Saltwater cycling

[RyanWMearig29]

Hi everyone, I currently have a 16 gallon bio cube that’s been running for 2 months now. I put fish food in it everyday in the morning, I do 2.5 gallon water changes once a week. My understanding of properly cycling an aquarium is when ammonia, nitrite and nitrates all raise then lower again and stay low for 8 consecutive days. Then your tank is cycled. For this tank my ammonia and nitrites have raised but for 2 months now my nitrates have read 0ppm. I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong. Ammonia and nitrites have raised but not nitrates. Anybody have any ideas?

[Brookster123]

Is there anything swimming or crawling in the tank? If not throw a cocktail shrimp.in there and let it ride. No need to change water if theres nothing alive in there.

[RyanWMearig29]

Originally Posted by Brookster123

Is there anything swimming or crawling in the tank? If not throw a cocktail shrimp.in there and let it ride. No need to change water if theres nothing alive in there.

Hey thanks for the speedy response and no nothing alive in the tank. Temperature maintains 80F and salinity mostly stays at 1.021-1.023.

How long should I leave the shrimp in there ? Until ammonia goes up then remove the shrimp and continue water changes?

[Brookster123]

When you start registering nitrates and lack ammonia all together.

[RyanWMearig29]

Originally Posted by Brookster123

When you start registering nitrates and lack ammonia all together.

That doesn’t make sense though because you can’t have nitrates without the ammonia ?

[Brookster123]

Originally Posted by RyanWMearig29

That doesn’t make sense though because you can’t have nitrates without the ammonia ?

It makes perfect sense. When you have nitrates and no longer have ammonia. Cycle starts with ammonia>nitrite>nitrate.