cycling after substrate change

[mattmku]

I changed my substrate four days ago. I have 25 lbs live rock, a dozen blue legged hermit crabs and some small emerald crabs in the tank. I've also been feeding my invisable fish to try cycle the tank since replacing my CC with aragonite sand. Today i tested the water for the first time expecting to see high ammonia...but i was wrong. I found that ammonia and nitrites were 0 and Nitrate was about 10 ppm. When i changed to a sand bed I expected a quicker than usual cycle period but is it possible it took less than four days?

 

[phases99]

Was your tank already cycled? If you have cured LR then you shouldn't see an ammonia spike from changing your substate.

 

[mattmku]

my tank was established for about 6 months. All the live rock in there now was in the original tank. I've read that removing substrate removes bacteria making it necessary to cycle again. ????

 

[c0mf0rt]

only if you're exceeding the bio load that the LR can handle....