that was damp, not in water.

 

[Sniperhank]

Die off from a rock isn't enough to cycle a tank or add enough ammonia to see what's going on in your tank.