Quick Question- Cycle

[Mike1989]

Hi, new here. I did a search and nothing really answered my question.

About 10 days ago I put in cured live rock and damsel to cycle the tank, I have been testing everyday and have not seen the levels rise at all. Also the fish seem to be doing great. My sand is turning a brownish color I am guessing this is a algae/bacteria growth? I do have some tiny spots of coralline growing. So my question is can the cycle ever be so fast that you do not catch it with tests? or I am still in cycle. I do not understand how I could still be in cycle with the growth of coralline etc?
20 gallon
Fowlr
salinity 1.023
2 damsels
fiji live rock 15lbs

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Help please.

 

[Mike1989]

bump no one knows?

 

[Mike1989]

Okay I guess I will start stocking slowly since nobody has a clue.

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

You just posted the thread. Give others time to respond

 

[Mike1989]

sorry for rushing. had 41 views and no replies just thought nobody wanted to answer?

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

If nobody wants to help i will try. Have you had your spike yet??

 

[Mike1989]

I have not seen any chemical rise in 10 days since I started. I did use two damsel (just reading it is frowned upon)and live cured rock. I assuming I should have had the spike by now? especially with fish in the tank I would have some sort of chemical rise?

Edit: the fish do not seem stressed at all. they are eating etc.

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Ya i would think that you should of had a spike.

 

[Mike1989]

Ya its weird. I can only guess I am still in cycle or it happened over night? can the levels rise and drop in say 24 hours?but after 10 days with decay I should have saw a rise right? appreciate the help

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Ya i dot think they can rise and drop in one night. Hmmm.....

 

[carey]

What kind of test kit are you using to test? Liquid or strips? The presence of coralline means nothing as far as your cycle goes. I had bright pink coralline while I just began a cycle once.

I too would think with 2 fish in such a small tank that you should see some ammonia. Though with 2 fish in the tank you will be doing a water change as soon as you see ammonia to keep the fish alive. Are you reading 0 nitrates as well? After a cycle you will have some nitrates from the initial conversion of ammonia to nitrites to the trates.

 

[Mike1989]

I am using strips, Yes I am also reading zero on the nitrates. I am not sure if the strips are just garbage. Thanks for the reply

 

[noobaquarists]

my advice is get the api master test kit asap

 

[carey]

The strips are very unreliable. i also recommend getting an API liquid kit ASAP. You really really need to have accurate numbers especially with fish in the tank.

 

[Sniperhank]

There is no way you cycled over night...a week is unlikely as well to put in perspective. If you want to know if you are cycled, drop some pure ammonia in and see where your levels are at the next day.

 

[Sergie]

I'm just going to throw this out there. Depending on how big the tank is, if you used enough cured rock and the rock had a good bacteria population, you may not see a spike at all. Since you used two relatively small fish with small bioloads, they could be producing enough ammonia to feed the bacteria, but since there's little load, you may not see nitrates for awhile.

 

[Mike1989]

Ok I will get the test hopefully tomorrow if anywhere is open. Im guessing I have about 15bs of cured rock that seem to have a good amount of bacteria(they have green algae all over and little hairs?) I also have two very small striped damsel's). I will upload a picture if that helps

 

[Sergie]

Maybe I missed it somewhere, how big is this tank? If you have algae than that means you'll have to have some sort of nutrient like nitrate. They could be consuming the nitrates which is maybe why you read zero across the board...

 

[Mike1989]

I have a 20g. I do not know if this makes a difference but all of my sand has turned a dark brown? I am going to upload a picture

 

[Mike1989]

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