Tank cycling

[louie4979]

Ok, reading some threads and getting a little worried. My 60 gallon tank was set up a week ago with 60 pounds of live rock(cured) 60 pounds of live sand. I have an excellent skimmer and filter. My numbers are perfect. No ammonia no nitrite and a reading of 5 on my nitrate test. The thing is I've never had any type of read for ammonia. I have 4 Chromis to start and still no ammonia. So I added a clownfish. Again great numbers. Is this possible or am I in for a big surprise?

 

[hackteck]

if the live rock was cured its possible your already cycled where did you get the lr from?

 

[thincat]

sounds like you are cycled. Add a pinch or two of fish food and test it again tomorrow. If ammonia is still at 0 you are cycled.

 

[jsmith]

I may not be as experinced as thin but it took two weeks with a similar set up with using live fish before i got an ammonia reading... i think the biggest issue was the already cured lr .. i eventually got an ammonia reading but almost two weeks after adding the fish. Then it took a week for ammonia and nitrates to hit 0. I quess what im trying to say how can. you cycle anything when what your putting in has already been cycled.

 

[louie4979]

I got the lr at a place called global Aquatics in Ontario California. But you should have some nitrate right? That means your tank is cycling ammonia to nitrite to nitrate?

 

[hackteck]

yup thats the exact process

 

[thincat]

If all you had is cured LR then it used up all the ammonia and you did not add any other ammonia source, then the cycle stalled. When you added the fish the cycle started again. When ever You use LR and you test 0 aammonia and You don't add anything organic the cycle will stall. You don't have to add a fish you could just add a little fish food.

 

[louie4979]

Yeah but if I have nitrate that means there must have been some ammonia to cycle. When I started I had some nitrite and a mid level reading for nitrate. Now no nitrite and low level nitrates so something must be going on right?

 

[melosu58]

One week might not be enough to start the cycle yet. It took me a week to get my first ammonia readings. I would suggest that you not use live fish to cycle your tank. We have an excellent article on fishless cycling in our article section.

 

[louie4979]

Wasn't trying to kill the fish. I figured with the live rock and live sand I should be good. The bacteria is in the sand and rock already so I figured it was already cycling in the store before I bought it. I don't understand how you can have nitrate readings without some kind of process going on. I thought that cycling was for tanks that cured live rock in the tank. I've been feeding the fish for almost two weeks and they've been crapping. No ammonia. Just a little worried.

 

[scottayy]

Sounds to me like your cycle is complete. If you've been feeding fish food and having fish waste there would be some ammonia if it wasn't converted to nitrates. If your nitrates go higher you will know it is cycled.

 

[louie4979]

Thanks !

 

[hackteck]

Your right you can't have nitrates if you don't have ammonia being converted to nitrites ect it sounds like your tank is cycled