Cycle appears to be "stuck". Ideas?

[thinktank]

Hey everyone,

New here, but not new to the fish keeping hobby.

I have recently transitioned over from freshwater to saltwater. Over the last few years I have set up and cycled numerous freshwater tanks (about 5), with the normal spikes and leveling out.

My question is regarding my 100 gallon saltwater that I began cycling 8 days ago. I have yet to measure the ammonia going above .5 ppm. Zero nitrate and nitrite. It just seems to be stuck there.

Tank Details:

- 100 gallons.
- 20 gallon sump with 1/4 gallon Seachem Matrix, 100 bio balls in wet/dry portion of sump, floss pads, 2 lbs of activated carbon, 5 gallon refugium with 3-5 lbs of live sand.
- 50 lbs of dry rock.
- 55 lbs of live sand.
- 40 lbs of "dead sand".
- 0.5 ppm Ammonia.
- 0.0 ppm Nitrite.
- 0.0 ppm Nitrate.

I also bought 5 large headless shrimp from my local deli and threw them in there to help spur the cycle along.

I've never seen a "spikeless" cycle before on the freshwater side, but this is my first saltwater cycle. I tried to look this specific situation up here in the forum (and on Google) but couldn't find anything that was identical to my situation.

I've heard of some people getting live sand/rock/water directly from one tank to another, resulting in no spikes of any parameters at all, but this live sand was from Petco and undoubtedly sat on a shelf for months before making it into my tank.

Is it possible the bacteria is eating up the ammonia and nitrite so fast that it isn't registering?

Seems like after 8 days my ammonia should be approaching 2 ppm...

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks.

 

[bios]

This is the first step of a cycle since an aequilibrium is not established
Is a very normal situation
My suggestion is to remove active carbon and give time to the tank to increase life, bacterias have to colonize everything you place in the tank,
I also suggest to feed a little the tank as you will speed up the cycle

 

[thinktank]

This is the first step of a cycle since an aequilibrium is not established
Is a very normal situation
My suggestion is to remove active carbon and give time to the tank to increase life, bacterias have to colonize everything you place in the tank,
I also suggest to feed a little the tank as you will speed up the cycle

Thanks for the reassurance. I hadn't thought about the active carbon affecting any of the params.

However, I do need to update the readings!

I got home from work and tested them again and the Ammonia was a solid 2 ppm. Up .5 to 2 in 24 hours!

Trites and Trates are still solid zeros, but now that the Ammonia is taking off, I know the cycle is finally under way.

I have never seen the ammonia take so long to increase in freshwater, but maybe I just jumped the gun a bit....