I had live rock shipped in over a 3 day period and never experienced the initial cycle. To this day I never showed any measureable ammonia or nitrites (or nitrates until I was 8 months in).
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I fully agree... damsels are tooo much for most tanks in the long run.. I have a domino molly in one of my tanks the other just chateo algae my maim question is after 8 weeks my nitrate reading is 15? ..in both I took a nitrate reading of R.O. water and it is 10. How can a A.P.I. kit read this on ( clean) R.O. water?I just hope that people will STOP USING DAMSELS to cycle their tanks. It is a horrible and antiquated suggestion that is not an improvement over an of the methods suggested above.
Is live water worth the extra cost starting a new red sea 450? I plan on using 50# base rock the first two weeks then adding 50# live rock til cycled. Or 50/50 with ro/di, all ro/di?
+1Following. This is super interesting! My tank was already established when we got it. I'm going to set up a QT though, and I assume it needs to cycle as well?
I heard if ammonia levels are to high, it will stall the cycleYes that's ok level
I would be adding bottle bac now to speed things up
The nitrates are likely from the wet sand, if it came wet packed to you it likely had filtration bacteria working on the organics breaking down from initial hydration of the pukani
You just need some ammonia, sustained alongside some bacteria, consistent for about 30-40 days then it should rapidly eat up that ammonia fast towards the end. At that point, along with what the sand already contributes, you can reasonably start. Ammonia levels don't have to be exacting at all, just some Is fine. Adding bottle bac is wise, speeds things up a bit