cycling problems....

[fishcatch22]

hey guys... im having problems cycling my new 12G SW.... I started off by buying a 14lb box of live rock from the docs, and I placed it in there thinking the decay of the dead things on the rock would cycle it for me, but the ammonia hasn't spiked over 0.50 PPM yet. is this normal? should I add a raw shrimp or two to speed things up? the ammonia actually went down from this spike yesterday to 0.25, but I haven't seen any traces of trites/trates yet. I bought a bag of that "agra-alive" sand thats supposed to be infused with nitrifying bacteria, do you think they are the reason I haven't seen a big spike yet? should I even bother cycling it at all?

 

[schigara]

You could add a raw shrimp or some pellet food and wait to see if you get an ammonia spike or you could add a small amount of pure liquid ammonia(no surfactants).

Adding "live" rock you may or may not see a major cycle depending on how cured the rock was, how well packaged and how long it took to be shipped to you.

I suggest inducing a cycle by adding pure ammonia. Start off with a small amount like .5 ml and until you get the ammonia up to about 2. There is nothing artificial about adding pure ammonia. I have cycled every tank this way. You should continue until you see some nitrates.

A cycle takes time and you need to be patient. The only thing I do to cut the time down is by using pure ammonia.

If you get the ammonia level up, you may or may not notice nitrites. If there is still a large colony of living bacteria, you may just see the ammonia drop quickly and then some nitrates.

 

[fishcatch22]

You could add a raw shrimp or some pellet food and wait to see if you get an ammonia spike or you could add a small amount of pure liquid ammonia(no surfactants).

Adding "live" rock you may or may not see a major cycle depending on how cured the rock was, how well packaged and how long it took to be shipped to you.

I suggest inducing a cycle by adding pure ammonia. Start off with a small amount like .5 ml and until you get the ammonia up to about 2. There is nothing artificial about adding pure ammonia. I have cycled every tank this way. You should continue until you see some nitrates.

I know about these methods.... im just wondering if this lack of spike is because I put 20lbs of livbe sand in ther earlier. it did say that it was packed with benefical bacteria.... ill try the ammonia, but my mother is highly allergic to the stuff.

 

[schigara]

I have used "pre packaged" live sand and never really noticed a difference in the cycle. I think the cause for the lack of a spike is the LR itself. Under certain conditions, die off is minimal.

With regards to your mothers allergy, a minute amount of pure ammonia in the tank compared to the ammonia produced by a decaying shrimp is the same thing, just don't let her get near the bottle of ammonia.

 

[vorlx]

It is safer to try to induce a cycle rather than assume you don't need one. I would go with the ammonia method or if you don't have it readily available just use the shrimp method. Both will get you the same results and peace of mind that your cycle has occured.

 

[Grins]

:iagree:

You want to see an ammonia spike to know that your tank can handle ammonia.

 

[BeelzeBob]

i have a small tank too, and my spikes were low to begin with.

so as was suggested to me by a local reefer i put some urine in my tank. (sorry if thats too crude )

but it worked. i saw a nice spike, that over a 2 day period, went through ammon. Nitrite, and finally nitrates.

you could just go get some pure ammonia, but im just ghetto like that.

 

[Grins]

lol, I know a local reefer that did that when he came home a wee bit um...inebriated one night and did his vodka dosing. He goofed up, realized it immediately and used the pee trick to balance it out. This is a guy that was tank of the month on ReefCentral/Reefkeeping magazine so not some newbie. The story was quite funny but yeah...ewww factor.

 

[vorlx]

lol, I know a local reefer that did that when he came home a wee bit um...inebriated one night and did his vodka dosing. He goofed up, realized it immediately and used the pee trick to balance it out. This is a guy that was tank of the month on ReefCentral/Reefkeeping magazine so not some newbie. The story was quite funny but yeah...ewww factor.

For once I have to agree with Grins (on something being ew), very bizare.

 

[BeelzeBob]

hey man, growing up in Boulder, i can understand.

same reasons people will opt for peppermint shrimp over joes juice.

Its all El natural