Cycled in 11 days??????

pseudoblond

pseudoblond

Drawn to Shiny Things
Mar 30, 2004
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Phoenix, Az
elfwood.lysator.liu.se
After I posted earlier, I came home and tested my tank again - ammonia and nitrites at 0.

Is this possible? Can a tank cycle in 11 days?? The highest spike I had hit 10-ish...I haven't tested ammonia for about 5 days cuz I was missing part of the test, bought a new one after work though.

Now, I did add a bacterial cycling starter the day I added the live rock. Last week Thursday or so the nitrite peaked at 10, last Monday I tested ammonia at around 6 but since then wasnt able to test it until today. Monday night nitrite was 4. Ph 8.3, sg 1.0235.

There no inhabitants but my hitchhikers - a thorny oyster, a little crab whos molted twice already, and my little zoos. All seem to be doing fine, the zoos are getting bigger every day (pics in my reef thread).

???
 
I'd say it is possible. I cycled with about 15 pounds of LR, and it cycled in about 2 weeks if not slightly more.
 
But I'd still wait another couple weeks before adding fish. You can add some of your clean up crew now.
 
Yes, i would say your tank is cycled. However, i would not be jumping the gun too soon. I would give it a "minimum" of a week, keep testing every couple of days to ensure that the tank is staying stable...If its the same after a week, then "slowly" start to add your live stock...try to leve at least 3 weeks inbetween new arrivals..

Niko
 
Honestly, if I were you, I'd wait 8 weeks from the day you added your rock and sand.

Why?

Because getting fish with problems out of a setup tank sucks. You can add some inverts first, but I would wait the 2 months to make sure none of the rock/sand you bought has any diseases/parasites waiting for fishies. They die off before 8 weeks, even if they are there.

I know that type of advice is hard to take, especially when you're so excited to get some fishies in there, but take it from me. I cycled my tank very quickly like you. I added fish then started buying up corals. Then a few of my fish started to fight and stress built up and then BAM! fish started to die and fish started to turn white and rub on the rocks.

Now, I have 2 10g tanks set up for quarantine/hospital duty, I have a 29g tank with live rock and live sand I got from a fellow reefer locally which has been quarantined for 8 weeks and a whole bevvy of other expenses, pains in the buttocks...

All because I just didn't take my time.

Oh, and I'd recommend against sticking any damsels in your tank, no matter what anyone says.

And I'd also recommend setting up a 10g quarantine tank for all new arrivals.

Let the fun begin! ;)
 
Subliminal said:
I cycled my tank very quickly like you. I added fish then started buying up corals. Then a few of my fish started to fight and stress built up and then BAM! fish started to die and fish started to turn white and rub on the rocks.
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That statement does not bear relevance to how quickly a tank was cycled. That is wholy down to the fish themselves, they do not know that the tank has cycled in 10 days, or 10 weeks. It is down to each individual fish how it reacts when you put it into an aquarium, every fish is different when it is put into a tank with other species.

Niko
 
It doesn't have to do with the biological cycle of the tank, but it does have something to do with the problems associated with immediately adding fish to a new tank, which sounds like where this thread is going.
 
Subliminal said:
It doesn't have to do with the biological cycle of the tank, but it does have something to do with the problems associated with immediately adding fish to a new tank, which sounds like where this thread is going.
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The process of quarantining fish is for the purpose of the fish itself and not the aquarium it is going into.

The reason we QT fish through this period of time is to ensure that they are paracite/disease free before they get introduced to the display tank and not really for the purpose of waiting for any paracites to die off in the newly created display tank. When an aquarium is first cycled, this is technically the cleanest and purest that it can be..I.E no fish have brought in diseases, there is not detrius ( poo or wee ), there is no food particles trapped anywhere.

There is a difference between a QT period and the time scale of introducing the first fish into an aquarium. Once the cycle has been complete, there is sufficient bacteria present inside the aquarium to handle fish slowly, which is why some people will buy fish and put in a QT before they have even fired up the display tank and got the cycled started.

They do this so when the cycle has finished, and you have a minimum of a week period where the Ammonia and nitrites are zero and the nitrates are <10 (preferably <5) they can introduce the first fish into the display tank.


What we all have to appreciate is that everyones tank is different, the fish that we buy are different, which is why one scenario does not fit all, no golden rules and all that...If there was only one set way to do things in marine fish keeping, all we would have is a list full of stickies and nobody posting infomation...

These are of course just my opinion based my own personal experience and the research that i have carried out while i have been in the hobby..

Niko
 
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So you buy your rock from a store which might have gotten it from the ocean or maybe they bought it from a local guy who had a tank full of ich, 200 lbs of rock, and decided to get out of the hobby...you basically don't know.

They cure it for 2 weeks and you buy it. You fill your tank with rocks that are full of ich, and you don't even know it. The ich is born and goes looking for fish.

If you waited to put your fish in the tank, the ich doesn't find the fish and dies.

If you, however, have only had your tank set up for a few weeks, put in some fishies, and that ich is born, it finds a host and you have a full blown problem.

Believe me, I undertsand QTing fish. But I also understand that ich lives/stays a lot longer in rocks and sand than it does on a fish.

How is quarantining your rock/sand any less important than your fish?
 
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