Is my tank cycled or not started? NEED HELP!

[littlea8]

Hello,

I am a beginner when it comes to saltwater tanks. I am trying to establish a fish only with live rock tank. I added my uncured live rock about two weeks ago with live sand and started testing ammonia about 3-4 days after and had gotten no readings. The salinity is at 1.024 and the temperature is at 75 degrees. After about a week I tested both ammonia and nitrite and still got no readings. Finally after being fed up thinking the cycle didn't start I tested ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and PH today (approx 2 weeks after adding the live rock and sand) and I got 0 levels of ammonia, 0 levels of nitrite, and I'm pretty sure i got small levels of about 5-10ppm of nitrate reading with a PH of 7.2. I tested again today and got a 20ppm reading of nitrate and still 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite. I am very confused at this point as to what i should be doing or where my tank is at in terms of the cycle. Could someone please help me as to what further steps I should be taking and where my tank is at after 2 weeks of adding the uncured live rock?

 

[Ziggy953]

Couple of things.

Raise your temp up a bit. 75 is low I would head towards 78-80. Your pH is low as well. You may need a little more surface ripple to help with the O2 exchange. You ph will go up as the tank is more established.

To test your tanks cycling drop an uncooked raw shrimp in the tank and let it rot. After a day or two do all your tests again and see if you get an ammonia spike and nitrite spike. You need an ammonia source of some kind but with 0 readings of ammonia and nitrite and nitrate present you could be cycled.

 

[littlea8]

thank you for the reply. It's only be two weeks thats why I am confused. So if I put the shrimp in and if after two days I still have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite does that mean its cycled?

I don't know if this makes a difference but the uncured live rock was left in the box for 2-3 days, however, I did water it with saltwater to keep it wet during that period.

 

[Ziggy953]

I would say yes. That would mean that you have a good bacteria population and it is able to handle the ammonia from decay. You should see a small amount of ammonia a couple days after adding the shrimp but it should drop qucikly followed by a rise in nitrites and then an increase in your nitrates.

If that happens then do a large PWC and test your water again and you should be ready for a clean up crew and you will be on your way to adding fish. I would give this process a week just to be safe.

 

[littlea8]

okay thank you I will do that. Should i just leave everything else alone or should I be doing something to get the PH higher?

 

[Ziggy953]

Are you running lights on the tank right now? If you are not that could have a lot to do with your pH being low. I wouldn't worry about the pH right now. Lets see if your tank is cycled. I would bump the temp up a bit. Marine fish tend to like things a little warmer. 78-79 will work. I keep my system at 80 but I have a reef.

 

[littlea8]

No i was told not to run the lights, they have been off during the 2 weeks. I turn them on every once and a while to just see the rock. I made the temperature higher and am going to be adding the shrimp shortly. So I will just wait two days to see if there's any ammonia or nitrites then I will let you know. Thanks again for your help the other forums I tried were no help to me at all.

 

[Ziggy953]

Your pH will come up when you have lights running on the tank. I would not worry about it at all right now. You can run the lights if you want to during the cycle. I did on my tank. The main reason you don't is to avoid any algae blooms. You will end up with them sooner or later. Diatoms are the first to show up, dusty brown looking stuff on the sand, rock and sometimes glass. Nothing to worry about it is part of the process.

 

[littlea8]

okay thank you, i will try that first and keep you updated

 

[littlea8]

okay so after having the raw shrimp in my tank for 2 days I testing everything once again. My results were as follows:

Ammonia still stayed at 0ppm
Nitrite increased to 0.25ppm from 0ppm
Nitrates stayed the same at 20ppm
PH stayed the same at 7.2

So the only increase I noticed was a very small increase in nitrites. What does this mean and where do I go from here? Is my tank cycled?

 

[melosu58]

As Allen said dont worry about the PH during this time. After your cycle you can check it out then. I personally dont think you have given the shrimp enough time. Give it a few more days.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Sometimes it's taken a week for ammonia to become detectable when I've cycled. Give it a few more days. If after a week of that shrimp in there, if you still don't see any ammonia, I'd say for sure you're cycled.

{Edit: one thing about the nitrates... if you're using tap water, the nitrates you're seeing may have been in the water to start with, and may not be coming from the cycle. Testing a batch of new salt water would tell you if that's where they're coming from.}

 

[littlea8]

ya i will do that....im just confused why im seeing everything except ammonia...my nitrates were high now my nitrites had risen when i added the shrimp..

 

[littlea8]

its been more than 2 weeks since i added the uncured live rock....i just added the shrimp 2 days ago...for some reason my cycle is going backwards lol...im so confused...i guess ill just wait a couple days and test again

 

[nickbme06]

Did you ever originally add ammonia or some kind of source for ammonia to start the cycle up? Sounds like in the first post you just added the live rock and that was all?

 

[Ziggy953]

Did you ever originally add ammonia or some kind of source for ammonia to start the cycle up? Sounds like in the first post you just added the live rock and that was all?

You can cycle a tank with uncured LR.

I agree with Mike and Kurt, give it a few more days and lets see what numbers you get.

 

[littlea8]

okay ill test in a few days and let you guys know the results, thanx.

 

[GhostKnife]

No it is not. Your tank will be fully cycled when your parameters are as follows.
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrates 10-40
40 ppm nitrates are on the higher end a partial water change will help keep your nitrates down. You dont want to see any ammonia or nitrite. Your cycle will be finished when your nitrites are fully converted into nitrates.

 

[littlea8]

my ammonia and nitrites were 0 and my nitrates were 20 until i added the raw shrimp...then my nitrites increased...thats why im confused

 

[GhostKnife]

oops didnt see the second page I was answering to the first. Yea your nitrites will come down. I would assume that you are just building up more nitrifying bacteria. Think of it as adding another layer in your case. What you did was you overloaded the ammonia levels causing your nitrates to back up in a sense. Your overload was quickly converted into nitrites and those will soon go down too.