Cycling new aquarium

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ctheisen

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Dec 30, 2002
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I just started a 29 gallon tank with about 10 pounds of live sand, 5 days ago. I introduced two damsels after 36hrs. I've checked my levels everyday and the ammonia went up a little (about .5 ppm) at day 2. My nitrite level went between .05 and .1 ppm and the nitrate level to about 10 ppm at day 3. Yesterday and today the nitrate level has been 10 ppm and the other levels undetectable. Is there anyway the tank has cycled this soon? Does live sand work that quick? Did the intial ammonia levels jump up in between tests or was there enough bacteria to keep it from ever rising? Intially, I used some water conditioner that is suppose to remove ammonia as well as chlorine and chloramine. Could this be a reason I didn't get a peak? Should I wait for a stronger peak of ammonia before increased nitrate levels to conclude that the tank has cycled?

Does anyone suggest adding a couple more fish?

Also, in general, when would be the best time to add an invertebrate, like an anemone? I've read different opinions from 3 weeks to 3 months.
 
I'm not sure about your live sand question but anemones are very hard to keep alive in an aquarium. I would not put one in until the tank is VERY well established. They require an insane amount of lighting, one of the members that have been keeping saltwater longer than I have could fill you in on that.

As far as cycling goes, I pretty sure that is too soon for the cycle to be finished. Mine took a little over a month. It still might have not been done when I put a Pygmy Angel and Royal Gramma in my 25 gallon tank. They didn't make it. $40 hard lesson learned.

A 55 gallon reef tank is coming soon and I'm not going to make that mistake again. I hope that helps.
 
Yeah, I will continue to check my levels and look for a stronger ammonia and nitrite peak. I would be very suprised if the tank has cylced this soon.

My long experience with fresh water cycling...never less than a month...leads me to think I should wait. But, I don't have any experience with live sand or live rock and wasn't sure if they can account for such a rapid cycling process.

Thanks for the other info. I'm going to wait a while before I add an anemone.
 
It is not unusual if you use high quality live rock or sand to not have detectable cycling.... though it is rare you may have been just lucky getting a fresh batch...

I would still be inclined to wait and allow your system to stablise for at least 4 weeks...
 
If your live rock was cured and your live sand was good qualty then its very possible to see what you have seen. I personaly would not say that .5 ammonia was low. But its alot lower than some levels that I have seen from uncured live rock.

What kind of ammonia source do you have in your tank at this point? Do you have any fish? If you dont have an ammonia source then what you probably saw was a very small amount of die off on the live rock and that is what gave you the ammonia and nitrite. At this point if your ammonia and nitrite levels are gone I would sayit would be ok to add a fish or two (would not add more than 2 fish at this time).
 
This is one of the reasons that I do not recommend cycling with fish.. To answer your question.. No, your tank did not "cycle" all you got on your tank is a mini-cycle that adjusted your tank to the bioload of the two damsels... since your this short into starting your tank, I would realy recommend taking back the two damsels now.. (trust me, you'll be kicking yourself later if you don't) first off, two damsels in a 29g tak is pushing it. Not for the bioload, but you will have some serious territorial issues later. Plus, the two damsels will most likely attack any future fish that you will want to put in.. So, Let's take them back, and get you started off on the right foot, and make your salt tank much easier to maintain.With the damels out of your tank, throw in a couple of cocktail shrimp. After about 3-4 days, you will have the ammonia spike that you were looking for. Once you get it, then you can take out your shrimp, and let the tank finish cycling. What are your livestock plans? Should you still want a damsel, I would defineatly have him added last. I saw that you mentioned an anomone.. Ok, you will want to let your tank mature for at least 6mths to a year.. DeltaUguy had it right, you are talking about an invert that has an extremely high mortality rate, so it's not one that you just want to jump into.. You will need prestine water conditions, and lighting..
 
coyote94

I have read a couple of your posts regarding the "mini cycling" and I only partially agree. Fundamentally, using fish to cycle a tank is not humane not to mention potentially costly. But I would question the reasoning of the Bioload issue.

Although it is true that by using fish the aquarium will only cycle to handle a specific bioload, using a shrimp does not necessarly make it any better. The bioload produced by a dead shrimp is very high and will give you high bioload capacity, but no experienced person ever cycles a tank and then stocks it to 100% capacity the day after. The general principle is to stock slowly.

So what happens if you use a shrimp to cycle the tank and then introduce one or two fish only. The tank re-adjusts it self to the new bioload and when you add more fish a week or two later then the tank has to "mini cycle" again. So in actuall fact it makes no difference.

Another issue is the mini cycles are not really a problem provided that no one stocks the tank too fast. The slow part is the initial 1-2 month cycling process because you are starting from 0 and trying to build a population of bacteria that is very slow in growing (more specifically they approximatly double in size every 24 hours). Once it is cycled with a bioload of 1 fish, if you add another, the tank will readjust it self within hours to the new bioload and in reality the mini cycle is rarely measurable or noticible (unless you add too many fish or a very large fish with significantly more bioload. But even then the aquarium adjusts within a few days and is rarely a source of trouble). I have done this for years and the so called mini cycle was never detectable.

again I am not disputing that cycling using fish is not appropriate but rather the mini cycles are not as much of a problem as made to be.
 
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I have first hand experenced a cycleless tank. when I started my 80 gal up i used live rock from an established 45 gal FOWLR. Now this rock in theory would be equivilent to any cured live rock from your LFS.

I moved all the live rock into the 80 along with the fish from the 45. I also added live sand and southdown sand. I experenced no cycle because i used live rock and live sand that was preestablished and had good bactera populations.

If you get good quality live sand and live rock form your LFS it should be no different than simply transfering it from one tank to another.


Yes I agree on the point about adding more fish to quickly will cause a mini-spike in ammonia and nitrite but that spike should be no longer than a day or so if you have a healthy bactera bed that can reporduce to handle the new demand. On a 29 gal tank I would not add more than 2 fish at any one given time and wait at least 1 to 2 weeks before adding more.
 
I'll just second the advice on keeping an anenome. They are very beautiful but very hard to keep in the aquarium and are definitley not for beginners. There are plenty of other easy to keep corals out there.
 
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