Could I possibly have cycled this fast?

[AquaBear]

Hello forum:

I set up my 75g SW tank a few weeks ago and have 80 lbs of Fiji rock curing in it (the intention is for a FOWLR tank). It was still damp and absolutely covered in smelly bacteria and lots of other stuff (including some waterbugs that found their way into the box before it was shipped).

I've been testing my ammonia religiously daily for the last 21 days, once or twice I thought I was starting to detect trace amounts of ammonia, but it has basically remained at zero.

Just on a lark, today I thought I'd test the nitrites and nitrates too, just for laughs. Ammonia is 0, Nitrites are 0, but my Nitrates are up to 20. Keep in mind, I didn't test Nitrates all along (because I figured it would be a few more weeks before anything would be detectable), so I don't have any other numbers to compare it to, but could these readings mean that my tank has already cycled? If my tank were still "flat" (i.e., uncycled), wouldn't my nitrates be a lot lower?

TIA,
--AquaBear

 

[crage34]

your rock may have been already pretty well cured

 

[jackdp]

I would guess the same, there was little die off from your LR thus not much cycling to do. You are one of the lucky ones. If you want to test it, toss in a fish and monitor the levels. Just don't add too much at once.

 

[malkore]

i'm in a similar situation. added 40lbs of LR to 40g tank. I have no ammonia, no nitrite, but about 10ppm nitrate, after only 10days. Mike at LR.com told me it should arrive very alive with little to no ammonia spike, and he was right. But it's always best to play it safe and get at least a week's worth of 0 ammo 0 nitrite and some kind of nitrate reading.
I decided to add part of my cleanup crew to 'test the waters' and they are responding well so far.

 

[AquaBear]

I've heard a few references to a "cleaning crew" or "cleanup crew". What's that? Is it the "starter" fish that you use to mature a new tank?

--AquaBear

 

[Atari]

Cleanup crew refers to the algae and detritus eating critters - most commonly snails and hermit crabs. I prefer the monicker of "Reef Janitors"

 

[AquaBear]

Can you have snails and crabs in a FOWLR tank? I didn't think you could include inverts in a FOWLR?

--AquaBear

 

[steve-s]

Mobile inverts are fine as long as the fish are not aggressive/predaceous. No reason why inverts cannot be kept in an FOWLR otherwise. Sessile inverts would be another matter.

Cheers
Steve